Wait. She couldn’t hear what they were saying? From the others’ confused expressions, neither could they.
You hear him, don’t you? Azazel said.
“Yes. Both of them. Don’t you?”
No.
“What?” Helgi asked.
I shook my head. Dammit, how was it that Azazel could speak to me in my mind but couldn’t hear my thoughts like Vesper and Dante could? And now it looked like this creature, whatever it was, was speaking to Vesper, and aside from the dragon lord, I was the only other person who could hear it.
The mechanical wolves surrounding us padded closer, and every muscle in my body tightened with the need to make a break for it. But Vesper’s calm, confident voice held me in place.
“Let them go. Let them go and you can have me. You know my mind is worth all of theirs twice over.”
Even the grand gesture was accompanied by his signature arrogant tone, but my stomach flipped with nausea because what the heck was he doing? He couldn’t seriously mean to give this thing his mind. He was a dragon lord and there was a war going on. He’d thrown that in my face on more than one occasion. It was all he cared about, so why...Wait... There was a plan. He had a plan; of course he did.
The wolf thing raised its head and then took a step back. “You are correct. I do not need them. They may be food for my children.”
“No!” Vesper held up his hands. “Please let them leave. Not for me, but for the god you once were.”
The wolf bared its teeth and closed its eyes briefly. Its snout crinkled, the metal woven into its skin skidding over itself to accommodate the movement of muscles. It was a look of emotional pain. When it opened its eyes, they were bright crimson once again.
“I will let them walk away and my pack will not touch them, but I cannot control all the hungry beasts in this place.”
“I understand.”
“Then I accept your deal. You stay, they go.”
“Go,” Vesper said. “Walk slowly and walk around him. Do it now.”
Bran looked at me, his brows raised in an is-he-serious expression. Okay, they’d heard Vesper this time, which meant he was speaking to us now.
“Don’t say a word. Do not look back.” Vesper’s tone was even. “Keep moving and get out.”
Yeah, this had to be a dragon lord ploy. He was getting us out of the way so he could execute whatever plan he’d dreamed up. Our job was to give him the space to do it. Helgi nodded in my direction. I looked to Bran and his companion to make sure they were ready, and then we began to move, one step at a time, until we were abreast of Vesper. The beast stood still and silent, not even batting an eyelid as we skirted its immense body. No other wolf even twitched. This was happening. Really happening. It was letting us leave. And then the monster was behind us and the road was clear.
“Now run,” Vesper said evenly.
Leaving the dragon lord to save his own skin, we did just that.
We’d covered over half a mile and Vesper hadn’t caught up with us yet. Something was wrong. His plan must have gone wrong. And then an awful thought hit me. What if there’d been no plan? What if arrogant, self-centered Vesper had actually given himself to the monster to save us all? My feet ground to a halt and Gemma whimpered in my arms.
“What is it?” Helgi asked.
“I have to go back for Vesper.”
Helgi grabbed my elbow and propelled me forward. “Like hell you are. We have to get out of here. He told us to leave, to keep moving, and that’s what we’re gonna do.”
She didn’t know what Vesper had agreed to do for us. She hadn’t heard. “And since when do you follow orders?”
“Since we have four kids to keep safe.”
She was right, the kids had to be my priority, but letting Vesper sacrifice himself wasn’t an option. There was only one thing to do—get them to safety and then head back. But Helgi couldn’t know. Not yet. “You’re right. Let’s keep moving.”
Helgi released me. “Good. Saves me having to knock you out and carry you.”
Anya, what are you really thinking? Azazel asked.
There was no way to tell him without alerting the others, but knowing he’d be with me no matter what I decided stopped the panic from flaring. The buildings on either side of us were several stories tall here, wreathed in greenery, and the scent of flora was strong on the air. The ground was moss-covered, barely an inch of cement on show, and our footfalls were silent, leaving only the buzz of power lines to disturb the peace.
“What do you think happened here?” Helgi asked. She adjusted Neddie on her shoulders and dropped back to walk abreast of me.
“I don’t know. Something during the first war, I think.”
“Yeah, that’s what the stories say, but those things...they looked like wolves, but they weren’t. What the fuck happened to them?”
Bran and his companion were silent. Their plan to go back for their friend had been abandoned because there was no doubt now that he was dead. The wolf monsters who’d taken him were famished. They would have torn him to shreds seconds after picking him off. They were mercs, but they were also men, and despite the whole good death thing, there was no doubt they didn’t want to die.
A scuttle disturbed the peace and my pulse leapt. “Keep walking. Don’t look up.”
The others did just that. Shadows fled across the ground to our left. There was something above us, on the rooftops, but as long as it stayed up there, we were good. And then more moving shadows joined them, but this time to our right.
“Anya...” Helgi’s tone held warning.
Yeah. This was not good. If not for the kids we’d have a chance to fight off the threat. But we had four children to protect, and whatever was up on the roofs definitely outnumbered us.
For the first time in my career as a rogue my mind was blank, and fear was a hand around my throat, squeezing with the threat of violence. Gemma’s grip was iron-tight. She’d spotted our stalkers too, no doubt. I couldn’t look up, didn’t want to see. I didn’t want them to know the game was up, because then they’d attack. It was a certainty in my gut. It was the bile in my throat. How would I do it? How could I save my babies?
But our pursuers were done playing. They dropped from the buildings, landing around us on eight metal legs. The power lines buzzed louder, as if excited by the turn of events, and Gemma’s scream battered my eardrums. There was no option but to run.
The mechanical spiders followed. They were made up of a mish-mash of parts, some clunky, some streamlined, but just like the wolves they were also flesh and bone—hairy, sickening spider flesh. Their legs raised their pulsing bodies off the ground and they leapt up at regular intervals to hit the power lines, their mech bodies fizzing with sparks before they fell to the ground again.
A building loomed up ahead, sturdy, ornate, and crawling with ivy, but the door was untouched, as if inviting us in. Weird markings were etched onto the wood, and a sign with the word Library painted onto it in bronze lettering hung above the door. There was something about those symbols, about that door.
It’s warded, Azazel confirmed. You need to get to it now.
“This way!” I changed trajectory, heading straight for the building. A mech-spider leapt into our path and exploded with a boom from Bran’s gun. June leapt over the carcass and climbed the steps, ramming her shoulder into the door to open it. Darkness swallowed her. Stefan ran in next, followed by the mercs, Helgi, and Neddie. I was almost there. And then a weight landed on my back and Gemma was ripped out of my arms. Helgi! Helgi had her, and they were through the door.