“You better put on that muumuu, too. You might need to fly.”
I breathed through the tremors of anticipation, adrenaline, and fear.
There was no reason to freak out. Even if we couldn’t get those potions off those bodies, I could trigger the house’s defenses. We’d be fine. As long as we were on this property, we’d be good.
“Jessie, come quick,” Ulric said through the newly fixed door.
Austin pulled it open, pausing for a beat to let me through first before following me out.
Ulric led the way without a word, bringing us to the closest bedroom with a view of the front yard. Four people, two men and two women, rolled a large device up the street toward us. Four tree-trunk posts at angles sat on a rolling platform, with a tree trunk at the top holding them all together. Swinging between the legs was a sixth trunk with a pointy end.
“Is that…” I leaned closer to the window. “Is that a battering ram?”
“Time to get your parents to safety,” Austin said, his voice rough. “Time to fight.”TwentyAustin watched panic roll across Jess’s face, something that happened right before every major skirmish. It was her sense of Jane reality taking the helm for one brief moment. In the past it had stressed him out. Now he just waited.
A moment later, he was rewarded with what he’d come to expect: the panic faded from her intelligent hazel eyes, and a look of stubborn determination took its place, that attitude also apparent in her clenched jaw and lowered brow. She leaned closer to the window again, her eyes surveying the front yard. Brilliant green grass shone in the late afternoon sun. Pink and blue tulips waved from beside the front path, moved by the light wind. Bushes and hedges stood tall. They were deep in the calm before the storm.
Teams of people emerged from the side yards of the houses up the street, forming what looked like a horde, a mass grouping of armed people in battle leathers. They marched toward Ivy House, sheets of soft, glittering air sliding down on either side of their group, masking their sound and maybe their appearance from the outside world, keeping this fight magical so Janes and Dicks would be none the wiser. Austin was sure there was a sheet behind them as well, pulling tighter and tighter and tighter as they moved toward the house. He also wondered if there was an attack spell woven in there, keeping anyone from slipping out of the mayhem and making a run for it through the spell. He wouldn’t doubt it—they’d want to trap Jess in. They wouldn’t want their prize escaping.
A wave of pure adrenaline washed through him, followed by a heavy dose of rage.
That spell would keep them trapped in as well. With him.
“Jacinta McMillian!” Her father appeared in the doorway. Jess didn’t turn to look back. “Who are all these people in this house? More men with capes showed up. They’re underfoot every time I turn around. And now your mother says there are a whole bunch of people walking this direction from down the street. Look at me when I speak to you.”
“Kinda busy here, Dad.”
“Doing what, looking out the window? This place is like a bus station, Jacinta. If you need some money, your mother and I can lend you some. You don’t need all of these people living here.”
“Didn’t Ulric fill you in about why they’re here?” she asked in a faraway voice. She was likely planning which defenses she would enact to deal with the onslaught from the front. She’d need to set them and run, because the people in the woods were almost certainly about to make their move. Austin didn’t feel much on this property, not like the others, but he could feel that basajaun cutting through the wood, straight for the house, probably with news of an invading army that Ivy House couldn’t feel.
“You can’t house the whole forestry school, Jessie. Didn’t I tell you that earlier? You’re not a hotel.”
Jess straightened up with a clenched jaw. She turned and walked quickly toward her dad, still filling the doorway.
“Dad, they aren’t living here, they are auditioning to join my team. That team is in charge of protecting me and this house. Go look out the front window. That’s what we’re protecting it from. Soon there will be a host collecting out back as well. They’re already hiding in the woods. Both of them want to take me for my magic. Surprise! The house is magical, and now so am I. Life has gotten a little more interesting for me since the divorce.”
“Oh, horseshit. What are you saying, that you live in a place like Willy Wonka’s?”
“Yes, only less fun and with much less chocolate. Come on, it’s time for you and Mom to get to safety.”