Page 85 of Incoronate
“What do we actually know about how it works?” I asked of no one in particular.
Gabriel leaned forward, his leather jacket protesting the movement. “I’m not privy to the specifics, but the principles are generally the same for all protective barriers. They’re usually anchored at multiple points throughout the area they’re meant to protect. Those points are called nexus points. Each one reinforces the others, creating a network that’s nearly impossible to break through conventional means.”
“Nearly impossible,” I repeated, choosing to cling to the qualifier.
He eyed me warily. “Generally speaking, the Caster who erected the barrier is the one required to take it down. But perhaps with your Nephilim abilities, you might be strongenough to interfere with whatever is holding them in place. We won’t know until we test it.”
“Then that’s what we do. We find the nearest nexus point and see if I can crack it.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Trace immediately, his hand tightening possessively on my thigh. “And I’m sure Goldilocks will want to come too.”
Gabriel nodded, his gaze moving between the two of us before landing back on me. “This is reconnaissance only. You test the barrier, gather information, and come straight back. No heroics. No deviations from the plan. Understood?”
“Understood,” I said, though we both knew plans had a way of falling apart the moment I stepped outside. They always did. Again, mostly because of me.
Trace bounced his knee against mine in that nervous way he did when he was working up to saying something I wouldn’t like. “I was thinking…” He hesitated. “Maybe it’s time we call Caleb. Get him involved.”
The suggestion landed like a stone in my gut.
“He’s a Caster,” continued Trace, apparently taking my silence as permission to keep going. “And he’s helped put up barriers before. He might know something about how to bring this one down.”
Mixed emotions churned through me at the mention of Caleb’s name. Part of me was still angry at him for defending Carly after everything she had done. For defending something that almost got me killed. But another part of me knew I was being a hypocrite. Because if the situation were reversed, if Tessa had been the one who’d done something terrible, I would have defended her the same way he had defended his sister.
At the end of the day, Caleb had always been there for me. Even when it was dangerous. Even when it cost him. And I wouldn’t forget that.
“Okay,” I said finally, the word coming out gentler than I’d intended. “Call him.”
Trace’s eyebrows shot up, clearly surprised I’d agreed so easily. “Yeah?”
I nodded. “We need all the help we can get.”
“When do we leave?” asked Trace, turning back to Gabriel.
Gabriel checked his watch, the silver catching the light as he turned it over and read the time. “Not until sundown. The darker it is, the less chance you’ll be spotted.”
That gave us a couple of hours. One hundred and eighty minutes before I’d know whether I was strong enough to break the barrier keeping us all trapped here. Whether I had any real chance of getting my family out of this town alive before it was too late.
I looked down at Ares, still sleeping peacefully in his bassinet, oblivious to everything being planned around him. To the war being waged in his name. His tiny chest rose and fell in even rhythm, his face serene and unmarked by the violence that had shadowed his existence long before he ever drew his first breath.
Three hours. And then we’d find out if I had any real hope of saving them, or if I was just leading us all toward a completely different kind of ending.
27. A LOCK WITHOUT A KEY
Three hours had somehow felt like both an eternity and no time at all. Everyone had scattered after our kitchen showdown, some to prepare and others just to escape the suffocating tension that had wrapped around the house like a sopping wet blanket. I’d spent most of it trying not to pace holes in the floor, my mind spinning through worst-case scenarios faster than I could catalogue them.
What if the barrier couldn’t be broken? What if the Order showed up before we could find out? What if it worked but getting Tessa and Ares out of Hollow Hills only made them more vulnerable?
The questions looped endlessly in my mind, each one bleeding into the next until I couldn’t tell which fears were rational and which were just the exhaustion talking.
By the time the sun finally began its descent behind the treeline, painting the sky in streaks of burnt orange and deep purple, my nerves were stretched taut enough to snap. I’d drifted from the kitchen to the living room to the foyer and back again, unable to sit still, unable to focus on anything except the crushing knot of not knowing if any of this would work. And, of course, what would come next if it did.
Gabriel found me standing by the living room window, watching the last rays of sunlight disappear beneath the horizon. “It’s time,” he said, his voice somehow gentle despite the worry lining his eyes.
I nodded and followed him out of the living room in silence.
Trace and Dominic were already waiting by the front door when I joined them. Trace’s eyes found mine immediately,and I felt the familiar warmth of our bond reach out to anchor me. Dominic, on the other hand, looked as unruffled as ever, though I was certain I caught a hint of tension in his shoulders that belied his casual stance.
“Ready, angel?”
