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War.

“I kinda got that from my dad, and the kids.” Felicity and Bria might be kids, but they were in the middle of the mix tonight.

“Rebuilding it won’t be easy,” Travis continued. “There’s no spell, no potion, no talisman to get the job done. From everything I hear it’s going to take sacrifice. Literal, real sacrifice.”

“Why does it have to be Armi?” Mitch asked.

“I don’t know that it does,” Travis said softly. “But look at them. Kids, mothers, wives, grandmothers… great-grandmothers. Everyone has something and someone to lose. I don’t like the idea of anyone losing their lives to this madness, but the alternative is unthinkable.”

Losing Armi when he’d just found her was unthinkable. Was he willing to risk the fate of the world to save her?

The chatter faded. All attention was on the three women in the center of the street. Helen. Ramona. Ginger. They stood back-to-back, defiant.

It was Helen who said, “It’s decided. The three of us will repair the barrier. We will become the shield.”

CHAPTER 20

“No!” Armi shouted, making her way to Helen and her friends. “You will not…”

“We’re old, we’re powerful, and we’re ready to go. Allow us to leave this world in a blaze of glory instead of petering out over the next couple of years. We don’t have much time left.”

“But you’re…”

“We’re not as powerful as we once were, but we’ve done the calculations and the three of us together can do it.” Helen took Armi’s hand in hers. “You have so much ahead of you, and your boys need you.”

“They’re grown,” Armi argued. “They’re…”

“They still need you. And what about grandchildren! You’re going to love having grandchildren, I promise you.”

Armi’s heart pounded. Her worry for these elderly women went much deeper than worry for herself. “This is my job, it’s my destiny.”

“Hogwash,” Ginger said sharply.

“We’ll talk about it.” Armi looked at her watch. There was a little more than a half hour until the equinox. Before the time arrived, she’d have Mitch and a couple of others restrain the older women, and then she’d do what had to be done. Looking at the old men standing to the side, she figured Mitch would have no problem finding assistance.

“I don’t know what you’re planning,” Helen said in a dismissive tone, “but just don’t. We’re ready.”

“So am…” Before she could say “I,” a furious squawking filled the air. The sounds of the birds made her skin crawl. The flapping of their wings, the angry screams. They came from the north end of the street, but this time the birds didn’t fly this way and that, attacking. No, they flew above and behind the couple walking down the middle of the street. Sonny.

Mary.

Mary with a black streak in her blond hair.

Armi walked toward her friend. Mitch stayed right beside her.

“You don’t have to do this, Duncan,” she whispered.

“The hell I don’t,” he snapped. “Together to the end. If I can go with you when the time comes, I will.”

“Don’t.”

“I don’t have anything in this world to hold me here. All I have is you. I know you don’t want to hear it, but I love you.”

She couldn’t say it, didn’t want to leave him to deal with the mess of it, but she loved him, too.

Once Sonny and Mary were close enough to hear, Armi and Mitch went silent. The love was for them alone. She wouldn’t taint it by sharing with these two.

It hurt deeply to call Mary her enemy.