“Nothing will happen to them.”
“Something happened to you!”
He detaches one of my hands from its death grip on the steering wheel and laces his fingers between mine, bringing it to his lips and pressing a gentle kiss against my knuckles. “And it wasn’t your fault.”
He releases my hand. I turn onto the forest road that will lead us to the castle, my heart in my throat. I reach for the darkness inside, but all I find is fear.
* * *
I slam on the brakes before I hit the smoking ruins of a van tipped over on its side. Jade must have actually pulled off a bomb. I don’t know if I’m impressed or worried. And I can’t help the spike of fear for Artemis.
“On foot from here,” I say, because I don’t know where any more bombs will be. I get out, stake in hand, and hurry forward. No bodies, I think as I peer into the interior of the van. Please, no bodies. There aren’t any, and I can move again. Leo is behind me. His breathing is heavy, but he’s moving fast.
There’s a snapping of a branch, and I gasp as I’m doused with water. A water balloon, to be precise.
“It’s me!” I shout.
“Sorry!” Cillian is somewhere in the trees. I can’t tell his exact location, which is good, because it means no one else can either. But it also means he wasted one of his few holy water balloons on me. “We took out five vampires who climbed out of the ruined van, but there were two other vans that didn’t get damaged!”
“Where are Rhys and Jade?”
“Rhys is chasing down two stray vamps, and I haven’t seen Jade yet. I’m supposed to stay in my tree.”
“Good!” My hair dripping, I hurry forward around the next curve. There are two vans stopped in the middle of the dark forest road. I hold up a fist to Leo. “Stay here,” I whisper. I close the distance to the vans. The first one is empty, doors gaping open like mausoleums. No hostiles, no Jade, and no Honora or Artemis.
Or at least that’s what I think, until I’m electrocuted from behind.
“She’s down,” a woman’s voice says. “There’s one in the trees. No, up in the trees, not on the ground. Another deeper in the forest with a crossbow. He should be neutralized soon.”
“Nonlethal force,” another voice says over a crackling feed, and this one hurts more than whatever they did to me that’s left me flat on the ground, blinded by pain and unable to move. Artemis. “Remember our goal. Full team converge on the castle; the Slayer is out of play.”
“The hell she is,” I say, my face against the dirt of the road.
“What?” the woman over me asks.
“Playtime is just starting.” I stand and punch her and she falls back, unconscious. Human. One of the creepy cloakers. I tear the door off the second van. Jade is in there, her head bleeding and her hands and feet bound. My favorite crossbow has been tossed in the back, so I grab that, then break the ropes. Jade groans, sitting up.
“Where is she?” Jade demands.
“Who?”
“Honora!”
“She’s mine.”
“First come, first serve!” Jade pushes past me and runs for the castle, stumbling and limping.
I’m about to follow when I remember that Cillian and Rhys were being pursued. I scream in frustration, then run into the trees around where I was doused. A vampire is halfway up the tree. I aim, but before I can pull the trigger, he poofs into dust from another crossbow bolt.
“Cillian!” Rhys’s glasses are askew, and his hair has abandoned all pretense of order. There’s a cut along one of his cheeks, and his eyes are wide with adrenaline and panic.
“I’m okay!” Cillian shouts from above me.
I turn on my heel. Rhys isn’t going to let anything happen to Cillian. “They’re at the castle!”
“Go! We’re behind you!”
“Bring Leo! Go in the back way, put him in the tower with Pelly, then converge on the great hall.”