“I was just thinking,” I said, lacing our wet fingers together. “This was actually a first for me, too.”
“Bringing your emotional desires into physical manifestation with an undefinable otherworldly entity alongside an interdimensional yet largely symbolic ocean in a minuscule subdimension of a vast, unknowable realm through which all souls must pass upon the expiration of their earthly vessels in order to free themselves from the limiting psycho-spiritual binds that prevent them from reaching their eternal resting place?”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. “Actually, I was just gonna say ‘spending the day at the beach with a hot guy.’”
“Well, I suppose that works too.” Liam laughed, pressing another electrifying kiss to my palm. “Come on, Breaker of Rules, Violator of the Natural Order, and all-around Maker of Trouble. You and I have a gateway to find.”
“Okay, fine,” I said, letting him lead me along the shore toward whatever the realm had in store for me next. “But as soon as we get back home, we’re getting bubbles.”
“What are these ‘bubbles’ you speak of?” he teased, but before I could answer, I watched the smile fall from his face, replaced instead with a look of sheer horror.
“Look out!” He shoved me backward so hard I fell back on the sand. Half a heartbeat later, a bolt of lightning shot from the sky and slammed into the earth where I’d just been standing, lighting up the beach like a nuclear bomb.
“Liam!” I shouted, reaching for him. But by the time I got to my feet, Liam was gone.
And I was standing at the base of a mountain in wet clothes and flip-flops in the middle of a blizzard.
Twenty
Asher
“If you bitches don’t shut the fuck up right now,” a voice boomed from down the hall, barely audible over the sound of McKenna’s wailing, “I swear to God Almighty, I’ll—”
Sadly, God Almighty would never know what he’d do, because as soon as Reverend Dickface rounded the corner, I bashed his pious head into the wall.
Dragging his body over to the box, I pried open his eyelid and shoved his face in front of the scanner. The reader beeped green, then displayed his name: Derrick Benson. The electronic lock on the bars snicked, the hum of fae magic dissipating immediately.
“Good eye, Benson. Thanks for looking out.” Dropping the dead weight, I grabbed the bars and tugged. They slid open easily. “Haley, McKenna, help me figure out who can walk and who needs help. We need to get back to—”
Bensons’ comm device beeped. I fished it out of his pants pocket and hit the answer button.
“Benson,” I grunted.
“Look alive, Benson,” the guy on the other end said.
Yeah, hate to disappoint you, but…
“We’ve got a situation on A-block,” he continued. “Apparently Jon’s vampire bitch set a bunch of these fuckers free. We caught her, but we’ve gotta lock it down up here while we round up the rest of ‘em.”
Damn it, Fiona.
“That all?” I barked. I needed to know whether they’d found the burnt corpses of Shears and Smokey Joe. Whether anyone had heard about my escape.
“Pretty much. Still no sign of Jon, but you know that motherfucker. Probably in a dark alley shooting himself up with shifter blood. Anyway, just sit tight down there till you hear back. Keep those bitches quiet.”
“Will do,” I said.
I clicked off the call, wondering how much time we had before—
The unmistakable sound of half-a-dozen pairs of boots tromping down the corridor answered that question.
Six guards, rapidly picking up the pace, all of them yammering into their comms. I caught a mention of Shears, then something about the demon getting out of his playpen.
Guess that would be me.
Quickly, I checked the stash I’d taken from Shears and Smokey Joy—the keycards, baton, lighter, stun guns, knives, flashlight, and a comm device—trying to calculate my odds. I could probably take all six of the guards, but definitely not all at once, and not fast enough to prevent them calling for backup. They had weapons, too, and who knew what else.
I couldn’t risk the witches getting fucked up in the chaos.
