I was relieved when Geraldine called out to demand a break for us and led us back to the dining hall, through to the room at the back of it which had been reserved just for us. There were comfortable chairs and a silencing bubble in place to give us some semblance of peace and Tory groaned in relief as she moved towards a chair sat by a raging fire which looked like a real slice of heaven.
Geraldine patted me on the head fondly then turned and trotted back out of the room gasping something about a royal snack being required urgently.
Orion was having a tense looking discussion with Gabriel and as Tory slumped into her chair, I moved to join them. Orion’s arm slid smoothly around me and I stole a moment of relief in his hold, resting my head against his shoulder and closing my eyes, not even hearing what he was talking about with my brother as my pulse seemed to drum too slowly in my ears.
The longer my eyes stayed closed, the more exhausted I felt, and as I tugged on my magic, intending to cast a wakeful spell to give me a boost, what came in its place was a wave of burning hot rage. I was angry at this war, at fucking Lionel and the threat that hung over us all, which put every single person I loved in danger.
“The Heirs are gone, they left a couple of hours ago,” Gabriel’s voice cut through the fog of my thoughts.
“Gone?” Tory gasped, sitting upright with her eyes widening. “What do you mean gone?”
“Their families are in danger,” Gabriel explained. “Darius went with them to help.”
“In danger how? When will they be back? Why didn’t they come get us?” Tory demanded in a panic.
“I am fairly sure they will return,” Gabriel said.
“Fairly sure? That’s not good enough,” Tory snapped. “Is that like the way you were fairly sure taking Darius to bargain with the stars was a good idea last Christmas?”
My eyes shot open and I lunged at Gabriel with a snarl, shoving his chest with flames in my hands and he cursed as he stumbled back.
I gasped as I realised what I’d done and Orion pulled me away from him.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” I said in horror as Gabriel healed the burns on his chest, his shirt smoking where I’d singed right through it.
Gabriel frowned at me and I realised Tory was looking at me in surprise too, making shame burn along my neck as her anger with Gabriel fell away in favour of concern for me.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated.
“What’s wrong, Blue?” Orion turned me to him, looking at me with worry instead of the anger I should have seen there.
Gabriel stepped closer to me, cupping my cheek as he looked into my eyes and I felt like he was looking directly into my soul as he hunted for something within my gaze.
“What is it?” Tory demanded of him, but Gabriel shook his head, a frown crossing his features.
“I can’t see…” he murmured though the frown on his face meant that wasn’t at all reassuring.
A boom sounded that resounded through the entire Burrows, the tremor rocking the ground at my feet and a chill washing over me that froze me to my bones.
“What was that?” Tory gasped, but the answer came in the form of shouts going up all around the tunnels.
“The wards are down!”
“The boundary has fallen!”
“Prepare yourselves!”
Then screams, pitchy, blood-curdling screams.
The sound was coming from somewhere above us in the tunnels and panic washed through me like jet fuel catching fire.
“Go!” I cried, racing for the door and my family fell in around me as we ran out into the dining hall.
“It’s the Nymphs – they’re in the tunnels,” someone burst into the hall and started working to seal the exit with his earth magic.
“Stop – you’ll seal us all in.” An older woman near to him pulled at his arm.
I could see that chaos was about to unfold and as more screams carried through the tunnels – closer this time – I knew we couldn’t stop the tide of monsters that was coming. But we could get the vulnerable away from the fight and intercept our enemies head on ourselves.
“Dante!” I shouted as I saw him, running to his side as the Oscura Wolf pack drew tight around him.
“Get the children and elderly out of here. We need to make a new tunnel,” I said quickly.
“I can do that,” Rosalie said as she took to his side.
“I’ll stay with them and protect the kids,” Leon said fiercely, fire igniting in his palms.
“Tunnel out the back wall.” Tory pointed and they ran off to get started, a bunch of earth Elementals hurrying over to help.