Aidon finished settling Nyssa and crossed to stand behind me, his arms coming around my waist. "What are you thinking?"
"That we need to be smarter than them." I leaned back against his chest, drawing strength from his solid presence. "They've had years to plan this. We've had days. The only advantage we have is that they don't know we're coming for them."
"We’re going to burn them to the ground.” Aidon’s voice had gone deadly.
I turned in his arms, meeting his eyes. "Jean-Marc can corrupt their data, but that only buys us time. To really stop them, we need to destroy the Scythe. And to do that, we need to find where they're keeping it."
Aidon nodded in agreement. "It’s in the hidden room. It's the only place that makes sense."
"My thoughts exactly. Which means someone needs to get inside that building."
His expression went hard. "Not you."
"I'm not planning to go alone." I cupped his face, feeling the tension in his jaw. "But I am going. Those are our children that they're hunting. Our family they're threatening. I'm not sitting on the sidelines while others fight my battles."
"Phoebe—"
"Don't." I pressed my fingers to his lips. "We both know I'm right. We both know I'm going to do this whether you agree ornot. The only question is whether you're going to help me plan it properly or if I'm going to have to improvise."
He stared at me for a long moment, a dozen different emotions crossing his face before settling on resigned acceptance. "You're going to give me gray hair."
"You're immortal. You don't get gray hair."
"I'll find a way out of spite." His arms tightened around me, and I felt his surrender in the way he pressed his forehead to mine. "We plan this carefully. We stack every advantage we can. And we don't go until we're ready."
"Agreed," I said, even though we both knew ‘ready’ might never come.
Outside, Layla howled a long, mournful sound that carried across the property. Tarja's ears pricked forward, her tail going still. "What is it?" I asked.
“She found something at the western border. Fresh tracks from multiple individuals.”
Aidon's shadows erupted from his skin, flooding the room with darkness before he reined them in. "How many people?"
“She's counting now. At least six. Maybe more.”
My hands curled into fists, teal fire sparking at my fingertips before I forced it down. The babies were sleeping peacefully behind us. Completely unaware of the threat outside, and I wanted to keep it that way.
"Get everyone on alert," Aidon ordered, already moving toward the door. "And somebody call Tseki. If they're coming in numbers, we need all the firepower we can get."
I took one last look at my sleeping children, at their tiny faces peaceful in slumber, and made myself a promise. Whatever was coming, whoever was out there planning to take them, they would have to go through me first. And I would burn the whole world down before I let that happen.
CHAPTER 8
The western border of our property was dense with pines. Their branches were heavy with the first real snow of the season. My breath misted in the frigid air as I moved through the trees, Aidon silent at my side. Ahead, Layla's massive wolf form stood motionless, her head low as she examined the ground.
Murtagh prowled to her right in wolf form, his dark fur standing out against the snow. Tseki had remained human because he couldn't maneuver easily through the trees in his massive dragon form. He looked over when he saw us coming.
"Six sets of tracks," Tseki informed us. "They split up here. Three went north toward the house. Three continued west along the property line."
I knelt beside the prints, my hand hovering over the disturbed snow. They were fresh. Maybe two hours old. The tracks were human—or at least humanoid—but the spacing was too far apart. Whatever made these, had been moving fast.
"They were scouting," Aidon said from behind me. I hadn't heard him approach, but his presence washed over me through our bond. "Mapping our defenses. Looking for weak points."
Through our bond, Tarja showed me five different locations where the magical barrier had been prodded, pressed, and analyzed. "They're learning," she said. "Studying the structure of our protections. Looking for a way through."
My chest tightened. "How long until they find a way through?" Before Lyra had proven it was possible, I'd believed no one could reach us in the house.
"Depends on how good they are," Tseki said, scanning the tree line. "The work is solid. But, as you know, every ward has a weakness if you know where to look."
