Page 96 of The Human’s Heart

We both turned back to Grandpa and Theroli when the nymph screamed. It looked like he’d been knocked back, but he ran right up to Grandpa’s shield—again. I thought he was going to run into it, but he managed to stop before he did. He lifted some kind of spelled object or something, poked it against Grandpa’s shield, and to my utter surprise, the shield popped. Like a freaking bubble.

I gasped, and Grandpa yelled, “They have shield-breaking spells!”

“Fuck!” Granddad yelled. “Be careful! Keep them away from the kids! Don’t let any escape!”

My eyes widened, watching in horror as every single one of my family members who were fighting the nymphs had their shields broken. None of them were shielded anymore. Not a single one.

“Holy fuck,” I breathed out. “Keep that sword out.”

“I’ll keep you guys safe,” Kian said. “Don’t worry.”

“Watch out!” Hugo yelled as a woman I’d never seen before ran at us and poked our shield with what looked like a fork. Like, why the hell would someone spell a fork? What the hell.

I shook off my panicked thoughts as our shield popped, and I pushed Hugo behind me.

The nymph woman pulled a large sword that looked like it was made out of sticks off her back and held it up to Kian. At first, I figured he’d chop that stick in half with his steel sword. But when he swung at it and she parried, I was surprised when the sword bounced off. Clearly, the stick was covered in spells.

Shit.

I shouldn’t have worried, though. There was a reason my brother was on a BCA team now. He was a good fighter. A great one, even.

He went for it, swinging his sword left then right, then around, and before I could even blink, her sword was flying through the air. She screamed as he pushed his sword up against her throat.

I was scared for a moment that Kian would push it through her neck and kill her—the last thing Hugo needed was seeing another person killed right in front of him—but Kian surprised me again by pulling magicked handcuffs out of his back pocket and slapping them on her. He pushed her to the ground, off to the side with the other prisoners that Uncle Toby was guarding, and stood ready in front of us, guarding us.

And thank fuck because I didn’t have any weapons. All I had was my magic.

But Hugo had his claws and fangs now. Not that I wanted him jumping into the fray. Nope, definitely not.

There were a lot more nymphs than any of us were prepared for. They just kept coming.

Kian fought off two more, managing to knock one out and handcuff the other. Dad had to throw Kian another pair of handcuffs for that last one.

What the hell was even happening?

Kian was fighting yet another one. Dad was cuffing one he’d just taken down, Pops was fighting three at once, because of course he was, and everyone else was fighting one or two others.

And their damn leader, Theroli, kept running out of the trees, attacking either Grandpa or Granddad, then somehow escaping back into the trees. It was like he was melting into the bark and then somehow moving through the area without being seen, and popping out from a different tree.

Nymph magic? Or was he just really good at hide-and-seek?

“Look out!” Hugo yelled as he pushed me behind him. I hadn’t been paying attention to what was going on right in front of us.

Kian was busy fighting a nymph, and a male nymph had gotten past him. He had a raised sword, and the second Hugo was within reach, he swung down.

Hugo raised his arm up, and I yelled, my black magic shooting out of me faster than ever before.

I managed to get my magic over the top of Hugo’s arm just in time. I felt the blow as if it’d happened to my own body, vibrating through my magic, through my soul. But Hugo’s arm was saved, and my magic was wrapping itself around us both.

My viramore pushed through my magic, hissing loudly as he jumped at the guy.

I was so shocked by his movements that I didn’t try to hold him back.

What the hell was he doing?

The two of them tumbled to the ground, and I felt my heart leap into my throat. Hugo’s claws were out, and he dug them into the man’s wrists until he let go of his weapon.

Hugo used his vampire strength to hold the man down, arms raised above his head, until my dad made it over to us. Dad cuffed the guy and practically dragged him over to the captured nymphs. Uncle Thay had created a giant shield to keep them in, and since they’d been disarmed and their pockets emptied, none of the nymphs could use that shield-breaking spell thingy there. None of the incoming nymphs could even reach their clanmates with Uncle Thay, Uncle Toby, Uncle Bas, and Uncle Hiro guarding it.