Part 106 (2/2)

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and melted into his body.

He leaned in deeper, bending her over his arm.

”Nice,” Cora remarked.

It sure looked it.

I just hoped it was.

Christophe was going to be pleased.

I was withholding judgment until...

Hans suddenly broke the kiss and straightened Loretta in his arms before he cupped her jaw in a tender manner that made Loretta's face get soft in a way that I liked very much.

Okay, it took approximately three seconds, but I'd stopped withholding judgment.

I smiled.

”Awesome,” Cora said, ”I wish I'd seen his whole thing from the beginning.”

”Don't worry, we'll fill you in,” Finnie a.s.sured her.

I was just about to suggest we give them some privacy by asking to be introduced to Finnie's friends when one of them asked, ”What's that?”

My eyes went to her to see hers still at the window so I looked that way, beyond Hans and Loretta.

Then my blood turned to ice because a sea of wolves was heading out of the forest behind the palace and into the clearing.

Not one.

Or five.

Or seven.

A sea.

That could not mean good things.

”Oh s.h.i.+t,” I whispered.

”By the G.o.ds!” another of Finnie's friends cried. ”The skies!”

Pressing in with all the girls, I looked up to see the sky filled with meteors.

Yes.

Meteors!

Red, black and blue little missiles, hundreds of them, maybe thousands were raining down from the sky.

They exploded against what had been an invisible dome but now it was not. Now, with each missile strike, a burst of red, black and blue sparks shot out and where they struck, a colored cloud of leafy or emerald green spread.

But there were so many missiles, the green cloudbursts were blocking out the sun.

That was not good either.

”s.h.i.+t,” I snapped as I watched all this, taking in the wolves filling the s.p.a.ce and Hans dragging Loretta toward the palace.

”This is not good,” Circe whispered my thoughts out loud.

It absolutely was not.

We were under attack.

The dome was holding up, the wolves seeming to be forming a perimeter around the palace, my mind came unfrozen and my thoughts centered on two things.

Therefore, I whirled.

As I turned, the doors burst open and Gunnar and Stephan came in.

I ran across the library in order to run out.

Stephan caught me with an arm around my waist and I struggled against his hold as the room darkened further, the missiles. .h.i.tting the enchanted dome so furiously, the clouds of protective magic blotted out the sun.

”You must stay together!” Stephan demanded, controlling my struggles with irritating ease.

I stopped suddenly and turned in his arm.

”elan and Chris,” was all I said.

”We are all safe in this palace,” Stephan replied.

That might be so.

But I didn't f.u.c.king care.

”Until their father returns, I want them with me!” I snapped.

Stephan looked in my eyes and saw what I meant him to see. I knew this when he looked over my head. I twisted my neck to look at Gunnar.

He jerked up his chin and moved swiftly out the doors.

I could feel the growing panic and confusion drifting in from the others of the palace when I saw Alek and Remi appear in the doors.

They looked to Stephan and Remi ordered, ”Close the drapes,” before he grabbed one doork.n.o.b, Alek the other and they closed us in.

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