Page 33 of Mage Massacres

“Did you two find anything?” Vaughn asked, barely containing his laughter at Novak’s shocked face as I wiped my thighs with the red lace.

“No,” Stone answered. “But we haven’t made it to Amelia’s office yet.”

My fae snorted. “We did that for you. There’s nothing useful in there.”

Novak continued to gawk at me, and I finally rolled my eyes.

“Was that not what you wanted me to do with this?” I inquired, adding a little extra sass to my tone. “I was looking for something to clean up with.”

“I really liked that one,” he complained.

I waited for a foot stomp to accompany his words, and when it didn’t, I shrugged one shoulder. “I have another one in black.”

“It’s not the same.”

He huffed, turning his attention to the door as it creaked open again. Novak continued to complain to deaf ears until my mage peeked inside, a grim expression on his face as he entered my office.

“We found Alric’s records,” Palmer informed us. “They’re not what I was expecting.”

“Nothing ever is,” I muttered. “What do they say?”

He scanned the folder’s contents before summarizing, “He has sixteen documented children, but Annette isn’t on this list. Neither is Kadence nor Kelvin Moore. There are no children with fae, druids, mer, or dragons, according to this file.”

My mouth opened and closed twice before I could respond. “That’s all it says?”

“Not quite. All the Moore kids registered with the guild were born on Earth, but there’s a note that mentions suspected children in other realms. There’s no definite proof, though.”

Palmer took a deep breath before continuing. “There’s also a death certificate in here that says he’s been dead since right after you were born, Love. There’s a note on the back that says he’d been spotted since then, but it’s not dated.”

I sunk in the office chair, slumping my shoulders as I tried to rearrange the pieces of information. The room grew quiet as we all contemplated the news.

In the silence, I heard a distant shuffle and then a loud bang. I jerked upright in my chair as Miller and Murphy bolted into the office. Briggs and York stepped out of the Void in a hurry.

“Four guys,” York murmured. “Mage hybrids… I think.”

I rolled my shoulders back as I stood. Those motherfuckers would be dead as soon as I walked out of this room. I was done playing games with Alric Moore.

“Millie?” I called, attempting to sound polite instead of bossy. “You and Murphy take the documents and go back to Amelia’s house. Novak and Briggs will go with you. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Palmer passed Miller the yellow folder that held years’ worth of knowledge on Alric. She pressed it to her chest with her left hand as she prepared to travel through the Void to my mother’s house.

We couldn’t risk getting them to the portal.

I was going to have to destroy both of them after we killed these guys. I wasn’t sure what the outcome would have been if we hadn’t been here and the intruders stepped through the portals to find us unaware. The risk of leaving them open was too high.

Once the four of them were gone, I strode to the door of my empty office and swung it open. All the bullshit that I’d been through over the last day was bubbling up, and a physical fight was exactly what I needed to settle down.

I stopped in the center of the long corridor, motioning for my guys to stay out of sight. One woman appeared less threatening when she didn’t have four men standing at her side.

I could say that I was hoping they would tell me why they were here... But really, I just wanted to release some pent-up aggression.

“Hello?” I cautiously yelled, trying to sound frightened over the noise they’d created.

The loud bang hadn’t come from them knocking the door down; that was the sound the ward made when it was destroyed. That meant none of the information on the top floor was safe.

Fuck.

We’d have to move all the records to a new location, but I didn’t have time for that. Or I just didn’t want to make time…