With a nod, he looped an arm around her shoulders and traced to Val Hall.
Into chaos.
Jo clapped her hands over her ears against the deafening sounds. Constant thunder boomed so loud she could feel the percussion in her belly. With piercing shrieks, the wraiths swirled like a furious red tornado. Their skeletal faces looked enraged, their jaws hanging low around their screams.
Nïx had invited Jo and Rune; the Valkyries’ guards were prepared for an attack.
Eyes watchful, Rune yelled to Jo, “Is he here?”
She barely heard him. She had to yell back, “Here!” She’d already caught Thad’s scent coming from the manor.
Rune waved at her. Ladies first, he mouthed. Let’s see what you’ve got.
She nodded, starting to ghost. “Get ready to trace inside!” As she fixed her gaze on her target, her body levitated, her feet floating above the ground.
All she had to do was nudge the wraiths away for a split second. She raised her hands. Power leapt from her mind to her palms like Tesla coils.
The force kept building until it was too strong, about to blow up in her face. She needed an emergency brake! Her eyes darted. She was losing it, couldn’t contain that power any longer!
With a scream, she hurled it at the wraiths.
Contact!
Their circle shifted. She and Rune traced at once—
The next thing she saw was a cloudless sky above a silent field. They’d caught her and thrown her?
Across the field, Rune shot to his feet, shook his head hard, then traced to her. “Are you all right?”
She took his offered hand, standing. “How’d they touch me? I was ghosting.”
Rune inspected his bow. “They’re dead warriors. You’re half spirit.”
“Well, I crapped out. It’s up to you,” she said, puzzled by how disappointed he appeared. Surely he hadn’t been laying odds on her success. “Batter up, Rune.”
Back at Val Hall, the wraiths’ shrieks were even louder. The red funnel bulged outward, like an inflamed wound.
Rune nocked seven arrows, all black. One-and-done. He drew the string to his strong chin, and his archer’s gaze grew lethally focused. This male was her mate. He’d overcome so much—to become a hero.
My God, he’s magnificent.
He exhaled. Body frozen like a statue, he released the string.
The arrows were a detonation. IMPACT. Shockwaves fanned out. Smoke billowed.
She was about to trace for the manor, but he grabbed her arm, shaking his head.
The shockwaves faded, revealing an inner ring of wraiths. The scattered beings in the outer ring congealed again, their low moans joining the other shrieks. Had those freaks arranged for cannon fodder?
She thought Rune muttered, “Failure.”
The wraiths were immovable. Thad remained trapped. She rocked on her feet when she caught her brother’s scent again. He smelled of . . . fear.
Rune clasped her shoulder. “Josephine, your heart’s racing.”
“Thad’s afraid.” She was desperate to reach him, to protect him. “I’m ready to hear about your plan B now.”
Without another word, Rune teleported her to a location amid a rustling stand of woods. The air was cooler here, the winds even more blustery. It took her a few moments to register what towered before her.
The largest tree she’d ever seen.
Boisterous laughter and music sounded from within the hollowed trunk. Floors were carved into the wood, lit with lanterns. Rooms occupied the gigantic limbs. Between enormous roots was an arched entryway. “Where are we?”
He released her and slung his bow over his chest. “The Dryads’ covey.”
“As in tree nymphs? Naturally the solution to our problem involves the nymphs.” Jo wrapped her arms around herself, wondering why he was being so standoffish. “Not even surprised anymore.”
“There’s one here named Meliai. She’s supposed to know of a way inside Val Hall. I suspect she owns a lock of Valkyrie hair.”
“The key! Let’s go talk to her.”
He gazed to Jo’s right as he said, “She won’t talk for free.”
“Okay. Then we’ll pay her. I’ve got cash and can get more like nobody’s business.” Fort Knox, anyone?
Finally he met her eyes. “This one has no interest in money.”
FIFTY-EIGHT
Josephine asked slowly, “Then what is she interested in?”
In their time together, Rune had never seen her afraid for herself. Fear for Thad had made her breaths shallow, her lovely face gone even paler.
Rune had failed his mate the day after he’d claimed her. I got used to winning. But the game wasn’t over yet. She wanted her brother back. Rune could turn his failure into triumph. Storm Nïx’s lair in the process? All the better.
With one measly lay. “Meliai won’t talk unless I fuck her. And well.”
Josephine’s vivid eyes dimmed. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“It’s a status thing,” he said. “I’ve been with everyone who lives here, everyone but Meliai.”
“How many?”
He exhaled. “I don’t think you want to know.”
“Because of my jealousy issues, you mean?” She started toward the tree. “I can get that bitch to talk.”
He grabbed her arm. “Ah-ah. You do not threaten a nymph. If you commit violence on a covey’s grounds, you’ll be shunned by every single one of their species.”
“So?”
“They are everywhere, and they are necessary. They can make life very easy, or nightmarishly difficult.”
“When you offered me your ‘open relationship’—to stray but then meet up after—you were talking about nights like this?”
“It was going to happen eventually, Josephine. I told you I broker in information, and I use sex to get it. This is part of my job. I can’t retire from it right at the Accession.” He curled his finger under her chin. “Better to get this out of the way, so you know what to expect.” So you don’t get your hopes up.
“You would choose your job over your mate?”
He dropped his hand. “I am choosing to remain myself. My mate should try to understand why that matters to me!”
“This is your plan B? The one you had in place before you screwed me last night?”
“Yes, I’ve known I might need to transact with Meliai,” he said, his ire at the ready.
Josephine’s was just as much so. “I made it clear if you had sex with me, it was as good as saying we were exclusive. Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you did the deed!”
“Did I ever agree to those terms?”
She blinked repeatedly, as if she’d been slapped. “Wow. I am as naïve as you accused. You schooled me, didn’t you?”
“I tried to back out, for just this reason. You manipulated me into it.”
“Maybe I did—the first round. But not the next twenty!” A gust of wind blew her hair over her pale face. She tossed it back. “What are you going to do about your poison? Your demon seal’s gone.”
He shoved up the sleeve of his shirt.
Her eyes widened at the contraceptive rune. “You really were planning on this.”
“I prepared for any eventuality.”
“Meliai better not claw your skin like I did last night.”
“Nymphs don’t have claws.”
In a disgusted tone, Josephine said, “And you would know.”
“The sooner I get done here, the sooner we can free Thad.” Rune hadn’t been able to save his own mother, but he could save his new brother. “Do you want him back or not?”
She looked stricken. “Of course I do.”
“I intend to protect both of you, and right now, we’re wasting time—more of it than you think. Each minute here equals several in the mortal world.”
Her lips parted wordlessly. Then she rallied to say, “I don’t want Thad to be in that house of horrors a second longer than he needs to be, but there’s got to be another way.”