“Don’t ask, just roll with it,” Ajax ordered. “Tend to your wounded.”
Three of the witches dropped down to where others lay on the ground, unconscious. I’d never understood magical warfare. Bullets seemed so much more efficient.
“What’s going on?” Benedict asked Jocelyn.
“Queen's guard was on patrol—” she started.
“That’s us,” a little redhead interrupted.
“And we came across the house,” a brunette stepped forward. Her shoulders were back, and her chin tipped upward. The leader. “This is Greenbriar land, and it's taken us this long to clear house by house.”
“That’s the human border right there, correct?” Dagon asked.
“It is,” the brunette confirmed. “And when we approached the house, they began the attack. They took out three of us before we even thought to raise our defenses.”
“How many inside?” Ajax asked.
“At least five, but it’s not like we can see through the walls.” She cocked a brow. “That’s how many different strains of magic I detected among the blasts.
“Battle magic,” Jocelyn agreed. “I could differentiate about ten to twelve heartbeats and one…very sluggish one.”
The queen’s guard all turned to look at Jocelyn, shock on their faces.
“Being a vampire hybrid has its advantages.” She shrugged.
“Hawke?” Benedict asked, turning toward me.
I stared back.
“Did you want to do your thing?” he asked slowly.
Right. Because I was an assassin, just a hollowed out, broken one. I dropped my shields and stretched my senses past the fears of the witches and into the house.
“Twelve,” I said, counting their fears one by one. “And they’re all terrified of Jocelyn.”
Jocelyn chuckled.
“And…” I cocked my head to the side. “Scared of…Saint.”
“Scared of what he’ll do to him for failing,” Ajax muttered.
We divided up the house in segments, planning our attack as the witches kept glancing back at the wall of water that was still frozen in time.
“It’s a pretty fucking useful gift,” I said to the one who kept gawking.
“Ready?” Ajax asked.
“Set. Go,” Dagon answered.
The bubble fell.
I pulled my Sig and shot through the water, remembering the exact placement of the lower windows as Benedict and Ajax did the same with the second story.
Screams erupted from the house.
Dagon dropped the water, and it crashed back into the creek bed, splashing it up as we charged over the knoll, weapons drawn.
“Dagon!” Ajax shouted as we approached a destroyed bridge.
Dagon waved his hand like Moses and the water split.
No wonder these guys had been such a lethal team.
Jocelyn engaged the first warlock that emerged from the house, bringing him to his knees as he fought back.
I shot the fucker in the head.
“We need prisoners!” Benedict shouted.
“They’ll just pop cyanide anyway,” I countered as two more witches engaged a warlock who came flying out of the window like some kind of horror movie.
I didn’t bother waiting for the others, just kicked open the door with my boot and marched in. If I died, I died. Who gave a shit?
I fired off one round toward the left, then spun toward two more fears on my right, taking down two Greenbriar witches in the hands. “Try casting spells now.”
“Fuck,” Benedict muttered.
“I didn’t kill them.” I shrugged.
“Upstairs!” Benedict shouted, running up the wooden staircase with Jocelyn fast on his heels.
“We’ve got this floor!” the leader of the queen’s guard shouted, rushing past us toward the back of the house.
Two fears emerged from beneath us, but there was no door, no obvious entrance to the basement.
“Downstairs. There are more downstairs,” I said to Dagon, my hands already roaming across the wood paneling of the upstairs staircase.
Finally, my fingers skimmed over a latch, and I pulled it. A hidden door slowly opened, revealing a darkened set of steps.
“Good thing we have excellent night vision,” Ajax muttered.
I was already halfway down the steps, my Sig raised in one hand and a dagger in the other. It was colder, with stone walls with zero light.
Dagon found the light switch, and the halls illuminated as I reached the bottom of the staircase.
“Holy shit.” Dagon looked down one side of the hallway, then the other. “This is not a cellar.”
“It’s a space station,” Ajax whispered.
“No more fucking movies for you.” Dagon rolled his eyes, raising his weapon down the hall.
This wasn’t even a basement. It was living quarters. Fine rugs covered the hardwood beneath our feet and the tables along the hall were antique. Expensive paintings with expert lighting hung on the wall, and the door leading to first chamber we passed was…steel. I walked in, my weapons posed as I cleared the room. A lush bed with thick coverings—
Jasmine and lemongrass filled my lungs.
Adrenaline flooded my veins.
“This is where they held Avianna.”
Dagon and Ajax both whipped their heads my direction.
“I can smell her. It’s faint. Old. But it’s her.”
Dagon’s brows knit in apprehension. “Are you sure? It’s been months—”
“He’s fucking sure,” Ajax interrupted. “Let’s go.”
“They’re this way.” I followed the fears, Ajax and Dagon at my back as we made our way down the hall. There was a sharper, more lethal edge to my senses as they cleared the rooms behind me, but I didn’t bother stopping. I knew they were ahead of me. There, at the end of the hallway.