Chapter 23

W e sidestepped Carter giving a rousing speech to her gathering of officers, and they each scanned us as we walked past. I wasn’t sure what she told them, but several of them stepped forward, volunteering, as we gathered our supplies then returned to where Carter had left us.

“If Vi saw me do this, she would spank me so hard I couldn’t sit for a week.” I stuck bone-white candles in a perfect arc in the dirt. A circle, which would have been better, was an impossibility. That left me a half circle with the ward cutting down the middle. “This is risky, but I don’t see another way.”

As I sprinkled amethyst and citrine chips between me and the energy barrier, I started getting twitchy.

Examining my design, Kierce made his own calculations before confirming the mechanism with me. “The energy will gather left to right, running along the candles, gaining momentum to strike the ward?”

Clicking my lighter open and shut, I faked bravado. “Like falling dominos.”

This was a brand-new application of my magic. I wasn’t in the business of smashing wards. I set them as a precaution, but that was it. I had no offensive magic. Or I hadn’t before. Death might have changed that.

Brimming with energies harvested from Bonaventure, I was ready as I would ever be to try something new.

“You’re sure it won’t hit the ward, ricochet, and knock you unconscious?”

“That’s what happened to the witches.” I utterly failed at sounding certain. “But I’m a god?”

“A demigoddess, yes.” He dusted a leaf off my arm. “Which might mean you only hit yourself harder.”

“There is that.” I sucked in my bottom lip then popped it out again. “What do you think?”

“That I would rather do that for you.”

“Test the ward ram?”

“Taste your lip.”

A flush tingled across my nape, and I chuckled, shoving him back gently.

“Well?” Carter’s voice rang out from behind us. “Are we ready for round two?”

Kierce and I turned as one, and I offered her a smile. “Maybe?”

“Love the confidence.” She wiped orange stains across her pants. “When do we start?”

The volunteers toddled after Carter like cautious ducklings trailing their impatient mother.

“Now is good.” I stepped into the half circle, and Kierce joined me. “Any last-minute suggestions?”

“Yeah,” Carter said, though I had meant Kierce. “Don’t die.”

After shooting her a thumbs-up, I faced the ward, leaning in close to Kierce. “Ready?”

Indecision rippled across his features, but he wiped his expression clear. “Ready.”

Humming softly, I crouched and began lighting the individual candles.

Magic swept along the wicks, igniting in the air around us, setting off the expected chain reaction.

The true test would be when it reached the end, striking the ward. I faced it head-on, watching as the energies I set loose rammed the barrier with teeth-jarring power that sent me stumbling back.

“Hold,” Kierce barked, a general on a battlefield. “Look.”

A hole the size of my foot wobbled in the glimmering wall like a bubble blown from a child’s toy.

“Allow me.” Kierce shoved his fingers in, gripping each side of the opening, straining to expand it. “It won’t budge.”

Wedging myself in beside him, I slid my hands between his palms and into the hole. As I thrust my forearms wide, the gap expanded with a whisper of pressure against the resistance of my skin.

“It’s working,” I panted, contorting myself around him. “We’re doing it.”

“You’re doing it,” he corrected, withdrawing when his efforts made no difference. “Can you hold it?”

“I think so?” I did my best to stretch an opening three feet around, and the officers ducked through in a neat line. Carter brought up the rear, hesitating to stuff a bag of cheddar puffs into my back pocket, and I turned words she had used against me around on her. “If you die, my sister will never forgive me.”

“Why do you think I’m leaving my last bag of cheddar puffs with you?” She snorted. “Motivation.”

“I like that you’re more invested in returning to the sweet embrace of carbs than my sister.”

Pride wouldn’t let her accept my offer to lower the gap to accommodate her height. She took two steps back then leapt through it headfirst. She hit and rolled in a purposeful tumble that ended with her in the iconic superhero pose of one knee down and the opposite fist planted in the dirt. Josie would have given her left kidney for a picture, but my hands were otherwise occupied, and Carter stood too fast for Kierce to follow my instructions on how to snap one for her.

Oh well.

Josie wouldn’t know it, but I would consider hoarding the memory as payback for the time she lied about rubbing Kierce down with sunscreen.

Within minutes, the officers had crept into the darkness beyond the trees, leaving Kierce and me alone.

“Let me know if you get tired.” Kierce rubbed hesitant circles across my shoulders. “I’ll go through if you can’t hold it open.”

Cute how he thought I would let him square off against Anunit without me.

“I’m good for now.” I leaned into his touch as much as I was able. “Thanks for the massage.”

As he grew more confident, his pressure increased, and he dug in where my muscles had begun aching from maintaining my position. I debated sitting, figuring I could guide the opening lower with me, since it was flexible, but it felt risky for the folks coming out to have to crawl on hands and knees to escape the commune. Especially if they were being chased.

“You’re welcome.” He cocked his head to one side. “Badb says she’s got a bead on them.”

“Really?” She had been flying overhead for a while with nothing to report. “That’s odd.”

The ward contained the air above the commune, which explained the lack of cell service.

What had changed? Had the hole made that big of a difference? How could she see through it now?

The same realization must have dawned on Kierce, because his eyes gleamed silver and furious.

“She used Carter as a distraction and followed them.” He swallowed hard. “She’s inside the ward.”

“Why would she do that?” I wobbled, and the circle shrank. “There’s no reason for her to go too.”

“I knew she was angry with me but...”

“Badb is a tad on the petty side, but she wouldn’t spite you like this.” Had Mr. Mittens been involved, sure. She would spite him all day, every day. She basically already did. “Maybe she’s worried about Carter?”

“There’s something else.” His focus grew distant. “I’ll do my best to get us answers.”

From my estimation, the officers had been inside for thirty minutes before we detected motion.

It felt twice as long, since Kierce had been silent for half that time.

The rustle transformed into a black missile that shot through my arms, smacking me in the chest. Impact surprised me so much, I almost released my grip, but I got an earful soon enough. Badb was shrieking at us with urgent wing flaps as she dropped a stick in my lap.

No.

Not a stick.

A bone .

“She says Anunit has rounded up the officers.” Kierce blinked his eyes clear. “She won’t let them leave.”

“What? Why? The terms of the curse are clear.” I gave up and sat to rest my back. “The officers didn’t steal…” A groan slipped out of me. “Ask Badb where she got this.”

After a brief pause, he told me, “From one of the officers.”

Nice to know everyone listened to my instructions. “Where did they get it? Were there more?”

“They found a small collection of them. Two of the officers are witches and wanted to use them to take a crack at the ward from the inside.” He hesitated. “Carter was bringing up the rear. She got there too late. They had passed the bone around by then.”

“Tameka and Keshawn were guarding several.” I gripped the brittle clavicle. “For them not to stop the officers, something must have happened between the time Vi left them and the officers reached them.”

With help hours away, and Rosalie Morgan killed in front of them, I couldn’t blame Tameka if she had run to protect Keshawn. I would have done the same for either of my siblings.

“Do you believe they left the cache behind to distract Anunit?”

Panic could have made that seem like a great idea. Anunit wanted her bones back? Give them to her.

The problem being there was a price to be paid for stealing them in the first place.

“Maybe.” I freed one arm to rest my trembling muscles, and the hole narrowed to the circumference of my wrist where it stuck out the other side. “Or maybe she chased them away.”

That close to her prize, but having claimed the elder’s life, Anunit might have settled for protecting what Tameka had been guarding. But that didn’t solve the problem of the trapped officers.

“Carter won’t leave her people behind,” he said what I was thinking. “She’ll stay with them.”

“Which means—” I dumped out my bag on the ground with my free hand, “—we have to go in after her.”

“ I will go.” Kierce rose, and Badb glided onto his shoulder. “You must remain here to hold the gate.”

“I can speak to Anunit. I’m more valuable inside than outside.”

“Where do we bring the survivors if there’s no way out?”

“No way out.” I got to my feet, careful to raise my arm slowly, bringing the gate with me. “You’re brilliant.” I yanked him down by his shirt collar and planted a smacking kiss on his cheek. “We’re going about this all wrong. We’ve been trying to save the people from Anunit. What we need to do is save the Alcheyvāhā from the people.”

“Shift our focus from evacuating the women to gathering the bones?”

“Gather them and put them back where they belong.” I spread my hands. “Not only does that solve the Anunit problem, but we can cut the legs out from under the ward from the inside if we collect them all, right? Collapse the barrier, and we clear a path for the survivors out of the woods. Carter and her team can handle it from there.”

“Anunit might not follow us.”

“We haven’t stopped her from collecting her tithe. Not even once. Her ability to turn incorporeal means we can’t cage her. Her ability to turn corporeal means she can kill at will. She’s already dead, so we can’t mortally wound her.” Acid churned in my gut at the conclusion raking my insides with certainty. “We have to keep Anunit off our backs while we fix the Morgans’ mess. That’s the only way to end this.”

“All right.” Kierce slung my bag with the bone onto his shoulder. “We both go.”

With him convinced, I only had to talk myself into believing I hadn’t just condemned us both.

Careful not to lose my grip, I stretched the gate as wide as my arms would go and held it while Kierce swung his leg over and ducked to enter. Badb flew after him, leaving me to figure out how to get in. I ended up hitting my knees, crawling through, and allowing the gate to seal behind me, trapping us with everyone else.

“We’ve already cleared this area.” I reoriented to our surroundings. “Let’s move to the next one.”

Pooling our talents, we scanned as we walked the perimeter, searching out every single bone.

Then came the fun part of digging them up and stuffing them in my bowler bag.

We were alone. No one spotted us. No voices carried to us.

Inside the ward was as vast and dark as a cave, and we already knew the predator who lurked within it.

One of the talents I had inherited from my necromancer parent, or so us Marys always thought, was excellent night vision. Handy for late-night runs, it was critical on the nights I spent weeding graves in Bonaventure. Without that ability, I would have been caught and probably banned from the cemetery.

Since Lyle ran me down, Josie forced me to wear a headlamp, but it wasn’t for the sake of my vision. It was part of her Stay Visible, Stay Safe campaign to keep me from becoming a speed bump.

Kierce, I noticed the first night we met, had the same gift. He never stumbled, wobbled, or teetered. He always knew where he was going and where to put his feet. Even Badb, who ought to have had a crow’s limited vision, was eagle-eyed in the dark. A benefit of the bond allowing him to see what she saw?

“She sees something.”

His voice, after so long in the quiet, startled me. “Oh.”

Widening her circle, Badb cruised, silent and dark as the night, until I couldn’t see her anymore.

To make up for Kierce’s distraction while he spoke to Badb, I dug twice as hard to reach our goal.

“We’re close to where Anunit is holding Carter,” he said after a minute. “She’s going to monitor them.”

Blinking clear of his connection to her, he noticed my hands, and a frown carved his mouth.

“You’re bleeding.” He glanced up at me. “You shouldn’t be.”

The rocky soil made every inch of progress twice as difficult without tools. The sharp stones must have nicked me.

“The energy from Bonaventure must have been spent healing me then holding open the gate.” The cuts didn’t hurt. I hadn’t noticed the injuries. Thanks, adrenaline. “We’ll patch me up later.”

Unhappy with that, but unable to offer a better solution, Kierce resumed his duties next to me.

Slowly, we crept around the outermost edge, my bag growing heavy. We passed close enough to Carter at one point, I swear I heard her voice. I would have written it off as wishful thinking had Kierce not clamped his hand over my wrist and shaken his head once.

Fear wasn’t a new experience for me. I had felt it plenty. For my siblings. Friends? Not so much. Most of mine were dead, which meant they were safe. Or they had been before Thunderbolt became a hotbed of divine activity. But to know Carter was nearby, in danger, and I couldn’t go to her, was a whole new and wholly unpleasant sensation.

When Badb returned to perch on my shoulder, I knew we had left the immediate danger behind us.

Except Kierce maintained his faraway look, as if his view was different than mine.

“My duck,” a motherly voice issued from not-Badb. “You’ve a terrible habit of courting danger.”