so fast that only one managed to graze him.
Down inside, Rowan knew she needed to get him talking so they could keep him distracted and continue to chip away at his health until they could land a death blow. Like a video game.
“If you don’t tell me your name, I’m just going to give you one. That never works out well for people.”
He came at her again, this time with magic that lifted her off her feet and when she hit this time, her leg nearly snapped.
His expression said he wasn’t sure why she’d been able to stand up and dust herself off. He clearly had no idea who and what he was dealing with. Which could serve her if she did it right.
“Bob?” She shot at him and he evaded. So she shot again, re-aiming, shooting over and over at different spots hoping he’d move into one of them. “Bill? Gary? I know a lot of assholes named Gary but most of them aren’t magic. Chad? Are you a misogynist as well as a murderer, Faerie guy?”
The air was clean suddenly. The scent of dead bodies was gone, replaced with salt air, clean and pure like the ocean was.
Genevieve had whipped her power out and managed to knock Chad off his feet.
He roared as he scrambled to stand again, sending a hand out and shooting Clive and Patience through the air until Rowan heard the twin thuds moments later.
Her bond with Clive told her he was still alive and all right, but had the wind knocked out of him.
“Clem? Chuck? Phil?” She tossed a knife that grazed his left cheek. The scent of burning flesh stamped out the clean air. “Well, would you look at that. You smell disgusting, but at least I know that hurt.”
Genevieve had squared off with him and the two traded blows of magic back and forth.
“Rushmore? As in you’re the size of Mount Rushmore? What did you do to end up here, Rushmore? Huh? Did you get in trouble and mommy put you on a time-out here? So you thought hey I’ll just drain a bunch of humans, Vampires and witches and it’ll be totes no big until you can go back home? Did you sleep with the boss’s wife or husband? Poop in someone’s pool?”
He turned to glare at her.
“Guy, so you pooped in a pool or you got kicked out of Faerieland while you paid for your sins that hopefully don’t include you pooping in a pool because that’s super gross.”
“I think we should call him Guy,” Patience called out and Rowan laughed. As she’d just encouraged—manipulated—Patience out of going by China and using her given name again, she admired Patience’s ability to find humor in it.
Even if she wanted to fuck Rowan’s husband—and Rowan couldn’t fault that, Clive was very fuckable—she could laugh at herself and that was a good quality.
“Why are you here?” Guy bellowed as one of Genevieve’s magic bolts struck him, knocking him back a few steps.
“Here on this side of the Veil we don’t take kindly to kidnapping and draining people against their will. When we found Lyr and stopped all the spells he’d directed to you, we knew there was something at the head of the table, pulling the strings.”
“That’s a lot of metaphors in one sentence,” David said.
“I’m talented that way. So, Guy, we’re here because we’ve killed a swath right up to your door. No more Lyr. No more Blood Front sending and paying for the spells you used to try to end them. What a bunch of fucking morons those Blood Front Vampires were, am I right? I don’t much care that you sent them all into chaos because they’re asshats. And Lyr? Hard as he was to kill, he still got killed. About three hundred years too late, in my opinion, but whatever. Oh and then we found Patrizia. I bet you spun her all around with your pretty face, huh? You’re where she got the Fae elements to her spellwork from, obviously. Anyway. We found that spell and through that we found you. We’re here to kill you, Guy, and dump your remains right back into Faerie like the garbage you are.”
The last bit had been Brigid. Who didn’t like this Fae dude one bit.
“You made your mistake by taking me on. By killing my friends. You invited your own ruin and so I’m going to revel in it. I hope your mother weeps harder than I did when you killed