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“Maybe to watch the fireworks after,” Kiva adds. “We should bring popcorn.”
“Don’t start,” I tell her.
“I’ll guard your grimoire as if it’s my family’s own,” Tisia says.
“Thank you.” I lead the way to the side alley and we push onto the empty sidewalk. The Pleasure District’s abandoned, and I have the sinking feeling that it will stay this way. The rubble from the hotel looks so sad, a ruin of what Syn City may become.
“Where would he be if he’s looking for you?” Dottie asks.
The swamp. No. I push that possibility down the list as it’s still daylight and he has only seen me there in the dark. “My garden.”
Kiva smacks me on the shoulder. “Tell me I’m imagining smoke over the trees.”
My heart thunders in my chest. “Oh no. The garden.”
“Isn’t that place warded up the ass?” she asks.
“It is. It was.” Memories of the wards around my family’s home being breached overwhelm me, and I push through to stay in the present despite the panic. “Let’s go.”
The three of us take to the sky, flying toward the woods. The higher we go, the more smoke we see.
“The garden can’t be the only thing burning,” Dottie says.
I agree. “But it might be the most dangerous. Can you imagine either of your mates if the air becomes polluted with high-potency wolf’s bane?”
My Fury sisters fly faster.
We circle above the garden, and the wolf bane’s surrounded in flames stopped only by the stones I’ve set around the circle.
“I keep full water barrels and sand bags,” I yell to my sisters. “Those should be enough to put out the fire.”
“Thank the gods it hasn’t spread,” Kiva says. “It’s like they intentionally went for the wolf’s bane.”
That’s not what floods me with heart-pounding, stomach-turning, dread-filling fear. “Nolan.” I swoop like a targeted missile toward him. He’s on the ground near the tree line, sprawled mostly on his belly but twisted awkwardly, naked and unmoving.
Kiva dumps a hundred-gallon barrel of water toward dousing the blaze. Fury strength and speed for the win. “See to your man. We’ve got this.”
Dottie heaves fifty pound bags of sand. “Did the fumes knock him out?” she asks.
“I can’t tell.” And it’s driving me insane. “Come on, Nolan. Wake up.” I pat his cheek. Nothing. Rolling him, I glance along his muscled form, and my heart plummets at what I find. “No, no, no.”
A broken arrow shaft sticks out of his chest.
21
SADIE
Syn City has descended into chaos. House members barely avoid crashing into each other in flight, the bells ring until ignoring them is easy enough, and no one seems to know what’s happening. The smell of smoke fills the air with explosions and fires going off everywhere at almost the same time that make the blaze at my garden look like a candle flame.
To avoid oncoming Muses, my Fury sisters and I fly upward while carrying Nolan between the three of us. He’s knocked out, bleeding, and heavy as hauling a boulder because I actually care what happens to him. If I hadn’t cut the mating connection on accident, I would be able to at least sense him instead of simply holding a warm, unconscious weight.
“Did another riot break out?” Dottie asks.
I don’t answer because I don’t know and all I can think about is Nolan.
“The forge and cabins. Head there,” Kiva shouts, and we dip toward the buildings. “What the hell is going on at the school?” Crowds stand around the school grounds, and no one seems to be there for lessons.
“Nolan needs real help,” I say. “We lost our only medical doctor a few months ago.” There hadn’t been much need with shifters, magical creatures, and no roller derby. “My herbal salves won’t touch an arrow wound.” It’s like a stabbing with the knife still in place. We all agreed at Kiva’s insistence to leave the arrowhead in him, which makes flying him even more awkward. He needs an expert with steady hands, medical experience, and a crap ton more calm than I possess right now.
