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I took her by the shoulders and turned her to face me. “You are going to stay in this room if I have to go out there. You can watch the monitors.”

It seemed like she was weighing her options, trying to decide if she would comply or not. She didn’t realize I could ward the door shut. “I want to say what if I could help you, but I’d be pretty useless if one of them dug a hole in the ground.”

My lips pressed together—but at the same time, she’d given me an idea. “Are you still going to bring that up a hundred years from now?”

Brittney grinned. “Probably.”

“Fate help me,” I muttered. I clicked the computer mouse a couple of times, adjusting the angle on one screen.

“What are they doing? They’re trying to break through, aren't they?” She reached over the desk and tapped the monitor. “They’re doing magic.”

The three men who had reached my property had their hands lifted in the air, their eyes unfocused. One gritted his teeth, putting everything he had into attempting to force his way through.

My home shook with such a light tremble that I doubt Brittney would have felt it. “They are trying.”

She glanced at the monitors again, and I looked back to see more groups of three leaving the cover of the woods. When I checked the screens to my right, similar demons were moving towards the city’s exit gates.

“Jesus, they really want that diamond back,” Brittney muttered. “Why did you even take it?”

The question was valid, and I’d known it was coming, eventually. That didn’t mean I wanted to tell her how I took advantage of someone else’s trauma and seized an unexpected opportunity. I’d known there were diamonds in that house, and I’d hoped to procure one for myself.

I wasn’t one to turn down an opportunity when presented, and that evening had handed me one on a golden platter. Just because I had a woman in my life now, that did not mean I was going to change how I operated.

But I didn’t have to tell her everything; not if it had the potential to hurt her. Anything but that.

“They have magical properties, not all of which I’ve been able to identify. The most significant thing I’ve discovered so far is the ability to transition between Realms that should be closed off to me.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, that makes sense. I don’t think the Fae like anybody but themselves.”

The house shook a little harder that time, and she placed her palm down on the table. “That was them,” I informed her.

I’d seated myself at the desk but stood back up. “Are you going out there?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

“But you think you’ll need to?” Brittney asked.

Her question went unanswered when the next shudder almost took down the entire display of LCD screens.

CHAPTER 27

Brittney

Kiam held the metal frame steady while I watched the whole thing wobble. Something fell to the floor in the distance with a clatter, before it rolled away.

Once he moved out of the way, I glanced at the monitors again and sucked in a breath. All the demons we’d been watching had converged on the property; their sharp silhouettes framed against a darkening sky with the thin orange mist I remembered from the city hovering overhead. Their arms were raised, and a couple of them had their mouths stretched open as if they were yelling, but their jaws weren’t moving.

A shiver ran down my spine at the wrongness of it all. It was so unnatural that it felt surreal. But I was all too aware of how very real this was. After all, I had Fae that wanted to drain my blood.

Kiam glanced at me, gave me a quick kiss, and left, the door slamming shut behind him.

There was no point in trying but I couldn’t help myself. Sure enough, I was locked inside the computer room just as I suspected. The door wouldn’t give at all. I wanted to be angry with him, but realistically, what could I even do against all these demons?

I wasn’t a trained fighter, and I didn’t go to the gym. Hiking through the woods was the extent of my exercise plan, and even then, I was constantly stopping to dig around in the dirt. My cardio endurance was in the toilet.

Pacing back and forth, I kept peeking at the screens. There had to be at least thirty men out there. Several of them turned their heads to the side like they felt or heard him approaching. If there was sound with these monitors, it was off so I couldn’t hear a thing. Clicking the mouse around the displays made no difference. In fact, everything was so silent I could hear my blood rushing in my ears.

After I shoved the chair out of the way, I stood facing the center of the display, trying to watch everything that was happening. Kiam was only one man against a small army, and I had no idea how he would walk away unscathed.