AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Vincent entering from the south,” Abigail radioed.
If Adam hadn’t been so focused on that fist, if he’d shifted his gaze a split second sooner, he would have missed it. Atlas clasped her shoulder, and a shimmer of green sluiced over her, the outward signs of her distress disappearing.
Masked.
Whose side was the fucking warlock on?
“Three plainclothes trailing Vincent,” Robin relayed. “The one in a jacket is human and wearing a shoulder harness. The other two are shifters. I can see an outline of a weapon beneath the one’s black shirt. I’m guessing the other is armed too.”
A strike was definitely out. Too much firepower and too many people. “Extraction only,” Adam confirmed to the teams. They would have to wait and rely on Nate to help deliver Vincent.
If Mary didn’t kill him first. Scowling, she snatched back the hand Vincent had made a show of kissing the back of.
“C team, can you hear?” Adam asked.
“Pleasantries with a side of snark,” Jenn replied. “She’s feistier than her brother.”
Adam smiled, brief and fleeting because Jenn soon relayed Vincent’s true purpose. It was enough to turn Adam’s stomach. Vincent had heard from associates about Mary’s hacking prowess, and he wanted to hire her to hack the location of one of the most powerful local covens. Ever since the Rift, covens stayed on the move, no one covenstead for this very reason.
Beside Adam, Cormac stiffened, his eyes flashing violet. Over the comm, Abigail growled. “More power he can suck.”
“And yet,” Jenn said, “he doesn’t realize the ultimate power is right in front of him.”
But Atlas hadn’t told him either. Because Atlas didn’t know? Or because Atlas was a double agent?
But that wasn’t all Vincent wanted. He wanted her to dig further into Adam, into Deborah and David, because word had gotten back about last night’s attack, about the power he’d flexed. Vincent was finally starting to put the pieces together, which meant their timeline had been accelerated, again.
Mary protested, Vincent threatened, Atlas cajoled, and eventually an agreement—if it could be called that—was reached. Adam suspected it was similar to how they’d muscled Icarus into their employ. Regardless, with the deal made, Vincent departed the way he came, and Atlas, arm back over Mary’s shoulder, turned her not west but east, toward the entrance where Adam and Cormac hid. The warlock’s eyes flicked up as if he knew exactly where they were perched.
“What the fuck is that asshole up to?” Adam muttered.
“It could be a trap,” Robin warned. “Lure us out for his own purpose.”
“He could call Vincent back,” Cormac said. “Turn you over himself.”
“He would have done that already,” Adam said. “And she won’t let that happen.” He was confident of that much. But if Atlas didn’t know what she was, other than someone who was important to Icarus, Adam didn’t want to expose her more. “Let’s spring our trap first,” he said. “We’ve got him outnumbered. Converge behind our location.”
Cormac shifted between one breath and took flight the next, and the flock of ravens that had congregated around them the past hour flitted off the roof, falling into formation behind him. Eyes in the sky while the rest of the pack on human feet drew closer. Adam sensed them on either side of the building as he descended the stairs, then stepped out the back door into the small bricked-over courtyard between buildings. They fanned out on either side of him, and the handful of humans in the courtyard scattered, instincts keyed in enough to know better. By the time Atlas and Mary stepped through the opening between the buildings, they were surrounded. And yet neither of them veered off course or missed a step, Atlas leading her to stand directly in front of Adam.
“I believe this”—he nudged Mary forward—“belongs to a mutual acquaintance of ours.”
“Why?” Adam asked.
“Because,” Mary said, as she sauntered to Adam’s side, all her previous nerves gone, her swagger so reminiscent of Icarus’s that Adam almost laughed. “I threatened to flood the internet with pictures of him on a leash.”
Robin snickered. “I’d like to see those.”
And then a seemingly peaceful exchange went up in smoke. Atlas summoned an orb, and Robin shifted and collided with his chest, making the orb fly off course and barely miss the dive-bombing ravens. Cormac screeched as he sailed low enough to ruffle Adam’s hair, forcing him to spin. He spied Mary in a crouch, her glowing green hand an inch from the ground. Adam shot out his own hand—power channeled into it, no idea if it would be enough—and wrapped his fingers around her wrist. “No! We can’t. Not yet.”
She stared up at him, eyes wide, and then a slow, satisfied smile stretched across her face. “He said you were different, but he has no idea you’re one of mine, does he?”
One of hers?
“Adam!” Abigail shouted behind him, and he whipped back around. She was the only shifter still in human form, the rest of the pack having shifted to defend Robin and help him pin Atlas to the ground. Robin stood over his chest, snarling in his face.
“You promised Icarus a punch,” Adam reminded his brother-in-law. “And you do not get to kill him until I kill Vincent.”
Robin gnashed his teeth, and Atlas snarled right back at him. “Now who’s on a leash, dog?”
