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My heart began to race I ran into the kitchen and picked up the land line, but it was dead So was my cellphone, which I found on the counter Great, so I was totally cut off

I took a breath and focused on the thing outside When I tried to read its thoughts, all I got was the chant it was repeating in a language I didn’t understand, which was battering the wards like a giant hammer

Was it here for Griffin? Power like his tended to attract attention Or el with some pretty formidable enemies I’d worked with Griffin to ht noasn’t sure if our coic was any match for whatever was outside

I wasn’t powerful enough to use athering asthe way When I reached the foyer, I pushed both hands out in front ofin the driveway didn’t even sort of disrupt it

I reached out to try to read its thoughts again and got a lot of noise, in a for, and for just athe front door to take a look at it The door itself wasn’t as keeping it out anyway What was holding it back was an energy barrier—and it was starting to weaken

A thought appeared in ht, Mateo, the door’s not protecting you anyway Why don’t you open it and say hello?” That was co in the driveway I was sure of it

“Who are you?” I said that out loud, but I could have just thought it, and the entity still would have heard me

“A friend of a friend”

“Be more specific What friend?” He tried to hide it frolimpse of the name before he locked it down I blurted, “For fuck’s sake, Elias Reyes sent you? Are you kiddingmate?”

Just then, a wave of energy slammed into the front of the house and made it shake I swore vividly and bolted down the hall with the plan of cli away

Another wave shook the Victorian, strong enough tointhe wards at a single point instead of trying to take the awfully well

By the tiot my shoes on—which probably took all of four seconds—another wave of energy slammed into the spot at the front of the house For just a ht before plunging into darkness again

The wards protecting the house were about to fail

The next wave of energy knocked me to the floor I scrambled to my feet and rushed for the back door as my heart pounded in my ears When I tried to run outside, an iy shoved me back Damn it, whatever it was had put up wards of its own to keep me in