Chapter 16
AMRI
I crack my neck as the evening call to prayer fills the night.
Filing Roger’s case didn’t take as much time as it would have since Juju was in a terrific mood and took pity on my obviously exhausted state, offering to do most of my paperwork, but it still took hours that I didn’t have to spare.
I’m thankful and happy for my friend though, since her good mood was due to Levi finally asking her out the other day.
I hope things work out. She seems really happy.
As I approach my house, I find Rian’s mind and push a pulse of magic down the line, like a mental knock. When I feel his attention turn to me, I ask, “Okay for me to stop by?”
He chuckles, and my spirits lift with how light-hearted he sounds. “This is your place, Amri. You don’t need permission.”
I look up at my house, sandwiched in a long row of homes, the red clay exterior climbing three stories, with a rooftop pool and garden hidden behind the cusped arches decorating the flat roof edge.
Disabling the security, both magical and technical, I swing open the beautifully carved front door.
The mudroom—the only room on this level—is dark and empty as I enter.
I’m barely inside before I shout upstairs to the main level, “Before I forget, does anyone have any or know where to get fresh or dried stamen of a Queen of the Night?”
Footsteps rush down the stairs, and I smile, lifting my hand in greeting as Sadie sprints towards me. I’m about to joke that she needs to slow down before she trips and breaks her neck, but then I see her face.
Something is wrong.
I climb three steps to meet her, grabbing her shoulders. “What? What is it? Hunters? Circe? Some weird curse on the tooth?”
Sadie pants, trying to catch her breath, and a shadow falls over us from the top of the stairs. Bodi fills the doorway, and the cracking of his knuckles echoes down to us as he says, “It’s their magic.”
I duck down to look Sadie in the eyes. “What happened?”
She takes a deep breath, and I realize her breathlessness is less about her rush down the stairs and more about her freaking out over whatever has happened. Sadie says, “Just now, right before you came in, my magic just …” She holds up her hand in a fist, then wiggles her fingers. “Poof.”
“Poof?” I give her a little shove, and we both climb the stairs.
Bodi moves aside, and as I step into the main living space, I glance around, taking a quick assessment.
It’s always good to know where everyone is and what they’re doing.
Being hyperaware can be exhausting, and I should probably talk to a therapist about my over-vigilance, but it’s a honed trait that has saved my life more than once.
Alexandros is in the kitchen, because of course he is.
He’s got one of my blue plates in his hands, drying it off with a towel.
There’s a stack of clean and dry plates and bowls to his right on my spotless counter.
Kat sits on my long couch, her leg bouncing under her skirt, Rian rubbing her back at her side.
Sadie slides into Bodi’s embrace, and he wraps his arms around her, kissing the top of her head as she says, “It’s gone, Amri. My magic. All of it. Kat’s too.”
My eyes go wide, and I snap up my hand, quickly calling up my magic. It flares to the surface, glowing gold before I snuff it out.
Bodi nods at me. “We still have ours. We think it’s just the witches.”
Stars, it really is one thing after the other. My bed upstairs calls to me like a siren’s song, but I clench my hands, forcing myself to keep going. “Circe is making her move.”
Kat’s voice waivers as she says, “But I thought you said she said she wouldn’t come after us.”
I jog the few steps it takes to get to the kitchen. Alexandros steps aside as I press a hidden button up inside the range hood. “Well, looks like she lied. Big surprise.”
A panel swings down from the bottom of the upper cabinets, and I grab one of the guns from its place in the custom-cut, foam-lined compartment. With a quick movement, I snatch a magazine, slide it in place, and chamber a round.
Kat laughs from the couch. “That was like something from John Wick .”
I grin and wink at her, then look at Alexandros. “You know how to use one of these?”
He shakes his head, his eyes a bit too wide, so I smile, trying to ease some of his obvious panic. “That’s okay. Next to Bodi, you’re our best caster, so it’s best to keep your hands free, yes?”
He nods, looking relieved I didn’t shove a gun into his hands and wish him luck.
Kat slaps her hands to her thighs and stands up. She holds out a hand. “I’ve used one before. I’m no expert, but I can get the job done.”
I nod. If this were a dumb action movie, I’d toss the gun to her, and she’d grab it out of the air.
But this isn’t a movie, and throwing a loaded gun is a stupid thing to do.
So I walk over and place the weapon, grip-first, in Kat’s hand.
She trembles slightly as she takes it, but she checks the chamber. Good. She knows the basics at least.
Shick. Click.
I turn around as Bodi loads and checks a pistol he took from my stash. He comes over and hands the gun to Rian, who double-checks the chamber and then holds the gun down at his side. He nods at me with confidence, and I nod back.
Returning to the kitchen, I grab another pistol, load it, and then set it on the counter, ready to use when needed. I turn back to the living room, and as I double-check the protection barriers, I ask Sadie, “Any word from your coven?”
Sadie looks up from her phone and nods before bowing her head to respond to a text.
As her fingers fly over the screen, she says, “Everyone’s magic is down.
And I mean down . Not just blocked. It’s gone.
Bone dry. And I can’t replenish. I’ve tried.
We’ve been cut off from our Earth magic. We’ve got nothing.”
Damn. I knew Circe was stupid powerful, but this …
I ask, “Are any of your witches reporting any kind of attacks?”
Sadie keeps typing on her phone as she shakes her head. “Nothing. Not yet anyway. But I’ve got the entire coven on high alert, and not a single witch is alone. Groups of three or more only.”
“And Hela? ”
Sadie’s fingers pause, and her shoulders tighten. Bodi rubs her arms and kisses the top of her head again as she says, “Nothing.”
Alexandros crosses the room, taking Sadie’s face in his hands.
He rubs her cheeks with thumbs as he whispers, “I’m sure she’s fine.
Hela is the toughest woman I know. Hell, she’s the toughest person I know.
” He looks over his shoulder at me, the shadow of a smirk on his lips. “Present company excluded.”
I wave him off with a laugh. “No, no. You’re right. Hela is badass, and of course she’s fine. She’s prob?—”
The protection spells on my house pop and dissolve in the blink of an eye.
“Incoming!” Rian shouts and jumps to his feet, shielding a stunned Kat with his body.
Bodi’s muscles expand as his beast pushes forward.
I whirl around, weaving a spell to find the source of danger, grinding my teeth.
Teeth!
I shout, “The tooth!”
Rian scrambles, leaning over to snatch up the hunk of ivory from where it was sitting on the wooden end table next to the sofa.
Crack. Boom! Crash!
Downstairs, my front door explodes, sending shards and splinters all the way up the stairs.
Bodi shields his mates with his broad back, and Rian covers the group from the other side of their huddle as my windows shatter and glass flies into the room.
I throw up a barrier, catching most of the shards, but a few get through, and I hiss as tiny cuts slice open my forearm.
Rian flexes, and glass tinkles to the floor as his healing pushes pieces of glass out of his skin.
Bodi growls, claws withdrawn. “Hunters! ”
Footsteps thunder up the stairs, and I catch the flash of a white mask, but then a summoning spell, sharp and intense, grabs me and yanks. I look over in time to see Bodi and his family disappear, Sadie’s arm reaching out to me.
My lungs compress as the first of what sounds like several hunters sprints into my living room. They lunge for me, but their arms close around empty space as I’m pulled from my house. I tumble through space and time, fighting the nausea of my protesting stomach.
I hate being summoned, it’s so much more violent than using a portal.
Sand scrapes my palms as I land on my hands and knees, thankful to be back on solid ground. I take a few breaths, turning my head at the sound of Kat heaving off to my left. Everyone is here. Good. At least we all ended up in the same place.
A shadow falls over me, darkening the sand between my hands, and a feminine voice that freezes my blood says, “Welcome to Aeaea.”
Circe.
I wobble from my kneeling position as I look up. The sunlight halos Circe’s form, outlining her in yellows and oranges. She grins down at me, the look frighteningly feral. “Now, stay here. I’ll be right back.” She winks and disappears.
Bodi growls, crouching over his mates, his shoulder-length hair hanging around his face as crystal-clear water laps at his ankles.
Seems they didn’t land as far up this beach as I did.
Bodi, with claws out and panther spots spreading over his skin, looks at me and says, “Who was that? Where are we? What’s going on? ”
I know the answer to the first two, but as to what’s going on? I haven’t a clue.