and smiled. His eyes shifted from unnaturally clear silver orbs into things that looked to have been stolen from the skull of a mischievous child. “Go on.”
Behind her, Paige could hear water lapping against the shore. It hit the land, rolled back, and was hit by another wave too impatient to wait for the first one to recede. The reservoir churned, and when she turned to look, she could see the first hint of a green glow emanating from just beneath the most turbulent spot on its surface.
“Is this all you’re after, old man?” Liam asked while stalking forward in a two-legged form that easily towered over all the humans. “Talk, talk, and more talk?”
“The Breaking Moon is almost fully risen,” Kawosa replied. “What better way to pass the time with our Skinner friends than calmly standing here and waiting for the Torva’ox to visit us?” Looking over to Paige, he added, “See what I mean about taking the quieter path? These hunters have been pacified with some talk, just as the rest of the humans can be diverted with words instead of actions that endanger us all. Now they can all see what we’ve become before being torn to pieces by the legion that surrounds them.”
Half Breeds snarled from the shadows cast by the trees surrounding the reservoir.
Paige had no vehicle to get her out of that untenable position, no time to get to the survivors huddled in the basements and panic rooms of Atoka, and no way of knowing if any of Quinn’s pack remained. From what she’d heard, the only Skinner in sight didn’t care if she lived or died. Milosh was wounded and Nadya seemed to be out of tricks.
“What’s troubling you, cutie?” Liam asked as he stepped forward and locked his eye on her. “Waiting for that nymph magic to sweep you away?” He drew in a deep breath, craned his neck and licked his lips. “Yes, the nymphs do make good allies. Still, you gotta be quick enough to cross their bridge before I can get to you. Think you’re up to it?”
By the time the scent of freshly cut timber and pine hit Paige’s nose, all three of the shapeshifters were coiled like springs and ready to launch themselves at the first one to take a step in the wrong direction.
Paige took a sideways stance so she could glance back and forth between the Full Bloods and the reservoir without letting either out of her peripheral vision.
The water churned until it began spraying up from the rippling surface. Instead of the shimmering glow she was used to seeing through the beaded curtain of a Dryad temple, Paige watched as droplets of water froze several feet above the surface of the water, as if they’d spattered against a window suspended in midair behind her.
Liam smiled. “Better run, Skinners. Just to keep it sporting.”
The crackle that came from the glistening smudge in the air sounded like a static charge preceding a lightning strike. Cole emerged from the dim green glow as if he’d been thrown through it. He grunted in agony and dropped straight down into the cold waters beneath his feet.
Liam drifted between an amused smirk and a surprised grimace.
Minh raised the hackles on her back, preparing for whatever came next.
Kawosa sat calmly and watched.
Paige turned to the closest Full Blood and snapped her arm like a whip to throw her sickle before the diversion Cole had provided was wasted.
Without even bothering to shift his weight to dodge the incoming weapon, Liam caught the spinning sickle less than an inch from his nose. He flipped it around to grip the weapon by its handle, cocked it back next to his ear, and threw it into Bill’s head, where it landed with a solid thunk. Before Bill could drop, Liam’s ears pricked as another shrieking wave of hooked talons and flattened skin poured through the shimmering opening hanging above the water.
Chapter Thirty
Though she’d heard Cole’s rushed explanation of what he’d found in New Mexico, there was no way for Paige to prepare for being in the middle of a gargoyle hurricane. They emerged from the dripping bridge between two states, veering off to either cut straight up into the air or out to either side before curling back in to dive-bomb those who stood below them. When Liam reflexively swiped at one of the fliers and cut it into ribbons, the rest descended upon him and every other living thing on that shoreline.