Brock’s drenched wolf heaved, gasping for air as his wolves whined around us.
‘Thanks,’ he huffed through my mind.
Rage like I’d never experienced before consumed me. The sirens had killed my gran, and now they’d tried to take out my baby daddy.
Those bitches were going to die.
Standing, I sidestepped the hovering vertical wall of water and gripped my katana tighter.
‘Evie, you look scary as hell. What’s your plan?’ Cass was on his hoverboard, staring at me and throwing the occasional golden ball of magic into the fight.
‘No plan,’ I said, before charging at the sirens, katana raised.
I was fast and Calista didn’t notice me until I drew close. Close enough to cut the bitch. Turning toward me, her eyes widened as she took in the threat. She raised an arm over her head to protect her face as I swung my blade down onto it, sinking my katana into her forearm with a wet thwack.
Yes!
“You bitch!” she hissed, reeling away from me.
I was about to deal another blow when she thrust her arms out, throwing an orb of pearl-colored magic straight at me.
Panic ripped through me.
Would my protective bubble shield hold? Could my katana block her attack? What the fuck was it?
Before it could collide into me, I thrust out my right palm and pushed every bit of magic I had at her—kitsune and witch magic swirling together in my defense. With a grunt, I shot purple lightning from my hand. It struck her pearl magic, making it vanish in a flash of purple light.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked.
“Later,” Tianna groaned. Calista’s sister had the fae-witch backed up against a tree, pushing her forearm against her throat, choking her. I started to go to her aid, but Cass was already zooming over on his hoverboard with a wild look on his face. His black eyes were narrowed menacingly and his mouth was pressed into grim lines. He was going to flatten the siren for threatening his woman. Golden magic crackled between his palms as he steered his hoverboard over to Tianna.
‘You get that bitch, I’ll take care of this one,’ my bestie said, his voice rough with anger.
‘You got it,’ I said to him, then met Calista’s shocked gaze. She wouldn’t know what my purple lightning magic was any more than I knew what her magic orb was. My guess was that she didn’t know anything about my true nature or what I was capable of.
“It’s over,” I said to her, flicking a quick glance to the wall of water behind me that she’d moved to prevent the others from joining us. Every time Brock, his wolves, Reo, or Haru attempted to circle the liquid shield, it circled with them, cutting them off in all directions as if the water had a mind of its own.
Abruptly, Calista whipped her head around in the direction of the gate. I wasn’t sure what had drawn her attention. Maybe it was the soft sound of cascading water, difficult to hear over all the tumult. Whatever it was that had alerted her, I lunged, sword forward, aiming to distract her before she could spot the water pouring into the crack in the gate.
But she was prepared.
A second wall of water rose up and slammed into my face with so much force that my head felt like it would burst from the pressure. Water entered my nose and mouth before the sheet of water fell away.
I coughed and choked, working to clear my nostrils.
What the fuck happened to my shield?
“I found it, sister!” Calista shrieked, calling out to her sibling, and my heart sank as she took off running for the gate.
Fuck!
With a ferocious battle cry, Reo and Haru charged through the wall of water that had been holding them back and I sucked in a deep breath of panic. What if the water drowned them as it’d tried to do with Brock? But my warrior protectors burst through, swords drawn, no harm done beyond being soaking wet.
The wall of water crashed as they emerged on the other side of it. I suspected Calista had been the one maintaining it, and with her now distracted by the fucking gate, my warriors managed to break the magical hold she had on it.
My warriors stormed after Calista. I took off running after her too, hoping to cut her damn head off—when something yanked on the back of my dress, causing me to lose my balance and fall backward.
A streak of gray darted in front of me, rushing toward the sirens and the gate.
Brock.
Motherfucking possessive stalker baby daddy.
Calista was in the middle of turning to defend herself against Reo and Haru’s attack, cradling her injured arm against her chest, when Brock lunged at her, jumping onto her back and clamping enormous wolf jaws around her shoulder.
Yes!
Regaining my balance, I stood just as Haru sliced through the air in front of Calista—and that’s when the bomb went off. Well, not literally a bomb, but it sure as shit felt like one. Brock was on Calista’s back and the next second he was flying off of her, twisting through the air. Haru and Reo went flying too.
Water sprayed in all directions, making it difficult to see or make sense of much of anything. It was like a cyclone had hit us. By the time the mist cleared, I was just able to make out a sea green streak of hair following the flow of the cascading water … into the gate. A second flash of green hair as her sister streaked into the gate right after her. Both sirens dove feet first into the funnel of water draining downward, vanishing.
My stomach dropped.
Calista and her sister were in the underworld.
Fuckity fuck fuck.
I charged forward, holding my katana ahead of me, aiming straight for the gate.
Cass zoomed in front of me, halting me. “Whoa, whoa! Ev, baby. What are you doing?”
“I’ve got to kill them! If the triplets get together again and bring the underworld army to Earth—”
“Evie. You’ll be eviscerated if you go through the gate.” Cass cut me off. “Only demons can pass into the underworld. Your body won’t be able to sustain existence there.”
Dread pooled in my stomach and radiated outward into my limbs.
Tianna appeared over my shoulder. “I’ve cut off Calista’s connection to the ocean, so that should stop the tsunami. She won’t be able to access the power of the ocean again until she returns topside.”
At least there was that. The water that had flooded Brock’s land was already draining … into the damn gate.
“What now, then?” I asked my bestie and his lover as Reo, Haru, and the wolves gathered around us.
A firm, possessive hand on my shoulder announced Brock’s human presence behind me. “Now we wait and prepare for war,” he said in a gruff, fierce voice.
Fuck. So much for nesting and having lots of sex.
We had a fucking war to win.