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Judging by the rumbling in his chest, I was safe to show my face again, so I peered up at him. “Was the night productive?”
“Marginally,” Noctus said. “I’d like permission to call your sister to ask for her help—it seems the Paragon’s ideas are unrealistic at best.”
“I beg your pardon?” The Paragon—in the process of fluffing up his mustache—scowled at Noctus’s back.
“Has anyone called Charon?” Noctus asked.
“I’m working on that.” Ker winked as she got her phone out of her pocket.
I leaned into Noctus’s hug, threading my arms around his waist. My senses were still smarting from the ocean of spells that oozed around the Curia Cloisters, but I was able to anchor myself on Noctus, relaxing slightly. (It helped that leaning into him made the warm feeling produced by my collar blossom so it covered my entire body.)
“So, did you decide on anything?” I asked.
Noctus shook his head. “Actually—”
Magic shimmered in the air, followed by a sonic boom—exactly like the one downtown butlouderand seeming to be coming from every direction.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chloe
Icupped my hands over my ears, but the noise only lasted for a few long moments, just as it had downtown.
The Cloisters are under attack!
Anxiety nearly closed my throat as the noise rattled the entire building—I swear I felt the sidewalk buckle beneath our feet. Then, the Cloisters’ defensive spells kicked in—they were so strong they made my teeth ache. The barriers enforced the building’s walls and many windows, holding it together.
I clung to Noctus as I looked back at the front door, afraid to see what would happen. The glass doors shook, but the spells held. The doors didn’t even crack.
Ker, however, collapsed to her knees, her hands slapped to her ears and her entire face twisted with excruciating pain.
No—the building might be okay, but the werewolves aren’t!
“Ker!” I shouted, but she didn’t seem to hear me.
Her ears must be hurting.
I pulled away from Noctus, intending to crouch at Ker’s side, until Aristide slammed his cane into the ground and gritted his teeth, seemingly resisting something.
What—oh, no.
The smell of blood filled the air.
I turned in a horrified circle, spotting blood spatters that dotted the edge of the Cloisters’ property line like a red fence. It looked like the spatters encircled the entire building, and they were neatly arranged with maybe twenty to thirty feet between each patch of blood.
I thought I saw the sparkle of a green gem in the pool of blood closest to us. It was half shoved into the ground, but it looked like when the sound spell went off, the power of the noise blew the grass turf off it.
How could so many artifacts be buried without anyone noticing? Wait—the holes, from the supposed gophers the Cloisters kept fighting! But that started weeks ago. Just how long has this attack been planned?
Despite his clenched teeth, Aristide didn’t seem too affected by the spell. He backed up, positioning himself so he stood back to back with the squadron of elf guards.
But not everyone had his strength. I saw another vampire—a young woman—rush out of the Curia Cloisters, her eyes bright red and lips peeled back, revealing her pronounced fang teeth, as she wildly looked around for the source of the blood.
Noctus pointed to the hungry vampire. “Contain her!”
Oleander was on her in an instant, delivering a kick to her knee that made her fall to the ground, and then planting a foot on her back to keep her pinned against the cement sidewalk.
“The blood spell and noise spell were used,” I said. “But I can still sense magic, and there aren’t any shadow monsters—”
