Proof of Life (The Potentate of Atlanta #4) - Hailey Edwards Page 0,87

drifting, but I had definitely gone to sleep mid make-out session.

Frak.

Magic exacted a price for its use. Always. Ambrose had paid the bulk of it to heal me, which depleted his reserves, but he and I were one and the same. Despite his very generous gift, I was feeling the drain too.

Chuckles moved through my back as Midas cinched his arms around mine to keep me from flailing while I remembered where I was and what I was doing on his lap. Good thing too. I almost elbowed Lisbeth in the jaw trying to work the tingles from my arm. I had fallen so deeply asleep, I couldn’t feel the pins and needles. Yet. They were biding their time, I was sure.

“How do you want to handle this?” Ford threaded his fingers through Lisbeth’s. “I have ideas.”

“Your ideas involve me staying in the truck.” She snorted. “I’ve been with the OPA for years. I can handle myself in the field. I’m aware of my limitations, and I’ve learned to work around them.”

“Your limitations put the rest of the human race to shame,” I praised her, because it was true, “but we’ve got to watch our butts in there. The coven doesn’t play fair. They play to win.”

It was easier for me to erase the Liz who had never existed by lumping her in with the rest of them, but Midas and Ford would struggle. She had been pack. She had been Ares’s mate. She had been family.

And it had been a lie.

Sometimes it wasn’t all bad, being a world champ at compartmentalizing, but I couldn’t recommend the years of training required to reach my skill level. Not even to my worst enemy.

“Are we hoping to contain or eliminate?” Ford kept his voice cool, and I could tell I wasn’t the only one who was shoving thoughts into neatly labeled boxes. “One will be infinitely more dangerous than the other.”

“We let her make that call,” I decided. “She’s more useful to us alive, but we’ll put her down if she gives us no other choice.”

Midas held me closer while he opened the door then spilled me gently out onto my feet in the gravel.

Once we had all exited the vehicle and worked out the kinks from the drive, we stood together, taking in the objective.

The building was smothering beneath vines and crumbling at its foundation. The windows had all been shattered, and the doors had sheets of plywood nailed to their frames to seal them shut. It was creepy, remote, and decaying.

Basically, it had super-secret witchborn coven hideout written all over it.

Sliding my hand into Lisbeth’s, I gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Make no apologies.”

Fingers tightening around mine, she smiled at me. “Survive.”

The guys traded glances then shrugged at one another.

“It’s an OPA thing,” Lisbeth sassed Ford. “You boys wouldn’t understand.”

Ford popped her on the butt, and she swallowed a yelp, her eyes bright with laughter.

Midas palmed Ford’s shoulder. “This isn’t the time or place for…that.”

“Have you seen Hadley’s neck?” He cocked an eyebrow. “It looks like a swarm of pixies took turns throat-punching her.”

“We need to focus now.” Reaching up, I found tender skin already healing. “We can all make out later.”

An awkward silence ensued, during which I replayed my words then debated shutting my head in the car door. Never let it be said I lost my ability to make things weird in the face of danger. “Um.”

The others stared at me as if I had sprouted three heads and two of them were arguing. In German.

“I’ll go in first.” I summoned Ambrose, eager to escape, and he coiled around my shoulders. “Clear the way and all that.”

Midas let me get a head start before falling in behind me, with Lisbeth and then Ford on his heels.

Careful to keep my voice low, I checked with my shadow. “Do you sense anything?”

Ambrose shook his head then zoomed ahead to search for magical remnants.

The uneven terrain made my ankle twinge, but I wasn’t complaining. I was too grateful for the mobility. I still had trouble framing why Ambrose had given up his stores to spare me from pain and a few weeks in a cast. I would have to look into that, but it could wait.

Within seconds, Ambrose sharpened his form to an arrow he shot through my temple.

Apparently, his altruism had its limits.

Hissing through my teeth, I sorted through the information he’d collected for me.

There were wards here, concentric ones, which the coven favored in my experience. Powerful ones too.