Sticks and Stones

Chapter Thirty

Warlocks. Everywhere. No way out.

At least he'd die a valiant death, if not an inconvenient one.

He had so many things left to do. So many things left that he still had to say.

He'd never get the chance to give things between Sofia and him a shot. Not when he was dead. How would she even find out? Claudio didn't know about her. He wouldn't be able to let her know. Maybe one of his crew would tell her—probably Luis. Oh fuck. She'd find out in one of Luis' jokes.

Could this get any shittier?

Cas was going to die before he was ready to.

He felt dark magic all around them, so maybe things could get worse. And he had a feeling whatever magic these bastards would use on him couldn't be cured with Sofia's mouth.

Beside him, as he held his own sword out at the ready, Evette held her too-big sword higher.

Hurry up Lorcan.

Cas could do with the numbers right now.

"Stay behind me," Caspian said as the enemy started to edge closer. "For the love of all things holy, stay behind me Evette."

She cracked her neck and squared her shoulders. "I've got this."

Caspian scoffed. She has a death wish. "I mean it Evette. If you die, I die. Believe it or not, I've got a few good centuries in me yet. Gods, this wasn't part of the plan."

He turned away from her, gulping, to face the warlocks. For once in his life, Cas was actually afraid.

He'd never faced a warlock before.

There was nothing he could do. His sword was essentially useless. The warlocks would put him down before he could even get near them with it. Hell, they could turn his sword into ash in his hands.

Thanks to his drawn weapon, the warlocks had him down as the leader.

Great. What am I supposed to say now?

"What do you want here?" He asked, speaking on behalf of all of them.

His 'crew' wouldn't know where to start. God, what he'd give for his real crew right now.

The warlocks said nothing. Not a single one of them attempted to answer his question.

Looks like we're off to a good start.

"You want Evette? Of course you want Evette. She's back in the world and now you're all scared."

God give me strength.

"Are you not going to say anything?" Caspian demanded. "Freaky bastards. That's just like you, isn't it? You turn up to freak the shit out of everyone." He threw his arms out, yelling louder. "Well I've faced worser odds than you creepy fuckers. If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get." At least he'd die trying. An honourable death, even if it was a little premature. "Well come on then! Fight us! You want Evette? You'll have to get through a gang of demons first."

Fires flared in his palms, readying for battle.

I'm a dead man.

The head warlock tilted his head at them, though they couldn't see anything of it.

"Fight us!" He called again.

"Uh, Caspian?" Something in the cadence of Evette's voice had his stomach dropping.

What could possibly be worse than this?

He turned to the direction she stared at. A warlock further down the formation was raising his hand. Something dark was coming from it. A dark fog.