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Fortunately, they appeared content to stand guard rather than attack.
Not every Radiant Seal blocked vision and sound. That type of barrier required much greater strength and energy to maintain, and they hadn’t bothered using it since they were no longer interested in stealth. No sounds of distress echoed from the parlor, but that wasn’t surprising, since I knew Kayleigh would have magically soundproofed it to ensure discretion while meeting with the Spellbinders Guild. The potentially traitorous guild, unless these were members of a splinter group. I couldn’t afford to jump to conclusions either way.
Shea tilted his head with a raised brow, wisely deferring to my judgment in the magical arena. “It will take me atleast10 minutes to blast through that barrier. And only half of them are actively casting right now, leaving the other half easily able to contend with us.”
“We could take them,” he said with bared teeth.
“Of course we could,” I replied with a feral smile in return. “But I’d be half-exhausted after blasting my way past that shield, and it would be much too late to save Kayleigh and Maddox. Besides, I know a secret entrance none ofthemwill know about.”
“Clever, clever. Lead the way, Blondie.”
Pleasure at his compliment battled with annoyance at his ridiculous nickname, but we had bigger fish to fry. I nodded in the direction we needed to go. He placed his body between mine and the rest of the hallway, keeping my body close to the wall as we ran. Our enhanced vision allowed us to dart along the corridor, make the three turns down alternate hallways to the kitchen, and duck into the butler’s pantry tucked into a quiet corner. We encountered no one, either friend or foe, as we went. Something for which I was personally grateful. I had a feeling I was going to need all my energy for the fight ahead.
After slipping into the butler’s pantry, I felt for the secret lever concealed at the back of a china cabinet. Shea let out a low whistle when the cabinet smoothly slid out and to the side, revealing a narrow tunnel behind. A true secret passageway.
Before we could take advantage of the tunnel, however, Shea suddenly stiffened and growled softly. Just as he had deferred to my superior magical knowledge, I knew his wolf senses were stronger than my own. He turned toward the kitchen doorway, and I prepared a defensive spell, fearing that some of the assassins must have followed us after all.
I let out a relieved breath when Shea sniffed the air and relaxed his body. And then some inexplicable instinct hadmybody relaxing because I justknewwhose scent Shea had recognized. Finn and Connor.
They burst into the empty kitchen on silent but swift feet, giving relieved nods when they spied Shea and me waiting in the entrance of the butler’s pantry. Obviously relieved to find us both unharmed. Given the intense relief still sweeping through my body, I felt the same way about them. Much more than I should have for Maddox’s cousins with whom I’d had a single, barely memorable (ha!) one-night stand and exchanged only sexually-charged and extremely sarcastic banter (and angry glares in Finn’s case) in the months since. And man, did that fact annoy the hell out of me.
But there was a time and place for everything. And right now was the time to kick ass and take names—just not theirs.
Shea murmured a quick summary of the situation and where we were headed, and his brothers nodded, gazes moving to meet mine.
“The girls?” I couldn’t help asking.
“Safe,” they replied in unison.
I blew out another relieved breath and nodded toward the secret passageway. “It’s magically soundproofed so we shouldn’t have to worry about anyone hearing us approach, but better safe than sorry.”
All three men nodded and Shea took point before I could move, undoubtedly nursing some delusions of being chivalrous, something confirmed when his brothers insisted I go next so they could bring up the rear. I merely rolled my eyes and smirked at the thought Shea wouldn’t get too far without me.
Once Finn and Connor stepped inside after me, I pressed a second lever that sent the cabinet sliding shut behind. Emergency lighting fueled by magic rather than electricity made it easy to see without channeling our inner wolves. The color coding woven into the spell also allowed me to lead the two younger brothers to the nearby intersection where Shea waited—but not out of the goodness of his wolfie heart. A massive steel security door blocked our way forward.
I couldn’t resist shooting him a smug expression before placing my palm against the screen next to the doorway and murmuring my personal clearance code. The door swung open and Shea stepped through without prompting. I took a moment to catch my bearings and then began navigating the twisty passages radiating through Donnelly Manor like a spider’s web. The magical soundproofing held steady, and we walked in an eerie silence broken only by our footsteps on the hardwood floor.
With each step, I drew in as much Radiant energy as I could reach, knowing that every drop of magic gathered now could mean the difference between life and death in the fight ahead.
After what felt like an eternity but couldn’t have been more than a minute, I rounded the final turn separating us from our destination. The three Shadow Wolves tailing memuchtoo closely for my own comfort drew up short when I made astopgesture.
I took a steadying breath, placing my hands on the lever behind the bookcase that concealed the entrance into the parlor across from the ballroom, and crafted a disposable shield that would protect the four of us from any initial blasts without requiring too much effort to maintain.
“Here we go,” I murmured in warning, and then I yanked that lever.
The milliseconds the bookcase took to slide soundlessly open seemed to pass in slow motion. I prayed that we weren’t too late. The thought of losing my baby sister, no matter the differences between us, seemed unbearable.
Once the bookcase opened enough for me to see into the room, hope sent my pulse racing. Carnage had ransacked the parlor where a completely mundane meeting between Shadow Shifters and Spellbinders was supposed to have occurred. Broken furniture and shattered knickknacks littered the floor as far as the eye could see; not to mention the bodies of several dead shifters and even more Spellbinders. My breath sucked in when I saw Kayleigh, Maddox, and two of their most trusted Pack guardians, Belinda and Logan, crammed into the far corner of the room behind a barrier much like the one blocking the other side of the parlor’s main door.
Any relief I might have felt was lessened by the dozen Spellbinders channeling Radiant energy to do what I’d decidednotto do with that other barrier—blast through Kayleigh’s protective shield using brute force. And in the minutes since the power went out, including the time Shea and I had made our madcap dash from the ballroom and through the secret tunnel, the assassins had broken through three-fourths of the shield.
Meaning my sister’s remaining time on earth could be measured in minutes.
Kayleigh staggered as our enemies destroyed another sliver of the shield, letting out a choked cry but refusing to show any other signs of weakness. When her desperate eyes met mine after she noticed us slipping out of the secret passageway, however, I knew just how close to breaking she really was.
Not that I could blame her. Even strengthened as she was by her bond with Maddox and through him the entire St. Louis Pack, she faced two dozen Spellbinders. The fact she’d killed half their number before casting a shield capable of holding off the others this long impressed the hell out of me. I’d always been the magically stronger sibling when we were growing up. But even a powerful Beacon had their limits…
Good thing the cavalry had arrived in the nick of time, then.
