Page 60 of Mastering Mayhem

“We didn’t summon her,” Gray said, cutting her eyes to her High Priest. “Did we?”

“Hand her over.” Adrian cleaned himself up and dropped the rest of the roll onto the ground, not bothering to pass it to Wendy. Typical. She bent to pick it up.

I laughed, still scanning the ground for the amulet. I couldn’t see it, so I stepped around the beastie and stood just outside the doorway. “I don’t take orders like your minions.”

The griffin let out a relieved moan behind me, curling up to rest, and Ash joined me on the front steps. “Do you see it?” she whispered.

I gave my head a tiny shake. “Did Ignacus tell you where we were? I know you aren’t strong enough to see through our ward on your own.”

“We have our ways of finding information.” Adrian jerked the roll of towels from Wendy’s hand and wiped his face again before dragging the cloth down his neck. “Your van is parked outside, idiot. Turn over the griffin. The amulet belongs to me.”

Wendy blew her nose and gagged. “This is not what I signed up for.” She covered her mouth and dry heaved. “Where’s Miles?”

I cocked my head. Did she seriously volunteer to be Adrian’s henchwoman just so she could see a guy who’d used her…multiple times? Goddess, bless her heart.

Ash crept away from the mausoleum, giving our foul-smelling foes a wide berth as she scanned the ground. It had to be out here somewhere, but the clouds covering the moon made it nearly impossible to decipher the shapes on the ground. Shadows, clumps of earth, and dead leaves littered the cemetery, and even if we had enough moonlight to make the stone glint, it was covered in dirt-colored poo.

“You can’t have the amulet or the griffin.” I crept away from the door, trusting the ward to keep the bad guys out. “It’s four elementals against you and…” I gestured at Gray and Wendy. “You didn’t call in much of a calvary.”

Ash lit a fireball in her hand, and Chaos and Mayhem followed her lead, illuminating the cemetery. I unsheathed my trusty sword and sent flames licking up the enchanted silver blade, adding to the brightness, but honestly? I preferred the dark over what I saw.

Twenty-something witches, dressed in black from head to toe, emerged from the shadows. They stepped around gravestones and came out from the cover of trees as if appearing from nothing.

They surrounded us, some of their faces familiar, some I’d never seen before. Many had the Boston Society of Magic emblem embroidered in silver thread on their sleeves. Others had nothing showing affiliation to the dark coven, and of those, a few wore ski masks, hiding their identities.

“Did you hire mercenaries?” I adjusted my grip on the sword, scanning the ground again before meeting his gaze. “Seriously?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to obtain the amulet.” He circled his finger, creating the beginnings of a tornado at my feet. “Did you know it was forged in Hell? Anything created in Hell belongs with a dark witch.”

He raised his hand, palm toward me, and I had no doubt he was about to give his team the signal to attack.

I cut my gaze to Ash and closed my eyes for a long blink, hoping to Hecate she would understand the message. We weren’t going to find the amulet with our eyes. Not in these conditions.

She nodded and inhaled, and we both whispered the same spell, “Confess, expose my magic sleuth. I call on you to reveal your truth.”

I shouldn’t have been able to tap into her magic from this distance. Normally, we had to hold hands to cast spells together, but golden sparkles appeared in my peripheral vision anyway. I slowly turned my head to the place they gathered on the ground, two yards from Wendy’s feet.

Adrian clenched his raised hand into a fist. The witches attacked.

Mayhem turned his arm into a blow torch and blasted hellfire at our adversaries. I dove toward Wendy, extinguishing my blade and swinging the flat side into her stomach like a baseball bat. She doubled over. Then she fell to her knees. Her hands hit the ground, and she gasped.

“Adrian? Is this it?” She lifted the amulet caked in butt dumplings and turned on her knees toward him.

“Nope.” I kicked her hand, and the stone flew across the cemetery before whacking into an ancient gravestone with such force, the monument cracked. Good thing the amulet didn’t.

“Ash!” I shouted, and she scrambled toward it.

A blade pierced my shoulder, and I spun, lighting my sword. Instinct nearly made me cut the culpable witch in two. I was used to fighting beasties, not people. Lucky for the guy who’d stabbed me, I remembered what he was and only nicked his arm, setting his embroidered sleeve ablaze.

His shirt must’ve been one hundred percent cotton, because the fire spread like…well, like wildfire…engulfing his entire abdomen. He screamed, frantically turning this way and that, fanning the flames.

“Did no one teach you to stop, drop, and roll when you were a kid?” I called my fire back, leaving him shirtless and burned, as I yanked his knife from my shoulder. That would require stitches. Where was Patrice when we needed her?

Oh, right. I’d sent her home.

The man gritted his teeth and pulled two more blades from their sheathes. He lunged for me.

I stepped out of his way. “Do you want me to make you pantsless too? I’d rather not singe your naughty bits.”

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