A bevy of alligators (yeah, I don’t know if bevy is right, but let’s be honest, it’s a visual) crept toward us, a barrier of scales and teeth and muscle we couldn’t possibly dance across. They completely blocked the pathways, and as such, they pushed us toward the necromancer and the few coven members closest to him who were still standing.
The necromancer laughed. “My pets would like to make your acquaintance. You will take me to your gran, and I’ll let you three have an easy death.”
If that was his best offer, he had a lot to learn about negotiating tactics.
Penny stiffened under my hand. “Don’t you dare, girl.”
Missy shot me a look. “I’d get the spell book, at least.”
“Not planning on it,” I muttered. Only I didn’t know just how we were going to get out of this shit. I stared at the Jocos Mardi Gras sign and entrance. I knew there had to be a back way out of there, because Eric had gotten Charlotte free.
But that would mean going through the necromancer. And he was not going to be easily distracted.
Alligators behind, witches all around, badass necro in front.
I shared a quick look with Robert, and he nodded, as if he knew what I was thinking.
One shot, I’d get one shot at this. Flexing my hand around my knife handle, making sure my grip was perfect, I lurched forward in a lunge before my fear turned my guts to water. Going to one knee as if I were stumbling, cursing a blue streak from the impact of my knee against the pavement, I used the momentum of the movement to throw my turquoise-handled blade. End over end it went, sinking right into the middle of the necromancer’s face. A perfect shot.
He stumbled to the side, the handle sticking out of the darkness of the hood but did not go down. Damn it!
“Time to go!” I yelled at Penny, Robert, and Missy, taking the distraction for what it was worth. Alan was floating around, but I wasn’t worried about him. Like Robert, he’d show up when he felt like it. I sprung—okay, scrambled—to my feet and ran toward the necromancer. I shoved his still wobbling frame to the side, the ice cold of his body numbing my fingers, then grabbed the rope holding Jacob and yanked him along with us. “Louis, come on!”
He stumbled after us, less tied up than Jacob was because, of course, no one considered him a threat. Using my second knife, I cut through the bindings on Jacob, freeing him.
“Sweet baby Jesus, your knife barely even slowed him down!” Jacob gasped out as he yanked his gag off.
“Yeah, that can’t be good,” I said as we plunged into the darkness of the tunnel of the Jocos Mardi Gras. “Alan, can you find us a way out? Please!”
“Fine.” My ex-husband muttered and shot ahead of us, glowing for a moment and then disappearing.
Missy stomped along like some old school marm who might whack me with a belt if I weren’t careful, but Penny was breathing hard, and her shuffling gait told me we’d have to slow down soon. I sure as sugar on a funnel cake wasn’t leaving her behind. I turned to her as she called up a small series of lights that looked like lightning bugs.
“These will give us just enough to see by,” she said. “Gah, I’m slowing us down!”
Missy sniffed. “We could have taken them.”
“Really, you see that knife in his face?” I shot back at her.
Missy had no response for that, though she cast a glance at the bag on my hip, as if she knew Gran’s spell book was in there.
I held a hand out to Penny and she took it, leaning heavily on both me and the cane. Running wasn’t the best idea in here, but what other choice did we have? I looked back the way we’d come and didn’t like that our feet were the only ones shuffling along. The lack of pursuit meant we were sunk. They thought they had us.
“Penny, you think we just walked into a trap?” I asked quietly.
She paused, and her teeth flashed in a grimace that was only partly visible in the darkness. “Damn it. Most likely. Don’t think they’ll be letting us just walk away. Do you?”
“Of course, it’s a trap!” Missy snapped. “Fools. I told you to wait for me, but no, you always run in without me. Act first and think later and