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“I’d say the shadowkin have had enough of a head start,” claimed Archer.
Teague nodded his agreement. “Let’s go have our fun.”
Unease bolted through Larkin as Teague abruptly withdrew from their telepathic conversation. He hadn’t sounded anxious or hurt; hadn’t said anything that should concern her. But there’d been an undercurrent of something in his voice. A sense of battle-readiness that surely shouldn’t have been there.
Apprehension pricked at her nape, making the fine hairs there stand on end. Her inner demon slithered close beneath her skin, not liking this situation at all; not liking that his clan event might in fact be something dangerous.
She turned to Tanner, who was directing members of their Force to take away the demon they’d detained. “I have to go.” He didn’t need her—the matter was now resolved.
He frowned. “What? Where?”
“To see Teague,” she fudged, forcing herself to seem casual, not wanting to involve him. “Holler if you need me.”
Calling on her ability to switch forms, Larkin planted her feet. Smoke bloomed around her as everything that was her—clothes and all—seemed to whirl and melt before reforming and, in doing so, taking the shape of a harpy eagle.
Larkin gave her avian body a quick shake, fully settling into her alternate form, and then took to the sky. The cool air washed over her as she sliced through it like a bullet.
She wasn’t far from Teague’s territory. At the speed she could fly, it would take her mere minutes to arrive. Although she’d never been there, she knew exactly where to find it.
An aerial satellite view of the clan’s territory would reveal nothing—it seemed like an untouched stretch of land. But that was a mere glamor trick. And if you knew to look for glamor, knew how to spot it, it wasn’t so difficult to pick up the signs.
Larkin winged through the sky, skimming over treetops, her stomach churning with nervousness. It was very possible that she was overreacting. Possible that maybe two of his clan members had gotten into an argument and he’d simply broke off his conversation with her to handle it. But her gut believed differently, and she wasn’t about to ignore it.
It occurred to her that, whatever the case, he might not be so pleased she’d ventured to his territory to check things out; that he’d consider the situation a ‘clan matter’ and believe she had no right to involve herself. He wouldn’t be wrong. She was an outsider, after all. But she was also his girlfriend—which yeah, okay, he wasn’t yet aware of. That was beside the point, though.
The fact of the matter was that if he was fronting danger, she intended to have his back. Simple. He’d just have to live with it.
When she arrived at his territory, a slight buzzing sensation vibrated along her feathers as she passed through the repellent bubble of glamor. That was when, as if the bubble kept noise contained, ominous sounds reached her. Sounds of battle.
With an inward curse, she flapped her wings harder and upped her pace. She glided through the trees toward a clearing, able to make out with her eagle-enhanced eyesight—what the hell?—four shadowkin in the near distance quickly hightailing it out of there. The entire clan stood around, but none moved to pursue. They smirked.
“About damn time. Gotta say, I’m gonna enjoy this,” said one of the clan.
Uh, what now?
Her gut reared up and insisted she not reveal her presence just yet. Subtly landing on a thick tree branch not too far away from the clearing, she took in the scene up ahead of her. Took in the pack of bloodhounds, the large ravens, the wounded but happy hellhorses.
“Let’s give them a five-minute head start,” said another.
Head start?
A whistle from a stripping Teague had the dogs darting to his side. Dogs he sent after the shadowkin. Her head twitched in surprise when he did the same with the ravens. It was bizarre and unnatural . . . and . . . and . . . Oh, fuck.
Larkin’s feathers puffed up as realization hit her. Like a sledgehammer. Hard, fast, heavy. Every piece of the puzzle that was Teague slotted firmly into place as it all became clear. And it mentally knocked her sideways.
Her inner demon blinked rapidly, struggling to process it. Very few things took the entity off-guard. But this? Yeah, this rocked it.
“I’d say the shadowkin have had enough time,” proclaimed one of the clan.
Teague nodded slightly. “Let’s go have some fun.”
Almost as one, the seven men shifted in clouds of smoke and ash.
The hellhorses swished their tails and scraped the ground with their hooves. And then they were galloping away.
Larkin took to the sky again, staying high overhead where she wouldn’t be seen. She watched as the hellhorses split into four groups and dispersed. Two groups followed the sounds of baying hounds while the others tracked the squawking of the ravens.
