Page 11

Eleven

Atlas ported them to the no-longer-safe house and realized how true his words had become.

A battle was in full swing. Dyami’s two casino goons were squared off with Robin’s coyote cousin, Jenn, and her mountain lion partner, Abigail.

Two other faces Atlas recognized from the casino were trading blows with Brock, one of Vincent’s warlocks Adam had turned, and Jason, the hulking smuggler who was Paris’s best friend and carried a phoenix with his soul.

His skin glowed with the firebird’s red and orange heat.

That battle, however, didn’t frighten Atlas; he was confident Adam’s team could handle Dyami’s henchmen. It was the familiar magic that raised his hairs and threatened to unleash his own that caused his pulse to spike.

“Evan’s here,” he said, and in the space of one breath, in a flash of golden light and cracking bones, Robin shifted, the giant coyote pulling even with Atlas’s steps.

Together, they slunk from the edge of the vineyard to the shadows of the cottage, approaching the back steps.

Then halting when Mary appeared in the loft window above.

Atlas held his breath, certain Evan would appear behind her, would snap her neck as he’d done Daphne’s and then Nature would be dead for good. Chaos would reign, with Evan as his vessel, and the world would never be the same, would be over before any of them knew it.

But Evan didn’t appear, and the green-haired pixie made a series of hand gestures Atlas vaguely recognized as sign language.

Nothing vague about Robin’s understanding, though.

Golden eyes keen, he nodded his big rusty head, then nudged Atlas’s hip with his muzzle, aiming him away from the cottage. “He’s not in there with her?”

Robin shook his head, then made a low plaintive whine as he prodded him again, shoving him toward the walkway that led down the hill.

To the main house.

Above which corvids circled, two giant ravens among them, Mac and his younger brother Liam, the current reaper for the Monte Corvo clan.

Atlas’s stomach sank.

With no time to waste, he grabbed the dog by the scruff and cut a hole in the plane to the more vulnerable.

But they were too late. The green mist had barely faded from around them when Evan appeared in the doorway from the kitchen, an arm curled around the throat of the vineyard manager’s preteen son.

“Stay right there, brother,” he said, yellow orb hovering at his side.

“Let them go,” Atlas said. “They have nothing to do with this.”

“On the contrary, I showed up, and they wanted an update on the battle for Nature. Wanted to know how they could help.” He cinched his arm tighter around the trembling boy’s neck. “Even this one. Simon, was it?”

The boy’s dark, tear-filled gaze strayed toward the kitchen before bouncing back to Atlas and the coyote beside him, Robin’s teeth bared.

“Simon,” Atlas said, focusing the boy’s attention on him.

“Are your parents in there?” he asked as gently as the anger gathering in the back of his throat would allow.

Twin tears escaped Simon’s eyes, streaking down his cheeks, and some of the anger escaped.

“They’re humans!” Atlas shouted at his brother. “You should’ve left them out of this.”

“They’re fodder.”

Growling, Robin tensed, every muscle coiled, as if he were about to pounce, but as Evan’s orb grew brighter, Atlas put a hand in front of Robin, pausing the impending attack. “Go check the kitchen.”

Another low growl but Robin conceded, veering into the adjacent room to confirm the nightmare Simon’s tears hinted at.

“Does he know?” Evan asked, and Atlas snapped his gaze back to his suited twin.

“There’s been enough death today already.” The last thing any of them needed was a fully informed Robin on the rampage.

“I heard you killed our dear cousin.”

Simon’s eyes grew wide, then wider still at Robin’s thunderous howl from the kitchen, loud enough to rattle the windows in the room where they stood.

The boy cut his eyes toward the front door, wisely away from the threat supernatural beings posed to humans like him.

But every minute Atlas kept his brother talking was another Simon stayed alive.

And another for the cavalry swirling above to answer Robin’s call.

“Because you preyed on her fears,” he said to Evan. “On the losses we’ve all suffered. Same as Chaos is preying on yours.”

“You could join me too. We could share the power, like we were always meant to.”

Atlas shook his head, dismissing his brother’s corrupted version of fate. “Not like this.” From the kitchen, a door slammed and a cacophony of caw s and kraa s followed, the cavalry closing in. “You’re outnumbered. You can’t get to her.”

“Maybe I wasn’t here for her,” he said, then hurled his orb at Atlas.

So much for sharing power.

Atlas blocked the hit with his own orb, diverting Evan’s to the cabinet of wine goblets along the wall. Between the shattering glass and the sea of corvids streaming in from the kitchen, Mac’s violet-eyed raven at the point, Evan was momentarily distracted, his arm loosening around the boy’s neck.

“Simon, get down!” Atlas shouted, before firing an orb of his own at Evan. Then another, buying Robin time to corral Simon. “Get him to the others!”

The coyote didn’t argue, sliding across the hardwoods, scooping Simon up with his mass, and carrying him out the door that Atlas blasted open for them. Mac and his flock followed them outside, creating a shield against the enemy, leaving Atlas alone in a face-off with his brother.

“You’re their prisoner,” Evan said as he spun up another orb. “Nature, fate, our mother and his. You can be free, brother. You don’t have to do what they say. You don’t have to end up like Canton and Cole.”

All the anger that had been gathering in the pit of Atlas’s stomach, that had been clawing up his throat and searing through his veins, made the two glowing green orbs above his hands glow brighter, made them powerful enough to end Evan.

But then Robin charged back through the door and drew Evan’s attention—and the orbs meant for Atlas.

Atlas had no choice. He didn’t want the same fate to befall him that had befallen his twin.

With a final blast of power, he put everything he had into the orbs he hurled at the yellow ones, then hurled himself at Robin, grabbing the dog’s tail and snapping them out of there.