“You fought your way back to me,” he replied, just as quietly; but his smile was like an ember, catching fire to all the cold inside my chest. “That’s all I care about.”
And then he finally kissed me.
It was like a first kiss, tentative, gentle, searching. I could remember who we used to be, could follow the trail of all the nights we’d spend talking, walking on the beach, driving around. I could follow them like fireflies, like shooting stars, like sparks.
Everything melted away for one brief, beautiful moment. The kiss seared through me as he slanted his mouth over mine. Our tongues met, our fingers tangled, our bodies touched. I could have kept kissing him for hours, if we’d had the time.
We parted reluctantly and kept walking through the snow silent and smiling.
The others were silhouettes all around us, but I could still hear them. I caught the occasional glint of light off a metal zipper, the rasp of a stake being passed anxiously from hand to hand. “So you’ve changed your mind about Solange?” Lucy was asking the girl with the red hair.
“No way.” She snorted. “I’ll do this for the League and for you and Hunter because you’re sisters-at-arms, but she’s a vampire.”
“She’s a girl.”
“Who drinks blood.”
“Please,” Lucy scoffed. “I’ve seen you eat marzipan. On purpose. That stuff’s just gross.” She paused. I could hear her smirking. “So did Tyson ask you out?”
“Tell you what,” Jenna shot back. “If I don’t die horribly tonight, I’ll worry about my love life. It can wait.”
“Take it from me,” Lucy said drily. “If you’re waiting for all this drama to be over before making your move, you’ll be waiting forever.”
And then the nervous chatter, the sidelong glances, the checking of weapons all fell away.
There wasn’t room for anything but what we were about to do.
Chapter 36
Lucy
It was one thing to train in the gym, to practice kickboxing and archery, to read about wars and tactical strategy and listen to Helena threaten to pull organs out of various people’s noses.
It was quite another thing to walk right into a war.
Objectively speaking, we knew the vampires at the Blood Moon were inside the circle, with a ring of Hope’s followers around them, and the rest of us on the outside ring. On paper, this would have looked great—if the vampires in the center were armed. Because even super speed and strength could only go so far against stakes and arrows. And Hope wasn’t about to give them that chance anyway. She was waiting for sunrise when they’d be at their weakest.
So we’d take away their element of surprise.
Jenna was already climbing up a soot-covered chain ladder to get a better vantage point. She didn’t have just one hand crossbow, she had three. Chloe followed behind her but Hunter stayed on the ground with Quinn since she was better at hand-to-hand. Kieran went off with Solange and the rest of the Black Lodge dispersed around the perimeter. Nicholas was right at my side, or I was at his, it hardly mattered. Where one of us went, the other followed.
We hadn’t even reached the Chandramaa yet, we were still technically on the outskirts of the official camp. And we still had no idea if or when the Hel-Blar would be released. And if they would make things better or considerably worse.
I already felt like I was moving in slow motion but everything around me was sped up. Even the brightness of the snow looked different. The reality of a sound attack wasn’t just about the logic behind the plan, it was also the thrum of my blood in my veins, my heart stuttering, my mouth going dry.
Hunter looked perfectly calm but when Spencer came up beside her, she nearly staked him. He ducked even as Quinn grabbed her elbow to stop her follow-through.
“You have got to stop sneaking up on me,” she grumbled at him.
“Sorry,” he said. “My unit’s pretty small but I set up a few spells to compensate. And no, before you ask, no one will smell like cheese.” He gave her a friendly nudge with his shoulder. Neither of them were quite used to his vampire strength yet so Quinn had to catch her when she nearly plowed into him. “Don’t die,” Spencer ordered. “One of us is enough.”
“I’ll take care of her,” Quinn promised.
“And I’ll stake you both right now if you two don’t cut it out,” Hunter added drily.
In the trees above us, Jenna shot arrows into the camp, the shafts wrapped with notes addressed to Helena Drake and Liam Drake. I shot a few more from my position. We hoped at least one of the arrows made it through the compromised Chandramaa ranks.
Which officially made this our last chance to talk our way out of this.
“Are you sure about this?” Quinn bent his head to whisper in Hunter’s ear. She leaned into him briefly but her answer didn’t change.
“I have to try.” When he tried to follow her, fierce and charming as only a Drake brother could be, she stopped him. “I have to do this alone.”
“It’s not safe.”
“Nowhere’s safe anymore,” she reminded him. “But they won’t listen to me if my vampire boyfriend is standing next to me. They’re seriously old school.” A muscle in his jaw leaped. “Jenna’s got me covered from up there.” She kissed him quickly, despite her earlier contention that she couldn’t be seen standing with him right now, never mind kissing him. When she moved away he pulled her sharply back, lengthening the kiss until it looked as though it could have easily burned through all of our fears.