by Nicole Hall
She’d taken two steps past Maddie when a rustling came from outside the clearing behind her.
She tensed and turned, ready for a new threat, but it was Ryan that stumbled out of the woods. He had twigs in his hair and his cargo pants were ripped across one knee, but the blood on his forearm had stopped flowing freely. As far as she could see, he hadn’t come off a trod.
He wiped his hands on his pants and stared past Sera. “Maddie?”
“Ryan.” Her whole face lit up when she noticed him. “I’m so glad you’re here.” She dropped the torch and ran past Sera to fling herself into his arms. Ryan looked as surprised as Sera felt. “I knew you’d change your mind.”
“That’s not what you said before, Mad.”
Sera took small steps backward toward the opposite trees. Jake trusted Ryan, but she couldn’t afford that luxury now that she knew he’d been hiding his magic this whole time. He knew she was weak, and she’d feel a whole lot better if she could get behind some cover.
She’d also feel better if she could get a read on Jake. The bond told her he was alive and approximately close by, but she couldn’t get anything else from it. The frustrating lack of emotion was making her anxious.
Ryan’s hands rested on Maddie’s hips with a familiarity that made Sera increasingly uncomfortable. It looked like there were more secrets Ryan was keeping. She wasn’t really surprised when Maddie lifted her face for a kiss, but she’d hoped she was wrong. Jake was going to be so pissed.
Sera expected Ryan to bend down and kiss her, but he didn’t. He didn’t push her away either. She took advantage of their preoccupation with each other and crossed further into the trees. Ryan was speaking too quietly to Maddie for her to hear, but the responses were loud and clear.
“I’m perfectly safe. Besides, it’s almost time. We’re waiting on one more and we can get the party started.” She did an awkward little shimmy, and Ryan finally released her.
“Mad, I’m trying to do the right thing here,” Ryan pleaded. Then he said something Sera didn’t catch, but Maddie shook her head and walked away.
“I need to get the rest of this stuff set up. Help or get out of the way.”
Ryan dragged a hand through his hair as Maddie picked up the third torch. She positioned it across from the first one, and Sera finally picked out the pattern from the torches on the ground. Five on the inside, nine outside.
Two concentric circles. It was time to get Jake before whoever she was waiting for arrived.
The bond said she should be right on top of him, but the undergrowth was heavy and dark. Sera stepped past an overgrown berry bush and tripped over something solid. She landed on her knees, but her hand ended up on something warm. A tiny buzz of magic gave her enough light to see by, so she could pull back the brush someone had placed over Jake.
This was definitely something suspicious, and Sera was kicking herself for letting Jake sway her. Sprites flitted over his face as she checked to be sure he was breathing, even though the bond told her he was alive. He didn’t appear injured, and with her magic revved, she could see he was covered with the same oily magic as the wolf.
They were inside the tree line, but the glow from her hands made them targets against the dark underbrush. Sera willed her magic to calm down, and the light faded away. A glance told her that Maddie was on the fifth torch, completing the inside circle. She didn’t seem to notice that Sera had disappeared, and Ryan had moved close enough to their side of the clearing for her to hear him this time.
“You broke up with me, Mad. I agreed it was for the best, but you can’t keep trying to booty call me.” Sera thought it was probably for the best that Jake was unconscious for this part.
“It was important that I not be distracted, but I always enjoyed our time together. No harm in that.” Maddie gave him a come-hither look over her shoulder, but Ryan didn’t take the bait. The smile slid off her face and revealed her contempt. “Whatever, I don’t need you anymore anyway.”
As if he was waiting for Maddie to stop messing around, the wolf skulked out of the trees. Ryan saw him immediately and backed closer to Sera and Jake. The wolf growled at him then went to sit at Maddie’s feet. She looked down and giggled, then reached down to run her hand along his head between his ears.
“Oh, Mad, what did you do?” Ryan’s voice was choked.
Maddie looked up and directly at Sera. “I did what I had to.”
A chill went down her spine.
She had to give Ryan credit; he didn’t hesitate. While Maddie was focused on Sera, he rushed forward. She didn’t know why he didn’t use magic, but it was a poor choice. Maddie lifted an arm, and Ryan stopped moving so suddenly that he toppled forward and slid several feet on his face. The wolf didn’t even have a chance to show his teeth. Dammit. He was a good guy after all.
“A pity. Ryan was always fun. Great in the sack and had killer abs hidden under all those geeky t-shirts. It’s a shame really. Remind me to thank Evie for teaching me that spell. She called it ‘Still’, but I like ‘Paralyze’ better. Her version was more complicated, of course, but I found that a well-drawn circle can fix a lot of problems.” She gestured at her feet, and Sera could see where Maddie had drawn in the dirt below the fallen leaves. “I think it’s time we dropped the façade, don’t you?”
Maddie didn’t do anything outwardly, but Sera could suddenly sense the magic all around her. Under her hand, Jake’s chest lifted and fell in rhythm, but he didn’t respond when she shook him. Maddie danced a circle around the wolf and giggled again. Now that her glamour had lifted, Sera could see the oily magic oozing over her. There was a good chance that even if she could figure out how to throw a spell at her, it would slide right off like Ryan’s did with the wolf. That didn’t leave her a lot of options.
To make matters worse, the clearing itself changed. The placement of the tree line was about the same, but a large, twisted pine suddenly became visible near the middle of Maddie’s circle. They’d been in Torix’s clearing the whole time.
Maddie resumed placing the torches, and Sera tried not to draw the attention of the wolf. She’d already been wrong once about his abilities. “Torix will be so pleased that the plan is working. I was upset when I thought I had to use Jake as the double, but Ryan will be much better.”
It was tempting to stay silent, but Sera needed to keep her talking and not tossing around spells. It’s not like she was hiding all that well anyway. “What double?”
“That’s the brilliant part. We can’t get the Fae shields down, even when they’re weak, but we can replace Torix with someone else. It fools the shields into thinking they’re doing their job, and Torix is free to reward his favorite acolyte.”
“What’s your reward?”
“Magic, of course. When Torix is free, this magic is permanent. I’ll be more powerful than anyone else. And I earned it. The wolf may have killed the rabbits, but I had to spread them around on your porch.” She shuddered.
Well that answered the question of what Maddie got out of it. Sera didn’t remember her being quite so ambitious, but she’d been able to fool her brother and her boyfriend, so what hope did Sera have of knowing the real Maddie.
“Where is Torix anyway?”
“He’s resting. It’s a big night for him, and he needs to conserve his strength. Now I need to finish this. It’s almost midnight.”
That was a relief at least. She wasn’t ready to tangle with the evil fairy yet. Maddie was strangely not concerned about Sera. It was disconcerting, being considered no threat at all. Was she so sure of her abilities that she didn’t care that Sera was crouched over Jake? Or was there some other terrible surprise in store? Probably both.
Sera couldn’t let Maddie use Ryan, or anyone else for that matter, to free Torix. At the very least, she needed to apologize for thinking him a bad guy before they were all horribly killed. She had practically no magic, and she needed Jake to wake up, if for nothing else than to carry Ryan out of there physically.
Maddie seemed to be done talking, but Sera kept an eye on her while she examined Jake. The magic coating depressed wherever her hand touched, but bounced back when she moved it. Maddie had finished lighting the torches and pulled a chalice and sharp-looking knife from the grocery bag. Sera didn’t know the first thing about how to help Jake, and she had to fight off the panic looming in the back of her mind. She was on her own, like she’d wanted, but everyone was in danger anyway.
Jake was breathing, ostensibly asleep, and covered in a layer of magic. It stood to reason that he’d been forced into that state with a spell, so if she could remove the spell, she could wake him up. Maddie’s nonchalance meant that anything magical she did would probably not work, but she had a secret weapon. The bond that Zee had given them worked inside her shields, so it probably worked inside that magic shell.
Her hand over Jake’s heart, she opened herself up to the bond. Instead of the warmth she usually felt, a cold sensation tickled her palm. She opened her eyes to see the oily magic disappearing into her hand. The coldness was the blue magic, and she was absorbing it. Maddie was preoccupied with getting the placement of a bowl of feathers right, so Sera tried something crazy.
She dropped her shields and pulled the magic into herself.
A rush of chilly energy burst through her. Her exhaustion disappeared. The magic mingled with her own and settled as it warmed. In an instant, the oily coating was gone, and Sera was back to feeling like she wouldn’t blow over in a strong wind.
Jake still had a blue tinge about him, and he still didn’t wake up. She wasn’t sure what that spell had been intended to do, but it had been a doozy. The last bit of magic lingering on him felt familiar to her. Like it was one of the spells she’d practiced, but never managed to make work. Maddie was busy maneuvering Ryan into the circle, and the wolf was watching her instead of Sera.
Once more into the breach then. Sera pulled and the vestiges of the spell sank into her. She’d sucked in all the magic and added it to her own. No wonder her spells never worked; she was eating the magic on accident.
As a plan unfolded in Sera’s mind, Jake sat up with a giant breath and almost collided with her. She put her hand over his mouth to keep him quiet, and leaned down to whisper in his ear.
“I have an idea.”
14
SERA
Jake pressed a gentle kiss to her palm then moved her hand. “What do you need from me?”
Sera could hardly see him in the firelight from the torches, but she could feel him again, joy and confidence and other warm fuzzy stuff. He was completely open to her, and the magic was flowing freely between them. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he’d left her that note, and she could feel him questioning the distance she was forcing between them. In the last few hours, she’d decided not to write him off, but that didn’t mean they had a future. It meant she was entertaining the possibility. There was no time to discuss it, but if they survived, they were going to have a long talk about boundaries.
Zee had been right in the beginning, she needed Jake, but not to stop Torix. Her shields were up because she didn’t want him to feel the guilt she had over what she was about to do.
“I need you to distract her without getting frozen by her.”
Jake narrowed his eyes. “What are you going to do?”
“What I do best. Break stuff.”
Sera went to move past him along the tree line, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Be safe.”
“You too. By the way, you and I are going to have a serious discussion about warning people before using all their magic.”
Jake leaned forward and kissed her. All his fear and hope and strength poured into her with the kiss. She could feel his regret over this morning, and his desperate need to keep her safe. Despite that last one, he was following her lead into danger. He trusted she would find a way to keep herself safe. The bond couldn’t lie, and Sera realized she trusted him, at least this far, so she forgave him. She leaned into him and gave as much back as she could with her shields mostly intact. The tension that had been spiraling inside her released, and she found herself wishing it was all over for a much different reason than just survival.
Maddie chose that moment to focus on her again. “What are you doing over there?”
Jake pushed himself to his feet and strode out of the woods. “Maddie, I’m disappointed in you.”
It was perfect. He struck the exact right tone between upset parent and annoyed big brother. Maddie frowned and looked past Jake into the trees, but Sera had already moved. She scanned the trees, but for once the sprites were helping by grouping up at random points well away from Sera’s location. She needed to get close enough to touch the shields without Maddie noticing, and the best way to do that was to come up behind Torix’s tree.
Jake was doing a great job scolding her, but Sera could see her scanning the woods looking for a sign. She’d made it about halfway around the circle when Maddie interrupted Jake.
“Go get her. Bring her back here. I don’t care if you have to hurt her.”
It took Sera a moment to figure out Maddie was talking to the wolf. He’d been so quiet and still that she’d forgotten he was there. Unlike Maddie, the wolf knew right where Sera was. He bolted before she’d even finished her last sentence.
Four long strides took him to her position, and Sera barely had time to brace herself for his leap. Instead of solidifying her shields and pushing back, she opened and let him come. The moment Sera made contact with the coarse fur, she pulled. The wolf yelped as they tumbled down into the pine straw, even though Sera took the brunt of the fall.
He stood up, shook his head, and whined as he backed away from her. Sera got slowly to her feet. The oily magic was gone, and she had a weird churning sensation inside her like she’d eaten sushi that was still flopping around. By the time the magic settled, the wolf had faded into the trees. She was almost giddy with power. It explained a lot about Maddie’s excitement.
Sera didn’t feel tired at all anymore, but she could tell there was still space for more. How much power could she hold? She’d bet her limit was somewhere below the full weight of the shields holding Torix in place, and that didn’t factor in Torix himself. As if sensing someone saying his name, Sera felt another presence in her mind. Torix had arrived.
Hello again, my dear. It’s so nice of you to welcome my return by presenting yourself so conveniently. I fear it won’t merit any mercy though.
Sera had partially shielded herself after the wolf had run away, and she knew she could raise them again to lock him out. It was one of the few things she’d excelled at in all her practice, but she needed Torix distracted as much as Maddie. She wasn’t close enough to the tree yet.
Big words from a Fae in a tree, thought Sera. She knew she could respond out loud, but she didn’t want Maddie to hear as she crept around the circle. If he needed to, Jake could find her with the bond.
I’m afraid I’m going to have to retract my previous offer of a trade. I do wonder what your mate would offer for your life. If it would be worth all that delicious power you have swirling inside you.
Sera scoffed. He wouldn’t offer anything, and he’s not my mate.
A slow chuckle rolled over her. In that you are mistaken.
She wondered which part he was talking about, but she didn’t ask. She’d reached the tree, but instead of touching rough bark, her hand slid off smooth magic. The barriers. It took a little more concentration to see them, but eventually she could make out a light silver glimmer etched with symbols that looked like the ones in the stone circle.
Torix tried to probe further into her mind, but her shields kept him firmly locked on the surface. He was sneaky, looking for weaknesses, but Sera had complete faith in her dragon armor. From the side of the tree, she could hear Maddie and Jake again, but she didn’t like the way he’d positioned himself. He was between Maddie and the tree, and it meant his back was exposed to at least one bad guy at all times. She wanted
to yank him back to safety, but there was no safety. Her emotions must have agitated the bond because Jake looked back over his shoulder, finding her immediately.
Maddie followed his gaze, then smiled as she raised her hand. Jake turned back in time to throw his own hands up. Sera’s mouth dropped open at what appeared in front of him. A large, translucent bubble stretched several feet past them, both to the left and right, and well over their heads. It was almost the same color as the sprites, if someone were to blow them up like a balloon. She’d felt the pull from her center immediately, and the longer he held it, the more power trickled out of her. Last time, he’d taken way too much, but this time he was being careful to only take what he thought he’d need.
It was amazing. Jake had made a shield.
Maddie was not pleased. “You can’t do that. I’m the one with power. He promised.” She tried another spell, and Sera could see it this time as it fizzled against the golden bubble.
“Sera, do what you’re going to do.” Jake didn’t dare turn around.
“You know what, it doesn’t matter. It’s almost midnight, and everything is in place. As soon as the barriers weaken, Torix will take care of Sera himself.”
Maddie’s words were eerily similar to what Torix had told her, so she wondered if he was speaking to her now. She could still feel him poking at her mind, but his words had gone silent. Either way, Maddie was right. They needed to move Ryan out of that circle to buy time. Jake’s shield didn’t reach him, and she could feel him concentrating on holding it in place. Maddie checked her watch and threw another spell, ostensibly to keep Jake occupied.
Sera could feel a shift coming in the woods around her, a build-up of power. She guessed she had less than a minute. Ryan was a few feet in front of her on the other side of the tree. Sera didn’t see any other way than physically pulling him.
“Jake, I need you to make the shield bigger, further right.” She spoke as softly as she could, almost a whisper, and Jake nodded subtly. The pull from her increased, and a wave of weariness washed over her. And the shield expanded enough to slip between Ryan and Maddie.
