available to her.”
I nod my head solidly. “Good. Maybe she’ll just keep partying and ignoring her destiny while we figure out how to stop her.”
“Enough talk,” Rainey exclaims. “Let’s spy.”
We exit the vehicle. Myles has the camera bag, Rainey the binoculars around her neck, and, as always, I have my backpack with my whip, nunchucks, and throwing knives at easy reach. Maddox has nothing, but he doesn’t really need something in hand. He could conjure a weapon from thin air and physically handle any dark creature we come against.
The only thing he couldn’t do is battle a large group and help me defend Rainey and Myles. That would be the worst-case scenario, but despite how immature Maddox acts at times, I know he’d fight to the death to defend my friends.
Not that he can die, but I bet enough Dark Fae could overpower him.
The thought almost has me backing out.
What if Kymaris has daemons or fae patrolling her woods?
Wonder if she has guard dogs? Or otherworldly scary creatures roaming the property?
Maybe she’s placed tripwires, landmines, or—
“Hey,” Maddox says, snapping his fingers in front of my face. I blink and focus on him. “You okay?”
“Yeah… just trying to figure out all exigencies.”
Rainey and Myles are walking up ahead of us, and Maddox and I follow.
Leaning in closer to me and lowering his voice, he says, “The only exigency you need to worry about is if we come up against a horde of Dark Fae or Kymaris. In that instance, you get the fuck out of there. Bend distance or whatever, but you get safe.”
“I’m not leaving Rainey and Myles,” I whisper back harshly.
“I’ve got them covered,” he replies, still talking low so we can’t be heard. “I promise I’ll get them out safe.”
I stare into his eyes, and I know he’ll do his best, that’s for sure.
Just as he can probably tell from my expression that there’s no way in hell I’d ever run and leave anyone behind.
Maddox is going to take some major heat from Carrick over doing this. I know Carrick would expect Maddox to have stopped us. I expect there will be a fight of epic proportions, and I just hope they go somewhere like the top of Mt. Rainer to do it so the condo isn’t destroyed. I expect he went at it with Lucien for letting me ditch him so easily, something that I probably need to apologize to Lucien for the next time I see him.
Rainey gets to the neighbor’s house and cuts down the side of the property just inside a tree line that separates it from the house beside it. The house isn’t grand like Kymaris’ but still a good four thousand square feet. There’s no fence we have to deal with, and we’re well concealed away from the glow of the security lighting as we creep among the trees.
I’m quite impressed with Rainey leading the way. She’s always been a girlie girl, but she’s moving aside bushes and tree limbs without a single care that some creepy crawly might fall on her. Myles follows her, with Maddox and I bringing up the rear.
When we get beyond the yard we have to sneak through, we start a downward trajectory through darkened woods, and Rainey pulls out a flashlight. I use the light on my cell phone, and we move along as quietly as possible, but it’s impossible to stop the crunch of leaves or dead twigs under our feet.
Suddenly, Rainey comes to a halt, holding up her hand with her fist clenched. I’m wondering what war or spy movie she got that from, and I have to clamp a hand over my mouth not to laugh.
We all come to a stop behind her, and then I see what she does. Down below about a hundred yards sits Kymaris’ property, the back of the house lit up as spectacularly as the front.
While we are still too far away to see clear details and there are about twenty yards of woods between us and the house, we can tell no one is outside on the back patio, pool, or extended yard area that’s all lit up with landscape lighting. We can see many figures milling about inside through the large windows that shield nothing.
“Let’s get a little closer,” Rainey suggests, but as she starts to take a step, I lurch forward and grab her by the hood of her hoodie.
“Wait a minute,” I whisper. “Let’s just wait and make sure she doesn’t have any fae