Page 65 of Ulune's Daughter

He nods. “We will have a reckoning, you and me, another time, Professor Wyndham.”

“Bring it,” Kellan responds, crossing her arms over her chest. “If you think I’ve forgotten what you said about keeping me cut off from my Element and raping me every night until I’d given you a dozen pups, you’re sadly mistaken. Now, as my friend Teddy would say, bugger off and let me do my thing.”

He will never get a chance to harm her. The jackal is already a dead man.

He spins on his heel and follows the driver and the elders out of the cave.

My mate turns to Luca’s human. “I’ll put up a ward for you, but I’d understand if you wanted to head back that way and wait until it’s clear.” She nods at the other tunnel into the cave.

Rhodes shakes his head. “I’m good with wards. With a source right here, one that’s full of power, even the full blast of the Fae Wind won’t get through my ward.”

Kellan nods. “Okay. I’ll cast an Air ward as backup. If this all goes wrong, can you Water-Walk out of here?”

The human nods. “No problem.”

“Great. How are you with runes?”

“Pretty good.”

“If I give you a rune sequence,” Kellan says, rummaging in her bag and withdrawing a handful of chalk. “Could you write it on that wall over there?”

She tips her head at the mouth of the tunnel leading back the way they came.

“Sure,” Rhodes replies.

Rhodes holds out his hand and my mate passes him white, red, and black chalk. She takes her own sticks and paces across the cavern to the mouth of the tunnel the jackals left through.

“This will work best if we scribe at the same time,” Kellan calls. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Rhodes confirms.

She begins calling out the names of runes, familiar from my own education at Addlestone and Bevington. Although no one expects me to be a scholar, I enjoy learning and have applied myself. I quickly recognize what my mate’s doing. She’s started with Netz’s Four Corners: a ward of summoning and containment. But from there, she builds her wards in a way I don’t understand. Slowly, as she and Rhodes work, a spiderweb pattern emerges, strong strands of purging, purification, and dispersal. For the gossamer bridges between the strands, she scribes the name of the Night Mother, over and over. I expect healing or at least peace. Instead, she calls the Crone again and again.

That’s brilliant, Luca thinks at me.She’s giving them everything they need to heal and invoked the name of the one most likely to undo her work, beseeching her to protect the clan.

I shouldn’t be surprised my twin understands my mate’s casting. Their magics, although very different, are clearly aligned.

Once the spiderwebs reach up both walls, my mate collects the chalk and stows it back in her bag. She takes out the silver cup and hands it to Rhodes.

“Take off your shoes and stand in the Motherwell. When I give you the nod, dunk the cup in the water. If this goes tits up, leave the cup and get the Hells out of here.”

The human’s smile flashes at my mate’s terminology. Mine doesn’t. If he abandons my mate when she’s in distress, I’ll eviscerate him along with the jackal.

Rhodes sits on a rock to remove his footwear, which look quite familiar. Admittedly, with the three of us wearing the same size shoe, I don’t pay much attention to who is wearing what shoes as long as I can find my favorite shoes when I want them. I usually have to retrieve them from Luca’s closet, but I’m so used to it at this point that I don’t even feel resentful. Still, my Horween Chromexcel leather Dr. Martens? I don’t think so.

They’re shoes, Luca thinks at me.

If your human keeps borrowing my belongings, my next pair of shoes will be made from his hide.

Luca scoffs into my mind.

Barefoot and oddly vulnerable, Rhodes crosses the cavern floor, stepping gingerly. He lacks the thick pads that protect my feet from the pebbles underfoot. His discomfort makes me smile grimly, my lips stretching over my fangs.

He walks a few feet into the water, until it laps over his hairless ankles. He centers himself and holds out his hands. A crystalline wall of water rises from the pool and spirals around him.

On the dry bank, Kellan faces him with her back to us. She spreads out her hands in a gesture that mirrors the human’s. With a howl, the Shades surrounding us tear away and rush to my mate.

Through the water-wall, Rhodes’ eyes go wide as he sees the four of us. Furious, I shake my head at him. His eyes flick back to Kellan’s face but remain just as wide. I don’t know what he’s seeing, but I know what I see from the back.

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