“Too slow, old man.” I beckoned him with my free hand, wiggling my fingers. Laughing, he lunged forward, a wild grin on his face and in him I saw a reflection of myself.

Swords sliding off one another, we worked our way around the fountain for fifteen minutes until he finally backed off. “Enough, enough. You win.” He crouched, using the sword as a prop to lean against.

“You fight pretty good.” I slid my sword back into its sheath and he handed me the second one. I spun it in my hand, thinking. “I’m going to Track the three packs; I think I can draw them to us.” I lifted my eyes to his, but his head was down, chin on his chest.

“Not worth the risk. It isn’t.”

“And if we can’t find them before they’ve done so much damage we can’t rein them in?” Anger leached through my words, though I tried to keep it under control. “We have a chance to beat them at their own game. One chance. I can’t believe you would fucking well think this isn’t worth it!”

Erik finally looked up and I thought he was going to yell at me. But he didn’t, he was calm and cool. “If they destroy you in the process? What then? What do we do when the one person who can save us is dead because the demon packs have fried your brain like an egg on the sidewalk?”

Shit. The image stuck in my head, a drooling mess of a person by my own stupidity and rashness. Not a pretty picture.

“I don’t know. I can’t sit here and wait for a report to come in that they are demolishing our world. The fact they’ve been so quiet scares me.” I pushed the tip of the sword into the soft, wet ground, the fight blown out of me with his calmness.

He laughed softly. “They aren’t being quiet. They are spreading this new strain of smallpox. But you are right; we do need to stop them. You will do whatever you want, with or without my permission. Which of course, you weren’t looking for, right?” He arched an eyebrow at me and I flushed.

“No, I was just looking for your opinion.”

“Now you have it. You do what you want. Then again, Liam has quite the plan laid out.”

This was not how I was used to dealing with a mentor. Jack, I’d been able to curse and swear at; Giselle had always been calm and soothing.

Erik was somewhere between the two, both calming me and giving me reasons to be fired up.

We stood as the sun rose higher, the distant promise of spring in the feeble heat the rays gave off.

“Liam has a plan already?” I frowned. Why hadn’t he told me about it? Then again, we’d been busy with other things.

“He just told me. Thinks if we can lure the demon packs to the castle, we can ambush them, use Pamela to pull the castle down on them and trap them there.”

It actually wasn’t a bad idea. Not like we could really use the castle anymore with all the doorways broken to pieces and no way to repair them. “What about the doorway, the one to the deep veil?”

Erik shrugged and looked out over the grounds, his eyes distant. “He seems to think a little of his blood should do the trick. Close the door.”

It sounded too easy. “And how are we going to draw the demons in?”

He grimaced. “I’m going to summon them.”

“What the fuck?” I couldn’t help stepping back, even though he held up his hands.

“Every Slayer can do it, but once I do, there is no turning back. It’ll be good for you to see though. Just another tool in your belt as a Slayer, something you need to learn.”

They were keeping me out of the line of fire. My jaw twitched, but he wasn’t looking at me. “When is he planning this?”

“Tomorrow night, if the summoning works as it should. Blaz should be here by then, and the vampires can help if Pamela can get the fire put out.”

There was something in his voice I couldn’t pin down, and I didn’t like it. “Erik, is this really what’s happening?”

His eyes shot to mine, eyebrows climbing. “What are you asking?”

“What’s really happening?”

“Liam has a plan to shut the gate and stop the demon packs. It will work, but you aren’t central to it. Is that what bothers you?”

Like a slap in the face, his words smacked me. “No, I don’t need to be at the center of things. Fuck. I’m just getting a weird vibe is all.”

I stomped away from him, jamming my second blade back into its sheath, not knowing what else to do.

The reality was, there was nothing I could do. If Liam thought he had this under control, who was I to question his plan? I could be as difficult as anyone out there, but I wasn’t into causing drama if it wasn’t warranted. If Liam had a plan, I could trust him.

I found my way to the library. Everyone had left except Liam and Doran, who had their heads together over the violet book of prophecies.

“You two plotting against me?”

Their heads snapped up in unison, telling me they were really not paying attention to the world around them if I could sneak up on them both without even trying.

Doran laughed and shook his head. “Hardly. But this book here, it is fascinating. There is a great deal in here about you facing Orion and beating his ass into the ground.”

“There is?” This was what we needed, some good news, finally. I moved up beside them and Liam slipped his arm around my waist as I bent over the book. Doran pointed out a section that I read softly to myself.

“When the blood of the lost shall break on the altar of sacrifice, bound to that which she fears the most, then shall the world be free of the darkness that seeks to devour it. When her eyes shall open, then shall she see.”

I lifted my eyes to Doran’s. “Not exactly what I’d call helpful.”

He shrugged. “Thing is there are clues here. Lots of them. Altar of sacrifice, you’re going to have to give up something, which isn’t really a surprise. We know blood is involved, and now we know you have to be bound to your biggest fears.”

With a snort I poked at the book. “It still doesn’t say how all that is going to happen. Or even where! It’s like trying to understand a different language. Is it all like that?”

Liam’s hand tightened on my waist. “Yes. We’ve been pouring over it, all of us. Just in case it goes missing again.”

While it made sense they would all have a look at it, there was a part of me that knew ultimately I had to understand what was asked of me. If I couldn’t figure it out, there was no way I’d be able to stop Orion. I picked up the book and went to Jack’s chair, sliding down into worn and well-broken-in cushions. Neither of the two men said anything, they just watched me, the weight of their eyes on me a palpable thing.