“Whoever posted that lied to you,” Griffin said.
“Uh-uh,” the warlock replied. “The next tweet says, ‘This is not fake.’”
“And you believe everything you read on social media?”
The guy frowned and looked down at his phone for a moment, then shrugged. “We had nothing else going on this morning, so what the hell.” He glanced around again. “Are you saying this is a dead end?”
The thing about Daughters of Light was that warlocks could sense them if they were not using concealment spells to hide themselves. However, Penelope was so young she hadn’t fully come into her magic yet, so it was entirely possible these guys could not yet sense her.
Griffin was banking on that theory. “Yep.”
“Too bad.” The warlock sighed and turned to his cronies. “What do you think, boys? Should we hang out for a day or so, enjoy the local sights?”
One of the guys behind him pointed at Griffin and said, “Gargoyles don’t tend to hang out alone.”
The leader rolled his eyes dramatically. “Good point.”
“Yeah,” another one piped up. “Isn’t Oliver’s brethren based here? Otherwise, we would have surely come here sooner. I’ve heard New Orleans is the place to party.”
The leader’s shoulders drooped. “You’re right. Damn it. Well, let’s—”
“Not so fast.”
Darius stepped through a door Griffin assumed led to the front of the shop, dragging Penelope along with him. He was gripping her upper arm and she was struggling with impressive will.
“Mommy!”
“Daughter of Light,” the lead warlock said, and then he turned around and arched his narrow, manicured brows. “Did she just call you Mommy?” He cocked his head. “Aren’t you a dragon?”
Sofia swallowed and nodded.
“Interesting.” He clapped his hands and flung around to face Darius and Penelope again. “No matter. Hello, Daughter.”
“I’m not your daughter,” Penelope snapped with her little brow furrowed.
The warlock chuckled. “No, you most certainly are not. You are my prey, though.”
“What’s that?” Penelope asked.
“Well, it’s like a wolf and a bunny rabbit. The wolf wants to eat the bunny. I’m the wolf and you’re the bunny.”
Penelope’s eyes went huge in her head, and she moved behind Darius.
“You can have her,” Darius said. “But first, I need you to kill those three dragons.” He pointed at Sofia, Trennon, and Maria.
Maria gasped. “You want them to kill me?”
Darius shrugged.
“Smart plan, son,” Trennon said. “Have an entirely different species kill me so your hands are perceived as clean. And while the colony grieves the death of their former reeve, you swoop in and take over.”
Darius nodded. “Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Although I do plan to have Antoinette and Ketu killed too. Those two have been a major pain in my ass.”
“Why me?” Maria demanded. “I’ve done everything you’ve asked.”
He sneered. “You’re wearing flip-flops, for the gods’ sake.”
“That’s the reason you’re having me killed?”
“No. That just affirms my reason. I’m having you killed because I have no need of you anymore. Plus, based on the shoes, I’m thinking you’ve switched sides.”
“You bastard!” Maria charged. The cluster of warlocks stepped out of the way, allowing her a straight shot at her end goal. Darius’s eyes widened, and then he jerked his hand away from Penelope as if touching her burned his skin.
Penelope darted away, running down an aisle strewn with packing material, while Maria curled her body and slammed her shoulder into Darius’s midsection, sending him hurtling backward until he hit the wall. When he crumpled to the floor, he left behind a Darius-shaped hole in the drywall.
Several of the warlocks snickered while the others clapped. Sofia rushed after Penelope, and Griffin chased after her. At the end of the row, they both stopped and looked every which way.
“Where is she?” Sofia demanded.
Griffin focused on the air, searching for traces of magic. “I think she’s figuring out how to use her magic. But I’m not sure what, exactly, she’s doing.” He glanced up and spotted her, crouching on the very top shelf, only a foot or so away from the high ceiling. She waved, teetered on her perch, and then wrapped her arms around a metal post.
Sofia glanced up, gasped. “Gods above, what is she doing up there?”
“I think she magicked herself up there.”
“Well, how do we get her back down here?”
“We either go up after her or wait for her to figure out how to get herself down.” He took in his surroundings. “This space is too small to shift in. We’d totally draw their attention. So we need her to do it on her own.” He heard a sound behind him. “Or better yet, let her stay up there for a while.” He turned around.
“What? Are you crazy? She could—” Sofia turned around too and abruptly stopped talking. Three warlocks were walking toward them with menacing looks on their faces.
“Here’s the thing about warlocks,” Griffin said as he eyed the enemy and shifted his stance so that he stood slightly in front of Sofia. “They’re really hard to kill. Like damn near impossible. Delilah could probably do some damage, but what we really need right now is a Daughter of Light who has actually come into her magic.”
“That’s not particularly reassuring,” Sofia said, “since there isn’t one handy at the moment.”
“Yeah, the only other one I’m aware of is Argyle’s daughter, and last I heard, she and Argyle are in Asia. Which means the only option we have is to fight our way out and get Penelope to the City of the Dead. There are so many charms and curses around it that they won’t be able to enter. She’ll be safe there until we can call in
