Blace shook his head. —We need to find Rune’s mate. Nïx will know.— The vampire was siding with him on this?
Though Darach revered matehood, he said, —Shoot. Find mate later.—
—Find? So easily, then?— Blace scowled. —Says the male who’s never lost anything.—
—Life.—
—Yes. You did lose your life, I suppose.—
—Sian, back me up!— Allixta turned to the demon. —Do we now complete only the convenient missions? Obey only the dictates with which we agree?—
—We will find your mate eventually, Rune,— Sian said. —But you’ll never get a shot like this again.—
—Her lightning will burn my arrow. The bonedeath is my only option.—
—Then use it.— Allixta said.
The Møriør had always been a unified front. Now they were at cross-purposes. And as they argued, other immortals filed out of Val Hall behind Nïx.
Two dozen Valkyries: one glowing, one carrying an extraordinary-looking bow, others with swords. A Fury among them had wings of fire.
When a contingent of fey archers followed, Rune said, —Draiksulians.— From the source dimension of all fey, the root of their slaving empire.
Ten Lykae emerged next, each one on the verge of turning. Their eyes were ice blue with aggression.
Darach said only, —Descendants.— He was half-turned himself, his body nine feet tall, his own eyes blue. His burgeoning muscles ripped his tunic in several places; he clawed it away.
Those Gaia Lykae scented the air, growling. Did they not recognize Darach Lyka, the alpha of their entire species?
Blace nodded at several vampires who’d suddenly appeared, joining the ranks. —Forbearers, and a red-eyed natural-born. I recognize him. Lothaire. Powerful. Basically the primordial here. The female with him is vampire as well.—
The clear-eyed vampires kept Lothaire in their lowering sights, muttering something about the “Gravewalker.”
Nïx’s Vertas alliance already had deep fractures within it.
Sian brandished his war ax when demons appeared, their horns sharp with hostility. The muscular males bared their fangs. —Rage demons stand against us? Do they not comprehend what they guard in Rothkalina? And for whom?—
Allixta’s palms grew hotter when females exited the manor with their own hands alight. —None of these witches have paid their taxes. None have permits. Yet they threaten hexes against their Overlady?— Curses hissed, prowling back and forth.
—So we’re to draw battle lines?— Blace slipped his sword free. —This early?—
Sian twirled his ax. —What will it take to actually encounter a challenge?—
—They’re not without their strengths,— Allixta said. —The witch with mirrors for eyes killed a Wiccae deity. I sense those divine magicks from here. She’ll never be able to afford them.—
—We don’t have time for this.— Rune switched one-and-done for a bonedeath arrow, aiming at the ground near Val Hall.
Nïx canted her head, revealing her feylike ear. “Where are my manners? Can I offer you something to eat or drink? We have many nonexistent hors d’oeuvres.”
“I want Josephine,” Rune told the Valkyrie. “I know you see her even now.”
“You know know? Ah, another psychic! Why should I tell you? She didn’t even thank me before leaving. Rude phanpire.”
“Thank you? For the punishment you meted out to her?”
The Valkyrie’s eyes blazed silver. “I taught her.”
“Don’t play games with me, Nïx.”
“Hmm? Something to drink or eat?”
“Tell me where Thaddeus took my mate.”
“To a place you will never find,” she said. “The District of the Gold, Purple, and Green Gardens.”
Snickers sounded behind her.
—This is amusing to them?— Allixta was spoiling for a kill. —How will those witchlings feel once I put a lien on their abilities? When all the spells they’ve ever cast boomerang back upon them? Their ‘House of Witches’ will crumble in a time of nightmares. The tax lady cometh.—
Nïx gestured back at Val Hall. “Tsk tsk, Rune, you and your mate didn’t leave this place as you found it.”
The mighty oaks were strewn about like driftwood, the wraiths still dazed above. Upended cars crowded the property.
“But,” Nïx said, “we remain.”
Allixta conjured a larger beam of magick. —Easily remedied.— Addressing everyone, she said, “Trifling beings, you are presently beneath my boot heel; you just don’t have the awareness to grasp your own doom. We are the bringers of it.”
Lothaire, the red-eyed vampire, laughed. “Well, I like them already.” At others’ glares, he added, “What? That sounds like something I would have said. With, of course, a dash more verve.” Then he asked Nïx, “Are we going to war or not? If we don’t, this exercise is tedious enough to count as repayment, soothsayer.”
Nïx absently told him, “Always with the payments, Enemy of Old.”
Rune asked the Valkyrie, “You know what my arrow will do?”
She nodded happily. “It will pulverize all our bones, and nothing will ever heal us.”
Lothaire said, “That sounds unpleasant. This is what we get for planning a fair fucking fight. We deserve nothing less.” To his female, he said, “Trace the hell away from here. Now.”
Rune drew his bowstring. “Tell me where Josephine is.”