I gestured toward everyone standing to the right of me. “We’re going to divide and conquer, this way we’re as prepared as we possibly can be. If you’re on this side of the room, you’re working how to defend ourselves. If you’re on the other side of the room,” I shifted my gaze, “you’re working on how to get us out of here. If you have an idea or a particular skill set that makes more sense for the problem you weren’t assigned to, switch it up. If you have another idea altogether, track down your faction’s moderator. We have plenty of food, and we’ll get set up in the kitchen with snacks and coffee. And if anyone needs to get some sleep, recharge their phones, or even grab a shower, let us know. We’ll do everything we can to keep everyone functioning. And one way or another, we will get out of this.”
That part about the kitchen was absolutely a lie. But we’d cross that bridge later. The rest I believed a hundred percent. In a way, Aoife had the upper hand. But whatever she’d come up with, she couldn’t have had any more time to plan it than we had to get the summit together.
More people switched sides to join the defence than going to the other direction, but people were listening and that was a start. There were hundreds of us, all with different backgrounds and gifts. Whether this new situation would come to a fight or us burrowing our way out, we’d make it through because we had to.
How much of that did I really believe? I wasn’t sure.
But if anybody asked, that was my story, and I was sticking to it.
Still, at the first chance I got, I retreated to my bedroom just to give my mom a quick call. Not that I’d ever admit anything was wrong, but it felt important to hear her voice. To make sure she knew how much I loved her.
One way or another, things would all be over soon.
Chapter 23
Answers and ideas came in quickly after that.
And most of them were terrible. Sometimes we got the same terrible idea three different times, from three different people, all while knowing that every second ticking by brought us closer to Aoife’s arrival.
Unlike the summit, where every mind in the room had been focused on one singular problem, our second attempt at problem solving was a bit of a mess, but bit by bit, minute by minute, we got there.
Tilly handed me a cell phone—I wasn’t even sure whose.
I dialed Cooper. “How far out are you now?”
His voice came in loud and clear across the line. “Less than five minutes. We’re just on the outskirts of the village. There’s still at least a dozen cars, and I’m thinking most of them are headed to the castle.”
“Has anyone noticed you? Is anyone acting strangely?”
“Are their cars giving me funny looks, you mean? No. So far, we’ve been accepted as one of the herd.”
I snorted back a laugh. “I don’t know what I mean. Has there been any uncomfortable eye contact with other drivers or anything like that? You’re a werewolf, shouldn’t you know what to look for in situations like these?”
“Again. In a car. Also, Ethan hasn’t sent me on many infiltration missions. So I’m less adept at this kind of thing than you might think.” He sighed. “But I’ll keep my eyes open and turn off at the first opportunity.”
“Actually, that’s what we’re calling about. Someone had an idea, and I wanted to run it by you and everyone else in the car. It sounds like there’s a pretty big group. Is there any possibility of you simply following along right up to our driveway? It’s possible that they’ve brought on so many people in the last few days that not everyone knows every single face they’re looking for. If you can, blend in and see what their next move is.”
Cooper didn’t answer right away, which was easy to take as doubt. I stumbled onto the next part of my plea. “If you aren’t all comfortable with it, there is zero pressure on this end.” Although this was definitely the best idea we had so far. “You’d all stay together if they’re getting out of their cars when they get here. And you can stick to the back, get out at the first sign of trouble.”
Another slightly muffled voice chipped in from Cooper’s car. “What is it you’re looking for us to do? If it’s just eyes on what’s happening, won't you be able to see the same thing we are from the windows.”
“Hopefully,” I agreed. There were an awful lot of windows on every side of this building. “But there’s not much we can do. Having people on the outside will at least give us more options. We’ll keep the line open. And if we’re lucky, we’ll get an opportunity to shake up whatever their plans are. If they’re going to take down the spells keeping us here and barge in, you can come up with some kind of distraction from behind.”
Taya leaned in close to the phone. “It’s not a perfect plan, but we’ll have people on both sides reading the situation, coming up with a plan for every contingency.”
“You do realize we’re going to be there in about five minutes.” Cooper again.
“Right. Good point.” Taya backed off, leaving me alone with the phone again as she ran off to the next room, moving a mile a minute.
“So are you on board? All of you?” I hated having to rush them into a decision this potentially dangerous, but the clock was ticking.
There was a bit of murmuring. “We’re in,” Cooper said. “I don’t think I’d be able to sit back and wait around the corner, hoping it all works out, anyway.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Even though I was still on the phone, my mind was already on to the next task. “I’m going to hand you off to someone else now and they’ll keep you posted on everything going on here. And you can do the same for us. If anything changes, we’ll let you know.”
It felt abrupt even to me, but I handed the phone over to Tilly all the same. I didn’t think she’d be the one to stay in touch with our on-the-go team, but she’d know the right person for this next part, whereas I wanted to check in on the million other things going on.
After the first few minutes, the crowd gathered in the front hall had dispersed to quieter corners of the house. The strategy made for quieter discussions, but it also managed to amplify the difficulty of actually tracking anyone down.
With just a few minutes before our uninvited guests arrived, we'd all but given up on getting out of the castle and had instead shifted our focus toward defending ourselves. Though we did still have a handful of people trying to escape using any combination of brute force and magick.
I found who I was looking for easily enough, considering how many different people I could spot at every turn. But Mathias Gloshvern was nothing if not a big guy. A vampire who claimed to have been a general during the First World War, though he hadn’t said for which country, Mathias had been appointed the leader of our defensive efforts.
“Just about go time,” I said, coming up to the small group he was currently in discussions with. The man stood a little over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and hair as black as ink.
The conversation surrounding Mathias snapped to a close as soon as the man held up a hand. I didn’t have time to check his credentials when it came to battle strategies, but there was no denying that he knew how to get people to do as he ordered. And seeing as I had absolutely no intention of leading anyone into battle, that made him exactly the kind of ally I needed.
“Five minute warning,” I added since Mathias was clearly waiting for me to say something else. “Cooper is on board with being our eyes and ears from behind enemy lines. As soon as they know anything, you will.” I might have been getting a little caught up in the battle lingo.
“Go” was all he needed to say before the rest of his group dispersed, moving throughout the room to pass the message on.
“What do you need from me?” I asked. My entire body was already primed for action, my nerves on edge and muscles tense. My gun was tucked safely in my waistband while my knife stood equally ready to do some damage.
“Keep yourself safe,” Mathias answered. “If this comes down to a fight, you are too valuable to risk. There is a group of our most
vulnerable waiting by the central rabbit hole in case we’re able to break the spell binding us here.”
My shoulders tensed as my mouth dropped open slightly. “Seriously? I’m supposed to hide? This is it, our chance to finally set things on the right path again, and I’m supposed to hang back in case I get hurt?” My reaction was a little surprising, even to me. Not so long ago, my entire life plan had been staying as far away from the factions as possible, trying to keep myself from getting hurt. Or killed. And now that I was officially being given permission to just stay out of the way, I had absolutely no interest in doing as I was told. “Not a chance.”
“It’s unlikely that those who’ve trapped us here are looking for a fight,” Mathias pointed out. “We are preparing because it gives us the best chance to respond in kind to danger. Even with the advantage they’ve given themselves, the people who trapped us here are outnumbered and underpowered. Which they would certainly know. They have other intentions, and until we know what they are, you’d best stay out of the way.”
“Out of the way?” I scoffed. He made it sound like I was some wayward child likely to screw things up instead of the person who had gotten us this far in the first place. But we didn’t exactly have time for my ego to get involved. “Let’s just go ahead and say I’m not going to do that. So what’s plan B?” Mathias didn’t answer, so I opted to skip ahead and volunteer myself. “Tell ya what, why don’t I join you from the tower? It will give us both the best possible chance of seeing what’s coming before it’s too late to do anything about it.”
Knowing where Mathias was headed ahead of time made it that much easier to avoid him shooing me away. Together, we made our way up to a large front room on the third floor, with rounded windows overlooking the front drive. We were joined by several others, each taking up the position they’d been given. Taya stood in the corner, the cell phone at her ear, while Ethan stood guard at the front door.
Whatever came next, whatever we saw out those windows, we’d be able to pass a game plan on through everyone I trusted, down to the rest of the house using the same amplification spell that had already come in so hand before.
As my eyes searched the green expanse outside, it was hard to imagine anything bad might be coming for us from beyond the picturesque landscape filling every corner of my vision. Between the blue sky and rolling, perfectly green hills, it felt like we were living in a post card instead of what was potentially the before scene of a brutal attack.
Motion stirred from the end of the winding road that ended in our driveway. “There!” I said before I was even certain of what I’d seen. A moment later, all doubts were gone. I could make out the first car on their way toward us, and then another, and another.
Aoife and her companions had arrived, and there was nothing left I could do but hope we were ready for her.
We didn’t need a play-by-play from Cooper to know that eight cars and one van had just pulled into Castle Elgan’s front drive. Even with one car of our people on the field below, the odds weren’t remotely in our favour.
One by one, our guests piled out of their vehicles, leaving me guessing which head belonged to Cooper or anyone else I might recognize. I spotted my friend as he climbed out of the last car of the group, four others doing the same, hanging back from the others as a small crowd started to gather about thirty feet back from the door. From above, it quickly started to look conspicuous, especially as everyone but those who came in Cooper’s car started to spread out below us.
“I think they’re forming a circle,” I said, not looking away. “If Cooper’s going to get in there, he should do it now.” If he didn’t, his group was sure to draw some unwanted attention.
Either Cooper heard me, or he was reading the same warning signs I was. Only looking slightly awkward in their movements, the five of them began to shift around with everyone else, spreading out to form a barrier around the castle, maybe a large circle. I could only see the stretch in front of the castle, but it looked like the group had spaced themselves out evenly to surround us.
“Any ideas?” I asked the room. Nobody answered, so I pried my eyes away from the window to look at Mathias. “They’re performing a ritual of some kind. They have to be.”
I’d have loved to dive from that into guessing what they could have been attempting, but we never got the chance.
I lurched toward the wall as the very floor beneath my feet started to vibrate. There was no gentle rumble or lead in. One second, the world was as it should be; the next, magick was pulsing through every floorboard and every wall. Not only could I feel its power, but I could see it surrounding us, splashing down on the house in waves as Ethan pulled me into a door frame, holding me close to his body as the building continued to quake.
“It’s everywhere,” I said as loud as I could manage. “The ritual, there’s more magick here than I’ve ever seen.” I’d have loved to have explained more clearly what I was seeing, but there was simply too much magick in the air to make sense of. Even just trying to follow the colours with my eyes, left them strained and my head pounding. “Should we try to get downstairs?” I asked, remembering the last time the ground beneath my feet had felt this unsteady.
I felt Ethan shake his head at the same time as Mathias barked an order to stay put. “If we start running, everyone will. There will be no getting everyone back from that level of panic. Unless something changes, stay put.”
I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead down into Ethan’s chest, praying the walls wouldn’t come down around us before the ritual had finished.
The vibrations stopped again as quickly as they’d started.
From downstairs, a few people shouted at one another, but no one sounded like they were in any pain, just concerned and checking in on their friends. But as soon as I opened my eyes, I lost any hope of focusing on what was going on anywhere but in that one room.
I’d been expecting to see a residual magick from the ritual, or maybe some hint about what had been done to us. Instead, I saw no magick at all.
There was no magick in the air, none in the floorboards, and none in the walls. I couldn’t see any magick surrounding anyone in the room either.
“Wha... I.” There were no words that could help make sense of what I was seeing. “Our magick,” I whispered, my mouth suddenly dry. “It’s gone.”
Chapter 24
Backing out of the doorway to better look at me, Ethan’s eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t see any signs of magick,” I confirmed after squeezing my eyes shut and opening them again. Nothing had changed, but my heart was officially racing. “It’s all gone.” Everything inside me was spinning, off kilter. Something was very, very wrong.
I only noticed that my hand was clenched so tightly around Ethan’s wrist that my nails had started denting his skin when shooting pains started to radiate up my arm. I let go and backed toward a wall, needing to know absolutely nothing else could sneak up on me.
Around me, shock was starting to wear off as everyone asked questions at once.
Holding out her hand, Taya spoke up. “I think my magick is...”
And then the room filmed with smoke.
“Everyone out!” Mathias barked just as my lungs filled up with soot. Sputtering and coughing, I did what I was told and followed Ethan out of the tower, into the third floor hallway. Taya was right behind me, until she wasn’t. When I turned back, I could see her shape in the smoke, but she wasn’t coming with us.
“Taya!” I yelled out, every fear I’d had during the church explosion was rushing back to me at once. Thankfully this time, I didn’t have to go far to find her.
I lunged back into the tower and grabbed Taya by the hand, pulling her out into the hallway. People were rushing toward us from every corner of the castle, some looking mildly terrified while others looked ready to fight back.
By the time we made it back out, a new cough was forcing its way out of my lungs every few seconds. Taya looked as da
zed as I felt, her eyes still frantically searching the room we’d just come from. “I don’t know what...”
“Just breathe,” I told her. It was only then that I realized we probably shouldn’t be standing right outside the room when it was very possibly on fire or under attack.
Except, it wasn’t.
There was still a bit of a haze in the air, but it was already easier to breathe than it had been a few seconds ago.
“Melanie, let’s go!” Ethan called, looking about as ready to run back for me as I had been for Taya.
I held up a hand, hoping to channel some of Mathias’ magnetism. “Hold on a second. I think it’s okay.”
“It is,” Taya jumped in, “That was my fault. When you said our magick was gone, I got the bright idea to test my magick out, see if you were right. That was supposed to be a flicker of flame, something super simple, but it got away from me. I tried to stop it, to pull the magick back. It was starting to work when you came back for me.”
“And then?” Ethan asked, coming up behind me.
“When Mel grabbed me, the spell stopped completely. My powers cut out in an instant. It was the strangest feeling.” Wide-eyed, Taya looked around, probably looking for some sort of explanation.
“I don’t understand,” I said instead. “I couldn’t see any magick at all, you shouldn’t have been able to work any sort of spell, even a small one.”
“Not if you’re the one who lost your magick,” Mathias pointed out. “If your gift was to see magick, and now you’re not seeing it, it’s more likely that the issue stems from your own abilities.”
Everything inside of me rebelled against Mathias’ use of the past tense in talking about my ability. Yet, it made sense. I’d seen magick all around me as those below us worked an intense level of magick. They’d done something. But removing the magick from hundreds of people at one time would have been impossible. The witches and the wolves might have been able to survive without magick, but the vampires and the fae? Not a chance.
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