10

IVY

MOMENTS EARLIER

I grinned to myself as I said, When I see you, I’ll give you my response to that. Lips around your cock and all .

Elias’s chuckle filled the bond, echoing in my ears before going silent, and the tether between us going dark.

“Everything okay?” Adrian murmured, hand gripping my knee. I wiggled my toes, the combat boots I wore a little tight around my feet, and sighed as I sat back.

“Yeah, I was talking to Elias,” I replied, glancing over at my mate. “He was checking in and told me everything is fine on his end.”

And is that all? Adrian asked, teasing me through the bond, and sliding his hand up my leg.

I shifted in my seat, pressing my thighs together. He’s also very excited to see me again.

I don’t blame him, although I’m very glad I got you alone for a few days. His emerald eyes darkened as he glanced over me, biting down on his bottom lip. The things I’d do to you if we weren’t in a car with Maeve and Hawk.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. Can’t wait to see what you’re like once other bonds are completed and you have to actually share . My stomach twisted in a knot, but I shoved any thought of Ry down. He didn’t get to be part of this—at least, not yet. Not until he gave me a really good fucking reason for all his bullshit.

Adrian squeezed my leg, a smirk playing at his lips. I’m sure Ro and I can make sharing work.

My eyes widened and I quickly looked away. As much as I’d thought about that, there was still a giant blockade between Rowan and I that seemed impossible to breach. You cannot say those kinds of things in situations like these.

Why not ? Adrian asked innocently, hand sliding further up my leg. I’m just letting you know we’ll play nice. It’s not my fault you took it a different way.

I pressed my hands into my lap, nudging his hand back down to my knee, and glared at him. Stop.

He smirked and lifted his hand from my leg. But rather than keeping his hands to himself, he took one of my hands and entwined our fingers. I won’t bring it up again until we get home, I promise.

What happened to my shy and charming mage? I shot back.

Adrian’s smirk turned into a full-blown smile. He found his mate.

My cheeks warmed, and I quickly turned away. I wasn’t used to all the…attention. Positive, loving, caring attention that made my heart skip a beat and filled my stomach with butterflies.

Get used to it, Sweetheart. We’re here to stay.

The Goddess really was rewarding me with these mates. They were beyond anything I could have conjured up myself. And they were mine—my life partners, my future, my everything. I’d get to spend the rest of my life with them, and a large part of me still couldn’t believe it.

“Fuck.” The SUV swerved as the navigation screen blew up with red, blinking dots.

I grabbed the doorhandle. “What’s going on?” I asked, voice shaking. Adrian wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

From the passenger seat, Maeve unholstered her gun and checked it once before taking the safety off. “We’ve been found.”

My stomach dropped, and I quickly threw up a wall between Elias and me. I sent him a silent apology as the car sped up, and we wove through the vehicles around us. We were still two hours away from the ferry, coming in from an entirely different direction to Elias and his team.

Part of me was suddenly glad he’d been forced to leave later; that perhaps that would save him and the children from whatever was about to happen.

If anything happened, he had to get the others back to Avalon.

I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat as I glanced through the back window at the three shimmering trucks following us. To anyone else, there was nothing there. But as my magic unfurled in my chest, their wards seemed to break apart to reveal what was hidden beneath. And what it revealed made my heart plummet.

Even with the distance Hawk was putting between us, I noticed the weapons sliding out from their open windows. Guns. Enchanted guns .

That somehow made it ten times worse.

“With our additional charms, we should be safe from a direct attack,” Maeve said, her body tensing as she watched the approaching trucks. “But they will follow us.”

And follow us they did. They angled their weapons in our direction, but they didn’t shoot at first. Like Maeve assumed, they wanted to tail us. Or maybe they were waiting on something.

“We need to lose them,” Hawk muttered. “Hold on.”

He twisted the wheel and forced us off the main highway. My grip on the doorhandle tightened as he swerved through the traffic, taking a side street onto a busy stretch of road. It felt like I’d entered another universe as he drifted between other vehicles. There were family cars filled with children. Teenagers driving with instructors. Elderly folk staying below the speed limit.

“Please be careful,” I whispered, unable to bring myself to speak any louder. “There are so many people. What if—?”

“They won’t,” Adrian replied calmly, squeezing my hand. “Civilians aren’t the focus, and to put them in danger would be to put us all in danger.”

I swallowed down the bile in my throat and closed my eyes. “Do you really think this guy cares? That his soldiers care?”

Adrian stiffened, but he said nothing as Hawk swerved onto another road. I couldn’t even bring myself to glance out of the window, not as the magic of the enemy soldiers lifted the hairs on my arms.

Hawk cursed under his breath. We sped over a bridge, the water below us sparkling under the dull, fall sun. Not even that brought a sense of peace to me.

We’ll be okay. Just stay calm, please. With those words, Adrian pushed a calming energy down the bond, but unlike whatever Ry did, it didn ’t ease the panic building in my chest, or the burn of magic under my skin.

Despite each turn Hawk took, the trucks followed. My eyes strayed to the navigation screen. “The red lights—those are what?”

“The enemy,” Hawk snapped as he gunned it through an intersection, barely avoiding the red lights. That should have given us some space, but two more trucks appeared, flagging either side of our SUV. They didn’t have their weapons drawn, but I wasn’t naive enough to think they didn’t have them.

My throat thickened with fear as I stared at the screen. “They’re blocking us in, Hawk. They’re coming from all directions.”

He swore, swerved, and took us down another street, this one quieter—and much too open.

“Railroad ahead,” Maeve said. “The crossing is closing. Make it before the train.”

Hawk grunted, and we accelerated. Adrian’s arm remained wrapped around my shoulders as I attempted to hold down my panic. My own magic threatened to explode out of me. It wanted to protect everyone in this vehicle, but I was terrified it would lead to our destruction. I couldn’t safely control it, and I wondered if our enemy knew that.

I should have told Elias I loved him , I thought, sucking in a sharp breath as the railroad crossing appeared up ahead. I should have told Adrian, too .

But I didn’t. I tucked those away, because I needed to believe we’d make it through this, first.

I was not destined to die in a car accident.

Screw these assholes.

I still had mates to bond, another to find, and kids to look after. I needed to promise Thea that we would find out what she was, and no matter what, our dream bookstore and bakery would come to life. I would get the next book out to my readers, and I would not let anyone else down.

I turned in my seat and gathered my magic. Trust yourself. I focused on the lightning, the same power I had wielded when Adrian had been hurt, the power that lived in my veins and came out for my bonds. I gathered it into a ball, similar to how Adrian had taught me his charm magic. It burned through me as I focused it on the two trucks behind us.

The power sang in my veins. It begged to be released. The voice of my nightmares echoed in my ears: You will have to fight. And you will have to win…Or death will find you and all those you love.

And it exploded from me, hitting the closest truck with a shattering explosion. It threw the vehicle off the road while the other swerved.

But I hit the second one with another crash of violet lightning, and watched as it rolled into the oncoming traffic. I threw up a shield instinctively around the humans, feeling the hum of my magic against my chest as a barrier surrounded them. The enemy truck rolled over the civilian’s and crashed into a ditch before catching aflame.

My head pounded as I turned back, muscles stiffening with the exertion, but we made it through the railroad crossing moments before the train, and seconds before another truck could follow us. I heard it slam into the freight train, the collision ending in flames, and blew out a shaky breath.

“We have three oncoming, make a sharp left here—” Maeve’s voice was cut off by the screeching of tires. The impact threw us, the sound of smashing glass and crunching metal ringing in my ears.

Fear tightened my body as magic expelled around us.

The car rolled, and everything went black.