Page 27 of Mastering Mayhem

A single bullet hole marred the center of the guard’s head. Blood pooled beneath her, and her hands still clutched a rifle, her finger on the trigger. She never got the chance to fight back.

Mayhem strode into the vault, stepping over the dead woman, and examined the shelves. “It isn’t here.”

“Are you sure?” I joined him inside, though I knew he was right. We weren’t simply a smorgasbord for the overgrown bugs. The fae wanted the amulet as badly as we did. They’d feasted on witch hearts and lifted the artifact in one fell swoop.

“Would they have taken it across the veil?” Shade joined us, scanning the shelves in vain.

Hazel’s clicking heels preceded her appearance in the doorway, and she glanced at my bare feet. She clutched a pistol in one hand, and the amulet dangled from the golden chain entwined in her fingers. “The fae want this too?”

“As if you didn’t know.” I took two steps toward her, cursing myself for falling for her act. I should have trusted my intuition about her from the start.

She retreated two steps back and adjusted her grip on the pistol. “I don’t know anything about those creatures. They weren’t part of the plan.”

Nervous tension rolled off her in waves, her gaze bouncing around the room before it landed on the dead guard. Her breath caught as she gestured at the body. “I didn’t want to do that.”

“What plan?” I moved toward her again, raising my hands in a show of fake innocence.

She backed out the doorway and lifted the gun, so I stopped my advance. If I’d practiced spell-casting as much as Ash had, I could freeze her without a potion, grab the amulet, and we’d be on our way. Maybe I’d have time to work on that when all this was through. For now, my choices were burning her or hurling the improperly weighted butter knife still nestled in my cleavage. Neither option sounded appealing.

“You didn’t steal the amulet for the fae?” Shade moved beside me. I lifted a finger, silently telling him not to advance. Hazel was on the verge of either killing us or tucking tail and running.

Mayhem stood behind me, not saying a word, but I could feel his anger building. Maybe that was why I didn’t want to hurt Hazel. Hecate knew she deserved whatever it would take for us to get the damn amulet.

I ran my finger over his mark on my arm, and he inhaled deeply, calming just enough for me to begin feeling rage.

Hazel’s expression pinched. “I don’t think so. The man who hired me said he was a High Priest. At first, when you asked to see it, I thought it was you. But why would you tell me to meet you in Worcester if you were coming to New York, anyway?”

“Worcester?” My eye twitched. “Did you get his name?”

She laughed. “No, but now that I know how valuable this is, I’m going to renegotiate my price. What’s it do?”

“Bad things.” My legs tensed, my muscles coiling, ready to spring. There were three of us and only one of her. Sure, she had a gun, but we could take her. We’d subdue her and get the amulet before she handed it over to Boston. I had no doubt Adrian was the High Priest who’d hired her.

“You can’t sell it.” I lunged toward her, but she slammed a heavy metal gate in my face, the lock engaging with athunkas my forehead struck a bar.Oof.

“You have no idea what’s going to happen if you do this.” I reached through the grate, but she stepped farther back, tucking the gun into her waistband. “Hazel, please. We need that amulet. The fate of the world is dangling from your fingers.”

She cocked her head, shrugging one shoulder. “I need the money.”

I was done being nice. Mayhem and I gathered fire in our palms, ready to throw it, but before we could, she slammed the massive vault door, sixclunkssounding as she spun the dial and locked us inside.

10

EMBER

“Effing Adrian.” I grasped the metal gate and shook it, not that I thought I could tear it from its hinges. Mayhem might be able to, but we’d still be stuck behind a two-foot-thick vault door with a complex, massive locking system that Ash’s little lock-picking toolkit wouldn’t stand a chance against.

“Effing Hazel and mother effing fae.” I paced in front of the door, tripping over the dead guard and pressing my hands to my cheeks. “Shit. This poor woman.”

“We have worse things to worry about.” Mayhem lifted her and carried her body behind a shelving unit, out of sight.

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Never did I ever dream my life would come to a point where I had worse things to worry about than a woman getting killed for being in the way of what I needed.

“Ash, Miles, are you there?” I pressed my fingers to the earpiece, but all I heard was a bit of static.

“The walls are too thick.” Shade examined the gate, shaking it like I had done. “Best we can do is hope they heard us before Hazel locked us in.”

“Fabulous.” I lifted my hands and dropped them at my sides. “What about phones? Mayhem, hand me mine.”

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