Chapter 46

We crouched beneath the covering boughs of evergreens at the base of the mountain that the church was perched upon. Despite the many fights I’d been in, this was my first big ambush. There was so much riding on it; I was glad I didn’t have a pulse anymore. If I did, it would have been pounding.

“You know your priorities,” Vlad whispered to Mencheres.

He nodded, his charcoal gaze hard. Then his eyes closed and he stretched out his hands. The faintest hum reverberated through the mountain and I tensed. If the necromancers inside happened to figure out what the cause of that slight noise was, I was about to die.

“I can feel the people inside,” Mencheres said, his voice no louder than the sound that the snow made as it slipped onto the ground. “Most of them are soaked in grave magic.”

Vlad exchanged a grim look with me. We’d expected that, but it still sucked. Now neither of their powers would be effective against Mircea’s captors, either to fight them or keep them from killing Mircea. We’d have to rely on quickness and luck alone.

I glanced at the mountain beneath the church. It had both milky and smoky quartz inside it; I knew that from a quick Google search. But what Google didn’t know was that there was also a large pocket containing huge pillars of pure morion, or black quartz, and Mircea was smack dab in the middle of it.

Maybe there was another way.

“Black quartz absorbs and negates all magic,” I whispered. “It’s why it’s the only prison that can hold a sorcerer or necromancer. If you can find a way to protect Mircea, the rest of us can force them inside the area containing all that black quartz. Once they’re there, their magic won’t work anymore.”

Vlad’s smile was a savage slash. “Do it,” he told Mencheres.

Mencheres closed his eyes again. After several minutes that sliced across my nerves as if someone were ice skating on them, Vlad turned to Maximus and Marty. “Be ready as soon as he finds it.”

They nodded, their expressions both calm and deadly. I wished I felt the way they looked.

“Leila, you stay in the back.”

I pursed my lips but nodded. If not for my needed immunity to grave magic, Vlad would have refused to let me here at all.

Vlad’s stare lingered on me, and though his feelings were locked down tighter than Fort Knox, his gaze told me everything that our circumstances couldn’t allow him to say.

I love you, too, I wordlessly replied. If my psychic powers hadn’t been smothered by his aura, the words would have resounded through his mind from how much I meant them.

The faintest smile touched his lips, then it vanished when he turned to Veritas. “You’re with me. And remember—no matter what, I need the black-haired boy alive.”

“For the thousandth time, yes,” she muttered.

I stifled a laugh. He caught my muffled snicker, and his brow arched as if to say, You’ll pay later for mocking my concern over you.

Mencheres opened his eyes and said, “I have him.” Then his hands met together in a firm, silent clap. “If I am correct, I have now pulled a protective barrier around Mircea.”

A breath exploded out of me as if I’d been hit in the chest. Before I could process the relief, a set of ominous vibrations came from deep inside the mountain. Then the bell on top of the church began to ring.

“They’ve either felt or spotted us,” Vlad said darkly.

Without another word, he and Veritas exploded into the air. They crashed into the church before my next thought. At once, a shower of flaming plaster, wood, and stone rained down. From the way the church crumpled beneath their assault, Vlad wasn’t just setting things on fire; he and Veritas were also using their bodies as living wrecking balls.

Maximus grabbed Marty and flew him up there. I waited impatiently for Mencheres to do the same with me, but he only stood there, his hands still clasped together.

“Any time now,” I said.

“Not unless Vlad gives the signal,” Mencheres replied. “Keeping Mircea safe and keeping you here with me are my top priorities.”

Fury raced through me. I’d agreed to stay in the back, not stay behind entirely. “Oh, Vlad is not pulling this shit again!”

Something like a snort came out of Mencheres. “If you expected anything else, you have only yourself to blame.”

Then an invisible lasso felt like it wrapped around my waist, stopping me before I got two steps into my angry ascent up the mountain. I swung around, sparks shooting from my hands.

“Let’s forget the fact that if they get hit with a spell, they’re all dead because they’re not immune to grave magic like I am,” I gritted out. “If they’re deep inside a mountain, how will you even see the signal that Vlad’s supposed to give you?”

Mencheres arched a brow. “Like this.”

A hole suddenly tore out of the mountain as if a bomb had gone off. Huge pieces of rock headed right for us. I threw up my arms, but then they defied gravity to swing to our left and right instead. The ground shuddered over and over as enormous slabs of stone continued to fall, until Mencheres and I were surrounded by the hulking pieces.

“Vlad’s enemies destroyed part of the mountain beneath his home a few months ago,” Mencheres said, a cold smile wreathing his lips. “He wanted me to return the favor tonight.”

I was speechless as I stared at the destruction he’d wrought without once moving from his spot. Yes, I knew Mencheres was powerful, and I’d seen him move things through his telekinesis before. But I hadn’t known that he could do this. I hadn’t known that any vampire in the world could.