Harley Merlin 12 by Bella Forrest (reading books for 4 year olds TXT) 📕

as fuzzy as Erebus’s details, but they’d entered the same race and were fighting to cross the finish line first. Perhaps Davin wanted to piss Erebus off. Perhaps he had his own reasons. Either way, once again, Davin had ruined Erebus’s plans. And we would die for it.

“Clock is ticking, Nash,” Davin said. “You volunteer, and I release them. If you don’t, I kill them, and I take you. It is very simple.”

“Why would I trust a word from your mouth?” Nash shouted. “You’ll just kill them anyway.”

“Maybe you caught me in a generous mood.” I could just picture Davin puffing his chest, smug that he had what he wanted, right there in the palm of his hand.

“You just said you wanted to kill Finch. If he’s the Finch I think he is, you said it yourself—you’ve wanted him dead a long time. Makes sense, considering he killed his mother, your Ryann.” Nash’s breath rattled dangerously. Well, the jig on me was definitely up. At least I wouldn’t have long to bathe in the shame of lying.

“Fine, I’ll spare the other two, and that dog of yours,” Davin countered. “Finch doesn’t get a free pass, I’m afraid.”

Bright light flooded the house. Pure white energy pulsed through the fog, dissolving it instantaneously. A weird flapping sound came through the thrum of intense power—like rustling feathers complete with a rush of warm air. At first, I thought Davin had done something, until I heard him cry out in pain. I looked around, now that I could finally see, and caught a glimpse of Davin’s hands shooting up to cover his eyes. This light hadn’t come from him.

Lux… It had to be her. White light, powerful as hell, burning the eyes of a Necromancer—who else had that sort of oomph? But I couldn’t shout that from the rooftops. She wouldn’t take kindly to me spreading her name around. Children of Chaos weren’t supposed to involve themselves in the mortal realm.

Well, well, aren’t you a little renegade? I had no problem with that. I just wondered what this rescue would cost me.

Thirty-Four

Finch

Huntress barked furiously as she bounded toward the open door. Davin staggered around the cabin, groaning and covering his blinded eyes. He left a gap for us to slip through. Lux had given us a helping hand; we couldn’t waste it. I checked my arms, but the gray skin and liver spots had vanished. Our angel of mercy must’ve broken the link between Davin’s magic and our decaying cells.

“Nash, help me with Luke!” I raced for the slumped bodyguard, my body young and energized again. Melody knelt beside him, cradling him, but she let go as we came to his aid. Nash tugged Luke’s arm over his shoulder, and I took the other.

Between us, we hauled Captain Beefcake, who weighed a ton, toward the door where Huntress stood guard. She’d stopped barking, no doubt realizing the sound gave away her location. Melody hurried after us, and the four of us edged through the entryway into the sting of the Manitoban winds. I glanced back, watching Davin struggle. His arms flailed, giving me a glimpse of his unseeing eyes; a spiderweb of red veins branched from the centers.

What the hell did you do, Lux? It looked like she had actually burned his eyes. His grunts of pain cemented the notion. Why had she suddenly decided to help? Not that I minded, but the last time I’d seen her, she’d chucked me out of the room on my ass and promised to flay me if I told anyone that we’d spoken. That wasn’t exactly the basis for a shiny new friendship.

“We need to get into the woods, use trees as cover,” Nash instructed, panting heavily. His legs buckled for a moment, his face paling as he caught himself.

“Are you okay?” I eyed him with concern.

He winced. “It’s the curse. I don’t have the strength I used to.”

“Let me take him. You worry about yourself. Same to you, Melody.” I wrapped a strand of Telekinesis around Luke’s waist and hoisted him up. His body floated as I dragged him along. He still weighed a ton, but it felt like carrying someone through water—much more manageable.

“Will he be all right?” Melody stayed close as we ran for the trees, crashing through the undergrowth. Davin might’ve been blinded, but we were making a racket. And I had no idea how long he might stay blind. Lux really would’ve broken major rules by leaving him that way.

I shrugged, my arm shaking under the strain of keeping Luke airborne. “He won’t be if we stay here.”

“We need to go back to my house. Davin can’t follow us there,” Melody instructed as she trailed Huntress through the ominous forest, the boughs shaking as we passed. Most of the pines were too densely foliaged, if that was a word, to even attempt a chalk door. But Huntress seemed to know where she was going.

The husky trotted across the snow, her head turning back occasionally to keep a blue eye on Nash. He kept pace as best he could, but I heard his every shallow breath. That curse was doing a number on him. All that pain, just to keep Davin at bay.

Huntress made for the nearest trunk and stopped, then nosed the wood. Melody ran to the dog and whipped out a stick of charmed chalk. I had mine, but I also had my hands full with her lover-boy. Behind us, from the cabin, I heard an almighty howl and a couple choice expletives—at least, they sounded like expletives, but they were oh-so-British: “Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks! You despicable blighter! Come back, you buggers! I am not done with you! Tossers, the lot of you!”

“Draw!” I urged, struggling to keep Luke afloat.

Melody scratched a rectangle into the trunk before whispering the Aperi Si Ostium spell. The lines fizzed and burned into the tree, creating the doorway that would get us out of Dodge. She yanked the handle