Judged

by Liz de Jager

  ‘I’d rather be ohana than pack,’ I say, grinning. ‘Less hair-shedding to deal with.’

  Without taking his eyes off the road, he reaches out and tries to pinch my leg and mock-fights with me as I try to get away. It’s only after Dante demands we behave that we settle down again, the air lighter. I pass around the food and we listen to the news. Yet again, it warns of unseasonably heavy storms for early December in the UK, plummeting temperatures and snow across the mainland – all being driven by the so-called weather bomb.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  We stop once more, near Walsall. Rocco brings out the kind of equipment that would make Kyle geek-freak out and I take a step back from it. Dante does the same and Hawke gives us each a searching look.

  ‘Electronics,’ I say. ‘They don’t like us. I don’t want to be liable for screwing up whatever the big guy’s trying to do there.’

  ‘I built this baby myself,’ Rocco assures me, running a hand over the keyboard. ‘She can withstand a nuclear blast and still be up and running in less than five minutes.’

  Hawke turns back to Rocco and I’m interested to see what they’re doing. I edge closer and peer over their shoulders. The laptop, if we can call it that, is small and compact, no bigger than a tablet. However, it looks sturdy, encased in a solid-looking rubber housing. It definitely looks homemade. Rocco sees me leaning in and beckons me closer.

  ‘I’ve piggybacked onto a satellite,’ he says. ‘We’ll be able to see the entire compound soon, but I estimate that we’ll have about ten minutes before we lose the satellite once we get there.’ He looks at Hawke, who nods. ‘That means we have to be fast, otherwise we’re going in blind and you guys don’t want that.’

  ‘No, you definitely don’t want to go in blind. Rocco will be our eyes.’ Hawke turns away and takes a small black case from Jane. He opens it to reveal comms equipment. ‘Put these on now so we can check them before we get to the compound. Keep talking to a minimum once we get there.’

  Jane helps us secure the ear-and mouthpieces. They’re small and don’t seem particularly robust. My earpiece fits neatly and the mouthpiece disappears beneath my scarf against the skin of my throat. There is no way, dressed like this with my beanie on, that anyone would remotely suspect I’m microphoned up.

  ‘Rocco built these too, so they should be okay for you to use. Please don’t lose them or break them,’ Jane says, adjusting Aiden’s. ‘Because he will cry like a girl over his first break-up if you do. I’ve seen it happen.’

  In answer Rocco flips her off but then he taps his watch. ‘Fifteen minutes till we’re ready. Let’s go.’

  We head to the Audi and they all climb back into the van. We follow their vehicle this time. We each get to check our comms too and listen to the others do the same. I make sure mine’s turned off and then sag back against the passenger seat, breathing shakily. Both Aiden and Dante look tense and Dante glances at me as I bite my lip.

  ‘There’s going to be shooting,’ I say. ‘I’m not sure how I feel about that.’

  ‘The Jericho Gang aren’t good guys,’ Dante points out. ‘Drugs, guns, and we’ve been told they kill people – so they’ve most likely done a lot of other very unpleasant stuff.’

  ‘They have Connor and Shaun. And they tried to take all three of us hostage.’ Aiden glances at me. ‘We’re going to be okay. These guys seem pretty together.’

  ‘But there are nine of us and who knows how many of the Jericho Gang,’ I say, feeling panic rising. ‘I’m less concerned about the gangsters and I’m more worried about Hawke and his team. I mean, they all look so nice.’

  The boys stare at me and then they start laughing. I blink in confusion because I’m pretty sure I’ve not said anything funny at all.

  ‘Kit, Hawke and his team? They’ve probably done very bad things for our government. Deniable things in countries we can’t even pronounce, so I’m pretty sure they can handle a handful of gangsters.’

  I slump further. ‘That still doesn’t matter. I don’t like putting good people in danger.’

  Dante pats my shoulder. Sooner than I like, we’ve turned off an A-road and we’re shooting along a narrow country road and I turn my comms back on and so do the boys.

  ‘This is Alpha Team,’ Hawke rumbles in my ear. ‘ETA: five minutes.’

  Johann is driving the van and he doesn’t indicate when he turns, just ahead of us. Aiden swears, swinging the Audi’s nose behind the van, up a narrow rutted dirt track. We travel fast and it’s getting dark, with the clouds lying thick and heavy on the horizon.

  Johann parks near some trees and we all clamber out of our vehicles. I grab my sword, check the baton strapped to my wrist and make sure it flicks out fast and controlled. I secure my knives and check that they slide out easily. I look up when I feel eyes on me; Hawke’s watching me with an expression close to admiration.

  ‘What?’ I ask him, wondering if there’s something wrong with the way I’ve adjusted my knives, but he just shakes his head.

  ‘To be honest, you Blackharts are the only people I know who take blades into a gunfight.’

  I grimace at him. ‘Guns – I don’t like them. They don’t like me.’

  He holds up a small compact pistol. I know I should know what it’s called because Jamie’s trained me to recognize the most common weapons on sight. ‘You sure I can’t convince you to use one of these?’

  I pat my sword. ‘No, my blade doesn’t run out of ammo,’ I tell him and he grins and, when I look round, I see his team shares his amusement.

  Rocco soon has his laptop out again and Hawke points at the compound, outlined on the screen via satellite imagery. Hawke hustles us close. ‘Game plan is this: snipers take out the guards here and here. I lead Team A in and we take out as many as we can. Team B, you guys follow once we’ve secured the area and you get the Garrett brothers out. Clear?’

  ‘Roger that.’ Hawke’s team splits in two. Rick and Emily disappear into the trees and I watch as they appear on the satellite image as two dots outlined in green. They move incredibly fast in the dark. Even with my sight, I tend to take things slower at night but neither of them hesitates. ‘In position,’ Emily murmurs in my ear. Next is Rick. ‘Got you. We’re ready, Team Leader.’

  Hawke gestures and we follow him into the darkness. He uses hand signals to direct Jane and Johann and they spread out in a sweeping motion towards the large compound. He points to Aiden next, then towards what looks like a shed. Aiden nods and moves off stealthily. Hawke pushes his fist down towards me and Dante and we stay put.

  ‘I can see four guards on the far perimeter. Now three. Two.’ Rocco’s voice is a soft murmur in my ear. ‘Now, one. And we’re clear. Good shooting, Emily.’

  ‘Thanks, Roc.’

  ‘I’ve got movement at my nine,’ Rick says. ‘I can’t see. What’s going on, Roc?’

  ‘A deer. Just pushing through the undergrowth. You’ll be fine.’

  For a few seconds there’s silence, then Rick breathes, ‘It’s gone. Bloody wildlife.’

  It carries on like this as we move steadily closer to the compound, Emily and Rick sniping and covering us. Aiden ghosts back to us in the darkness and my hand tightens on the fighting knife in my hand when I see his dark shape come running.

  ‘There’s someone in the shed,’ he says, low and clear, not using the comms. His eyes meet mine in the near dark. ‘I can hear four heartbeats. Two of them I know as well as my own. The other two … I can’t tell who they are.’

  I frown at him because he is staring at me very intently and then he deliberately makes an explosion gesture with his fingers, keeping his back to Hawke.

  I close my eyes because I get it. Magic. Someone in the shed with Connor and Shaun is a sorcerer.

  ‘Hawke,’ I say into the comms. ‘How much do you know about us?’

  ‘Here we go,’ someone says, and I’m not sure if it’s Rocco or Johann. ‘Here’s the stuff they didn’t want to tell us.’

  ‘I know
some things, Blackhart. What’s going on?’

  ‘The shed. That’s where they’re keeping Shaun and Connor. But they’re not alone.’

  ‘We didn’t think that they would be. How many more are there?’

  ‘Two. Which shouldn’t be a problem – except that one of them is a sorcerer.’

  The silence on the comms is deafening.

  ‘When you say sorcerer, you’re not using it as some kind of code are you?’

  ‘No, sir. I mean a sorcerer that taps into the magic of the energy lines that criss-cross the earth and then bends that energy to their will.’

  ‘I suddenly wish I’d taken the R&R I was signed up for,’ Rick gripes in my ear, but I hear him adjust his weapon. ‘If you can get the sorcerer into the wide open, I can take him down.’

  ‘They have magic,’ I point out.

  ‘And I’ve got high-velocity armour-piercing rounds. I don’t see any of this as an issue.’

  I roll my eyes but Aiden grins at me. ‘Come on. Let’s give it a try.’

  We move through the night, changing our trajectory. Hawke sticks close to Aiden, weapon up, flanking him. Dante’s even quieter than Aiden and he brings up the other side, sticking close to me.

  ‘Plan?’ I whisper, knowing Aiden would hear me.

  ‘I howl. They come out. We take them out.’

  ‘That’s a terrible plan.’

  ‘But it will work.’

  ‘Wait. I have a plan. Give me five minutes,’ I say, sliding past him. Hawke makes an abortive grab for my arm but I sidestep him and move into the cold night. My hand closes over the ever-present chalk in my pocket and I kneel down on the ground and sketch a circle in front of me. By my estimate we’re about fifteen metres from the door of the shed. All Aiden has to do is get the sorcerer into the circle and I can do the rest.

  The chalk glides over the ground, skimming leaves, and I close my eyes, opening myself up to my magic. It rushes out of me in a flood and I sway as it hits me full on. It feels fantastic and the lethargy I’ve been suffering is wiped away. I anchor myself and cast the circle, using a binding spell I taught myself and altered to fit my needs (usually speed and accuracy). I embed the spell as firmly as I can. I next step out of the circle and walk it three times in the right direction, or deosil, keeping my hand out to ensure the lines I’ve drawn and cast meet and match. As I do, I will energy into the lines and speak the spell over and over. I repeat it nine times, the Latin tripping off my tongue faster than I would ever have imagined months ago. I kneel down and quickly sketch two Norse binding runes on opposite sides of the circle too, just in case. I walk the circle three more times, binding the runes together and linking them with the initial spell.

  I step back and give Aiden a thumbs-up. We all melt into the darkness and Dante pulls me towards him so we can stand in the shadows of the dark undergrowth.

  If I wasn’t expecting the sound it would have made me sob. A wolf’s howl is a personal thing and I’ve never heard Aiden’s before. It starts low and seems to tremble in the cold air around me. There’s a muttered ‘Jesus’ in my ear from someone over the comms. The sound is long and raw and beautiful. Dante’s fingers flex on my arm and I grip him back, because, yes, the sound tears at me too. Aiden is calling to his brothers, to his pack-mates, and the sound holds all the worry he’s been trying to deflect since he heard they were taken. The sound swells, becoming louder, and in the timbre I hear a snarl of anger but he tempers it back as the howl fades away.

  For a few seconds there’s nothing, no sound and no movement in the all-encompassing darkness. Then the sound of wood shattering rends the air. It’s coming from the shed, followed by another cry that sounds very human. It’s cut off with a garbled yelp and I straighten, gripping my sword tightly. Aiden moves towards the door and he’s doing the I’m bigger now stance that intimidates people so much. The way he moves tells me he’s listening to what’s going on inside the shed. He looks over at where I’m hidden in the shadows with Dante.

  ‘The sorcerer killed the human,’ Aiden’s voice says in my ear. ‘He’s got the area and the door warded, so I can’t get in there.’

  ‘Your brothers?’

  ‘I can hear them. Their heartbeats are slow.’

  ‘They are drugged.’

  He nods at my words and somewhere Hawke swears.

  ‘Kid, if we blow up that shed, will your brothers make it?’

  ‘Yes, but I’m not keen to blow up my family. I mean, they annoy me sometimes, but no one deserves to be blown up.’

  Hawke snorts. ‘Rocco. How much time?’

  ‘Three minutes, then we lose the satellite.’

  ‘Emily, get ready with that weapon of yours.’

  ‘Roger that, H.’

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  ‘Here’s what I want you to do, kid,’ Hawke says to Aiden. ‘I want you to make a hell of a racket outside that shed. Can you do that?’

  Aiden nods and within seconds it sounds as if the forest itself has come alive and is trying to implode. Aiden howls and snarls around the shed, lunging at the walls a few times. I can only imagine what it must sound like from the inside of the shed itself. Hawke watches for a few seconds before he lifts his gun and fires two shots into the nearest tree. The noise startles us all and Aiden ducks low but doesn’t stop his noise-making.

  As bold as brass, Hawke walks up to the shed door, puts a finger to his lips and gestures for Aiden to stay down. Then he leans forward and uses the butt of his gun to knock on the door.

  ‘Sir?’ he calls softly. ‘Sir, the wolf has been contained.’

  For too long there’s silence from the shed and then the door cracks open slightly.

  ‘Who’re you?’ The man’s voice is suspicious.

  ‘Caleb sent me, sir. My name is Caine. The compound’s been attacked and we followed one of the rogue wolves here. The others have been taken care of.’

  ‘Caleb is here?’

  ‘He arrived about an hour ago.’

  ‘Good. Have you got men to guard the shed?’

  ‘They are in position, sir.’ Hawke’s voice sounds authoritative but not arrogant and the man, who must be the sorcerer, seems placated. ‘I need to speak with Caleb. We need to move. If the wolves could find us, others can too.’

  ‘I can escort you, sir.’

  The man looks over his shoulder into the shed but then nods and pulls the door shut behind him. Hawke turns around and starts leading the man away from the shed. I hold my breath as he angles his body and brushes just past the circle I’d drawn with the chalk. The sorcerer, oblivious to anything but his need to speak to Caleb Jericho, steps into the circle, triggering the spell, and the wards slam shut with a whump.

  ‘Holy Batman’s utility belt,’ Rick’s voice mutters in my ear. ‘The chick did the magic and it’s real.’

  Dante and I sprint towards the circle and my heart thunders in relief that I’ve managed to pull this off. The sorcerer, and I have no idea who he is, stares at me in real shock and then his gaze moves to Hawke, who looks a little smug and surprised that I’ve done this.

  ‘A little help here?’ Aiden calls from the front of the shed, where he’s braced against the open doorway. He’s straining his body to try to peer in, but an invisible barrier prevents him.

  ‘Watch him,’ I tell Hawke and Dante, gesturing to the Fae. ‘If he does anything like escape, put bullets in him.’

  I jog over to front of the shed, seeing magic sigils carved into the doorjamb. They look simple and designed specifically for wolves. Not just to keep other wolves out, but to keep the captured wolves in.

  ‘Can you smell something weird?’ I ask, and turn to look at Aiden, whose eyes have taken on a faraway expression. ‘Aide?’

  He jerks his attention back to me and just drops, as if he’s a puppet and someone’s cut his strings. My fingers find his pulse and it’s steady but slow. I chance to look into the shed and spot two slumped figures in the semi-darkness, sacks over their heads. There’s
no sign of the other person Aiden mentioned initially, and I wonder exactly what the sorcerer did to him.

  ‘Oh shit,’ I mutter and turn back to the shed’s wards. I grab the chalk and start writing my own counter-spell. I trace the carvings in the door and rely on instinct to change them. I have no idea how long I am working there, but at some stage someone says, We’ve lost the satellite, and then, More guards are coming. Someone replies, Not any more, and when I look up into Dante’s concerned eyes, he’s holding out something in a mug to me. I drink it and grimace because it’s foul coffee and exactly what I need. He kneels next to Aiden and wrinkles his nose.

  ‘What is that smell?’ he mutters and I shake my head.

  ‘I don’t know? Aconite – wolfsbane? Other stuff that smells a little familiar, I can’t be sure. Whatever it is, it dropped Aiden unconscious after he’d only inhaled a bit. It’s what they’re using to keep Connor and Shaun sedated in there, for sure.’

  Dante peers into the shed before hunkering down next to Aiden again. ‘Get them out, Kit.’

  ‘I’m trying.’

  ‘We could always just blow the shed up,’ Hawke says again, and when I glare up at him he’s smiling. ‘It’s a joke. You’re doing well, kid. I don’t know what exactly you’re doing, but you’re doing good. Your uncle will be proud.’

  ‘Jamie’s pissed at me,’ I tell him as I go back to the carved spell. I’m two-thirds of the way through and I’m exhausted. ‘He thinks I betrayed the family.’

  ‘Sometimes he’s a bit of an idiot,’ Hawke tells me and he sounds resigned. ‘Whenever we ran any ops together things always went sideways. It was a guarantee.’

  ‘How long have you known Jamie?’

  Hawke talks and I listen. His voice helps me work. I don’t know why, but having him at my back steadies my hands. Dante’s moved Aiden a few paces away and I glance over my shoulder to see the sorcerer sitting in the middle of my circle. The guy looks annoyed and defeated. And the fact that Johann is standing over him with a gun the size of a small child doesn’t seem to help his demeanour either.