Hired Hunter (The Rover 2)

My fingers tingled, and I gripped the hilts of my knives, prepared to let them do all the magic they needed to keep me safe. As we continued down a path cut through the trees, I drew the knives out, holding them by my thighs, one in each hand, ready to strike out at a moment’s notice.

My heart pounded in my chest and adrenaline zinged around every vein in my body, making my limbs tremble.

“I’m just going to throw it out there...” I said, forcing my voice to steady. “Maybe we should get back on the helicopter and go home. No harm, no foul. Figure out an alternative plan that doesn’t involve well...death.”

I was a split second from making a run back on my own. Let them deal with this crap. I’d spent a lot of years honing my intuition. Ignoring it felt wrong.

“Lock it up,” the captain growled, then stopped mid-path and crouched.

I started to retort. Swarms of shadowy figures surged out from the trees. Fifty of them. Perhaps mages.

I stepped up to the first guy and struck out with one blade. It cut clean through him. He dropped without even an attempt to fight back.

Magic blades. Right.

Another guy launched at me from the right. I took him down as easily and disturbingly as the first one.

Fin and the captain were fighting off several of our attackers each. I launched toward the back of one. He turned to jump at me, but I took him down too. No one used any magic, just muscle, as we grappled and fought through the throng of henchmen.

Finally, the last of the men fell and amazingly all three of us were still standing. Bodies littered the ground, circles of them around each of us.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I said through panting breaths, then straightened and peered through the trees.

I didn’t hear any rustling or anymore bad guys lurking around.

The captain circled around both of us then dug through the nearest fallen goon’s pockets.

“Do you think they brought their driver’s licenses when they came to kill us?” I asked, crouching down to study one of the goon’s faces.

Nope, didn’t recognize him. Nor were there any signs he could do any magic or even tried. Would there be?

Fin stood off to the side, looking over the group. “That felt too easy. Like they were waiting for us, just to be taken down in minutes. They didn’t even really put up a fight.”

Damn. Fin was right. I sheathed my knives and surveyed the scene.

There had to be another kind of ambush waiting. This was just to lure us into thinking we were safe.

Shit. I backed away from the group toward the helicopter. “They want us here. Right here on this spot. Get away, quick.”

To their credit, the men didn’t ask questions. They turned and ran right along with me.

A blazing light shot through the trees and landed on the pile of bodies. The ground, the bodies, the trees, everything in the vicinity caught fire in a flash of flame and heat.

I ducked behind a tree that wasn’t alight and waited for some of the fire to die down. Fin crouched behind a tree across from mine.

Just as we exited our hiding place, shouting broke through the trees.

“Get ready,” Fin yelled. “This is the real fight.”

I shoved off the tree, drew my knives again, and prepared for another round.

Bigger, beefier henchmen sprinted toward us, each holding weapons of their own. No doubt, some of them were magical, judging by the way they gleamed in the remaining firelight.

“I could be at home watching Criminal Minds. Holly could be making me brownies and hand delivering them to my bedroom.” I bounced on my feet, like a boxer amping up for a fight.

Then I launched toward a sizable goon with a long sword.

I caught his parry with the edges of both knives. But he was stronger. I jerked to the side, drawing the sword down and away from my soft stab-able belly.