Page 50 of The Rebel Guardian

That was when Evan threw a knife her way. I hadn’t even known she’d had it on her, but it sailed past me and was about to sink itself into my bestie’s chest when her eyes opened and a hardness hit her gaze. She brought her arm up and the knife stopped in midair.

If that had been the only thing that knife had done we would have been okay. Nope. It stopped and turned, the pointy end coming back our way.

“You should move, Hunter. I’m going to gut the princess and then maybe she’ll learn how to play nicely,” Liv growled. I didn’t know Liv could growl.

The knife started for us, and I decided to take Liv’s excellent advice. I moved. I turned, letting my every instinct flow, and wrapped an arm around Evan’s waist, pulling her with me. I couldn’t do what I wanted to which was tackle her. Being on the ground would leave us vulnerable, and I rather thought Liv was done playing around. I needed to get us out of here and fast. It was obvious she’d done something to make it so Eddie couldn’t transport—whether that was an actual spell to keep him underground or so much chaos he was trying to fix it. It didn’t matter. Getting the princess out safely was my job now.

“There are wards on the tunnels, right?” I whispered the question to Evan even as I felt the slight pulse in the air around me. I knew that feeling, though it was stronger than it had been before. It was Liv about to work some magic. The air around her slightly crackled, like the tiniest bit of static electricity hitting my skin. I usually had to be closer to her to sense the beginning of her spells, but now I was yards away and I felt it.

Losing that piece of her soul had gained her a whole lot of power.

“Yes, but I’m not leaving you,” Evan replied.

So much for her being easier to deal with than Lee. I turned around, not willing to give Liv too much time behind my back. “Liv, you do not want to hurt the King of all Vampire’s only daughter.”

I didn’t mention Evan was the only one for now. That side didn’t need to know about all the pregnant chicks on our side, and that included me.

“Oh, but I do. That little bitch has taken out some of our best spell casters. There’s a nice bounty on her head.” Liv’s body moved back and forth as though she was gathering something between her outstretched hands. Likely the energy she would need to send a magical bomb my way.

I wanted Gladys. Even though she couldn’t cast a spell, she could often lead me in the way I needed to go. She could push or pull me this way or that, or when she was primed, she could draw on the energy and power she’d stored up over her long existence.

I didn’t even have Evan’s knife. The kid was better prepared than I was, and I was supposed to be the Nex Apparatus.

I was used to dealing with wolves and demons and things that tried to gut me. Liv wouldn’t do damage with her claws and fangs. She would come at me with something completely different.

Her hands moved back and then forward, and I felt a rush of wind come my way.

I jumped again, hauling Evan with me, but fire burned against my side as I caught the edge of that spell.

Agony pierced through me. Agony along with a deep sense of dread.

I wasn’t good enough.

I couldn’t do this.

I would be the reason everything fell, and I would prove myself to be as weak as I’d always suspected.

I knew this spell. I’d felt it before. It was the same type of spell that had been used to pull my she-wolf off my soul. She wasn’t trying that with this particular spell. It took way more time, and she’d have to knock me out to separate my she-wolf and I, but she could send doubt into me. She could shake my walls and set me off balance.

But my wolf was still there, and she wanted to fucking roar. When she felt doubt, she liked to take a chunk out of whoever caused it.

I ignored the pain in my side. I could literally smell my flesh burning where the spell had touched me. If that fucker had gotten Evan, it could have burned a hole through her and she would have died in agony and doubt.

That was not acceptable.

I started for my bestie.

Liv’s expression turned fierce, and she started to whisper as her hands came up again.

Evan reached for my hand. “No, Kelsey. She’s deadly. What about the baby?”

There was a gasp and then another fireball whizzed past, but this one didn’t even come close.

Liv had pulled her shot.

She stood there, her eyes wide as she looked at me.

And then she was gone, popping away as quickly as she’d come.

Evan’s eyes were filled with tears as she looked my way. “Oh, Kelsey, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t want you to run her way. She’s killed before. I’ve watched her. I couldn’t…”

She couldn’t be standing there when the love of her life’s mother and brother died. She was a warrior but she was still seventeen years old, and she’d just gotten her parents back. I took a long breath and squeezed her hand. “It’s okay.”

But Liv knew, and that meant Myrddin would know that I was having that long-awaited child. The Hell plane had always been interested in a child from a Hunter and a royal demon dark prophet.

I had an even bigger target on my back than I’d had before.

Evan and I were safe for now, but I had to wonder if our situation wasn’t even worse.

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