Page 50 of Midnight Rules
“Do you see the cellar door?” Iven gestured to it with his head even as he wrote details about what was happening.
“Yeah. So?”
“So the door has a lock on it. Not only that, but it’s heavily warded. Like wards on top of wards. Not even I can get into it.” Which was why he wasn’t pulling open the door and getting whoever was inside out of Blackroot’s cellar.
“More dark magic users.” Kinnison seemed to have stopped insulting him sometime in the last couple of hours. It was after Iven talked to Marric. Maybe he was making peace for the time being because he knew Marric wouldn’t live very much longer. While it broke Iven in two, it probably destroyed Marric’s father. Iven would feel a similar way if it were his sons. For that reason, Iven wouldn’t argue with Kinnison, so it’s a good thing he called a truce.
“Yeah.”
“How has this been happening right under my nose?” Kinnison sighed.
“A better question is how has Mattson not realized it? He’s the sheriff of Timeston. He should have been out here cleaning this mess up.”
“Mattson is a waste of space. Everyone in Timeston knows that. Especially me, since I’m the one people come to for support.” If Kinnison cooled the fires around Timeston, his guilt over the victims in the house made sense. At least on some level.Not that Iven agreed. The woman inside and everyone who knew what she was doing to people were the guilty ones.
“Does the coven come to you, too?”
Kinnison made a sound of affirmation. “The coven and the pack are a lot more integrated in Timeston than in Fortune Falls.”
Cass shook his head. “The pack isn’t even integrated with each other at the moment.”
“It’s your voting system. People think they have a right to an opinion when they can vote.”
“They do have a right to an opinion. That’s why we vote.” Cass turned in the seat. “Maybe we’ll have to agree to disagree here, but I’m just gonna say this once. The alternative is creating a pack who fears their leader. And if that’s what you want for your pack, I’m glad you turned us down when we asked for help.”
Cass turned in his seat again.
Kinnison sighed. “I’m not a dictator.”
“It sure sounds like you want to be. That might just be why you’re in this mess to begin with.” Cass messed around with his phone. Iven got enough of a glimpse to know he was texting Riley.
Kinnison growled. “Are you blaming me for my kids getting sick?”
“About as much as you blame Iven for Marric getting sick.” Cass smirked. “It all makes a ton of sense, doesn’t it?”
“Fuck you.” To Kinnison’s credit, he didn’t make a move of violence toward Cass, and he could have since he was in the back seat while Cass rode shotgun. But his anger was evident. And Cass’s sarcasm wasn’t helping.
“We can point fingers when all this is done and Marric is safe.” Iven didn’t care about anything else but Marri’s wellbeing. Kinnison’s opinion on his mating would never matter, Iven’s hurt feelings wouldn’t matter after a while either. “What I knowright now is no one in this car wants people to be imprisoned as though they’re criminals.”
Iven watched Kinnison in the rearview mirror, so he saw it when his expression softened. Kinnison met his gaze. He nodded as if to say thank you.
Iven nodded back to him.
The snap of a screen door grabbed Iven’s attention. A woman in a cream-colored flowing dress descended the stairs. She chanted as she came toward them. Her body emitted a black aura.
“Shit.” Iven scrambled to create a dome. She threw a flaming ball at them just as the dome came around them. He breathed a sigh of relief, but he knew the feeling would be short-lived. The flame bounced off the dome, ricocheting toward a tree that blew up in a fiery ball of fire. Wood splinters sailed through the air. Some of it hit the dome and slid to the ground with zero fanfare.
“That was fucking close.” Cass’s eyes were wide. “What the hell are we going to do now?”
Iven was out of ideas. He’d effectively saved their lives, but in doing so, he also trapped them. And Blackroot was one of the strongest witches Iven had ever encountered.
“Let me think.”
“I know what we won’t do. Sit here and make this car our grave.” Kinnison had a point.
“I second that,” Cass said.
They were looking to Iven to come up with a good solution to the problem and in the meantime, Blackroot was coming up with some sort of plan of her own. She stood there staring at them with an evil grin on her face. Not saying a word. She had green eyes and mostly gray hair, but there were red streaks in it. She was a striking woman with strong features, but there was something in her eyes. Maybe it was narcissism. Iven wouldlearn soon enough what made her seem dead inside and so willing to hurt them.
