“I’m not sure what is going to happen right now,” he said, keeping his voice low. “If it goes down in the way I hope, then everything will be fine, and you won’t have to worry. But if things skew off track, you need to listen to my instructions and follow each one, without question. You will just have to trust me.” He dropped a kiss on my cheek. “I’ve got to go and check on something now, but I’ll find you again.”
I was opening my mouth to ask him what the hell he was talking about, when he disappeared. Like literally, into thin air. Burnt umber coated the inside of my nostrils, the scent filling my senses. He’d used some pretty powerful magic just then.
Pushing down the tendrils of icy fear and worry, I stomped the rest of the way. I was just about at my family when a figure caught my eye. He was tall, casting a shadow as he stood off to the side of the fountain. Despite the fact that there were supernaturals everywhere, he stood in his own space. Melly. He had both arms by his side, fists tightly clenched. He was staring at me through the crowd and his expression was hard. This wasn’t exactly anything new, but in that extended moment the huge shifter reminded me of something … or more importantly someone – the bear who had attacked me inside Vanguard. He’d worn the same expression, and said I was collateral damage in a war I knew nothing about. I’d just assumed that was to do with Jonathon, but what if it hadn’t been, what if there was more to Melly’s hatred of me?
I was distracted from my thoughts by Mischa grabbing my hand and dragging me across to the edge of our group. When I turned my head back to the spot again, the bear shifter was gone. So freaky.
Jonathon leaned in close to me.
“Are we all good?” he asked. I could see by the serious expression and hard blue eyes that he was stressed.
I bit at my lip. “Well, the power is too strong for Louis to lock away again, so he put like a cloaking around me. Hopefully it’s enough.” As long as the dragon didn’t decide to burst free.
Jonathon ran his eyes over me, and then reached out and touched me. “I can’t sense anything unusual about you, but then I don’t have the tracking skills of the Four. I hope Louis knows what he is doing.”
Lienda gripped his forearm tight enough that every knuckle stood out on her hand. “I don’t want to risk it. We need to run.”
Jonathon pulled her closer. “If we run, they will ask questions, and then the Four will come for us and they always find those they hunt. We need to play the game and stay calm.”
I wondered where the Compasses were. Usually they would be front and center during something like this.
“Are they bringing in someone to replace Kristoff?” I asked Dad.
He was staring out over the crowd, trying to keep an eye on what was happening.
“Not until after the trial. He can’t be stripped of his position unless he is found guilty.”
Slimy bastard would probably find a way to get out of this one too.
The noise started to die down around us, and even craning my neck gave me no better view of what was happening. I was tense, my hands clenched into fists, my nails biting into the soft pads. Where were the Compasses? And what had Louis taken off to do. I felt as if I was getting bits and pieces of a story and the ending was going to shock the shit out of me when it came. Silence was descending across the thousands of Stratford residents crammed into the town center. The Four were coming, I could feel their power moving along the wind.
Then they were there, standing atop the lip on the fountain, heads above the crowd. I couldn’t stop the gasp which fell from my lips. Thankfully, I was just one of many who either gasped, screamed, or coughed at their appearance. So no attention was drawn in my direction.
Unlike the Compasses, these quads were identical, from their dark red hair right down to their stormy gray eyes. They were dressed similarly, in black military style clothes and thick shit-kicker boots. They wore identical cold, hard expressions. Could their parents even tell them apart? No wonder they were known as the Four, there seemed to be no individuality about them at all.
And they were mutha-effing-scary.
They stood there and stared out into the crowd, all four sets of eyes scanning us. Silence echoed around the space, minus the thousands of hearts beating and the rapid breathing thing that Mischa seemed to be doing. The girl was about five seconds from hyperventilating.
Number Two opened his mouth. “We are here because there have been reports of dragon marked in Stratford.” The gray eyes continued to bore into the crowd. “If you are harboring these fugitives, you need to stop. Now.” There was a crap-ton of force behind that last order.
Three took over the speech. “The council wants to keep from you the fact that the recent prison breakouts were dragon marked. Every single one was a marked. They are free now to bring about the rise of the king. We cannot let this happen.”