Chapter 22

T o gently send the message I was driving, I posted up outside the driver side door on the wagon with my hand out for the keys. He dropped them in my palm with a faint smile that told me I wasn’t fooling him. I got in, heart thumping for the task ahead, and waited until Kierce settled next to me before speeding off to meet Carter.

He didn’t say anything but kept eyeing the speedometer with obvious concern.

“I have a bit of a lead foot.” I slowed down to the legal limit. “Pascal always says that everyone goes five over and the police give you ten.” I recalled my position as his driving instructor. “But we must obey the law. Signs are posted for a reason. Do as I say, not as I do.”

When we arrived at the commune, spotlights had been switched on, illuminating the area. Five white vans idled off the shoulder of the road, their headlights adding another splash of light in the darkness. Officers with firearms in hand had been posted in the grass next to the vehicles’ open doors, ready to secure anyone we managed to free. We passed more of the evac teams on our way to the command post where we found Carter speaking with two men and a woman.

After she caught my eye, I stepped up beside her, drawing everyone’s attention.

Kierce, however, remained outside, his gaze turned up to the sky. No doubt searching for Badb.

“This is Frankie.” Carter gestured toward me. “She can answer your questions.”

Questions rained down after I warned them Anunit was on the prowl and cautioned them against handling any bones they found inside the ward. I leaned into the cursed object angle to avoid giving them intel on god bones and their potential uses while there was an exposed pit of them nearby.

The witches had already devised a plan for disabling the ward and wasted no time adapting the strategy to account for Anunit as they gathered their things and trekked out into the woods. On their heels, Carter and I emerged to discover a patch of runny white gunk streaking the back of Kierce’s shirt.

“Your bird did that?” Carter wrinkled her nose. “What did you do to make her mad?”

“Ignored her earlier.” He shrugged out of his beloved shirt, leaving him in a white tee. “She was sharing a story about how the neighbors wronged her, but I was driving. I told her I had to focus and to tell me later.”

“She’s like that. Petty. Strikes when you least expect it.”

“Leave the shirt.” Carter pointed to a chair that she must have been using, based on its orange spots. “This is a stealth mission. Not a luau.”

With reluctance, he parted with his beloved Hawaiian, and we went to join the witches.

“Can you narrow it down for us?” The shorter guy greeted me with a toothpaste commercial smile. “This is denser than we expected. To make the most of what we can do, we need to refine our attack as much as possible.”

“No problem.” I located the area I had marked for Carter and let myself probe for weaknesses along the barrier. “The disruption begins here.” I found a stick and stuck it in the dirt as a marker then homed in as the energies fluctuated next to me. “It ends there.” I marked it too. “This is the entirety of it.”

“Thanks.” He posted up beside me. “This will make things easier.”

“Unless it doesn’t,” grumbled the taller of the pair. “This ward is thicker than any I’ve ever seen.”

That happened when you used god bones. Lots and lots of them. It was overkill, really.

Had the Morgans possessed an ounce of divine blood, we couldn’t have broken through. The only hope we had now was that their inability to kindle the bones’ full potential meant we had a chance.

“I agree.” One of the women took position behind the first stick. “This is insane.”

“Insanely cool,” another of the women enthused. “A cursed item really did this?”

“Those details are classified,” Carter said in a sharp tone. “The anchors aren’t present, so they don’t matter.”

“Oh, they matter.” Smiley Guy grinned at her. “But we’ll save that for if this doesn’t work.”

A pulse of dread hit me in the chest. “Do you think you can do it?”

“I guess we’re about to find out.” He chuckled. “Step back, sweetheart.”

“Yeah,” the first woman scoffed at his high-handedness. “We wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

“We womenfolk are so delicate,” the second woman chimed in. “A stiff breeze could shatter us.”

“Focus on the job,” the second guy barked, “not the idiot.”

As the witches fell in line, joining hands to begin their work, Kierce stepped up beside me.

“He called you sweetheart.” His expression shaded toward consideration. “I don’t like him.”

“I don’t like him either.” I lifted a shoulder and dropped it. “But we need him.”

A rumble left his chest, coating his next words in lethal potential. “Do we?”

That was when I noticed the guy was staring at me. Oh. Actually. Not me. Kierce. And it appeared he liked what he saw. Not that I could blame him. “Maybe not.”

The shift in my perspective caught Kierce off-guard until he registered the reason for it.

Once certain the witch wasn’t eyeballing me, Kierce resumed watching the ward, waiting for it to break.

“You’re hot and bothered if he’s looking at me, but he can look all he likes at you?”

“I don’t care if he looks at me.” A curious light had entered his eyes. “Do you?”

Before I could turn his earlier jealousy around on him, a wave of sharp energy struck me. As I stumbled back, I sucked in a breath. Two of the witches were unconscious. The other three stood dazed from the impact.

Around us, the trees had lost leaves and branches. Even entire limbs. But the surge hadn’t felt that strong.

“Kierce?” I ran my gaze over him, checking for injuries, but he hadn’t so much as rocked on his feet. “We have two witches down.” I pointed toward the tent. “Find Carter. Tell her to send EMTs.”

Until Harrow reentered my life, setting off a chain reaction, I hadn’t required more than practical wound care. As in pouring peroxide over Josie’s skinned knee or wiping antibiotic ointment over Matty’s cut toe before wrapping it in a superhero bandage. That sort of thing.

Post-Harrow, or maybe it was fairer to say post-Ankou, I had considered taking a first-aid class. Or three.

That knowledge would have done me good right about now when I had no clue what to do for either the witch with the laceration across her forehead or the one with a visible break in his wrist. The best I could do was sit with them, in case the attempt brought Anunit running, and pray I could protect them if it did.

Five long minutes after the blowback, the crunch of boots on leaves heralded the arrival of the medics.

Carter was among them, a minor cut on her cheek that sealed itself as I watched her fae healing kick in.

She came straight for me, looked me over, then demanded, “What the hell happened?”

“I showed them where to strike, and they did. There was some kind of rebound.”

Leaning around me, she pleated her forehead. “Kierce, you okay over there?”

Eyes widening at her concern, he blinked too late to conceal his surprise. “Yes.”

“Okay.” She pointed at me. “Don’t move.”

Behind her back, Kierce’s brow gathered wrinkles like bees gather pollen.

“Looks like you made a friend,” I teased him. “Feels good, huh?”

“Her care for me is out of concern for you.”

“Maybe.” I couldn’t say for sure, since my friendship with her was new too. “Maybe not.”

There was no salvaging the remaining witches, Carter told us after she returned with an update.

“They’re alert, but they’re not all there.” She crunched on a cheddar puff. “What next?”

“Kierce?” I sawed my teeth over my bottom lip. “Any ideas?”

“You and I can attempt to drain the ward in this section.” He held his palm out to the magic, testing how it responded to him. “Working together, we might create a hole large enough to fit through.” He pursed his lips. “Without the witches’ help, if one of us isn’t holding it open, assuming it works at all, then the other will be trapped inside with the rest.”

A loud caw announced Badb before I saw her. She landed on my shoulder, back to Kierce, even though it meant putting her tail in my face. Lord. What a drama corvid.

“We have to try. We can’t leave those people trapped in there.”

“I’ll take volunteers,” Carter decided. “If you two can get it open, and hold it, they can begin an evacuation.” She locked stares with me. “Are my people safe in there?”

“From the glimpses I’ve gotten, Anunit hasn’t taken more than the curse demands from innocents, but I can’t make any promises. She did attack Rosalie Morgan, but that might have been personal. Still. The thieves are corralled for the time being. The curse can pick among them at its leisure. If we can get through, if we change that, she may react with violence. There’s no way to know.”

“Then I’ll ask for brave volunteers.” She dragged a hand down her face. “And I’ll go in myself.”

“Josie isn’t going to be happy about that.” I restrained myself from grabbing her arm. “Neither am I.”

“I can’t ask these officers to do what I’m not willing to.” Her lips twisted with old bitterness. “This is a prime example of why relationships don’t work for me. I can’t make promises. I won’t. Not if I can’t keep them.” She shook her head. “I can’t prioritize your sister and also do this job to the best of my ability.”

“Does that mean you want to prioritize her?” I hesitated. “Is that the problem?”

For a second, I thought she might confess…something…but she only steeled her resolve.

“I’ll be back.” She pivoted on her heel. “Don’t budge.”

“She’s bossy today.” I checked to ensure the sticks I used to mark the opening remained in place. “And it sounds like Josie’s plan to wear her down is working like a charm.” I squinted at the ward, hoping to find proof the witches had made progress, but I saw none. “Too bad Carter’s not happy about it.”

Kierce made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat, but his attention was elsewhere.

Probably he was bargaining with Badb to get back in her good graces.

I wished him luck with that.

Since Kierce and I had been taken off the bench, I broke Carter’s order and trudged back to the wagon. It had seemed pessimistic to bring my bag into the woods with me and undermine the witches’ confidence, but there was nothing for it. Kierce and I needed those supplies. Which meant I had to fetch them.

When he fell in step with me, I wasn’t surprised but pleased to have a man who felt like a partner. There was no hesitation in him. Where I went, he followed. If I had a problem, he helped solve it. And that was…nice. Really nice.

Kierce never made me feel like a damsel. He saw in me the potential to slay my own (metaphorical because what kind of monster would kill actual) dragons, and he sharpened a blade to press into my hand. Then he noticed I had no clue what to do with it except wave the pointy end at threats and taught me how to defend myself rather than shove me behind him while he drew his own (again, metaphorical, because I wasn’t thinking about his actual ) sword.

(Not even a little bit.)