“Kymaris’ property is just over four acres, and from what I could see on the topography map—”

“You looked at a topography map?” Maddox asks, clearly impressed.

“I did,” she says, looking over her shoulder with a smile.

“That is totally sexy,” Maddox says in a low, rumbling tone of appreciation.

“Shut the fuck up,” Myles snarls as he twists all the way around in his seat.

I snicker as Rainey ignores them because she’s in a full-blown detective mood. “At any rate, up ahead about half a block is a house whose back yard backs up to the edge of Kymaris’ property. We’ll have to cut through that person’s yard, and I have no clue if there are Dobermans guarding or what, but that’s part of the adventure, right?”

“That’s great,” Myles mutters. “It’s not Kymaris that will kill us but guard dogs that aren’t even guarding her.”

Maddox reaches forward and claps a meaty paw on Myles’ shoulder. “If you’re scared, you can wait in the car for us. I’ll make sure to keep a close eye on your girl for you.”

Okay, now Maddox is just being an ass. I give him a sharp elbow to his ribs that actually hurts him a tiny bit as evidenced by the small grunt he lets out while glaring at me. I glare back. “Stop flirting. This is serious stuff we’re doing.”

Maddox rubs at his ribs and turns his ire on me a bit, eyes gleaming wickedly. “Very serious. I can’t wait to see what Carrick does to you when he finds out what you’re doing tonight.”

“I’ll just blame it on you,” I reply sweetly. “You know, for not stopping this foolishness.”

That gets Maddox to shut his trap, and Rainey takes the conversation back over. She turns on the overhead car light and unfolds the topography map she was referring to. She’d already made some red lines indicating the path we should take and draws her finger down it as she talks.

When she gets to a star she drew on the map, she says, “This is where we should set our lookout. It’s just slightly east of the house, so we should see most of the back and part of the front and side. I looked up the house on Zillow, and the back has a nice pool area with nothing but floor-to-ceiling windows that allow us to see into every room. She did us a favor by having it so well lit.”

“I wonder who came in all those cars,” I murmur, glancing down at the map. “Could she actually be having a party in the midst of trying to pull off a prophecy to overtake the world?”

“Who knows,” Maddox says with a shake of his head. “She’s been trapped in the Underworld for eons. She’s probably going a little crazy with her freedom and the things available to her.”

I nod my head solidly. “Good. Maybe she’ll just keep partying and ignoring her destiny while we figure out how to stop her.”

“Enough talk,” Rainey exclaims. “Let’s spy.”

We exit the vehicle. Myles has the camera bag, Rainey the binoculars around her neck, and, as always, I have my backpack with my whip, nunchucks, and throwing knives at easy reach. Maddox has nothing, but he doesn’t really need something in hand. He could conjure a weapon from thin air and physically handle any dark creature we come against.

The only thing he couldn’t do is battle a large group and help me defend Rainey and Myles. That would be the worst-case scenario, but despite how immature Maddox acts at times, I know he’d fight to the death to defend my friends.

Not that he can die, but I bet enough Dark Fae could overpower him.

The thought almost has me backing out.

What if Kymaris has daemons or fae patrolling her woods?

Wonder if she has guard dogs? Or otherworldly scary creatures roaming the property?

Maybe she’s placed tripwires, landmines, or—

“Hey,” Maddox says, snapping his fingers in front of my face. I blink and focus on him. “You okay?”

“Yeah… just trying to figure out all exigencies.”

Rainey and Myles are walking up ahead of us, and Maddox and I follow.

Leaning in closer to me and lowering his voice, he says, “The only exigency you need to worry about is if we come up against a horde of Dark Fae or Kymaris. In that instance, you get the fuck out of there. Bend distance or whatever, but you get safe.”

“I’m not leaving Rainey and Myles,” I whisper back harshly.

“I’ve got them covered,” he replies, still talking low so we can’t be heard. “I promise I’ll get them out safe.”

I stare into his eyes, and I know he’ll do his best, that’s for sure.

Just as he can probably tell from my expression that there’s no way in hell I’d ever run and leave anyone behind.

Maddox is going to take some major heat from Carrick over doing this. I know Carrick would expect Maddox to have stopped us. I expect there will be a fight of epic proportions, and I just hope they go somewhere like the top of Mt. Rainer to do it so the condo isn’t destroyed. I expect he went at it with Lucien for letting me ditch him so easily, something that I probably need to apologize to Lucien for the next time I see him.

Tags: Sawyer Bennett Chronicles of the Stone Veil Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net