A call from my mother.

I let out a shaky sigh as Emery looked out the front window and swore.

“Where are you?” my mother demanded as soon as I said hello.

“We’re in the house. We just got in.”

“Okay. Get ready. I’ll meet you there.”

“No. Wait! Mother—” But the line went dead.

“What?” Emery asked, stepping away from the window.

“She said she’s going to meet us here.”

Shouting filtered in from the way we’d come. The crash must’ve brought someone around. But it didn’t matter. The ward didn’t require a door. It would still protect the house and us inside of it.

“They’ve almost cracked the ward,” Emery said. “I can see the exact place where they need to unravel it. As soon as they get out of their own way and discover it, we’re wide open.”

The sound of a car drew closer. Shouts erupted from the front of the house this time. Emery got to the window first, swore again, and started back-pedaling.

“Your mother is nuts. Watch out!” He swung me up over his shoulder and ran as an earsplitting crash shook the house. The roof groaned and the walls trembled. Cracks ran down the cream-colored walls.

Emery stopped at the foot of the stairs, breathing hard.

“Barbra Streisand’s hand-me-downs, what in the holy hanging dong was that?” I wiggled out of his grip as more shouting drifted into the house.

“Joe was right—we need to work on your swearing.” Emery grabbed me with one hand, catching a handful of leather, and took out a casing with the other. “Your mother just rammed the house with her car.”

A door banged somewhere. I stood paralyzed, trying to process the situation, when my mother came barreling in, her shotgun over her shoulder and a mad-dog look on her face.

“What are you standing around for?” she barked. “They’re about to come in after me.”

“How did you…” I followed behind her like a puppy dog. Emery did the same. Some things couldn’t be helped when it came to my mother. “Did you ram the house with your car?”

“No. I rammed the house with your car. Well, actually, I just parked it in the garage. We’ll need a new garage door. And a new ping-pong table. It didn’t fare so well. But thank goodness for two-car garages, right? Now.” She set the gun down and trudged into her office. In the corner, she moved the potted plant out of the way, bent down, and pulled up a doorstop that didn’t have a door to stop. A click sounded behind me. I turned and my mouth fell open as my mother wrestled the desk out of the way, pushed aside the tapestry, and shoved a hidden door inward.

“Your father said I should let you in here when you were ready. I don’t think you’re ready, but we’ve run out of time.” She stepped out of the way and held up her hand to stop me. “Not you. You won’t know what you’re looking at. Emery?” She jerked her thumb into the opening. “That is all Penny’s, so if you steal anything, I’ll hunt you down and cut off your arm. See if I’m joking.”

“Yes, ma’am. I know you’re not joking, ma’am.” Emery gave me a hard look, clearly a little too worried about my mother’s threat, before disappearing into the hole in the wall.

“Okay.” My mother grabbed my shoulder and strong-armed me out of the room. “Unless they are the stupidest beings alive, which is not impossible, they know you’re here. So we need to hurry. Soon they’ll drag Veronica out and do a demonstration, demanding you trade yourself for her.”

“They are going to cut off her finger.”

“I wouldn’t put it past them, the filthy vagrants. But now they’ll do it on our lawn. So let’s get cracking.”

My mother grabbed her shotgun on her way past it and once again took up residence near the door. The shouting had died down, and I looked out the window. Two cars stopped in the middle of the street, and a full load of mages hopped out of each. Just beyond them, I saw Lewis at his window.

“Why doesn’t Lewis call the police?” I asked.

“He probably has. But the guild has the Magical Law Enforcement office in this town in their pocket, so they can detour the human police. We aren’t going to get any help. The guild owns this town.”

“For now,” I said, because this had gotten personal, and the guild would not retain its hold over Seattle forever. Not if I had anything to say about it.

The ward winked into view—one minute, a fascinating weave, and the next, invisible again. I told my mother what I had seen.

“They’ve taken down one of the roots,” Emery said, strolling into the room with two books and a small sack. He put the sack on the ground. “I have no idea how old these spells are, but I wouldn’t want to chance using them.”

“Probably wise.” My mother pointed at the books he still held. “I know you can use those. But I don’t think Penny is ready.”

Emery laughed in that humorless way of his. “Don’t you?”

“Don’t sass me, boy.”

Emery’s face straightened again. “Sorry, ma’am.”

“I can read directions,” I said, taking one of the books.

“Then you’ll need a stand,” my mother said. “Your father always used stands. Very practical, your father. It drove me batty.” She stalked farther into the house.

“There isn’t a lot that terrifies me, but that woman is certainly on the list,” Emery mumbled, looking out the window. “We have ten minutes, tops. That ward is coming down.”

“Here we go.” My mother was back in a moment, setting up a handy little stand that held the book and even had a shelf for the necessary ingredients. “There is only one, though.”

“Take it, Penny.” Emery flipped through the pages of the one he held.

My phone vibrated and my heart crawled up into my throat. I took it out and opened it with a shaking hand. After pressing speaker, I answered. “Hello?”

“Penny Bristol, I presume?” The voice was dry and scratchy, as though its owner had sucked on the end of a great many cigarettes in his life.

“Yes. Who is speaking?”

“This is Baron Kempworth, and I am here to collect you.”

“Over my dead body you’ll be collecting her, you stupidly dressed piece of trash. Now come out and fight like a man.” My mother grabbed the phone out of my hand, closed it, and threw it behind us. “Don’t answer that anymore. You don’t want to hear him give you an ultimatum. Come on. Time’s up. It’s time to save Veronica’s family.” She marched to the door, tore it open, cocked her gun, and aimed.

The blast made me jump.

“Got one,” my mother yelled.

“High on the list,” Emery muttered, a manic smile spreading across his face. “Come on, Penny. Let’s get some space.”

He ran me through the house and to the door leading to the garage. He slapped the button to open the left garage door, still intact, and it rattled upward. The door next to it was lying on the hood of my badly dented car.

Outside, in the driveway, sat my mom’s car, unblemished. Behind it, spread across the lawn and into the street, many of them running for cover from my mother, lurked a dozen mages.