A Knight's Purpose (Book 1) ✔️

Chapter 19 - Witches of the Iron Claw

Four days later

A bullet slammed into the wood beside my head just before I ducked.

This. Stupid. Job. Nothing had gone right in far too long.

I growled as I moved back against the tree stump I was hiding behind. Rhoslyn, the idiot, was grinning as she reached around her tree and popped off a few rounds with her handgun. A few bullets whizzed into the bark but Caire took advantage and took a few shots of his own.

We'd spread out enough that the enemy shooters couldn't easily target all of us at once which meant if they were firing on one of us someone else should theoretically have been able to return fire. It'd been touch and go for a little while but Raine had managed to take out one of their people about a minute ago so we were no longer on equal footing.

Luck had us on a small hill but they were sheltered in a three story dilapidated plantation manner so we were still about the same height.

"Rhoslyn, can't you cast some sort of magic? Just, summon a ghost or two from all this fog! This place is creepy enough to have it's own cemetery!" Raine shouts over a hail of bullets that hit her tree as she tried to step out.

Yeah, they all got trees and stupid old me got a tree trunk that barely reached my hip if I stood up. So here I am crouched down and trying to inch around a tree trunk for a clear shot. Not exactly a great picture. The humidity is getting on my nerves and my hair is exploding with frizz, even pulled back into a tight ponytail as it is it somehow manages to annoy me.

I hate humidity. I hate this job.

Raine's got a point though. This place was clearly abandoned and definitely creepy enough to have a few unhappy spirits looking for revenge. At the bottom of the hill the land turns marshy and the once white paint of the mansion is brown and green with mold. The window shutters are falling off the hinges but the front door is still intact.

If Rhoslyn could just cast a spell instead of bullets we might not have been here for this freaking long. Unfortunately she's in a rut and her power is practically non-existent at the moment so until it surges again we're relying on Caire's magic which isn't great at long distances.

Muttering, I whisper a small incantation for accuracy to my gun and then whip around my tree trunk. A shot in the general vicinity of the enemy fire and then I'm back on the safe side of the trunk. There's a brief pause of enemy fire and Caire whistles - our signal for enemy down. He can track the life signs within the mansion which is a useful tool when you're trying to kill people.

Caire makes a break for it and dashes practically to the bottom of the hill before the shots resume. The last shooter finally gave up resuscitating his friend and returned to the offensive.

With Caire drawing fire, Raine slips silently down after him. Once she's well hidden she starts firing to clear the path. Rhoslyn goes next and I'm last to slip down the hill. I'm not afraid to say I used a bit of magic to make the eye have a hard time focusing on me just in case the shooter looked in my direction. I stopped it before I got too close to Rhoslyn and Caire though.

Just as Raine, our best shot by far, takes down the last shooter my phone rings. We all freeze.

"What the hell, Eve! Turn that off!" Rhoslyn snarls.

I know I turned it to silent which means only one thing. "Sorry, I have to take this." I turn my back on them and answer.

"What?" I snap as they all gape at me.

"Is this Eve Rutledge?"

"Yes, Camden, what do you want? I'm a bit busy." A bullet fires wildly in our direction. I whirl as Rhoslyn growls and the wind tears an entire corner off the top floor of the house to reveal a shocked figure.