I wasn’t a praying man, but with the way the Kelpies were shrieking outside, I now prayed that my hunch was right. Skidding to a stop in front of the archives, I flipped the latch on the door and flung it open, only to find a hysterical Quilliam battering against the door with his wee head.
“What’s happened?” Faelan joined us and automatically reached out her hands to catch Quilliam and bring him close. She was clearly alarmed as she bent her head to listen to whatever he was saying in her mind.
“Agnes has gone to break the curse.” Faelan sucked in a breath and my mind went blank.
Bloody hell.
I ran.
I didn’t think. Didn’t plan. Didn’t wait for the others to form a strategy or grab weapons or do any of the sensible things that sensible people did in situations like this. I just ran.
The castle was waking up around me now, the pandemonium spreading like fire. I heard shouts behind me, doors slamming, footsteps pounding on stone.
“Graham! Wait!”
I couldn’t turn to see who was calling my name.
My entire focus narrowed to one singular need—reaching Agnes in time before something bad happened.
I’d murder her myself if she got herself hurt.
The front doors of the castle were massive, ancient oak bound with iron, and I hit them at full speed. Theycrashed open, the cold night air hitting me like a wall of ice.
The loch spread before me, black and still under the moonlight. The Kelpies had gone quiet, which was somehow worse than the screaming. The silence felt like held breath. Energy crackled in the air. It was palpable—like the moment before lightning strikes.
“Bloody hell, mate, just wait.” Lachlan panted, coming to my side. “We need Sophie. She can help hold them off.”
“I’m sorry.” I glanced over my shoulder and dodged out of his reach. Munroe had come to his side, and the two flanked me.
“Mate.”
“No,” I said and ducked again as they both reached for me. I realized they were going to try and stop me from rescuing Agnes, under some misguided notion that I was the one who needed protecting here.
Sod it.
There was nothing that would stop me from going to her now.
Without a second thought, I sprinted across the gardens and toward the drive which ran down the side of the hill from the castle and toward Loren Brae. As I turned the corner, and the loch spread before me in deeper clarity, I saw a lone figure standing in a pool of light from a lamppost.
A shriek split the night.
“That’s it. I’m going to kill her myself,” I said.
I ran faster, my bare feet tearing against wet grass and sharp stones, my lungs already burning. Movement joined me, people and familiars flanking me andkeeping pace. I suspected they realized that trying to hold me back was futile at this point. Clyde bellowed, appearing next to me, running so fast his shaggy mane blew backward.
Gnorman and Gnora, the two garden gnomes, somehow, impossibly, held on to his horns with all their might.
“Formation delta!” Gnorman screamed, holding on to one horn with one hand and a battle-ax with the other. “Eugene! Edith! Rally the troops!”
Out of nowhere, hundreds of hedgehogs streamed across the grass. I nearly tripped over one but kept running. Brice zipped ahead, keeping the hedgies in formation, and his wide eyes glinted in the moonlight. The dogs followed, and a fox streaked ahead of me, while a squirrel kept pace next to me. Overhead, a crow cawed, and several answered.
The familiars were going to battle.
I’d always found them to be a bit wild, and though I’d learned about the familiars and their magickal powers, each of them supporting the Order of Caledonia in their own way, seeing them come out en masse was mind-blowing. Even Calvin the cat raced through the hedgies, clearly ready to claw someone’s eyes out if needed.
I supposed, if I had to roll deep to fight off a Kelpie and save my woman, I’d do so with a menagerie of magickal animals, a ghost coo, and a few magickal creatures that defied explanation.
“Graham, wait!” Lachlan shouted, somewhere behind me. “We need a plan?—”
