Aidon raced to my side, kicking a Thessmark out of the way, and reached for my arm. "This is going to hurt."
"Everything already hurts. Just do it." I sucked in a breath and threw fire at the Thessmark coming at his back.
He pressed a kiss to my lips and pulled. The pop of my shoulder relocating was lost in my scream and the ongoing chaos around us. At least my arm worked again, even if it felt like it was on fire.
"You need to get out of there," Tarja's voice cut through my pain. "She's too powerful with that stolen essence."
That was not happening with her so close to capturing my babies. “We’re not leaving until we end her. You can help me. Or keep your doubt to yourself.”
CHAPTER 20
"Iwouldneverabandon you." Tarja's mental voice rang with affronted dignity that would have made me laugh if we weren't currently fighting for our lives. "Now stop being dramatic and listen. Move to your left and—duck. Now fire."
I didn't think. Didn't question her. I just moved three steps left. It put me exactly where a Thessmark had been standing half a second ago. I dropped into a crouch. My magic practically screamed in protest as I called fire to my palms. The flames that erupted were barely more than sparks compared to my usual inferno. Tarja had positioned me perfectly, and its clawed hand sliced through empty air where my throat should have been. At the same time, my blast caught the creature square in its exposed chest.
My flames hit where the stolen essence pulsed beneath translucent gray skin. It caught fire, shrieked, and stumbled backward into two of its companions.
"There are some coming from the right," Tarja warned. "They’re going for Stella's blind spot."
I spun, throwing another weak burst of fire. It was just enough to make the Thessmark charging my best friend hesitate.Stella capitalized on the opening. Her pink flames engulfed the creature's legs. They went down hard, and Nana's shotgun finished the job.
The boom echoed through the lab, followed by the wet splatter of salt-and-iron shredding through supernatural flesh. "That's six for me," Nana announced cheerfully, pumping the shotgun.
"Not the time!" Stella shouted, ducking under a swipe that would have decapitated her.
Shit.These bastards were like dogs with a bone—vicious, loyal to the end. Even when their master deserved nothing but a blade through the heart. You'd think with Taverner exposed for the sick bitch she was and hints that she would have betrayed them, they'd scatter like roaches when the lights flipped on. Cut their losses and run. But no. We weren’t that lucky. They doubled down, clinging to her like she was some kind of savior instead of the monster who'd twisted them into this.
The hunger in their eyes was different this time. It was sharper, morefocused,as if they'd tasted something that made them crave more. These Thessmark moved like water finding its path. Each one flowed around the room with an awful kind of grace that made them even more lethal. They'd been dancing this deadly waltz for decades. They'd been practicing down here in Taverner's twisted playground just like she had been. They’d been taking the lives of children as often as she had.
The thought sent my fire spiraling outward despite the hollow ache in my core. Through my bond with Tarja, I felt her mind working in ways mine never could. She was able to see all the various threads of magic flying around us. She understood and wove a plan together faster than I could blink. And she was back home in Camden, probably draped across the couch near the nursery where the babies slept.
The fates knew exactly what they were doing when they wove familiars into existence, binding them to witches with threads stronger than blood. Through our bond, Tarja could see what I saw, feel the thunder of my pulse, taste the copper-sharp edge of my fury. And somehow, she remained utterlyunmovedby it all. She catalogued every detail with that cool, calculating mind of hers while I burned through the chaos like wildfire.
It was like she was tucked away in some candlelit sanctuary, serene and still, while I clawed my way through a hurricane. And from that quiet place, she could see what I was too close to notice. She saw the rhythm beneath the violence, and the openings I'd miss if I relied on myself alone.
“Go left. Now. Duck.” Hell. She didn't just point out which way the wind was blowing. She told me exactly how to use it.
“There are two coming through on Aidon's left," she projected. "You can't see them. They’re moving through dimensional magic in three... two... one..."
I threw up a wall of teal fire just as two Thessmark materialized from the ether behind my mate. They slammed into my flames and recoiled with those bone-scraping shrieks that made my teeth ache. Aidon's power lashed out without him even looking. He acted on pure instinct and lethal grace. Shadows wrapped around their bodies like serpents and twisted. Then he turned them inside out with a wet, horrible sound.
Ugh, my stomach rebelled and threatened to send the snack I’d eaten earlier back up. Within seconds, their gray flesh rippled like disturbed water, and they were whole again. That hadn't happened last time. They’d been hard to kill, but that was ridiculous.
"They're learning too damn fast," Aidon growled, his voice rough with exhaustion and something darker. Frustration that had combined with rage. "This is getting old."
"Of course they are," Taverner called out from near the altar, her voice dripping with that saccharine quality that made me want to claw my own ears off. "Did you think I'd send my elite forces against you without preparing them first? Each one has been exposed to witch fire, Underworld shadows, and every variation of binding magic your precious little network has thrown at us. They've built up quite the resistance."
I watched Stella throw a binding spell at the nearest Thessmark. It was the same spell that had dropped three of them in the fight earlier that day. Pink light wrapped around the creature's wrists and ankles like a silken rope. For half a heartbeat, I thought it would hold. Then it slid away like water off waxed canvas.
"Shitty whore," Stella breathed, backpedaling fast.
The Thessmark lunged. Nana's shotgun boomed. My ninety-year-old grandmother had better reflexes than I did. The creature went down in a spray of gray ichor that spattered across the floor. "Like I said before. Salt and iron don't give a damn about your magical adaptation," Nana cackled as she racked another round with practiced ease. "Perks of being old-school."
"How many shells do you have left?" I asked, throwing fire at another Thessmark. The blast singed its skin, but it was like trying to burn stone with a candle flame.
"This is my last magazine," she admitted. For the first time since this fight began, I heard something tight in her voice. Fear, maybe. Or just the cold calculation of someone who knew the odds. "After this, I'm down to hand-to-hand combat and my winning personality."
Shit, she was nearly unbeatable with her weapon, but she was an older woman and not strong physically. She would be overrun in an instant. I couldn’t allow myself to think about how fast we would lose her if that happened.
