Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(105)

“I had to …,” I faltered, my face burning.

He wasn’t having any of it. “What the hell do you think you’re doing in here! I tell you you’re not coming in here and so you sneak out?” His eyes turned cold and hard. I had never seen him this angry. It was a struggle not to be terrified. But now was not the time. I swallowed back the tears forming as a storm of indignation brewed within me over his chastising.

“They have Julian, Caden. I saw it. They had him and they wanted you all here so they could kill you.”

“Where?” Amelie’s lips trembled, her head whipping around in every direction.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. No one’s here. Would they have left?”

“Not likely,” Lilly murmured, cool eyes rolling over the atrium.

Caden took Veronique from Wraith’s hands. “Wraith—you idiot. You shouldn’t have brought her here. But you need to get her out. Now. Lilly, Amelie. The rest of you. Go find Julian.” They vanished without a second’s delay.

To Wraith, Max, and his brothers, Caden directed, “Help me get them both out of here and we’ll come back.” We took off, picking our steps around the upturned cobblestone and charred bodies across the atrium, back to the entrance that would lead to the garage.

“Hurry up!” Caden hissed, his brow wrinkled. “This is too easy,” I heard him mutter.

Prickles ran down my vertebrae.

Halfway across the atrium, Caden and Max stopped dead in their tracks, sending Wraith and I swerving to avoid them. “What is it?” My eyes skimmed the thousand barriers someone could hide behind, expecting they had finally spotted someone.

Caden didn’t answer.

We’re spelled! We can’t move! Max yelled. Get out of here, now!

Spelled. That meant only one thing. Witches.

I rushed around to meet Caden’s face, an ice sculpture. Frozen. Veronique still lay cradled in his arms, barely conscious.

“What is wrong?” Wraith asked curiously.

“They’re spelled.” Icy blood coursed through my veins. “Here. Take Veronique and get—”

My words were cut off.

“Clever girl!” The words reverberated through the atrium, followed by a menacing laugh. One I recognized well. “Clever and stupid. Did you think you could waltz in here with that abomination and kidnap our prisoner?”

I pivoted on my heels, madly searching for that wild, white streak of hair. Only destruction and death surrounded me.

“Still haven’t figured it out?” I shook my head dumbly in answer to her taunt.

My breath caught as forms suddenly stepped out of nothingness, as if lifting invisibility cloaks. Dozens of them, their fingers alight and primed for attack. They’d been here all along, watching. Waiting.

Wraith’s long legs scissored forward. “Stop, demon!” Imogen screamed, pinkish-orange fire bolts shooting from her hands to slam into Wraith’s chest. With a mixture of intrigue and horror, I watched as the fired looped around his body, coiling tighter and tighter until it simply disappeared. His body absorbed the fire. When Wraith looked up at Imogen, he did something I believed him incapable of.

He smiled.

Imogen’s face turned ashen for just a second before angry heat flushed her cheeks. With a narrowing determined scowl, she waved a hand to her right, signaling someone. Two hulking thugs emerged from behind a singed bush, dragging a limp, unresponsive male body out from the shadows. The air left my lungs in a rush.

“Julian!” I cried out, lunging forward. Wraith somehow closed the five-foot distance between us, his solid arm shooting up to block me.

“He’s been a wonderful source of information!” Imogen’s eyes burned with delight. “Really. It only took a bit of … coaxing. And to think he just walked in here of his own free will!”

A glimpse at Julian’s raw feet proved exactly how they had coaxed him. I bit back a sob. Julian was always getting hurt trying to help me.

Trying not to look obvious, I searched the gaping window holes of the destroyed atrium. Where were the others? They had to be watching! They’d come, they’d rescue us, they’d—

“Looking for these?” Imogen snapped her fingers. A procession of Sentinels dragged seven Merth-bound bodies with them. Behind them came five wolves in human form, knives held against their throats. “I have to say, finding all this Merth was a pleasant surprise. It has come in quite handy.”

We were trapped.

Touch me, Max demanded. You’ll break her spell like you did with Bishop. Then I’ll gladly tear her throat out.

Genius! He was only about ten steps away. Slowly, I shifted toward him. If I could just…

“Don’t move!” Imogen shrieked, her hand now pointing at me. I froze, under no delusion that I could absorb flames like Wraith. In that second, the Sentinel swooped in, winding Merth around Max and all his brothers.

“Him too,” Imogen commanded with a head thrust toward Caden. “Get her out of his arms, though.” Obeying her orders, a large Asian man yanked Veronique out of Caden’s arms, letting her drop to the broken cobblestone as they immobilized Caden. My heart sank. “There. That’s better. Now we can focus on you.” I struggled not to cower under her gaze. They had thought of everything. Three witches stepped forward, hands stretched out toward me. Looking down at my hand, I would do anything for the Tribe’s deadly power in my touch. Of course, though, the one time I needed it …