Page 13 of After Midnight (Skye Druids #7)

Chapter Eleven

Sabryn punched the man in the jaw, adding a flare of magic to the blow. He staggered back from the impact. She sent her magic to her foot and kicked him in the chest. He flew back this time, landing on a car before rolling unconscious to the ground.

Just as Sabryn headed to him to make sure he was actually out, a woman with straight, heavily graying black hair came out of nowhere and slapped handcuffs on him.

Sabryn whirled around for her next attacker, but there wasn’t one.

There was also no sign of Parker or Edie , which made her very uneasy.

Nothing about the plan had gone right. She should’ve walked away the moment she saw Parker , but she had wanted things to be done with Kurt and barreled ahead.

The black-haired woman was yelling into her mobile. Sabryn became aware of voices behind her and turned to see a group of people tending to someone on the ground. She winced as she imagined some tourist being caught in Edie’s display.

“ Just what we fucking need,” she murmured, searching for Rhona or Balladyn .

Cold realization struck when Sabryn comprehended that none of the others were around.

She lowered her gaze to the ground and locked on the injured person’s boots.

Her stomach plummeted to her feet when she recognized them.

Sabryn shouldered her way through the group, only to draw up short at the sight of Kurt on his back.

A woman squatted next to him, shouting at him as she pressed something against his side.

Sabryn couldn’t look away from the blood soaking Kurt’s side and puddling on the concrete.

The wail of sirens jerked her out of her stupor. She watched in a daze of horror as the ambulance pulled to a stop and EMTs jumped out. The female holding Kurt’s wound barked orders to everyone as EMS shoved people aside.

Sabryn stood frozen, her brain refusing to believe what she was seeing as they loaded Kurt onto a stretcher and then loaded him into the ambulance.

It wasn’t until it drove away that she thought about going with him.

She looked around helplessly, searching for something or someone to tell her what had happened.

Shouts from within the co-op drew her attention. She stumbled toward the wrecked door and then inside the store to see more blood. She turned toward the store, only to stop and look back at the retreating ambulance. Did she go with Kurt ? Did she help those in the co-op?

Fast -approaching footsteps reached her. Sabryn gathered her magic and spun to attack, only to stop herself as Finn slid to a halt before her.

“ What happened? Who’s in the ambulance?” he demanded, looking inside the co-op. “ Fekking hell,” he murmured before rushing inside.

Sabryn didn’t move. She was too uncertain, too afraid. She had been on edge from the moment she spotted Parker leaning against the car. He’d been too calm, too confident. Now , she knew why.

“ Sabryn !”

The urgency in Finn’s voice prompted action. He waved her into the store. She looked for the ambulance, but it was long gone. Kurt didn’t need her help right now. Others did.

She hurried into the store and promptly slid on the shards of glass.

Once she found her footing, she looked around.

Willa and Song were tending to some tourists who had gotten wounded.

Jasper and Finn were putting out dozens of small fires around the store.

When Sabryn looked into the back of the shop, she spotted Nora in her wheelchair attempting to sweep up more glass.

Sabryn started toward Nora when she heard a crash.

She rushed into the back and found Nora’s husband, Matt , stumbling backward as their daughter, Kirsi , was locked in a battle with an Edinburgh Druid —and barely keeping her feet.

Sabryn leapt over a sack of unsorted mail and dropped down beside Kirsi .

The space was tight, leaving little room for fighting, but Sabryn was used to adapting.

She stepped in front of Kirsi and threw a quick succession of blasts to throw her female opponent off.

The woman staggered back, and just as Sabryn was getting ready to launch more, the Druid bolted.

When Sabryn turned around, she saw Matt leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. He made sure Kirsi was unharmed before stumbling to the front of the store.

“ Thank you,” Kirsi said.

Sabryn dipped her head. “ Anytime .”

Sabryn scanned the back for anyone else before following Kirsi to the front. Carlyle had made his way to the co-op by then and used his ability as a fire walker to put out the fires without the tourists noticing.

“ What the bloody hell happened?” Carlyle asked as he came up beside her.

Finn turned his back to the tourists and lowered his voice as he said, “ We got fekked, that’s what. Where are Rhona and Balladyn ?”

“ Why did Elodie , Bronwyn , Elias , and Scott leave in such a hurry?” Jasper asked.

Willa shrugged. “ Probably the same reason Theo grabbed Callum and left after getting a call.”

“ Did Kurt leave with someone?” Carlyle asked.

Sabryn felt everyone’s eyes on her. “ Ambulance . He was…” An image of him lying so still on the ground, covered in blood, flashed in her mind. “ He was stabbed.”

“ Stabbed ?” Finn repeated.

Jasper’s face was lined with worry. “ He needs Healers .”

“ If he was put into an ambulance, he’s at the hospital,” Song said.

“ Go to him,” Kirsi told them. “ Things are handled here. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

Finn nodded. “ We’ll do the same.”

Sabryn watched and listened to all of it like a dream, her brain unable to shove away the fog that kept her from thinking or moving.

Finn took her arm and guided her out of the store and into a vehicle.

She didn’t remember closing the door or putting on her seat belt.

Carlyle and Finn talked in the front seats, but she didn’t hear any of it.

Song said something from beside her, but she didn’t register that either.

Carlyle slammed on the brakes before doing a U -turn and speeding off.

A simple plan. That’s what they’d called it. Simple and easy. And they’d had all the bases covered—or so they thought. Yet Parker had outmaneuvered them with Edie’s help—someone everyone had believed dead.

She and Kurt had stood with Parker , wary but not afraid. Why should they have been? They outnumbered him and his crew. It should have been an easy takedown but went terribly, horribly wrong. Where was Edie now? Parker ?

Kurt had been so sure his brother had come to take him home.

And why wouldn’t he think that? It’s what Carlyle’s father had tried.

But that wasn’t what’d happened. A knife.

Someone had stabbed Kurt . Was it Parker ?

Why would he use a knife and not magic? Why would he try to kill Kurt ?

The brothers had never been close, but to commit fratricide?

Had it been done on Diana’s orders? Or was this Parker acting alone?

The vehicle came to a rocking halt, and they jumped out and hurried toward the hospital entrance. Finn was the first to reach the reception desk, and they directed him to the ER .

They all took off down the hall, panicky and anxious. Kurt was likely in surgery, and they wouldn’t be able to see him until he came out. But Sabryn said nothing, just rushed along with them. Because getting there was the only thing they could do right then.

Finn retook the lead once they reached the ER and chatted with the nurses.

They confirmed that Kurt was in surgery.

Sabryn grabbed the wall as the room spun from relief at hearing that Kurt had at least been alive when he reached the hospital.

Carlyle asked if there was a private place for them to wait, and to her surprise, a nurse led them through a door to a secluded room.

When Sabryn entered, it was like being back in DC , waiting in the hospital for news about her dad.

“ I still don’t understand why Balladyn didn’t get Kurt to the Healers ,” Carlyle murmured as he sank into a chair.

Finn paced, his agitation evident in every stride. “ I saw Edie . Fekking Edie !”

“ Keep your voice down,” Carlyle said.

Finn whirled around, his lips peeled back in a snarl of outrage. “ Don’t you dare tell me to keep my voice down. Not now. Not after this cockup.”

“ Sabryn , did you see what happened?” Song interrupted, her voice calm and even.

The boys swung their heads to her. Sabryn looked at her hands. Where had her tea gone? She saw scrapes on her palm but didn’t remember getting them. She hadn’t even seen Kurt go down. Had he called out for help?

“ Hey , darlin’. Let’s sit,” Finn said, guiding her to a chair before squatting before her.

Carlyle moved to the chair beside her, and Song sat on her other side.

“ We were wrong about Parker ,” Sabryn told them, shaking her head. “ I let my guard down. Everyone was in place, I thought…”

Finn squeezed her hand. “ We all did.”

“ I knew something was wrong with how nonchalant Parker was.” Sabryn swallowed as she recalled the shock on Kurt’s face at the sight of Edie . “ If Kurt hadn’t noticed Edie , I wouldn’t have gotten out of the way in time. That strike was meant for me.”

Carlyle sighed loudly. “ I think Elodie saw Edie , too, because she shouted Edie’s name to me as she ran toward the Tea Talker . It’s the only reason I looked for Edie .”

“ It wasn’t long after Elodie arrived at the tea house that Elias and Bronwyn said Edie’s name before getting in the car and speeding off,” Finn added.

Song shoved her hair away from her face. “ I had just gotten Carlyle’s text about Edie when the explosion happened. I didn’t have time to tell anyone.”

“ We never had the advantage,” Sabryn said. “ We weren’t the ones setting a trap. We were being lured into one.”

Finn put his knees on the floor and nodded. “ With half our group being called away.”

“ That couldn’t all have been just so Parker could get Kurt , could it?” Song asked.