Page 73 of Ignited Spirits
Instead, she hops off the desk and walks over to Cain. She puts her hands on his chest and looks up at him with a small smile. “I’ll be okay, quiet boy. I have all of you to watch my back, and I’m not exactly a slouch when it comes to power myself. Honestly, I feel bad for the council dudes. They don’t stand a chance.”
Cain smiles down at Izzy, that soft smile of his that he reserves only for our mate. “I know you have more power in your pinky than the council members have put together, but I still worry about you, angel.”
Izzy pushes up on her tiptoes and presses her mouth to his for a quick kiss. “I know. And I worry about you being here, but it’ll all be okay. You’ll see.” Stepping back and looking aroundthe room, she asks, “So who’s going to listen to tell us when it’s all clear?”
“It is clear currently, mate,” Legion says before the wolves or Levi can answer.
Izzy raises her eyebrows at him in disbelief and shock. “How do you know that?”
“How do you know that you have power?” Legion shrugs. “It is simply innate knowledge, and I do not know where it comes from. It would be best to hurry, however, because guards will be approaching the hallway in a few minutes.”
Blinking at him a few times, Izzy shakes herself out of her surprise. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road.”
She marches to the door and swings it open hard enough it almost bangs into the wall. Only Luca’s quick reflexes stop it from landing with a crash and alerting our targets to our presence.
Izzy winces. “Thanks for the save, wolf boy.”
“Any time, wildcat.” His lips curve up in a half smile.
Legion takes the opportunity to stalk past Izzy and go into the hallway first. I wait for Izzy and Luca to go before following, not making any attempt to go first because I know I’m not the strongest here.
It’s taken some getting used to, not being the most powerful in the mate group. Izzy’s always been more powerful than me, but other than her, I was always the most powerful in the room.
With her mate group consisting of a hellhound, a magic user from another realm, and a creature as old as time itself, I’m nowhere near the top of the power ranking. Strangely enough, I’m okay with it because it means Izzy is better protected.
“Which room first?” Legion growls, his voice sounding like Archer’s but a little deeper and raspier.
Isabel looks around at the names. “Not Farley. He’s the replacement for Councilman Doherty, who died last yearunexpectedly. I’d rather avoid Councilman Giles and Wheland if possible, so I guess that leaves Byrne and Moore. Anyone have a vote?”
“From what I’ve heard from Dad, Byrne isn’t a bad guy, just spineless. I doubt he has all the details of their plan.” Rhys points at the office door straight ahead. “Moore’s a real fucking piece of work, so let’s start there.”
Picking up my pace, I walk even with Izzy. I flick my gaze down to meet hers. “Why do you want to avoid Giles and Wheland?”
She clenches her jaw and looks everywhere except at me. I file it away to ask her about later. I have my suspicion about why, but now’s not the time to get into it.
Legion is the first to reach Moore’s door. He tries the brass doorknob before kicking it in and making a racket. Surprisingly, it swings open with no resistance.
He’s the first one to peer into the office, and his shoulders go rigid at what he sees. “We might have a problem, mate.”
CHAPTER 25
IZZY
Pushing through my other mates, I duck under Legion’s arm braced on the doorframe to look at what’s going on. When I see Moore, I wish I hadn’t.
His throat is slit, and rust-colored blood covers the front of his white dress shirt. That’s not the most disturbing part, though. It’s not his bloodshot brown eyes frozen wide in terror and his mouth open in a silent scream. What’s really messed up is that his limbs are strewn about his office, blood and gore decorating almost every surface.
I look around for his soul. I’m pretty sure this qualifies as a traumatic death, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the councilman hanging out. Unfortunately for me, there’s no soul to be found. “I don’t think he’s going to be much help.”
“You don’t say,” Bishop deadpans.
Rolling my eyes at him, I look around the rest of the room. “Think there’s anything useful in here?”
Rhys hums in thought. “Could be. Doesn’t hurt to go through his drawers.”
Before I can take a step toward the former councilman’s blood-covered desk, Luca brushes past me and makes a beeline for it.
Cain stalks over to help him, and the two of them have his drawers and bookcase rifled through in less than a minute.
