23. Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Andy
I stared at the flaming envelope on my kitchen table. The flames didn't falter or die out and yet the table remained unharmed, and the fire didn't spread.
“It screamed when it arrived,” Zhong said, watching the envelope with wary yellow eyes. “Scared the hell out of me and made me nearly cut my finger off.” He gestured to the abandoned cutting board, where he'd been prepping things for dinner.
“More ancestral bullshit?” I asked dryly, arching a brow at Dyre.
The necromancer looked a bit more peaked than usual, his hand touching his chest, then dropping to his side and he shook himself out of whatever thoughts he'd been lost in. “Yes,” he said evenly. “I can sense threads of Lovell magic.” He sighed. “And a hint of my own as well, now that I know to look for it wherever Lovell blood is involved.”
I shook my head at him. We were not going to revisit our lineage right now. “Reaching out, I passed a hand through the flames. As I suspected, they didn't burn me. They weren't even warm to the touch. Illusion. Bella was apparently a big old drama queen.
Snatching up the envelope, I opened it and unfolded the paper within. The words lifted off the page in a shimmer of magic and my sister's voice shouted at me. “Fighting. We need your help. Come now!” The instructions looped, repeated at top volume. An address in Magea was messily scrawled at the bottom of the note.
I dropped the letter, and it stopped shouting.
“Well, fuck,” I muttered, anxiety and irritation warring inside me and somehow equaling a sudden need to move.
“What will you do?” River asked from the doorway, clearly having overheard the racket. “You have been so set on ignoring the outside world.” His smooth voice didn't sound judgmental or accusatory, simply curious. He tilted his head and watched me with his hypnotic cat-like eyes. “Will you ignore this as well?”
I glanced around the room, where everyone else had slowly gathered. I couldn't imagine Bella would send me a flaming, screaming note if she didn't truly need help. “Goddess damn it,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. “I at least need to go see what the hell is going on.” I had only recently learned that I had one living relative left. It would suck if I was the reason she croaked just because I refused to help when she asked.
Dyre placed a hand on my shoulder, and I felt Sunshine's echo in his words. “A show of strength probably wouldn't hurt.”
I recalled our little chat in the courtyard some time back, when he'd told me he was willing to help me terrify people and take over the world, if that's what I wanted to do. Sunshine would probably relish the opportunity to incite terror. So would our resident boogeyman for that matter. I glanced over at Ambrose, and he smirked and winked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. “Where the loves of my life go, so do I.”
I rolled my eyes.
But I didn't have it in me to make a snarky comment. Aside from a few little scuffles, I had been involved in only one major battle in my entire life. And that had ended with the SA nearly imprisoning or killing us after we helped them raid the O'Leary coven and steal the artifact they held. Any confrontation between the rebels and the cult or the SA was bound to be just as violent—if not worse. My gut churned with the sickening feeling that if I did this, it would be the first step down the slippery slope that ended with me becoming my sister's big, flashy new pawn.
And yet… I couldn't just ignore that letter.
“Any objections?” I asked dryly. “Or am I the only one who doesn’t look forward to danger and murder?”
Everyone glanced around. But no one raised even the slightest concern.
“Sounds like a good time,” Aahil drawled lazily, leaning against the kitchen counter as if we were talking about going out to watch a movie or something.
Zhong gave the jinn a quelling look, then turned to me, a wry grimace on his face. “No one wants to go rushing off into some fight with the SA or the cult,” he said earnestly. “But if we can do anything to stop this insanity, then we should.”
Aahil scoffed. “Speak for yourself, rock for brains. I want to set people on fire.” He smirked at Dyre, a hint of heat in his golden eyes. “And tall, pale, and scary over there wants to play with corpses. Stop trying to ruin our fun.”
I shook my head. “You're all morons.”
Turning, I nearly ran into River, who had crept up behind me with his usual silent grace. He held a book in one hand. He’d probably been reading when the drama queen's letter arrived. The book dangled at his side now, as if he had forgotten he was even holding… Magea's Premier Guide to Pet Care.
“I want to come too,” he informed me, lifting his chin and narrowing his eyes at me. “You might not trust me, but Bella does. And I promised myself I would help stop the abuse of power any way I could.”
I huffed. “No one said anything about leaving you behind,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. “I'm not your mother. Or your jailor.”
He nodded once in curt acknowledgement, then seemed to realize he was still holding his ridiculous book and set it aside. Turning back to me, he grinned. “Smart woman. It's always a good idea to have a little luck on your side.”
I ignored the faint purr I could hear rumbling through him. Shifters were, apparently, really freaking weird. “Thanks. And just so you know, I don't know you well enough to have complete trust in you, but for what it's worth, I believe you so far. Just don't fuck us over, or I promise you, one of these blood-thirsty psychos will make sure you stop breathing.” I hiked a thumb over my shoulder in the general direction of the rest of my house guests.
River just kept smiling. “Let me run up and fetch a few things and I'll be ready to go.” He turned and jogged off toward the stairs. I watched him go, wondering just what he needed to go get, considering he had come to us with zero belongings.
But whatever. I had more important things to worry about. Like what the fuck we were about to walk into.