“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.
A spider thing leapt at them and bounced off an invisible barrier, flying backward in an arc over my head. Relief washed over me. Azazel had been right, the monsters couldn’t get in. And then something scraped across my scales, reminding me of my predicament. It was on me. One of the fuckers was on me, and shit it weighed a ton. There was no leverage, no way to buck it off. My pack? Where was my pack? There it was, a brown lump a meter in front of me. The book was inside. Sorry, Dad. So sorry.
“Anya!”
I raised my head to see Helgi framed in the doorway, a screaming Gemma clutched to her chest. Gemma’s eyes, my baby’s eyes, were wide with fear and wet with tears, forcing me to acknowledge the inevitable. She couldn’t see this. She couldn’t watch me die. Helgi must have thought the same because she shoved Gemma into the darkness behind her and stepped out of the building. But she was unarmed. No crossbow, no blades. Those had been claimed by the
