before.
“We’re going to head down,” Ponytail said – I really should find out her name. “You stay here until I give the signal.”
“What’s the signal?” Grayson asked.
She tapped the radio at her chest and then pointed to the one Grayson was carrying. “Listen for static.”
She slipped away with two other Magiguard, making for the trail to our left that led down into the woodland. The plan was to get to the edge of the forest and then scope from there. Maybe send in a unit.
“Ursula should be here by now,” Uri said.
“She’ll come.” Grayson sounded confident.
Me? Not so much. My radio with the tracker was busted. I doubt there’d been enough time for her to catch the signal, let alone lock onto this location. Why in the hell hadn’t she given Ponytail a tracker? Why me?
It didn’t matter. It was done.
We were on our own.
We could do this.
Long minutes passed, and then Grayson’s radio buzzed, and Ponytail’s voice came through.
“We’re clear, “she said.
And then the radio went dead.
My nape pricked in a warning I didn’t understand.
The remaining Magiguard were around us, ushering us to move.
I glanced back at my Loup team, unease a worm in my belly.
“We move,” a male Magiguard said. “Brit’s orders.” He led his team away from the rise and around it, heading for the narrow trail that led down toward the building.
Grayson signaled our Loup to move, and then we fell behind the Magiguard as they took the trail. My stomach began to knot.
Something was wrong.
The Magiguard continued down the trail. There was a bend up ahead, and they disappeared from view.
A sick feeling bloomed in my stomach. The fucking gunshot wound effects, no doubt. Urgh. We rounded the bend next to find all the Magiguard gathered in a clearing. I caught sight of Brit’s dark eyes. Her jaw was clenched, and her brows were pinched.
Why were they on their knees?
And then the full picture formed, accompanied by Grayson’s curse and the click and clack of weapons being engaged.
Not ours, but the enemies’.
Huge, hulking figures in black materialized out of the shadows on the other side of the clearing, and I didn’t need my outlier senses to know these weren’t humans.
The flash of fang and the gleam of crimson-ringed irises told me that just fine.
“Move!” someone barked from behind us.
How the fuck had they gotten behind us?
Grayson grabbed my hand and pulled me toward him, shielding me with his huge body.
Ponytail glared at us. “I said static was the signal, not speech.”
Fuck, so that was why my alarm bells had rung. Damn it.
The Magiguard male who’d ushered us to follow orders looked sheepish.
“Get on your knees,” another voice ordered.
My heart sank as I dropped to the ground and finally got a proper look at the shadows around the clearing.
Shadows that moved and weapons that gleamed dully in what little moonlight found its way into this clearing.
We were surrounded.
Cora
Dammit, this would be so much easier if they hadn’t taken my phone off me. I had a picture of the page from the binder in the vault, and the instructions were clear. Sure, I’d read it and stuff, but I was obviously missing something.
“I thought you knew what you were doing,” Hunter says.
I ignore him and continue to circle the, well, circle. I need to remove the anchor symbol. There’s only meant to be one, but there are several here. Do I remove them all? Do I have to pick the right one?
“Do something,” he growls.
I glance up at him, ready to unleash with some cutting words, and change my mind.
He looks…bad. Like I’m-about-to-keel-over-and-die bad.
“Hunter?”
He shakes his head, one hand going to his abdomen. “Please, just do it.”
“Hunter, what’s happening to you?”
“We could get interrupted at any moment. The super vamps could get hold of Fee at any moment and—”
He breaks down in a cough, and blood sputters out of his mouth.
Motherfucker. “Hunter!”
He holds up a hand to ward me off. “The fucking wards, Cora.”
Shit. I need to do something. Fuck it. All the anchors need to go.
I work fast, using a rock I’ve found to scrub at the paint so that each anchor symbol is broken. The light begins to dim.
Yes. It’s working.
I disrupt the final symbol and stand back.
Any second now.
Nothing.
“Cora?” Hunter rasps.
“I don’t get it. It’s supposed to be deactivated. I disrupted all the anchor symbols.”
Hunter coughs wetly. “The middle.”
“What?”
“The one in the middle,” he enunciates, glaring at me while wiping at his bloody mouth.
Fuck, shit. How did I miss that one? I climb into