Sin & Surrender (Demigod of San Francisco #6)(24)

She studied me silently. No one contradicted me, which made me ten times more confident. These guys wouldn’t hesitate to tell me if my ideas were terrible. They’d done it often enough in our time together. If they were going along with my play, they thought I was exactly right.

Amber nodded. “Keep your wits about you, always. If you can get away with no deaths, that’s the best outcome. If you have to, kill and run.”

“I know. Kieran reminded me this morning.”

“You have good instincts.” Her gaze was intense. “Use them. Use everything you’ve got. This place takes some getting used to, and Demigod Kieran will have it harder than he realizes in the political arena. He’ll need a win outside of politics. If you shine, it’ll up his status.”

Kieran had told me the exact opposite, but he was motivated by keeping me safe. I was inclined to believe her.

“Okay, we need to dominate. No problem.” I rubbed my hands together for a little friction. My stomach rolled and churned with nervousness.

“We got this, Lexi,” Thane said, stepping up to put a hand on my shoulder. “We pulled a lawless giant off a mountain. We can handle a few measly teams trying to poke us with sticks.”

“Agreed,” Jerry said, and he would know, given he was the giant. The rest murmured their agreement as well, and I felt the group’s expectations rise. Just like when we’d gone to that mountain, we were championing Kieran.

“Fine, then. Here we go.” I passed Amber, taking the lead. The monstrous Summit building mostly blocked out the view of the ocean, but I could just see a corner of white, sandy beach and the sparkling azure beyond it. “Where to first? The halls? The grounds?”

“The grounds,” Bria said, pulling her cart of dead bodies. “Doesn’t matter what Magnus’s doll said. Let’s start small, work out the kinks, and work our way up. The halls are the last place we should go. That’s where the most people die.” The cats bounded out in front of us, each taking a side. Daisy and Mordecai filed in behind me with the rest enclosing them in a protective bubble. They would be my main concern, obviously. I would make it incredibly clear to anyone who attacked us that if they aimed for my kids, they’d walk the line of death.

“Grounds it is. Let’s get our feet wet.” I paused. “Where are the grounds?”

“This way.” Donovan pointed, looking down at the map on his phone. “This place is huge.”

Bria fell back, needing more room for her pallet of dead bodies.

“Don’t get too far back,” Thane said. “We have a bet going to see how long it’ll take Jerry to blow chunks.”

“It’s a disgusting type of magic,” Jerry murmured.

“What are you going to use for ammunition, Jerry?” I asked as Donovan pointed me toward an intersecting path to the left. Another group clad in leather and thick boots walked up ahead, various weapons hanging off them. I made a point of noticing each of their souls. They were too far away for me to sense their magic, something I could do because of my soul connection to Kieran.

“There are decorative rocks all over the gardens,” Jerry answered. “I’ll roll some along with us when we head inside.”

I nodded as the group in front of us noticed our presence.

“The thing about Amber is, she is familiar with a lot of people at this thing,” Donovan muttered, watching them.

“She doesn’t handle things the way we handle things,” Bria said from the back. “She would confuse the situation with her logic and superior strategy.”

“I don’t have logic and superior strategy?” Henry asked, and I couldn’t tell whether he was joking.

“There is nothing superior about you, Henry,” Jerry said, and Donovan spat out laughter.

“Says the guy used to living with a pile of bones,” Henry replied.

Once we made it around the building, a lovely garden scape greeted us, not unlike that of the promenade. Weeping trees dusted the ground beside quaint stone benches. Pockets of carefully tended flowers provided pops of color and fragrance. Purple tulips lined the path and tall sunflowers pointed at the sun.

The team in front of us, twenty strong, drifted to the right, but when we got there, they were gone, having clearly darted into the trees.

Shivers crawled across my skin. No one lingered on the benches or walked along the path. Everyone was playing an adult game of hide-and-seek. When we least expected it, they would emerge and attack.

“I changed my mind.” I stopped dead, not able to will myself forward. “I want to take that out Kieran offered me a long time ago. You know the one—where my kids and I could escape the danger of the magical world and live in peace? Do you think that offer is still valid?”

“Don’t be dramatic.” Daisy patted the dagger at her side.

“Really? I shouldn’t be dramatic?” I scowled at her. She scowled back, and hers had way more attitude.

“What’s our strategy?” Donovan asked, putting his phone away. “Split you and Dylan up, or keep you together?”

“Together,” Dylan said immediately. “Doesn’t matter what Magnus’s team leader told us. We’re stronger together.”

I nodded, watching the trees shiver in the breeze.

“We’re all stronger together.” Mordecai shed his clothes and handed them to Bria. She stuffed them in a bag and tossed it onto the pile of dead. Jerry’s face lost a little more color. “We eat together, we hang out together, we laugh together. We are a pack, and as a pack we excel. The total is greater than the sum of its parts.”