Page 16 of Atlas and the Traitor

“The body?” he practically shouted. “She was my cousin.” Even if it had been his own hands that had taken her life. Another death in the family he was responsible for. Robin’s increasingly, annoyingly familiar hand landed on his shoulder, and Atlas shrugged it off. “Don’t touch me,” he barked at the dog, before setting his irate sights on the hometown resident in the room. “You don’t think anyone will recognize you?” he said to Icarus, same as he had to Mary.

“If they do, they won’t understand why I look the same as I did thirty years ago.” He flicked a hand at his ginger hair. “And it’s the first time I’ve had my real color since I was ten.”

“What about the barber who dyed it the first time?”

Icarus laughed. “The guy at Shorty’s in Santa Maria? He was ancient back then. I’m sure he’s dead by now.”

If he knew Shorty’s, then... “You remember the cemetery a block over from there?”

He nodded.

“Bury her between her mother and Canton.”

Color drained from Icarus’s face, and he gulped, his words seemingly caught in his throat. Did the nurse turned vampire turned field medic suddenly have an affliction against dead bodies and graveyards?

Before he could ask, Adam stepped in for his partner. “We’ll take care of her and meet you back at the safe house.”

“Fuck, Robin,” Atlas said, spinning on his heel. “How many people did you tell?”

“The ones who needed to know,” he replied. “Who won’t try to kill her.”

Fair. But dirty. “Fuck you.”

Robin brought his hand down on his shoulder once more. “Be mad at me later. Right now, just get us the fuck out of here.”

Also fair. And not up for debate. Atlas raised his hand and snapped.

Eleven

Atlas ported them to the no-longer-safe house and realized how true his words had become.

A battle was in full swing. Dyami’s two casino goons were squared off with Robin’s coyote cousin, Jenn, and her mountain lion partner, Abigail. Two other faces Atlas recognized from the casino were trading blows with Brock, one of Vincent’s warlocks Adam had turned, and Jason, the hulking smuggler who was Paris’s best friend and carried a phoenix with his soul. His skin glowed with the firebird’s red and orange heat.

That battle, however, didn’t frighten Atlas; he was confident Adam’s team could handle Dyami’s henchmen. It was the familiar magic that raised his hairs and threatened to unleash his own that caused his pulse to spike.

“Evan’s here,” he said, and in the space of one breath, in a flash of golden light and cracking bones, Robin shifted, the giant coyote pulling even with Atlas’s steps. Together, they slunk from the edge of the vineyard to the shadows of the cottage, approaching the back steps. Then halting when Mary appeared in the loft window above.

Atlas held his breath, certain Evan would appear behind her, would snap her neck as he’d done Daphne’s and then Nature would be dead for good. Chaos would reign, with Evan as his vessel, and the world would never be the same, would be over before any of them knew it.

But Evan didn’t appear, and the green-haired pixie made a series of hand gestures Atlas vaguely recognized as sign language. Nothing vague about Robin’s understanding, though. Golden eyes keen, he nodded his big rusty head, then nudged Atlas’s hip with his muzzle, aiming him away from the cottage. “He’s not in there with her?”

Robin shook his head, then made a low plaintive whine as he prodded him again, shoving him toward the walkway that led down the hill.

To the main house.

Above which corvids circled, two giant ravens among them, Mac and his younger brother Liam, the current reaper for the Monte Corvo clan.

Atlas’s stomach sank.

With no time to waste, he grabbed the dog by the scruff and cut a hole in the plane to the more vulnerable. But they were too late. The green mist had barely faded from around them when Evan appeared in the doorway from the kitchen, an arm curled around the throat of the vineyard manager’s preteen son.

“Stay right there, brother,” he said, yellow orb hovering at his side.

“Let them go,” Atlas said. “They have nothing to do with this.”

“On the contrary, I showed up, and they wanted an update on the battle for Nature. Wanted to know how they could help.” He cinched his arm tighter around the trembling boy’s neck. “Even this one. Simon, was it?”

The boy’s dark, tear-filled gaze strayed toward the kitchen before bouncing back to Atlas and the coyote beside him, Robin’s teeth bared.

---