“According to other mythics I know, demon mages are the most powerful mythics out there,” I told Justin. “But Daniel was a wuss compared to—uh, compared to the stories I’ve heard.”
I’d almost said Ezra’s name. Smart, Tori. Very smart.
“And he still kicked our asses,” I added darkly.
“Was he a wuss?” Justin asked. “He fended off three mages, and you said mages tend to have the most destructive magic of all the classes.”
My brother was a fast learner. Despite myself, I was kinda proud.
“True,” I agreed, slowing to peer between two trucks. “But it wasn’t Daniel fending them off. It was the demon inside him. The demon took over at the end. That’s why I was yelling at everyone to run.”
Justin considered that as we moved to the next row of cars. “Ezra is a demon mage, isn’t he?”
I missed a step and almost fell. “What? You—how did you—”
“I guessed.”
Damn it. My brother was too swift on the uptake.
“The cult turned him into a demon mage when he was fourteen,” I explained tersely. “If anyone finds out, he’ll be executed. I’m trying to find a way to get the demon out of him.”
“You’re in love with a man who has a demon inside him?”
I scowled. “Butt out, Justin.”
“But—”
“He’s a normal guy ninety-eight percent of the time.”
Justin eyed me, then pointed. “There it is.”
A camo-painted jeep was parked under the bare branches of a large tree at the very back of the lot where it bordered the sunset-bathed sports field.
“Bingo!” I exclaimed.
I took an eager step toward the vehicle, and Justin grabbed my arm. Right. Caution. We circled wide, ensuring there was no one in or around the vehicle, then warily approached from the far side.
With a final check that Blake or anyone else wasn’t about to ambush us, I crouched beside one of the jeep’s big, deep-tread tires. My hip twinged painfully, but I ignored it as I unscrewed the cap from the air valve. I scrabbled around on the pavement, found a likely pebble, and stuffed one end into the cap. Then I jammed it against the air valve.
Air whooshed out of the tire, and I grinned in satisfaction.
Justin crouched beside me. “Why do I get the impression you’ve done this before?”
“I never let the air out of Dad’s tires when I was mad at him,” I lied breezily. “And I never did it to Mrs. Keswick either, even when she put me in detention for a month because I kept coming to school without a jacket. I didn’t have a jacket! How was punishing me supposed to change that? And that social worker who thought Dad was so charming and I was a big liar, I never—”
“Okay, okay.” He poked his head over the jeep’s hood to scan the lot, then ducked behind it again. “If it comes down to a fight with Blake, am I allowed to shoot to kill?”
A chill ran over me. “Uh …”
“To be clear, I’m only asking so I know how upset you’ll be. If it looks like he’s aiming to kill, I will shoot him.”
I nodded. He said nothing more, and I watched as he checked again for any suspicious activity in the abandoned parking lot.
“Justin,” I muttered as air hissed from the tire. “You shouldn’t kill anyone to protect me. You don’t need that on your conscience.”
“I already shot someone to protect you,” he reminded me. “And I’ll do it again if I have to. I just wish I was better equipped. When that demon mage had you, I couldn’t risk the shot. He was so fast. He moved like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and …” His hand drifted toward his hidden gun. “What can a human do against a mythic like that?”
My chest constricted. I watched the jeep’s nose slowly drop, hardly seeing it. What could a human do? Nothing. Just like I hadn’t been able to do anything useful since the Carapace of Valdurna had rendered all my artifacts useless.
The tire wheezed as the rim settled against the deflated rubber, and I replaced the valve cap. “Okay. Blake won’t be escaping in his jeep now, so let’s go find a spot to hide.”
Justin nodded and started to rise. His leg buckled, and he caught himself on the jeep.
“Just stiff,” he grunted as I reached for him. “I’m fine.”
“Okay, well, just wait there a moment while I pick a hiding spot.” I backed away from him. “Stay there.”
“I’ll stay here.”
Nodding, I crept to the jeep’s bumper, peeked out, then stepped onto the winter-brown grass. Ducking behind a large tree that would provide welcome shade for the parking lot in the summer, I skimmed my surroundings. Anxious energy infused my limbs, and my protective instincts had kicked into high gear. Justin’s leg might not hold out if we needed to flee, and us two against Blake would require a full commitment to running like hell.
As I scanned for a likely hiding spot—aside from a few more thick-trunked trees, none—a different nervousness twanged through me. How long had it been since Aaron and Kai had set off to scout the property? It wasn’t that large. Had they found Blake and that’s why they hadn’t returned?
Should I have heard something by now? Were Aaron and Kai all right?
Just as I was about to panic, I spotted a dark figure slinking alongside the building. That smooth gait and those fitted leather clothes were recognizable even in the poor lighting, and I relaxed.
“Kai,” I whisper-called as he drew nearer. “What’s happening? Did you find Blake?”
He drew closer, eyebrows furrowing as his dark eyes scanned my face. He halted a lot nearer to me than he usually would, and I took a surprised step away, my back hitting the tree behind me.
“Tori …” he murmured. “Don’t be afraid.”
“Huh? I’m not …”
My voice died as he shifted closer—which put him really, really close. Mind spinning, I tried to peek sideways to see if we were being watched or something. Was he putting on an act?
“Tori, I’ve been wanting to tell you …”
His voice dropped from a murmur to a whisper, and as my gaze darted back to him, his hands touched my shoulders. I tensed, waiting for a signal—for some indication of what I was supposed to do.
“I missed you, Tori.”
Eh?
While I stared at him, his hands tightened on my shoulders. He leaned in.
And he kissed me.
As his warm mouth pressed against mine, my brain flew into overdrive. Why was he kissing me? Was this a diversion? What the actual hell?
I made a small, questioning noise against his lips, and his fingers dug into my shoulders. All the hair on my body stood on end. A strange, tight feeling stretched my skin, and my nerves buzzed with a sensation somewhere between adrenaline and excitement.
The sensation intensified. A weird vibration twitched my muscles as something built up inside me.
Lightning blasted through me.
I went as rigid as a pole, every muscle locking harder than it ever had before. Burning agony lanced every nerve and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t scream, couldn’t think as a raging current ripped through my body, racing from his hands to the ground under my feet.
Kai was kissing me and he was electrocuting me. He was going to kill me.
Thumping, running footsteps, then an impact.
The electric current cut off as I crashed to the ground, a body half on top of me. An alchemy bomb shattered under my hip, and an ear-splitting bang erupted, accompanied by a blinding flash.
Arms clamped around me, hauling my limp body half up.
“Tori!” Justin shouted. “Tori!”
Through blurred vision, I saw Kai roll to his feet. Turning to me and Justin, he raised his arm. White power arced between his fingers and sizzled up to his shoulder. His face was strangely blank, as though he were completely unbothered by Justin tackling him to the ground in the middle of his kiss-and-die attack.
I don’t know what made me look, but my gaze slid left.
&
nbsp; She stood a dozen paces away in the shadows of another tree, dressed in slim-fitting black clothes with her raven hair pulled up into a ponytail. She held a silver chain with a disc-shaped pendant on the end, spinning it around and around on her finger as she watched us.
Our eyes met. She pursed her lips and blew me a mocking kiss.
At the same moment, Kai stretched his arm toward me, his hand balled into a fist. His fingers snapped open—and a bolt of electricity shot for my chest.
A howling gust of wind struck us. I hit the ground a second time, Justin crushing me as he fell too.
“Don’t move, Kai!” Makiko shouted. “Stay down!”
I dragged my head up. Makiko stood over Kai, steel fans aimed at him. From thirty yards away, Aaron sprinted toward them. Neither was looking toward the tree. Neither had seen the woman.
Justin was right beside me, and his shirt had slid up when he’d fallen—revealing his gun tucked in his belt. I grabbed the weapon, swung it up, and pulled the trigger three times in swift succession.
My aim was normally good, but my arms were still trembling and the shots missed. The assassin dodged behind the tree, and an instant later, rippling blades of air struck the trunk, flung by Makiko and her fans. The aeromage vaulted toward the woman, and with a furious roar, Aaron changed direction, closing in on the assassin from the other side. Fire blazed over his forearms.
The mentalist spun away from the tree and ran between two vehicles. Her dark ponytail, streaming like a flag, darted through the parking lot.
Aaron ran into the lot after her, and Makiko streaked away in pursuit.
“Tori,” Kai croaked.
I twitched fearfully, but when my gaze found his face, my fear vanished. Horror and guilt twisted his features, his hands shaking as he pushed up onto his knees. I recognized the torment in his dark eyes. I knew exactly how he felt—because I’d felt the same after nearly shooting Justin.
Knowing what he needed, I reached out. He pulled me into his arms and fell backward as I slumped limply against him. Clamping me against his chest, he sucked in an unsteady breath.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t realize what I was—”
“I know.” I clutched him, arms around his neck. “She did it to me too.”
Justin shuffled closer to us, crouched awkwardly as though ready to leap up in an instant. “Does Tori need to go to a hospital?”
“No.” Kai loosened his grip on me. “But a checkup with a healer and a potion for burns would be a good idea.”
That did sound like a good idea. I felt like I’d been cooked from the inside out, and it hurt like a bitch.
“What kind of game is that woman playing?” I snarled, sitting up. “Is she toying with us? Making you kiss me, then electrocute me to death as slowly as possible?”
Kai shook his head. “The only reason I didn’t kill you instantly was because I hadn’t built up a lethal charge. I can’t create electricity instantly the way Aaron does with his fire.”
“What about the kiss thing?”
His expression darkened. “Maybe she made me kiss you while I killed you for the same reason she tried to make you kill your brother with his own gun.”
Before I could ask what he meant, the sound of stomping footsteps interrupted us, but it wasn’t Aaron or Makiko returning.
“What the hell?”
Blake’s annoyed shout rang across the lawn. The terramage strode toward us from the hotel’s main entrance, his quarterstaff thumping the ground with each step.
Panic shot through me, and Kai shoved to his feet, hauling me with him. Justin scrambled up, favoring one leg. As Blake stalked closer, I braced for the first attack, desperately hoping Kai had some lightning juice left.
He stopped a few paces away, scowling. “I heard someone babbling about gunshots and a man on fire in the parking lot. They called the police.” He thumped his staff against the ground. “You said you were leaving!”
I stared at the terramage, confused as hell. First, why would he approach us like this when he could’ve attacked us from a distance, which was the terramage specialty? And second, his expression was all annoyance.
No apprehension. No real anger. No twitchy nervousness, fearful glances at his surroundings, or suppressed loathing—which meant our sudden appearance neither concerned him nor angered him.
Either he was the world’s best actor, or he was neither a cultist nor being blackmailed by the cult.
“Oh shit,” I blurted.
Kai and Justin looked at me with tense frowns.
“The assassin wasn’t here for us. She was here for Blake, and we got in the way.” I pointed at the terramage. “Someone else in the Keys of Solomon is a cultist mole, and that person wants us all dead—including you, Blake.”
Chapter Eighteen
I felt so much better. Really fantastic. My whole body was numb and a little chilled, and damn, I was enjoying it. Getting internally barbequed had not been fun.
Perched on the edge of a clinical bed in an otherwise nice bedroom, I waved cheerily at the healer’s back as she exited through the open door. I waited approximately eight seconds, then bounced out into the hall. Following the sound of a rumbling male voice, I found a living room—or rather, the waiting room. Healers’ houses were weird that way.
“Hellooo,” I sang cheerily. “How are y—”
Aaron, Kai, and Makiko all shushed me. Scrunching my nose, I stuck out my tongue at them.
Blake was pacing at the other end of the room, his phone held to his ear. “Right … I appreciate your help. Yes, I’ll do that. Take care.”
He ended the call, then turned to the trio on the sofa. “Same thing. That’s four guild members who hadn’t heard anything about trouble in Enright or any teams being sent to Portland. It looks like my reports never made it to the rest of the guild.”
“Who were you reporting to?” Kai asked.
“The fifth officer. I don’t know him well. We’ve only met in person a handful of times.”
I planted my hands on my hips. “The officer must be the mole, then. He sent an assassin after us.”
An assassin who, despite having two mages hot on her heels, had disappeared right out from under their noses.
“The GM could be the mole for all we know,” Aaron countered. He gave me a squinty once-over. “How’re you feeling?”
“Really freakin’ fine. Karen hooked me up with the good stuff.” I twirled in a graceless pirouette and finished it with a karate chop. “I’m ready. Let’s kick some cultist traitor ass.”
Everyone stared at me.
“Where’s Justin?” I asked, shrugging off their judgy looks. “Did he get some happy potion too?”
“Turns out he did have a concussion. Karen is still working on him, but she said he’d be good to go in an hour.”
“That’s good.” I squinched my gaze in Blake’s direction. “So how will we identify the cult mole in the Keys? If we find them, we can find the Praetor.”
Blake rubbed a hand over his face and into his messy fauxhawk. “I can’t uncover a mole by myself. My mentor, the second officer, has been with the guild for twenty years. He predates the Enright cult and has a real hatred for demons to boot.”
“You trust him?” Kai asked.
“With my life.” Blake raised his phone. “Let’s see what he has to say.”
As the terramage pulled up the officer’s contact info on his phone, I dropped onto the sofa between Aaron and Kai—except it was a three-person sofa with three people already on it. I landed on their thighs, half-sinking into the gap between them.
“Budge over,” I ordered.
Snorting, Aaron pressed into the armrest while Kai slid over until he and Makiko were nearly sharing the same cushion. I leaned back with a satisfied smile.
“I missed you guys,” I murmured, slinging my arms over their broad shoulders.
Aaron bumped my side with his elbow. “I never went anywhere.”
“Yeah, bu
t when Kai isn’t around, it’s as though part of you goes missing too. You’re like a lightbulb with half its glowy wire thing burnt out.”
He shook his head. “That was almost poetic, then you ruined it.”
“Meh, you know what I mean. You’re gloomy without Kai.”
Blake’s phone rang on speaker.
“Russel here,” a gruff voice answered.
“Russel, it’s Blake. Are you in a private location?”
A pause. “I can be. One moment.” Muffled noises, followed by a door closing. “Go ahead.”
“Are you aware of my recent report about the discovery of an active sect of the Enright cult in Portland?”
“The Enright—” A garbled curse. “No, I was not aware. When did you report this?”
“Two days ago. I spoke directly to Anand, who said he’d send two teams to investigate immediately. I don’t think those teams were ever sent. As well, information I reported about the guild that spearheaded the investigation was leaked back to the cult.”
“How do you know that?”
“A demon mage from the cult referenced details from my report. I don’t see how he could’ve gotten the information from any other source.”
A sharp inhalation. “There’s a demon mage in Portland? Right now?”
“Yes, sir. No ID yet. He isn’t in the database.”
“Have you reported this to the MPD?”
“Not yet.”
I squirmed guiltily. We had quite a few reasons for not reporting the demon mage—starting with how the Crow and Hammer wasn’t licensed for international bounty work and finishing with how we were hiding a demon mage of our own—but I didn’t know Blake’s rationale. Maybe it was the Keys’ policy to report Demonica crimes only after the guild had gotten a shot at “the kill.”
Russel breathed into his phone for several long seconds. “Blake, return to HQ as quickly as possible—and bring the other guild team that’s investigating, if they’re willing to come. I may need their testimonies.”
“What about the demon mage? And the other cult members—”
“They aren’t going anywhere. We need to deal with the information leak here first. I can’t move our best teams into Portland to exterminate a demon mage without risking the cult finding out. Have you spoken to anyone else about this?”
Lost Talismans and a Tequila (The Guild Codex: Spellbound Book 7) Page 16
