by TR Cameron
She laughed. “Yes. Yes, I did. But I’m better now. Are you okay?”
He showed her his arm, which was only lightly injured. “Little burn. No biggie.” He offered her the other one, and she used it to climb slowly to her feet before she latched the empty potion vial onto her belt.
Diana paused and gazed in all directions to get her bearings. “Kayleigh, status on the chopper?”
The tech exhaled an explosive sigh of relief. “Forty seconds out. They had to pull back when the train passed through a short tunnel. So did the drone. We don’t have eyes on you at the moment.”
She laughed. “That’s okay. I’m not much to look at right now.”
“The army finally got back to us. There’s an artifact several cars ahead. If you’re where I think you are, there should be a storage car and a flatbed between you and it.”
“Got it.”
“They’re putting together an assault team to board the train after it gets through the next town, so you’ll have a little help.”
“Yeah, I imagine that’ll be too late.” She sighed. “It’s probably already too late. These bastards have tried to slow us down again like they always do.”
Cara shouted over the wind that filled the channel when she activated her mic. “You’d think we’d have learned by now. Someone should talk to the person in charge.”
The insult made her smile, then laugh. “Bite me, Cara. Maybe once you’re done with your little vacation, you could get back in the game?”
“Only if you promise to leave some for me.”
“Done.”
She stood and studied the car ahead. “There’s no time like the present, Rath.”
“The game is afoot.” She stared at him, and he shrugged. “Get a move on, Watson.” She shook her head, laughed at him, and threw a blast of force at the locked door ahead.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
There was no incoming fire from the next car, so Diana summoned a force shield and thrust forward to land inside. The feeling of tiredness she’d often experience near the end of a training session with Nylotte crept up from within. She had been drained by the combination of the healing potion’s pull on her systems and the enormous use of power thus far.
There’s no time to worry about that now.
Her danger sense activated again and warned her of nearby magic, but she saw nothing at all. She held a hand out to stop Rath as she peered around, unable to identify the source even after several moments of intense focus. She pushed her will toward the bracelet Nylotte had given her and whispered, “Fortus sensus.”
The charm came to life, and warmth rushed up her arm from her wrist. As it reached her ear, the sounds that had merged together suddenly separated into identifiable components—the tick-tock of the wheels on the rails and the whop-whop of the approaching helicopter. Beneath it all, her heartbeat kept time, and Rath’s faster one provided a counter rhythm.
This would be amazing at a concert.
The awareness extended to her tongue and nose, neither of which were pleased with the increase in sensitivity. The skin on her face registered a trickle of air that hadn’t been there before—perhaps from a break in the metal walls. When the warmth reached her eyes, Diana gasped. The smallest details were visible to her in a way that, if viewed as a whole, would have been a mishmash of color, texture, and motion. Each object she focused on came into perfect clarity and separated from the visual noise she’d never noticed before.
She scrutinized the car again and identified a shimmering wave in the middle of the space that radiated out along the floor from either side. It didn’t look like any tripwire she’d ever seen, and then she realized that it pulsed in rhythm with a small hum at the edge of her hearing.
Holy hell. I’m seeing sound.
Time resumed its natural flow, which made the images harder to take in. She whispered, “Apstergo sensus,” and her vision returned to normal, as did her other senses.
Mental note: bring mints from now on.
She shook her head, pictured a force shield, and built it in her mind before she stretched her hand out to call it into being. It raised into a high rectangle over the zones where she’d noted the patches and enclosed them and half the wall above them, then extended a couple of feet deeper into the car. She held the magic while she and her partner climbed over. They inched into the corner nearest the exit since they lacked cover to protect them if opening the door activated another trap. She was unwilling to release the barrier over what she suspected was a sonic tripwire of some sort.
Diana wrenched the exit open with her telekinesis, and it swung into the room. She peeked cautiously into the space beyond and saw only an empty flatbed ahead with a closed car directly ahead of it. That’s the one with the artifact, so that’s where they’ll be.
She and Rath cleared the gap onto the bare platform, and she released her magic mid-flight. The air flooded through the open door and triggered the trap, and the metal box split in half as an explosion of magical energy surged through it. The flatbed rocked as the car behind it left the track, and Diana fired a force bolt at the connection as she landed to release the derailed portion to tumble off to the side. She exhaled slowly, then summoned the strength to advance, meet the enemy, and end the battle.
Cara looked at Anik, who maintained his grip gamely at the end of the cable but gritted his teeth as they flew ahead. The explosion of several train cars had left the pilot with little choice but to swerve, which set her passengers into an uncomfortable series of lurches and sways that made holding on more difficult. Tony gripped his rope tightly and closed his eyes as it swung alarmingly. Her stomach lurched, as much from watching his acrobatics as from her own, and she forced the nausea down. Jump school is one thing. This is insanity. She pressed the stud to activate her mic. “Flatbed ahead. Get us there. Now.”
“On it,” the pilot replied crisply. The helicopter’s nose dipped as she accelerated. The lines leaned toward the rear of the aircraft with the wind resistance. Cara expected the woman to pull up quickly and swing them forward, then hover and allow things to settle before she lowered them farther. Unfortunately, that was not to be.
Below, Diana had released the enclosed car to tumble away, and Cara caught a flicker of something that didn’t look quite right two-thirds of the way back on the flatbed. Her eyes widened when she realized what it had to be.
“Illusion,” she shouted in the same moment that the concealment dropped to reveal several enemies ahead. While she recognized some from their fight at the Cube, others were new. All carried wands and pointed them directly at her boss.
“Get us down there right now, whatever you have to do.” The ex-Marshall grasped the rope tighter and hoped that their teammates on the ground could keep the enemy at bay long enough for them to arrive.
Diana was stunned as the illusion vanished to reveal enemies ranged against her at the far end of the car and cursed her stupidity. It was something she should have considered, at least. She recognized the two dressed entirely in black immediately. The figure on the far left was the witch she’d last seen tumbling into the portal conjured by her fellow wizard. That man stood beside her and closest to the center. An arrogant smirk conveyed his satisfaction at having surprised her. Beside them stood three more wizards, all in various colored outfits. They brandished their wands threateningly.
“Rath, do you want another shot at the witch?”
He growled, which she took as an affirmative.
She shouted over the noise of the wind and tracks, “Can we talk about this?”
The enemy leader laughed and assumed a gloating expression that she much preferred not to stand and stare at. Instead, she charged the wizard farthest to her right. She summoned a ball of force and flung it at him sidearm, and the practice she’d had at the batting cages with Rath proved its value. The mage conjured his own force wave to deflect it, but she had managed to throw him slightly off balance. He crumpled as the telekinetic punch to the knee that followed fl
ipped him over the edge.
Shouts of rage mingled with cries of loss as the temporary ceasefire turned into an all-out brawl. Attack spells rocketed at her from all angles. She dodged the shadow orbs with a diving tumble and rolled to her feet in time to meet a blast of lightning from the wizard on the end. This version was different than the kind she’d faced before. A confined cone of the magic had somehow connected to her. The spell channeled, rather than being consumed in a single strike. Her vest sparked, and the resistors popped in sequence as her muscles locked. She screamed and fell when her muscles spasmed.
Rath’s assault led him directly to the enemy witch. One of the other wizards cast ice at his feet, but he’d had enough experience with that trick to avoid it easily. As he’d expected, the patch extended down the bed, so if he had continued straight, he would have slid off the train. He landed securely and his long legs ate up the distance as he lowered his body in readiness to pounce on his target.
Her face contorted in anger and disgust. Ice erupted from her wand and he ducked his head instinctively but the follow-up attack hammered into his shoulder. He whirled to continue his forward momentum and had to dodge once again as the wizard cast at him a third time. The troll surged ahead with the intention to pitch the smug woman off the platform like he’d sent her into the portal. Instead of the horror he’d expected, the woman looked at him with a chilling smile.
She extended her black-sleeved arms and his eyes locked on her wicked black nails as shadowy tentacles emerged from each of them. There was nothing he could do to defend himself in the split second before they encircled him. She yanked her arms down, and the appendages slapped him onto the platform with the speed of a whip. Their crushing force was brutal on the troll’s body, and his struggles had no effect.
He wracked his brain for a way to escape, but his vision began to sparkle from a lack of breath. Dimly, he realized that he had nothing…no plan and no means of escape. He looked at Diana where she writhed on the ground and struggled to regain control of her body, and he yearned for her as the world began to swim. If this was the end, he wanted to be close to the woman he had come to see as family.
Diana had plunged deep inside herself as the lightning ravaged her. She did her best to ignore the burns that seared into her flesh and the havoc it wreaked on her muscles. Nylotte’s voice echoed in her ears. “Reality exists only in the mind.”
She took a deep breath and shut away the things she didn’t want to think about—the pain, the frustration, worry for Rath…all of it. As she spiraled down, she pictured a lake of lava. The pool appeared and filled her with hope, and she thrust through it unexpectedly to discover a world beneath filled with storms, rain, thunder, and lightning.
It felt like she was underground, but she couldn’t imagine a cavern large enough to contain the violent weather. She stretched her hands instinctively and drew the primal forces contained in the space into her, and the descent stopped, then reversed. Her pained retreat transformed into an energized purpose as she careened out of the mental cavern and prepared for battle.
Round two, punks.
Like a woman possessed, she launched to her feet and screamed. The lighting that wreathed her body now fueled her magic. Her arms swung wide to sweep it in a wave at her enemies, who could not react before they were struck and fell to thrash and flail in its deadly embrace. Rath stumbled upright and stood shakily beside her, and she extended the healing potion she carried for him. He drank quickly and rallied. The enemy moved slowly and fixed her with wary gazes as they, too, struggled back to their feet.
Diana shouted to be heard over the din. “You’re under arrest. Come quietly or face the consequences of your decisions.”
The witch cackled, and the enemy leader shook his head and yelled a defiant response. “You are not as powerful as you pretend to be. You can’t defeat us all.”
Three things happened in quick succession. First, the two enemies on the inside stepped away from the door to the train carriage behind them. Second, a pair of Kilomea followed by several normal-sized beings barreled out of the car.
Damn it. I should have blasted them and been done with it, rather than giving them a choice.
Third—and much better, from her point of view—the helicopter flew over and Cara, Tony, and Anik dropped and rolled into the empty space between the forces. Diana grinned at the sight of her team alive and presumably well.
Now it’s a party. Let’s do this.
“You three handle the trash. When you’re done, give Rath a hand. I’m on the leader.”
The troll yelled, “Luke, trust your instincts,” as he dashed at the witch, and Diana’s sprint at her own enemy was accompanied by laughter at his unbreakable spirit. She tried to steal the witch’s wand as a way to distract her, but the woman turned it into an attack by using redirection to fire a bolt of ice at Diana’s head. The agent slid on the metal, bent back to get under it, and straightened immediately when the danger passed. From the corner of her eye, she caught a brief glimpse of a satisfying sight when the troll plowed into his adversary and upended her perilously close to the edge of the platform.
Satisfied, she returned her focus to the battle and dodged more shadow orbs from the wizard ahead of her. “I think I’ve seen you somewhere before. Oh, yeah, that’s right, you were running away like a coward.”
He laughed. “And you were trapped in an exploding building. And yet, here we both are.”
Her retort was forestalled by barbed tentacles that erupted from his torso like extra arms. The creepy appendages snatched hungrily at her. Not to be outdone, the witch sent her own grasping limbs at Rath, who dodged and wove among them with ease as he shrank down to his three-foot form. Diana conjured the force lariat she’d summoned the last time the wizard had tried that trick, and he repeated his defense when he banished the tangled limbs and called them back into being. She used the moment between to draw her Glock and squeezed the trigger as fast as she could. The anti-magic bullets pierced the tentacles he interposed as a shield without slowing, and he fell when they struck home in his chest and one arm.
Diana lurched forward to finish him but was distracted by a yelp from the right as Anik catapulted toward the back of the platform from a blow by another wizard. She used her telekinesis to slow him and created a sloped force barrier that drained the rest of his momentum as he slid up it. He dropped painfully to the surface, her control imperfect, but at least he hadn’t fallen off. She turned to deal with his attacker in time to see Tony and Cara both fire at center mass. The caster stumbled over the edge and the speed of the train sucked him under the wheels. She winced at the thought of what would inevitably happen to that particular body.
Incoming tentacles appeared in her peripheral vision and she spun to roll out of the way. The witch used the opportunity to scamper into the doorway of the car ahead. Her writhing appendages scooped her leader up and pulled him in after her. The remaining Kilomea thrust into Diana’s path as she moved to pursue. She pounded him with a force punch that knocked him aside, but he’d achieved his purpose.
Even as she raced forward to catch the woman, she saw the triumphant smile on her face as an ornate crate floated into a portal behind her. Diana yelled as she hurled a ball of force at the witch’s head, and her adversary half-turned and frowned. Her shadow appendages twitched as she used the leader as a shield to intercept the orb. The missile struck his torso with a loud crack and dragged a gasping scream from him.
“Get us out of here!” he shouted,
Rath whipped past her and latched onto the man’s foot. He swelled to full size and hauled with all his strength to prevent their enemies from escaping. For a moment, the witch seemed undecided, then she gave Diana a brilliant smile and ripped the wizard from Rath’s powerful grasp. She hurled the man outward before she entered fully into the rift. The portal collapsed as Diana dodged the human missile, and she spun in readiness. He had landed on the platform and her teammates had already moved to secure him. She twiste
d back to stare at where her enemy had been and growled in frustration.
That’s twice you people have gotten away. There won’t be a third time.
Chapter Thirty
Kayleigh flicked a switch and a suit of armor appeared above the display table and rotated slowly in their AR glasses. The tech had been busy in the days following the incident on the train. And, judging by the constant flow of messages she’d sent Diana about the inadequacies of virtually every branch of government and the military, the woman was livid.
“After the army finally admitted what was taken—which required so many phone calls that I’m absolutely certain I set a new freaking world record—I approached the Oriceran Consulate for information. They weren’t all that forthcoming, but Bryant was able to intervene, thanks to his daring rescue of the ambassador.”
Diana’s voice was incredulous. “His rescue? Rath and I almost died, and he says it was…” She trailed off as she noticed the vicious grin on her friend’s face and snorted. “Oh, good one. I’ll get you back for that.” The others laughed, even those who only knew Bryant by reputation.
“Anyway, this gear is called Rhazdon’s Defense. It wasn’t used by the leader but rather created from several artifacts by a number of mages with more skills than wisdom.”
“Wait,” Cara interjected. “Are you telling me this is one giant artifact?”
Kayleigh shook her head. “It’s a collection of separate artifacts, as I understand it, that they’ve managed to convince to work together. While it’s always been something of a fundamental truth that artifacts aren’t willing to share a host, this is somehow different. Maybe because it’s worn rather than embedded or whatever.”
Diana groaned. “This stuff keeps getting worse. Do we know its powers?”
