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Caleb nods once, and Maddy jogs to his side. He leans closer to her and lowers his voice. “You ready?”
She grins, but it’s more like a grimace. “As ready as we can be.”
“Then let’s go.” He climbs up the ridge and is about to break into a run, no longer allowing himself time to think, only for Maddy’s hand to pull him up.
She winks at him. “Let me handle this.”
Caleb frowns. “What do you mean?”
Maddy wraps her arm around him and sprints toward the mansion. In a blink, they arrive at the edge of the porch. An alarm blares over the compound as Cora and the other vampires follow.
A horde of shadow-possessed Fae and other creatures pour out of the front of the mansion, a sea of blank or death-hungry eyes swarming around them.
Maddy charges at them and throws a kick into the middle of the closest possessed. Caleb can’t see the hypnosis spell she works, but her attackers freeze, peering at her adoringly until she punches them in the temple and they fall to the ground. She charges another trio and zips from being to being, moving so quickly Caleb can barely track her.
A twig snaps behind him, and Caleb whirls. He draws a burst of his magical energy and throws himself at a blank-eyed Fae who brandishes a short pitchfork-like weapon. He rips the fork out of the stranger’s hands, leaps onto the attacker’s back, hooks his arm around the man’s throat, and squeezes long enough to incapacitate him. Pointed ears graze Caleb’s forearm as the attacker slips to the ground.
He whirls and throws himself at the next pair. The pendant warms, and the heat spreads through his shirt and against his chest. A small burst of energy explodes from Caleb’s chest and takes out the two. He clamps his teeth tightly closed and sweat forms on his upper lip, keeping a tight rein on the power surging through him.
Hundreds of possessed beings swarm through the clearing, and Alec roars his commands in Fae. One of the warriors takes a black arrow to the chest which dissolves as the point lodges between his ribs.
Kenna runs at the duo. “Follow me!”
Others of the Order rally to her position, and Caleb joins them. He swipes his hand over the neck of the archer who felled the Fae, leaving a mark of blackened flesh behind. The Fae’s eyes bulge, and he chokes on something building in his throat.
Kenna gapes. “What did you do?”
Caleb doesn’t answer because he doesn’t know. Everything in him hates the killing, the ending of lives, but it comes naturally in the midst of battle. How can he explain he doesn’t know the spells he casts, that the power moves through him without his understanding it.
“Can you do it again?” Kenna asks, and then her gaze switches to something over Caleb’s shoulder. She cups her hand around her mouth. “Maddy, duck!”
Caleb whirls. The sun rises over the peaks around the mansion and a burst of wind moves over them. Another attacker levels his weapon at Maddy’s head, but she’s fighting another hulking beast—some kind of half-man, half-Orc creature Caleb’s never seen before.
His heart stops, and he sprints toward her without uttering a sound. He points at the beast behind her, and a stream of white-hot fire bursts from his fingertip and slams into the being’s chest. It throws its head back and lets loose a blood-curdling scream.
Maddy beheads the foe in front of her, takes up the blade it drops, then spins toward the hulk, swinging the blueish knife through its neck. It tumbles to the side as Maddy meets Caleb’s gaze with the tiniest of nods.
Another wave of reinforcements pours from the mansion. And then another.
A movement draws Caleb’s attention toward a window on the second floor, and he glares at Malcolm as he stares down at the carnage in front of the mansion. The twisted bastard is smiling.
Caroline and Quinn launch themselves into the new battle lines. Metal meets metal, and magic pours through the opposing forces. Caleb can’t see it, but he can nearly feel the rush of it all. It’s a thrumming of energy all around, and it’s almost as though he can reach out and touch it.
He grunts as he slams into the next round of warriors. His muscles burn, and the stench of blood practically overwhelms him.
It’s too much. There are too many.
In a flash, he understands that there’s no chance, that hope is lost. Without some overwhelming blow, they won’t win. His throat dries, and his heart pounds, pulsing in his eardrums. The same three words throb in his mind over and over.
To the death…
To the death…
To the death…
And that’s what it’s going to be. A rush of moisture obscures his vision, but he blinks it away. Not for himself, but for her, for Maddy. He wanted the after. How he craves forever with her. His Maddy.
Maddy…
