Page 91 of Hexbound

Leather strained as Guthrie half stood. "You little bitch. You'd have to get to them first." He snapped a finger, and both Conrad and Betsy brandished weapons. Conrad slid a crackling glove of shimmering light over his fist, and Betsy snapped a whip that lashed with power.

Verity planted herself in the middle of the room, her arms crossed. "And just how do you think you're going to containme?"

"Merce," Guthrie said flatly.

There was a tense moment. "No," Mercy said, uncoiling her lanky frame from the corner. "I'll do a lot of things, Daniel, but I won't lift a hand against Ver."

Guthrie's expression of disbelief collided with anger. "You'll bloody do what you're told to do, or—"

"Or what?" Mercy faced him down, then held up a hand and clenched her fingers. Guthrie gasped, hunching over himself with his eyes bulging. "I had the means to watch Mr. Bishop here the other day... and it seems I've managed to add to my repertoire. The Crows have always done all right by me and I'll do my best by them, but don't you think that you can force me to betray my heart-sister."

She suddenly released Guthrie, and the man's knees hit the floor.

"You little bitch," Guthrie breathed.

"So it seems we're at an impasse," Bishop told him. "You have something I want, and you can't stop me from taking it."

"I presume you mean the old sorceress," Mercy interrupted, flashing those vivid green eyes at him. "Because while I might not kill Verity, I never said anything about you."

He looked at her, but Verity grabbed his arm and stepped between them. "Don't you dare!"

"I wouldn't," he murmured. "I know she means a great deal to you."

Verity's shoulders relaxed, and she faced her friend. "Mercy, I never wanted it to come to this."

"Me either." The girl smiled faintly. "But we've both got our paths in life to tread. You're always welcome in my room."

"You can't keep Lady E," Verity said. "She's not an object, and we need to heal her."

"And you can't take this little antique," Guthrie snapped, sliding the Chalice closer to himself, his gaze taking a slow trip over Verity's body. "Not without meeting my price."

Over my dead body.

She must have heard it through the link. Verity rested her hand on his wrist.

"That's not an option either, Daniel," she said firmly. "So until you can work out another price, the Chalice remains here. Do try not to get eaten by flesh constructs before we can retrieve it."

She crossed to Agatha's side and gestured for Bishop to pick her up. "Be gentle."

Guthrie didn't like it. But he said nothing as Bishop swung Agatha up into his arms. She was more skirts than body at this moment. He hadn't realized how thin she'd become.

"I've got you," he whispered.

Agatha rested her head on his shoulder, and just like that, relief flooded through him. He didn't dare reach out to her through their apprentice-mentor link, but he could feel her.

"This way," Verity said, opening the door for him.

He swung Agatha through gently as Verity glared over his shoulder. "We'll be back, Guthrie."

The Hex leader smirked. "I'm counting on it."

"Knock, knock," Verity called, rapping on the open door to Lady Eberhardt's room.

The old woman looked frail against the sheets of her bed, her long gray hair laid across her pillows where Marie was brushing it. With a frustrated grimace, Lady Eberhardt waved her secretary away and tried to drag herself into a seated position.

"Adrian said you mustn't exert yourself," Marie chastised, discarding the brush as she rushed to help her employer.

"If I can't bloody well sit myself up in bed, then I may as well be dead," Lady Eberhardt snapped. "God's blood, I'm not an invalid. I spent over three hundred days tracking that demon through the Cairo slums! I've been thrown into prisons, barely escaped a bloody harem, and survived three husbands! I'm a sorcerer of the eighth bloody level! A little heart murmur isn't going to stop me."