As if he knew, as if he sensed it, his deep blue eyes flicked across the crowd and found her, glinting with amusement. Maia gave him her middle finger, delighted with the ripple of amusement through the tall, shadowy trees of her soul—his emotions whispering through the leaves along with her own.
"Moretheatrics?" Nesslyn asked with a slanted grin. "You got it, boss!"
Maia huffed a laugh, but she sobered when the spy continued to speak, her voice grave.
"I moved as fast as I could through the village, but it was like pushing through quicksand; the air tried to push me back. People were screaming near the Healer's temple, so that's where I went. I expected to find a score of Vassalian soldiers, so I cloaked myself the closer I got, but..."
Maia reached for Jaro's hand and entwined her fingers with his, Nesslyn's pause making her stomach knot. This wasn't for dramatic effect; the woman's whole bearing had changed, stiffer, her stance tight, and her features were strained as she remembered. Jaro tugged Maia into his side, brushing a kiss to the back of her hand.
"It wasn't soldiers," Nesslyn said, her mouth thin. "It was monsters. Huge things as big as a carriage, covered in black scales and green, dripping pus." Her nose scrunched, her disgust clear. "Imagine a swamp terror crossed with a jaguar, and you've got a close picture, but it's double that size, triple maybe. I saw one gut a woman with its claws and then—then eat her organs."
Maia recoiled. Saints. If something like that came here, to her home, to her mates…
She squeezed Jaro's hand tighter and searched the crowd for the rest of her mates, a knot easing in her chest when she found Kheir standing with Zamanya and Ark stood a little to the side, listening with a serious frown on his face.
"I was too late to help them," Nesslyn said, her hands curling into fists. Her eyes were glassy, her focus elsewhere—in the past. "But I tracked the things when they left, after gorging themselves on the dead."
Someone was sick, their retching loud in the silence of Nesslyn's pause.
"You found where they came from?" Kheir asked, the authority in his voice reminding her he was a prince with power and status. He was Maia's Kheir, her caring, protective mate. It was sometimes easy to forget he was a complete badass, too. He’d trained in V’haiv’s deadliest army, had seen the fall of Wylnarren, and still he’d come to Vassalaer to convince Ismene to sign a peace treaty. He was far from mild mannered.
Azrail and Ark were always in hyper defence mode, ready to leap into action at any second, but Kheir took his armour off when he was with her. She was one lucky bitch.
"Not exactly," Nesslyn replied, and Maia narrowed her eyes, not liking the sound of this one bit. "I couldn't get too close to the place the monsters vanished; there were so many shields and traps set around the place that it would keep out a damn saint."
Maia exchanged a glance with Jaro. Nesslyn was merely exaggerating, but was that what the shields were designed for? Jaro's eyes narrowed, agreeing with her train of thought.
"I got as close as the border between Venhaus and Vassal, but all traces cut out."
"The border," Az echoed, his body brimming with tension but his expression carefully neutral. He nodded. "Nesslyn, go with Zamanya to the map room, give her an exact location of where you ended up."
"What are you going to do?" a quiet male asked. Maia vaguely recognised the blond guy she saw most afternoons beating the shit out of a practise dummy.
"Make sure these things aren't coming from ortothe Vassal Empire," Az replied, his voice dark as he broke away from the crowd. "Make sure they aren't a new wave of Queen Ismene's plan."
The idea was chilling. Maia held Jaro's hand tighter as she contemplated all the evil things her aunt could cook up with her dark saint bestie.
Monsters that ate people and flattened a whole village? Sounded about right.