Distorted Affliction

Chapter Thirty Four

The first thing that crossed my mind was the fact that neither Vanessa nor myself had felt the barrier being infringed upon. That thought was quickly followed by the realization that Kettelie and the Priestesses must have lied, though I wanted desperately to believe that they must have been wrong about us feeling the magic. Unfortunately, it was the third discernment that was the most startling.

We hadn't known how long it would take Lazarus to get here, though we had been prepared early on the off chance that our initial estimate was wrong. If his Mouri were already swarming the property, as they seemed to be, then he had known where we were even before Demidicus had tipped him off. I didn't want to give voice to the thoughts in my mind, but it seemed someone needed to.

"Kettelie must have told him first," I breathed, preparing myself alongside Vanessa for the trailer to be breached next. "Which means he knows our plan."

"August?" Vanessa asked, looking to me for answers I couldn't give her.  "What do we do now? Lazarus will never come in here if he knows we're waiting to trap him."

"Vanessa is right," Sinclair said through clenched teeth. "Demidicus and I need to go out there. Our best bet is to fight off as many of them as we can, to lessen the numbers when they do reach the trailer."

"We'll have to assume the Priestesses are compromised," Demidicus added, though I had already assumed as much. "I hope you ladies have a good backup plan. I can't make any guarantees how long it will be until my brother tries to burn this trailer to the ground."

I knew that wasn't a likely scenario, since Lazarus still needed me to find Silas. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be long until he discovered that he didn't need to find Silas to do what he needed to do. I was grateful that we had kept our discoveries to ourselves and gotten my son to safety before the Priestesses had gained more information to share with the enemy.

My heart was racing, but I pulled Sin to me, pressing my lips against his quickly before stepping back. We shared a look, a quick passing of strength between each other, and I nodded, letting him know that whatever happened, we wouldn't go down without a fight. This wasn't just about ending Lazarus, but returning to our son in one piece.

"Don't I get a good luck kiss?" Demidicus joked, though it was clear by the look on his face that he would storm into battle either way. While he had made it very obvious that he was worried about me, there didn't seem like much Demidicus wouldn't do for Sin as well. I had no choice but to admire that about him, his dedication, his loyalty to the people he cared about.

"You get one, but you have a promise to keep," I reminded him, allowing him to scoop me up in his embrace. Demidicus kissed me with a deep passion, and when he pulled back, there was a fire in his eyes that told me he wouldn't hold back, even against his own brother.

"A promise I intend to keep."

Without another word, the Mouri were gone in a heartbeat, shadows in the darkness of night as we were left to pull ourselves together and make a plan. I couldn't help but imagine the two as warriors, storming off to slay their enemies, side by side as the universe intended. 

"What now?" Vanessa squeaked. I could tell she was doing her best to hold herself together, but we had never really faced down a threat like this. Our coven had come across the occasional Mouri, looking to make a midnight snack out of unsuspecting witches. Those usually didn't require a lot of magic to subdue, and the majority of our tactic with Lazarus thus far had included running away. This time, we were trapped, and in our own snare it seemed.

My mind was racing, and I pulled in a couple of deep breathes to steady myself. When I reached out for the magic, I felt the spirits respond, letting me know that they were ready when I was.