The Lost Souls (The Holy Trinity #2.5)(20)

“And I’ll come with you.”

Hockey released her shoulder. He should have seen that coming. Mira wasn’t only headstrong and stubborn, she was also insubordinate as all hell. “No,” he said slowly. “It’s too dangerous.” Forget the fact that couldn’t use his magic in front of her; even if he could, he didn’t have enough energy to shield them both from the storm.

“And it’s not too dangerous for you?” she demanded. “Do you have superpowers that I’m not aware of?”

Well…yeah, he did.

“No way,” he said firmly. “I’m not risking both our lives out there.”

Mira’s eyes flared wide and Hockey readied himself for some verbal whiplash of the female variety.

“Tyler!” she yelled. “Tyler!”

Hockey closed his eyes. He had to hand it to her; Mira was a smart girl who fought dirty. Sighing, he got to his feet just as Tyler reached their corner of the room. “What’s up?” he asked, looking from Hockey to Mira. She pointed an accusatory finger in Hockey’s direction.

“He’s going out there and he won’t take me with him.”

God damn her, Hockey thought. God damn…women.

“Man,” Tyler said, squatting down beside him. “It isn’t safe out there.”

Hockey turned just a fraction of an inch and met Tyler’s gaze. “It isn’t safe in here either.”

“Mira,” Tyler said, keeping his eyes on Hockey. “Give us a minute, will you?”

In typical Mira fashion, she made a noisy show of getting to her feet, sighing loudly, and muttering as she stomped off across the room.

“You need to take her,” Tyler insisted, his expression grave. “She’ll be safer facing the elements than she would be here with…”

Tyler trailed off, but Hockey knew what the man was about to say. Mira would be safer battling through the snowstorm than trapped inside a warehouse with two men who couldn’t be trusted.

“What about Rachael?” Hockey asked.

“I can protect her,” Tyler replied, his tone oozing confidence that Hockey couldn’t mirror.

David was physically strong but emotionally unraveling. Glancing across the large room, Hockey found the man was leaning back against a wall, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes on Rachael. The feeling of foreboding Hockey felt every time he looked at the guy intensified. If Chris and David teamed up against Tyler, Hockey wasn’t positive the man would prevail.

All of which meant Tyler was right. Hockey couldn’t leave Mira behind knowing what he knew, but neither did he want to leave Tyler or Rachel at the mercy of two men who were proving to be highly unstable. On the other hand, he couldn’t take everyone. Rachael, especially. It would be hard enough wading through the raging storm outside, dodging Skins and searching for food. Having to listen to Rachael complain, or worse, crumple under pressure, which was something she was good at, would only lengthen their time outdoors or worse, result in all of their deaths.

Sighing in resignation, Hockey nodded in agreement. But he was far from happy about any of this.

Now he was going to have to come clean about his magic, at least with Mira, and hope to God she didn’t have a nervous breakdown because of it.

Tyler rose to his full height and Hockey followed suit.

“If you run into trouble out there,” Tyler said, “don’t worry about us, okay? Just protect yourselves.”

Half an hour later, Tyler and Hockey were moving aside the stacks of shipping crates and tearing down slats of wood they’d used to barricade the door. Hockey took quick peek into the hallway, his ears straining for any sort of noise that wasn’t related to the weather, and decided it was safe enough.

Reentering the room, he glanced at each face of his small group of companions. Tyler looked resolute and Rachel appeared worried. Chris looked ambivalent, and David? David just looked insane.

He didn’t like this. So many things could go wrong. But what choice did he have?

Turning away from the group, Hockey tossed Mira the other end of the rope he’d triple-wrapped and tightly knotted around his waist. He waited until she did the same, and then he double-checked her knot. After adding another layer of coats, gloves, ski masks, and scarves, they shouldered their empty bags and looked at each other.

“Ready?” she whispered, looking far more determined that he felt.

Instead of answering her, Hockey turned to Tyler. “Board this up immediately after we leave,” he said, pointing at the door. “I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.”

“Be safe,” Tyler said, already bending down to pick up a slat of wood.

From his place behind Tyler, Chris snorted. “They’ll be dead before sunset,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

Rolling his own eyes, Hockey headed out into the hallway first, followed closely by Mira. They stopped and turned, watching as Tyler shut the door behind them.

“You sure?” he asked Mira.

She nodded. “Are you sure?”

Ignoring her question, he brought his hand to his mouth and using his teeth, he pulled off his glove. “I have to show you something,” he said, watching her closely. “And I need you to remain calm.”

Mira smirked. “If you’re about to show me the weird white fire that comes from your hands, don’t bother. I already know.”