by K. F. Breene
Tim stood up and wobbled next to Stefan. Jameson and Jonas screamed and clutched at their heads, both having been hit with a spell I couldn’t unravel in time. Charles tried to work another spell, pushed back with the effort. The spell scalded his shoulders.
We couldn’t even get to him to push him over the ledge. We couldn’t reach him, and I was no match.
I focused on a spell bubbling in front of Nathanial. I knew that mix of fire and earth. I knew Nathanial’s love of acid.
He was about to kill everyone in this room, including his own people, and there was no way I could alter the spell to make it benign. I’d learned his magic, but he’d learned my tricks. He’d closed that vulnerability susceptible to my inverted magic.
“Get out! All of you!” I screamed.
“You see my spell, human?” That cold grin was aimed directly for me. Tim groaned and sank to the ground. Stefan’s arms swirled with magic as he fought a spell. As he fought the pain. “What a lovely prize you would’ve been. Better-trained than I expected. But if you blow up this spell—why do Americans love blowing things up, I wonder—your explosion will simply kill the last mages connected to me as I erect my shield. Checkmate.”
“Get out, Stefan, please!” I begged.
“Then what, love?” he asked with strain in his voice as he staggered. “With our last mage gone, who can stop him?”
“Toa!” I said with tears in my eyes. I worked at that spell as Nathanial finished it. As he held it in front of him for me to stare at in wonder. He was showing me how far above me he was. Ever the showman.
In desperation I tried to tweak it. Mess with it. But it was fortified and booby-trapped, just as Nathanial had said. Any heavy-handed magical attempt would blow it. We’d all still die, because I barely had anything left. I wouldn’t be able to shield.
We’d all die.
I watched as that last fiber of the spell moved toward its home. The trigger.
A crack sounded behind us. Nathanial screamed and reached for his shoulder. The spell wobbled. A moment later a knife blossomed in the mage’s throat. Another knife hit his eye and sank in deep.
The trigger still moved in as Nathanial slumped back against the wall.
“That spell is going to trigger!” I screamed. I ran forward, but Stefan was already there, Jonas and Jameson staggering after. Clenching their jaws against the pain, the three pushed through as a unit, forcing each other on. With a guttural yell, and braced by his two Watch Commanders, Stefan was pushed around that spell and at the slumping mage. He picked up the other man in a huge show of strength and tossed him out of the window.
I summoned every reserve I had and devised the equivalent of magical wind to blow that fog of spell out after him, pushing it out into the empty space over the battlefield as far as I could. The spell, 99.5% complete, and volatile because of it, exploded as its maker lost control of his magic.
As Nathanial fell, the explosion was directed skyward and out, raking down the sides of the building and punching at my weakening shield.
I braced and monitored my energy. I chopped off the links of everyone but Paulie and Birdie, the two strongest, and then I cut them off, too, as Nathanial’s spell finally drifted away.
Panting, exhausted, I glanced around with wide eyes. Emmy stood at the back wall, straight-backed but visibly shaking. Her face was as pale as death. A whip dangled from a hand. Her other hand hovered next to her belt of knives. “I did it.”
I lost sight of her as Stefan, once again, crushed me to his chest. We swayed together. I felt two hands come in to steady us—Paulie and Charles. “Jesus that guy was something.”
“Someone needs to make sure he’s dead.” I buried my face into Stefan’s chest.
“Oh yeah. He’s dead. And his guys are—“ Charles cut off as a huge explosion rocked the foundation.
“Oh no.”
Everyone turned to a wide-eyed Emmy. Another explosion shook the building.
“He set traps. He was always setting traps. Without his magic to fuel the—“ Another explosion. The building groaned ominously.
“Who cares why! Let’s get the hell out of here!” Charles started sprinting for the door. Stefan pushed me in front of him.
We filed out as though the devil was on our heels. Another explosion and something structural popped. Wood squealed. Somewhere it sounded like crumbling stone.
“That guy was insane!” I yelled as I burst through the door into the main second-story hall. My legs shook under me. My energy was flagging badly.
Stefan picked me up and threw me over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. Only Emmy was faster than him. Jonas and the others were right behind, shifters included. Only Tim and Ann had had the strength and power to turn back into their animal form. The rest wobbled and staggered as fast as they could.
We took the stairs in a mad flight and fought a mass exodus as the building shifted. The floor dropped to our left: just sank down into the depths below. A gaping hole exposed moldy stone.
“Faster!” Emmy urged. “The whole place is going down. They didn’t update the foundation when they re-did the living quarters.”
A rumble tossed us to the side. Stefan grabbed a hold of me tighter and bounced off the wall. I felt another hand on my back that could’ve been Charles or Jameson.
“C’mon, man,” Jonas growled from behind. I lifted my head to see Jonas ramming his shoulder under Paulie to keep him moving. “You’re too big to carry.”
Emmy slowed from in front of us and ran to Paulie’s other side.
“Get out!” Jonas yelled at her.
Fierce determination written plainly on her face, she ignored Jonas and put Paulie’s big arm around her shoulder. Together they rushed him up behind us as the whole place rumbled again. Dust filled the halls. More floor dropped out ahead. Ceiling started to rain down.
“Go right into that room. There’s a hole that leads outside!” We could barely hear Emmy’s voice through all the screaming.
Stefan did as she said, bursting away from the crowd and through an open door. A beautiful, glowing hole greeted us where a wall used to be. Not wasting any time, Stefan plunged us through it and out through the crowds. There he turned left and kept running, pushing through. At the end he turned right again and slowed to an easy jog to the road.
“There. Nothing to it.” He staggered to a stop once he reached the cement, gritted his teeth against pain he was still feeling, and put me down amid a sparse crowd of onlookers done with the fighting and just wanting to be out of the way. Most of them used to be the enemy. And we let them be. They weren’t going anywhere.
Stefan set me down as I noticed someone I knew. My hackles rose and my jaw clenched.
That bitch.
Darla.
“Oh hell no!” She was dressed in a cute little sporty sweat suit and white shoes. She’d obviously run right out of the building by the safest route, and then stepped over here to wait patiently for a winner to be decided. Now that one was, she was probably thinking of sidling up to some Council members and slinking into their fold.
Well, screw that!
“Oh, Stefan.” Darla sauntered closer with smoldering eyes directed at Stefan. “I see you’re still toting your human luggage…”
My hands curled into fists. I stalked right up to her as the gazes around me started sticking to a face splattered with blood, dusted with dirt, and probably red with anger. I might not’ve looked hot, but I bet I looked pissed.
Darla smirked at me as I got right in her face. I cocked my fist and let it fly! I clocked her right in the nose. I heard a crack as her head whipped back. She staggered backward as her hands flew up to her face.
“Don’t you dare think you are welcome anywhere on Team Good-Guy!” I seethed. I concocted a mostly translucent box—I didn’t have anything left—to keep her put and tied off the spell. Then, just to make sure no other magic users would come along and undo it, I put a bunch of flourishes and whatnot around the spell like Nathanial loved so much. He
was a dick, but he knew his magic.
“Stay.” I pointed at her like I might a dog.
Blood gushed down her lips and dripped off her chin. “You bwoke my node!”
“Why is it people always shout the obvious when they get hurt?” I turned to a grinning Stefan.
“Feel better?” he asked with a chuckle.
Jonas and Emmy jogged up with Paulie a moment later. Charles and a bunch of lagging shifters came seconds after that.
“Nice work, human.” Jonas grinned at Darla as he put his arm around Emmy’s shoulders. She leaned in heavily to his touch and closed her eyes.
“What’d you do? Punch her?” Charles asked, barely looking in Darla’s direction.
“Yeah. She’s a bitch.” I slipped my hand into Stefan’s and took Emmy’s example by leaning heavily. I was tired, but I wasn’t done yet. I needed a small rest before I let reality seep back in. Anger was a great distraction, but I had to face the outcome of the battle.
“Yes. She sure is. Can I just point out that you know how to punch because of me?” Charles preened.
“Can I just point out that the human did what you were too sissy to do?” Jonas countered. “How much blood did that wench get off you, again?”
“Says that guy that had to be saved by his girlfriend.”
“She saved your ass, too, nitwit.”
Charles rubbed his eyes. “Jonas, bro, I’m tired. Go find a prison and lock yourself in. It was nice and quiet when you weren’t around.”
“The spell is fading,” Jameson said with his hands on his hips. “That was a nasty one. Did you get it, Mage?”
I nodded with my eyes closed. “It was a nasty one. I know what he did, but I can’t duplicate it yet. He was so far above me… I didn’t know people could even do the stuff he put together. I have work to do.”
“You’ll get it.” Jameson blew out a breath. “I’m glad he’s gone, though.”
“We all are.” Jonas rubbed Emmy’s back. I took that as a sign that the stalling had, once again, come to an end. I took a deep breath and started walking, my hand clutching Stefan’s. I could hear the others fall in behind me. Even the shifters, who were gathering together as the battle wound to a close, followed our crew.
Bodies littered the ground leading up to the building. Those that were left alive were busy either securing the prisoners, running after prisoners, being prisoners, or just lying in a heap for medical aid. The building continued to groan and shift, parts falling down and wood or stone rolling from the structure. What was left was in no way salvageable. Someone would have to tear it all down and rebuild for the place to be habitable again. Which, I supposed, was a good thing. The Europeans would have to go elsewhere, though they probably had a few hideouts we didn’t know about.
I vaguely watched three people chasing one large, male warrior through the cabbage field as I neared the place Cato and I had linked. And though he’d been removed, it wasn’t hard to figure out where he’d gone. A collection of bowed heads gathered near the back of a van, all somber, a few crying.
I walked up slowly and was greeted by a grim-faced Toa and Dominicous.
“How is he?” I asked quietly, seeing the white head between the bodies as it lay in the van.
Dominicous reached out and ran his fingers down the side of my face. He let his hand settle on my shoulder. “He didn’t make it.” His eyes were soft and relieved as he looked at me, and though he wouldn’t say it where we were standing, I knew he was intensely relieved I had pulled through. That if it was a choice between Cato and me, even though Cato was more valuable, Dominicous would’ve chosen for me to come out alive.
I stepped toward him and circled his waist with my arms. He hugged me tight. His cheek came down on my head. “Thank the gods you are okay,” he said quietly, right next to my ear. “You scared me.”
“I scared myself. Nathanial was… unreal. Far above anything I have seen.”
“He’s had a lot of experience,” Toa said. I felt a light pat on my back. Toa’s version of gushing. He was the creepy uncle in my life, and I loved him for it.
“But Cato had more.” A pang hit deep inside me. I hadn’t known Cato all that well, but what I did know, I really liked. He was a sweet, kind of senile guy with so much history and world experience. I wished I had a chance to get to know more of him. To learn more from him.
“He did, and he didn’t,” Toa said cryptically. “They were evenly matched at one time, but Cato’s age caught up with him. He lived beyond his years. Nathanial was still in his prime. He was still experimenting and learning.”
“Cato held on to pass on the most important of his knowledge—linking our kind to humans.” Toa turned slightly to allow Mage June to join our small circle. Dominicous released me so Mage June could look directly into my eyes. The gaze held intense sadness, loss, uncertainty and a slight edge. “He imparted the knowledge of the black and white link. The magical yin and yang. Throughout the battle he muttered that you were a natural. That you took to it as if the danger wasn’t an issue at all.”
“Danger… wasn’t an issue. Was it?” I scrunched my face up in confusion. “I mean, I got dizzy and whatever, but then… it was kind of like what I always had. Only, easier, kinda. It was more balanced. It felt natural.”
“Yes, his point exactly. It took him ten years of study to link in that way without his spells morphing into something dangerous. Something that could kill him, his link partner, and everyone around them. When a person works with the other half of magic, inverting is always a huge risk. To invert is to create some horrible, unpredictable spells.”
“Oh.” I waved that thought away. “I’ve already learned that lesson. My teachers taught me like they taught their own kind. I set whole rooms on fire.”
“Me, too,” Paulie said from a few feet away.
Mage June’s eyes flicked toward Stefan. I could tell it was a silent reprimand by the sudden stiffness of my mate and the defensiveness bleeding through the link. She focused back on me. “We will need to pick your next linking partner with care. It has to be someone both familiar with you, your type of magic, and—“
“It’ll be Toa. Anyway, can I see Cato?” I interrupted. If she thought I was going to be sucked into the world of politics on the tail-end of a vicious battle where I lost one of my mentors, she was losing her mind.
Her lips turned into a thin line, but she moved aside slowly. Toa stepped closer and moved me closer to the van. In my ear, he whispered, “Cato was hoping for you and Stefan to one day take his and Mage June’s role. You two will have a lot of interest from the Council. I would be wary, were I you.”
“Not in the mood, Toa.”
My breath caught as people stepped out of the way and I saw Cato. He lay on a pad. His eyes were closed and hands crossed over his chest. He looked so peaceful, as though he were sleeping. But his chest was still. There was no rise and fall of breath.
Tears sprang to my eyes. “Does he have any family or anything?”
“No. His mate lost her life in childbirth along with the child. He never re-mated or adopted any other children.” Toa stared down at Cato with glossy eyes. “He was my mentor. When I first started working with magic, he saw my potential and worked with me. He’ll be greatly missed.”
“Yet you didn’t want to be his mage?”
Toa steered me away so others could pay their respects. “He already had Mage June. Plus, he knew I wanted to be in the thick of things. I wasn’t meant for stuffy meetings and staying in one place for long. I was meant, instead, to find you. And pass on my teachings.”
He led me away from the others a little. We turned toward the cabbage field, which was mostly demolished near the road, and stared out for a while in silence. A few more people had made a run for it, but it looked as though they’d been caught, hog-tied, and left to think over their life’s choices, because they lay in heaps sporadically through the field.
“You were certain what you said to Mage June—you trust me
to engage in the deep link?” Toa’s voice sounded wispy and uncertain.
I crinkled my eyebrows as I glanced over at him. “Yeah. Who else? By now you know how much I eff-up. I figure you’re the only one who won’t throttle me inside the first minute.”
“I have less patience than others.”
“Well, whatever. You’re family. And I think you have a better handle on how my magic works than others.”
“Yes.”
He fell silent again, staring out. The crinkle in my eyebrows got deeper. I didn’t say anything this time, though. The guy was grieving—he was allowed to be weird. We were all strung out and flipped around—I doubted anyone would be right for a while.
“I am honored that you call me family,” Toa said finally. “And once we are recuperated, we will attempt the link in a safe location. Thank you for bestowing such a deep level of trust for me. Excuse me.”
I must’ve looked like I was trying to solve a difficult riddle as I watched Toa stiffly walk away, because when Stefan appeared at my side, he said, “He acting weirder than normal?”
“Yeah. Way weird. I get the feeling that he’s half afraid of that magic merge… thing.”
Stefan glanced toward Toa as Ann trudged up to my other side.
“I think it’s hilarious that those guys took off running through an open field as if no one would chase them.” Ann pointed at another guy who’d made a run for it. About a hundred yards away, he quickly changed direction. Someone popped out of the cabbage and gave chase.
“The yin and yang of magic is a terrifying thing for people that know absolutely nothing of human magic.” Stefan watched the chase in progress. “They know the dangers of inverting, but not the result. We’ve been taught since we were little that inverting magic is a life-ending situation. Until you did it regularly, and then the rest of the humans, we didn’t realize the explosions and angry flora that result aren’t the disastrous situation we were led to believe.”
“So why is Toa freaking out?” I asked as I leaned against his arm.
“He has the potential to mess up as badly as you always do.” Ann ran her hands through her shock of blue hair.
