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I decide it’s the latter and promise aloud, “I’m not giving up, don’t worry.”
I turn to make a run for the cliff trail leading up to the Blackmore estate to see a giant pirate ship has suddenly materialized on the sand less than a hundred yards away. I have time to realize the ship must have been using a cloaking spell—and one worked by a powerful witch, if it managed to hide a giant ship completely from view—before I’m tackled to the ground.
I start to scream for help, when a familiar voice rasps in my ear, “Don’t fight me. I’m on your side, I promise. Trust me for just a few minutes, and I’ll prove it.”
Spitting sand from my mouth, I flip over onto my back to see Sophie, my traitor of a half-sister, looming over me, her eyes glowing with the full fire of a Wyvern future-casting vision. “I can save us, but you have to play along,” she adds quickly. “Just trust me, Casey, please.”
Before I can reply, four vampires in long black cloaks bearing the red eye seal of the Shadowbane clan on their right shoulders appear behind her. The shortest of them, a guy with white hair and icy blue eyes that burn like pale fire in the moonlight, smiles down at me. “Brilliant. A captive. Good work, Wyvern. Keep it up and we may turn you, after all.”
I cut a narrow glance Sophie’s way as I’m wrenched painfully to my feet by two other men I didn’t see approaching from behind. I cry out, agony flashing through my shoulders before I get my feet beneath me and relieve the pressure on my joints.
“Keep her quiet,” Sophie says, her gaze hard now that we’re not alone. “Sound travels by the water.” She nods to the cliffs behind her. “Come on, we should move. The shortcut up to the mansion is this way, through the goblin’s cave.”
Goblin…
Herbish and her people…
Could they be in on this? Are the helping the Shadowbanes? Or are they helping Sophie trick the Shadowbanes? To my knowledge there isn’t a shortcut up to the mansion, especially not through the caves. That’s why the goblins chose to remain in the caverns. They enjoy their privacy and living off the beaten path, set slightly apart from the rest of the town.
But still close enough to get help if they need it…
I could still cry out for help, still try to alert Herbish and her people to the impending danger and hope they’ll call for backup. But my gut says to trust Sophie, so I stay quiet as I’m led inside, praying I’m making the right choice.
If I’m not, I silently vow to haunt Sophie for all eternity, and to be one vicious, pissed off ghost.
Chapter Twenty-Two
EDMOND
We reach the waterfront just as a pirate’s galleon blinks into visibility on the beach to our left.
“Fuck, they’ve already landed,” Ringer mutters, poofing us both from mist back into our human forms not far from the docks, where Jamie has flown to do reconnaissance on Priscilla.
Not a single one of us was surprised to learn she’d decided to join the Shadowbane cause just last night. What that says about her character, Priscilla can ponder later—once she’s muzzled and behind bars.
The muzzling part being the most important, of course, though I’m not sure how we’ll manage it. But her mind-control powers have never been more dangerous to the well-being of everyone I care about as they are tonight.
“Backup should be on the way,” I remind him.
Nadar was too injured to fight but assured us he was fit enough to run back to the estate and alert Colin that our plan was no longer viable. I can’t very well mind fuck the heads of the Shadowbane army into calling off the attack and leading their followers to retire in peace on a farm in Greenland we knew one of them happens to own with Priscilla fighting for the enemy. She could easily undo my work and unleash her own mind control upon our people.
No, this is going to have to be fought the old-fashioned way.
As we speak, Blackmore forces are likely en route to the riverbed and guarding against attack from the cliffs.
“All they’ll have to do is wait at the top and pick them off like flies,” I add, but Ringer shakes his head.
“I don’t know,” he says. “The cliff attack feels wrong. The Shadowbanes are arrogant assholes but they’re not stupid. They know attacking from the cliff trail is a bad call. Even one lookout with a gun and good aim could hold them off long enough for backup to arrive and wipe them out.”
“That man was telling the truth,” I assure him. “He wouldn’t be capable of lying under my control.”
“But maybe he didn’t know the entire plan,” Ringer says, scanning the empty beach. “I don’t know, something just feels off here. Where are their people? Still on the boat for some reason? If they were climbing the trail, we’d have caught a glimpse of them by now.”
Before I can reply, Jamie arrives in his bat form, transforming in a breathless rush before crouching down behind the dune where Ringer and I have taken shelter. “Priscilla’s boat is sinking. It looks like it was attacked by cannon fire or something. Huge holes everywhere and no sign of Priscilla or her goons.”
Ringer scowls. “How? Did the Shadowbanes turn on her or something? And how did someone hit her with a cannon without us hearing it? That much sound would have carried into the swamp.”
“I don’t know,” Jamie says. “Maybe it wasn’t cannon fire, maybe it was something else, but Priscilla isn’t going anywhere tonight. At least not by boat.”
