His honor blade? “Are you sure?”
“It’s all I have to give her. Now, go!” Riley threw open the shed and disappeared inside. A second later, the motorcycle roared to life, and Riley peeled out—without a helmet, without any help, to fight a fire and try to save children he couldn’t carry out of the house.
Jax took only a second to wallow in fear for Melinda and her kids, and then he pelted across the yard to warn Evangeline.
29
EVANGELINE HAD SPENT her entire day poring over the local geography books and taking notes. Trains, she concluded, were not a good idea. She’d have to find one that was stopped and taking on passengers at midnight on Wednesday for her to get on during the eighth day—and unless it was stopped somewhere else at the same time the following week, she’d probably end up stuck aboard it.
A stolen car would be better—except she didn’t know how to drive, and even Jax would guess what she was planning if she asked him for a driver’s manual.
Then she remembered. She wasn’t talking to Jax anymore.
She paused and glanced at the living-room window that faced the neighboring house. If she ran away from here, Riley Pendragon would probably come looking for her. How worried should I be? Her spell-casting talent gave her a wide range of magical options for eluding him and defending herself, while his voice of command would work only if he caught her.
She didn’t know where she wanted to go, or how to begin looking for Addie and Elliot. She only knew she needed to get out of this house before she went mad.
The dam is broken, she thought. And there’s no stopping the water now.
An explosion rattled all the windows of the house. For a brief second, she wondered if she’d inadvertently cast a spell while thinking about dams bursting. Then she jumped to her feet and threw open the living-room curtains. There—emanating from somewhere near the center of town—an unnatural redness lit the sky.
Evangeline whipped around and ran into the hall. She opened the front door in time to see Riley take off on his motorcycle, while Jax sprinted up the front steps of her house. She waved him inside, and his face showed relief that she wasn’t going to insist he leave her alone now. “What’s happening?”
“House fire,” Jax gasped. “But I think it’s a distraction, to get Riley out of the way. It was one of his vassals—and her kids are in danger. He had to go—”
“Of course he did,” she said. A vassal came first.
“He said to give you this and for me to get you out of here.” Jax thrust a leather sheath into her hands, the belt still attached.
Her heart thudded when she realized she was holding Riley’s honor blade. Things must be serious for him to send her this. “All right, let’s go.”
“I know it’s close to midnight,” Jax said, “but my friend Billy’s house is on the next block. You’ll be safe there.”
They made it as far as the sidewalk when Evangeline saw the vehicles converging on them from two different directions, driving with their lights off. Jax spotted them too. He grabbed her hand, yanked her around the corner of the house, and stopped dead. Dark shapes swarmed over the fence behind the houses.
“Back in the house,” Evangeline said. “It’s protected.”
“Protected how?” But he let her pull him up the front steps. The vehicles screeched to a stop outside the house. Evangeline slammed the door shut and darted into the hallway next to the stairs, where she could see the front and back doors simultaneously. Jax pressed himself against the wall beside her.
The back door was the first one they tried. Evangeline heard the roar of pain as someone burned his hand on the doorknob. The windows proved a similar barrier. Dark shapes appeared outside the glass frames, one by one, then backed off.
“What’s doing that?” Jax asked.
“My spell,” she said. “No harm shall enter that way.” Nevertheless, her heart pounded. The intruders couldn’t come in, but they could force her out.
They knew it too. The assault on windows and doors stopped, but through the front door sidelight, Evangeline saw someone walk up the steps. She heard the ominous sound of a metal can hitting the concrete stoop outside.
“Daughter of the Kin!” a man’s voice boomed. “We have not come to harm you.”
A lie. Otherwise her spell would not have repelled them.
“We require you to come out and identify yourself. If you are who I believe you are, we have a great honor to bestow on you. If we are mistaken, we shall leave you in peace.”
But they weren’t mistaken.
“Refusing is not an option.” Evangeline heard the rattle of the metal can again and the sloshing of liquid as the man picked it up and shook it. She didn’t need a glimpse of it through the sidelight to know it was a container of gasoline.
No harm could enter through the windows or doors, but flames could consume the house, burning Jax alive along with Mrs. Unger, who’d reappear in her bed a few minutes from now. And Evangeline might not be around long enough to feel the flames, but she’d end up dead just the same.
“You have one minute to come out,” the man called.
Jax stared at Evangeline. “What’ll we do?”
She searched his face. He was as scared as she was. She could feel him shaking. But his eyes were flinty and his mouth set with anger.
“We’re going to cooperate until we see a chance to get away from them,” she said. “Turn around.” When he just blinked at her, she made a twirly motion with her finger, and he turned. Then she pulled her arms out of the sleeves of her blouse. Throwing the belt for Riley’s sheath over her right shoulder and under her left arm, she buckled it into place. It was uncomfortable, but the dagger lay near her heart, and she could reach down the neck of her blouse to grab it. Then she put her arms into her sleeves again and surveyed her reflection in the hall mirror. Finally, a useful purpose for her nineteen-eighties clothes! The blouse was loose and boxy, with sleeves that draped from wrist to shoulder. Its diagonal stripes hid any bulges.
“Girl, show yourself!” the voice bellowed from outside.
Any second now, they’d torch the house. Evangeline looked at Jax and realized they’d kill him as soon as they had her in their grasp. He was superfluous. Her heart lurched. Her brother and sister had been depending on her, and she’d failed them long ago. She’d allowed them to be taken from her.
That wasn’t going to happen to Jax.
She grabbed his arm. “Swear to me. If you’re my vassal, they’ll honor my right to protect you.”
His eyebrows knit together, but he didn’t argue. “Tell me how.”
“On your knees with your dagger. Swear on your bloodline. The words don’t matter. Just mean them.”
Jax pulled out his blade and dropped to his knees. He held the dagger up like he was ordering a cavalry charge, but there was no time to correct him on his form. “I swear, on the Aubrey bloodline, my loyalty and service to you, Evangeline Emrys.”
“I accept you,” she said. Grabbing his face in both her hands, she kissed his forehead, then strode down the hall to open the front door. The man outside towered over her by a foot and was three of her in width. He wore a dark suit, and his sand-colored hair was cropped very close to his scalp.
Evangeline recognized him, even though he’d been no older than twenty when she’d met him thirty-five years ago. His eyes lit in recognition, too. She had aged only five years.
John Balin.
Balin was a Transitioner, vassal to the Kin lord Myrddin Wylit. Evangeline’s father had distrusted all Transitioners and had protested strongly over including Balin in their plans. But Wylit had insisted, and apparently he’d been too important an ally to cross.