Taste (Ava Delaney #5) by Claire Farrell

involved. From here on out, we can’t trust a soul.”
    “Thank feck we’re moving on from here,” I said. “I’m not comfortable about how that journey might go down. Can we trust your vehicles now?”
    He shook his head. “Afraid not. What I don’t understand is where these attackers sprouted from. They’re a secret group, obviously, but who’s responsible for them? They can’t have come together just for us, so what have they been trained to do? And just how long has it been going on?”
    “Erossi’s always been a bit of a dick,” I said.
    “But he’s too cocky to hide his own dedicated group of warriors,” Gabe said.
    “Unless he’s playing everyone,” I suggested. “Val, do you think we can walk the entire group out of here without getting anyone killed?”
    “Only if we leave now.”
    I nodded. “Go tell them to move. We’ll take a look outside and see if there’s any sign of anyone else approaching.”
    “This is dangerous, Ava,” Gabe said as he followed me outside.
    “Life is, apparently. Gabe, is there anything you can do for degenerative-type diseases? Could a miracle work on an old person, for example, someone who’s having trouble with their mind?”
    “What kind of trouble?”
    “Alzheimer’s, that kind of thing.”
    He shook his head. “I can’t undo something like that. It’s a part of aging for a lot of people. Once you reach that stage, it’s too late.”
    “Yeah, but it has to be fixable. You have to be able to heal it. You work miracles, for fuck’s sake.”
    “What’s going on with you?”
    “My grandmother.”
    “The one you don’t care about.”
    I made a face. “Shut up. She’s losing her mind, thinking she’s in the past, and Wesley told me that she gets distressed when she remembers me. I think our past is hurting her.”
    “Wesley?”
    I cleared my throat. “Someone I used to know. Is it possible that what happened before… that she’s reliving the worst bits?”
    “Very possible. But like I said, there isn’t a lot you can do for that kind of thing.”
    I sighed. “What’s the point of living in a world with magic if stuff is still incurable?”
    He looked away, flexing his fingers in a way that reminded me of Peter. “Everything comes with a price. I’m going to check out the front. You take a look at the boundaries and make sure nobody’s hiding out.”
    I watched him walk away, surprised at the difference in his attitude since I’d stood up to him. Well, tricked him, technically. He had begun to treat me with a kind of respect, to act more… human. But half the time, he still seemed massively depressed. Maybe we were a bad influence on him.
    I skirted along the boundary walls, sending out my other senses that I used to pick up on energy. I caught sight of some red, pulsing humans in the distance and a stark white light at the edge of Folsom’s property. Within the grounds, I saw nothing because the magic guarding the place shrouded the things I could usually access. The lock was gone, but the cover remained. Interesting.
    I climbed onto the wall in an attempt to see the grounds clearly. There was nothing out there except Gabe pacing at the gate. His shoulders had drooped, and he appeared to have the weight of the world on his shoulders.
    I couldn’t help wondering if he was trying to figure out some way to betray us. But if my people were hurt, he suffered, too. That was the only reason I was putting any of my trust into him. I basically had him by the balls.
    Val reached the door of the garage and glanced around, so I hopped off the wall, miraculously not spraining anything, and jogged over to her.
    “They’re getting ready to leave,” she said. “We’ll need to hurry. Keep the children in the middle and let the fighters move around the edges of the group. If we leave soon, there won’t be enough time for anyone to organise a decent attack on us.”
    “I agree. Think we’re ready for a fight? I know you and Esther have been