to any of them.
“Holy shit,” Bastien blurts, his tone filled with awe. “I can hear Aydin and Evrin all the way in the house.”
I tap into the runes on the helix of my ear and focus on the main house where Silva, Evrin and Aydin are staying. I hear someone in the kitchen working and figure that’s who’s responsible for our tasty meals, even though I’ve never seen them. The table just seems to always be filled with food.
“That group that kept visiting that house just out of town has stopped. I’m not sure if they got what they wanted from there, or if somehow they spotted me, but we should probably check out what it is now that there’s less of a risk of getting caught and we’ve lost the trail of the lamia who were visiting there regularly,” Aydin announces.
“When do you want to go in? Tonight?” Evrin asks.
“It’s better to check it out sooner rather than later. It’s probably our best lead at this point. Is Silva back yet from his assignment? We’ll need him on this one for sure,” Aydin tells him, and then the room fills with the rustling of papers.
“He was here when I got back last night,” Evrin tells him. “I haven’t seen him yet this morning. I think he’s in the barn again.”
“Are the spells ready yet?” Aydin queries as he messes with more papers.
“I told him to have Knox look at them since that’s his area of expertise, but I don’t know if he has or not.”
Evrin and Aydin’s words niggle at the back of my mind. I thought they were surveilling with Silva, but it’s clear Aydin and Evrin were off on their own. Why would they separate?
“Earth to Vinna,” rings in my ears and pulls my focus, and Bastien steps into my line of sight. I let go of the magic in all of the runes I currently have activated. My regular vision snaps back into place. I’m no longer bombarded by different smells, and I realize that it’s easier for me to focus when my sense of smell isn’t so heightened.
“So, Bruiser, how often did you use this little skill to spy on us?” Bastien asks me, a naughty glint in his eyes.
I laugh. “Only a couple of times, and usually you guys weren’t saying anything interesting. I mostly use it to track where people are,” I admit.
“So that’s how you kept avoiding us,” Valen exclaims, and pieces of something that must have been bugging him come together.
I shrug.
Shouting kicks off behind the guys, and we all move to see what’s going on.
“You fucking cut me, you asshole,” Knox roars at Nash.
“It was an accident, you baby. Give me your arm, and I’ll heal it,” Nash offers, disdain dripping from his tone.
“Fuck you, we have our own healer. But you should get the hell away from me before Ryker is done, or I’ll fuck you up so bad it’ll take a healer days to fix you,” Knox threatens, and I start walking toward them ready, yet again, to break up their drama.
Knox extends his arm to Ryker, and I watch as blood drips freely from his arm and lands on the packed dirt below him. I don’t know why, in that moment, everything clicks together, but it does. All the uneasiness and warnings that my instincts have been hammering me with since before we got here fall into place, and I see a horrifyingly clear picture. Maybe it was Aydin and Evrin talking about how Silva came home before them, and the lights I noticed were on in the barn late last night. Or maybe it’s the color of the dirt as it soaks up Knox’s blood, creating a mottled splotch that looks eerily familiar, but I suddenly know where Lachlan and the others have been getting their leads. And I’m fucking pissed.
I take off for the tree line behind us, sprinting hard and pumping magic into my runes so I can move even faster. I hear shouts behind me, but I don’t have a second to lose to stop and explain what I just realized. I flash through the trees until I see the barrier and the barn. I wrap my hands in Defensive magic, and they glow from the orange-yellow magical casing. I lace that with Sentinel magic and run at the barrier full out. I punch out at the barrier when I’m close enough, and I feel it shatter beneath my fist. I run through