Page 19 of Wicked Bonds

“I thought you wanted me to crawl first?”

“Oh, you will,” he replied, devious intent radiating from his expression. “And when—”

A shimmer of seraphic power caused the hairs along her arms to dance, cutting off Balthazar’s words.

Because he heard the reaction in her mind, a problem she desperately needed to fix.

Navy feathers appeared, followed by Vera’s familiar energy. She immediately turned corporeal, causing Balthazar to grin. “Just the Seraphim I wanted to see. You and I need to have a chat about my memories.”

She blinked at him. Then she shook her head as though to clear it and shifted her attention to Leela. “Leek and Kital are on their way here. We need to move.Now.”

Chapter4

Leela

Leela gapedat her best friend. “What? How?”

Leek and Kital were warrior Seraphim, just like Gabe. Except, unlike Gabe, the other two warriors were not on Team Stas. They were on Team Council.

Fortunately, Gabe was the strongest of the three warriors, despite being the youngest by several centuries. He’d actually bested his half brother, Leek, a few decades ago, thus proving that age didn’t matter when it came to power and skill.

But that didn’t mean Leek or Kital was weak.

No, they were absolutely a threat.

Except protection wards surrounded the property—something Gabe had mentioned prior to Leela and Balthazar arriving. She’d checked a few of them herself, noting their ties to Lizzie’s essence.

“There’s a cloaking rune outside,” she added, recalling the magical marker that made the land invisible to anyone seeking to harm Lizzie. “They can’t find us here.”

“Patreel and Arvane are with them,” Vera replied, the two names darkly familiar to Leela.Trackers. “They’ve been ordered to try to take Elizabeth and her child alive. But they’ve been given permission to exterminate as well.”

Of course they have,Leela thought. The council wouldn’t want to give Lizzie a trial; they’d just want to experiment on her and kill her afterward.

“Have you informed Gabe?” He would want to know, given it was likely his father, Adriel, who had issued the order.

“I haven’t spoken to him since I altered his memories,” she replied. “I thought he would be here.”

“He’s not.” Leela frowned. “Where is Gabe?” She hadn’t thought to ask with everything else going on, but she could understand why Vera had assumed he would be here. It was the logical place for him to be.

“Is he still at Ezekiel’s place?” Vera guessed.

“No, last place I saw him was in Hydria. But I thought he meant to meet us here.” Unless he couldn’t find the island.

Which seemed unlikely, considering how easily Leela had found it.

Vera clearly had as well.

Because they all knew where to look.However…“How did the council find us?” she wondered out loud. “We’re in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Nowhere near Hydria.”

Balthazar’s gaze narrowed, his expression suggesting he had a thought, but he didn’t express it out loud.

All Vera did was shrug. “I don’t know, but we need to move. I suggest Iceland. Ezekiel and Skye have wards in place. We can regroup at his place and decide where to go from there.”

Leela nodded. “All right. I’ll need dir—”

Vera reached for her wrist, her power flaring to life as she shoved a false memory into Leela’s head. She shuddered in response, the wrongness of the thought slicing through her mind with rapid speed. Then it settled, blending with her other recollections, making her blink.

It felt so real that she almost questioned the fakeness of it.