“Well, shouldn’t you at least let her know what’s going on? See if she’s had another vision before we go?” The situation was out of Cal’s control, and his rising temper was testament to it.
“She doesn’t know anything more,” Andrew snapped as he snatched the keys for one of the SUVs from the rack and walked out of the house.
“I’m going to tell Candy what’s up,” Jeremy said as he loped up the stairs.
“She’s not coming with us,” Cal yelled after him.
“Yeah, I know, she’ll stay here with Kelly,” Jeremy called back.
The rest of the men scrambled to do as they were ordered.
Cal sighed as he turned to look at Morgan. Her expression still held a look of determination and anger. He walked over to the small table in the hall and picked up a leather case, opening it as he came back to her.
Her gaze fell on the contents and she sucked in a deep breath, her eyes growing wider as she scanned the blade within.
“It’s called a Huntress blade and it’s pure silver.” Cal angled the box so he could touch the hilt. He’d engraved it with symbols, spells, the same that he had used to create the cloak. “Can you feel the magic?” She nodded, her hand raised as if to touch it. “Lazarus won’t be able to detect it.” Cal removed it, along with the leather sheath it was holstered in, and laid the case on the floor. He stood and wrapped the band of the sheath around her waist and buckled it into place. “You don’t need to hide it. No one will be able to see it except for you and me. When he demands that you remove your weapons, you don’t have to worry. He doesn’t know about this one.”
She dropped her gaze to the blade and ran her fingers along the length of it encased in leather. “Thank you,” she breathed, her tone quiet, her anger lost.
“If you hit him with it, right where you trained to hit him, he’ll die immediately and you’ll be free.” Cal took a step toward her, his body almost touching hers. She didn’t flinch or move away as he expected. Instead, she stared up at him, her face tilted toward his. “You will succeed, Morgan. I know that you will. Even without all of our magic precautions.”
“There’s more at stake now. Now that Rach is involved.” A shudder passed through her and she took a step back, crossing her arms. “I can’t pretend that things are going to be okay. I can’t say what’s going to happen tonight. I can’t tell you that you’ll have no reason to kill me.”
Cal flinched at her words, his stomach clenching at the thought of her betraying him. “It won’t happen,” he growled, almost under his breath.
Morgan’s eyes were sorrowful as she shook her head. “You don’t know that, Cal. None of us do. Not even your Oracle.”
Cal took a step toward her, tilting her chin up with one finger so he could look into her eyes. “I know what will happen. You will succeed. You will because it can’t go any other way. I love you, Morgan. I believe in you.”
Morgan heaved out a breath, then pulled her chin away, turned and headed out the door toward the waiting vehicle. He wanted to chase after her, pull her into his arms and cover her in kisses. But she didn’t want that. She didn’t want him.
He grabbed the cloak from where it hung on the stair banister and followed her out, no longer certain of anything.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
True Intentions
The drive was eerily quiet. No radio playing, no chitchatting. Only four large men crammed into a tight space and me squeezed between two of them. Lance to my left and Cal to my right, both men cradling their massive swords in between their knees, with the blade unsheathed and tips embedded in the soft carpet of the floor. The cloak was draped around me, cocooning me from the touch of either of them.
Ken was driving while Andrew sat in the passenger seat, his finger tracing along the lines of a giant map of my town.
“Can one of you tell me what the layout is of this carnival?” Andrew barked as he shifted to look at each of us in turn.
I stared back at him when his gaze settled on me. “The carnival will be gone by now. It only comes twice a year and stays for a week or so. The grounds are barely used for anything else. There’s an old baseball diamond on the south side—an outhouse building where the washrooms are—northwest of the main gates. There’s a concession stand that will be boarded up right next to the washrooms, and then nothing but open gravel field surrounded by forest.
“Oh that’s just great. Forest? Fucking wonderful.” He turned back to his map, mumbling more obscenities to himself.
I clasped my hands on my lap, squeezing them tightly together to keep my rising panic from overwhelming me. Rachel was surely scared. Doug said that they had tracked a small pack of Lazarus’s wolves to my town earlier in the day but didn’t think to call it in because they were moving away from the mansion. It wasn’t until the wolves captured Rachel as she was checking on my house that they realized their mistake.