by Casey Lane
Sloan, apparently catching on to her distress, sighed and tugged on her hand until she had no choice but to stretch out on the blanket they’d laid on the grass. “Let’s not think too hard,” he said as he sprawled next to her.
It was the best idea she’d heard all day. She scooted closer to Sloan’s warm body and rested her head on his outstretched arm so she could stare up at the night sky. Lazily, she raised her hand and started tracing shapes in the air with her fire. “How long can you hold the fire there?” he asked.
Smiling, she wrote Sloan’s full name in the air, making the flames burn much brighter than normal. She traced two little hearts on either side of his name and forced them to flare red. Maybe she wasn’t ready to voice her love, but she could at least show him a little.
She held the flame for a full minute before letting it flicker out, only to write his name again and enclose it in a giant heart.
Sloan laughed and kissed the top of her head. Reaching straight up, he summoned a palm full of water and threw it in the air, manipulating it so it also held the shape of a heart.
They played until the wee hours of the morning, giggling like little kids and stopping to make out every once in a while.
Finally sitting up, Sunny stretched her arms and shoulders. “This was so much fun. Thank you for tonight.”
Sloan sat up beside her and kissed her temple. “Well, hopefully, we’ll have many more nights like this in the future. No pressure,” he added with a sheepish smile.
“Just give me time,” she whispered.
He nodded and stood up. “We should get going. Raven’s going to want us to train tomorrow afternoon, so we should get a couple of hours of sleep at least.”
“That slave driver,” she joked, standing up and brushing off the seat of her jeans.
Sloan waggled his eyebrows at her and cupped her hips. “Want some help?”
She pushed him off with a laugh and bent down to pack up the basket. “You’re insatiable.”
“What?” he asked in an innocent voice. “I haven’t had you since this morn…”
The frisson of unease that shot up her spine told her exactly why Sloan had trailed off. “What is that?” She could hear the fear in her voice.
Sloan looked around carefully and her uneasiness increased dramatically. “We’re sensing a sudden increase in the amount of magic around us.”
“Could it be Anna or Raven coming to look for us?” she asked. She already knew the answer, but was hopeful Sloan’s would be different than what she expected.
Sloan starting tossing things into the basket with much more haste than he’d taken them out. “No. Any magic coming from a MacAlister witch would be recognizable. This magic is pretty unfamiliar. I’ve only encountered it a couple of times.”
He didn’t have to say where he’d encountered it. She could already sense the familiarity of the magic. It brought her back to the pub. The Takahashi handler was somewhere nearby. And the amount of magic crackling in the air told her he probably wasn’t alone. “Let’s leave the stuff,” she said urgently. “We can come back for it later if anybody really cares about it.”
The magic nearby increased and Sunny was surprised she didn’t see sparks flying. It felt like she was pushing through a static field. The fine hairs on her arms stood on end.
“Fuck it,” Sloan said, abandoning the basket. “I’ll buy a new one if anyone misses it that badly.”
“We should call Raven before we leave,” she said.
Sloan grimaced. “Did you bring your phone?”
She shook her head. “I left it in my room. I didn’t think I’d need it.”
Grimacing again, Sloan sighed. “I was holding out hope you’d brought yours. I left mine in the car.”
“God, we’re so stupid,” she said.
Sloan took a deep breath and shook his hands. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. Besides, Raven and Leith will probably feel the increase of magic too. Let’s go.”
They made their way as silently as possible through the field, but there was little to give them any type of camouflage. “Maybe we should get down on our hands and knees?” she suggested. “The grass might be tall enough in some parts to hide us.”
Sloan considered it for a second but quickly shook his head. “I think we need to focus on speed. Besides, I can’t see them.”
Sunny didn’t bother to point out that it was the middle of the night. She grabbed his hand and quickened her speed. “How did they find us?”
Sloan shrugged and grabbed her hand, tugging her along behind him. “We didn’t do anything major with our magic, but we did use it a lot,” he said. “Maybe they tracked it, and because we’re so far away from the castle, they decided to try and ambush us.”
She cursed herself for playing with her flame so much to amuse Sloan. She’d drawn pictures in the air with it for close to three hours. “I’m sorry,” she said.
Sloan shook his head but didn’t look at her. He was too busy scanning their surroundings. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I knew the Takahashi handler was in the country, and I still brought you here.”
She didn’t say anything, not because she agreed with him, but because his car, which they’d left at the side of the road, came into view. The fact that they had yet to see anyone was more than a little creepy. It felt like they were being hunted by some kind of top tier predator. Was this what a deer felt like when it was being stalked by a wolf?
“Just a little farther to go,” Sloan whispered.
It could never be that easy, of course. As soon as they were within sprinting distance, a lone figure stood up from where he’d been crouched by the hood of the car. He lifted the car in the air and spun it around. “It took you long enough,” he said casually, as though lifting a car with his mind was a daily occurrence. Then again, maybe it was.
“We’re in so much shit,” Sloan murmured.
“Yes,” the handler agreed, and threw the car at them.
Sunny summoned as much fire as she could, hoping to melt the entire car before it hit them. Getting hit with a mass of melted metal wasn’t much better than getting hit by a solid piece of metal, but at least she was doing something.
Sloan, however, beat her to the punch. He summoned a jet of water strong enough to push the car off track so it hit the ground to the right of them with a deafening crash.
Frustrated, scared and angry, Sunny lost control of her temper. “What the hell is it with you and cars?” she screamed.
Despite the situation, Sloan started laughing. What was more startling was the fact that the Takahashi handler started laughing too. “I wish you were a Takahashi,” he called. “I bet life is never boring with you around.”
“She’s mine,” Sloan growled, his chuckles disappearing immediately.
Sunny frowned, a little unsure as to what was going on. Were they seriously having a pissing contest? And, she would really have to have a talk with Sloan about the whole “she’s mine” thing.
The Takahashi handler’s laughter died too. “It’s a shame we have to say good-bye. I think we could have been good friends if we’d been in a different situation.”
“Why are you doing this?” Sunny asked, stalling for time. Hopefully, Leith had felt the same surge of power and was already on his way.
“You really have to ask?” the Takahashi shouted, a sudden fury contorting his features.
Sunny risked a glance at Sloan and realized he was as confused as she was. “Forgive me for wanting to know why you’re attempting to murder us,” she sneered. Once again, fear had taken control of her tongue. She doubted very much that the Takahashi handler would be as forgiving as Leith.
“You killed our leader,” he spat. “Do you know what happens to handlers when their leader dies?”
The answer was not the one she was expecting. And she had no idea what losing a leader would do a handler.
Judging by Sloan’s horrified gasp, he knew. “We didn’t kill her,” Sloan responde
d. Sunny felt Sloan’s hand clamp down on her elbow and he tugged her, none too gently, until she pressed against his side.
The Takahashi grew more manic, his movements wild and the expression more terrifying. “We smelled MacAlister magic. Like I said, it’s too bad the young one wasn’t a Takahashi. She would have been spared.”
“What is he talking about?” Sunny whispered.
“You know how Raven’s set up some spells to help dampen our magic so we can sleep without fear of losing control?” Sloan answered, keeping a wary eye on the other handler.
“Yeah.”
“Only a clan leader can do that. Until another leader has come forward, handlers cannot get any safe rest. They tend to go mad without their leaders. It’s an unspoken rule that the leaders are left alone, or at least alive, or else the damage a clan’s handlers will create will be catastrophic.”
“That would have been a good thing to mention earlier,” she hissed. Why did she always have to learn about the bad stuff in an emergency?
“Exactly,” the handler replied as if praising a student. “So you’ll understand if I’m just crazy enough to start the war early.”
At the handler’s sudden nod, a sudden wave of people and wolves surrounded them. They seemed to appear out of thin air. Swearing under his breath, Sloan threw up a water shield. They were completely surrounded on all sides by a wall of water.
“Where did they come from?” Sunny asked, stunned.
Sloan didn’t look particularly surprised, but he did look wary. “It’s one of the Takahashi’s specialties. They can conceal their presence somewhat. We could feel them but couldn’t see them.”
Any other time, Sunny would have been amazed and fascinated. Right then, she was far too scared. “And the wolves?”
“Probably the Takahashis’ allies, the wolf shifters. Sit tight, Raven and the others should be here soon. There’s no way they didn’t feel my magic surge.”
The wavy outline of the Takahashis and the wolves on the other side of the shield Sloan had erected showed they were slowly approaching. “Will they be able to get through the water?”
“Saying it would be uncomfortable would be an understatement, but yes, if they try hard enough, they can get through.”
Sloan’s eyes never left the shield, but she knew what he was thinking. She needed to join her power with his if they wanted to survive. But he wouldn’t ask because he knew how much she disliked feeling vulnerable to him.
One of the wolves approached the wall of water and stuck a paw into it. She could hear the wolf’s yelp over the rushing water, but the paw broke through the shield.
She shot a ball of fire at the wolf’s paw and the wolf withdrew it from their little space.
Sunny’s eyes teared up. She was prepared to die, and she was okay with it. What she wasn’t okay with was Sloan dying. Especially if she hadn’t done everything in her power to save him.
Taking a deep breath, Sunny focused on Sloan’s magic and opened herself—body, mind, and soul—to him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sunny knew the second Sloan figured out what she was trying to do. His eyes widened and she figured he’d gotten a sense of how deeply she loved him. But it wasn’t how she wanted to say the words so she stayed quiet.
Wordlessly, she wove her magic with Sloan’s and a sudden understanding sparked in her brain. Her magic didn’t require a calm, focused mind to control it. It responded to passion. She needed to let go of everything she’d been holding back and let that passion control the flames.
Instead of forming fire, Sunny found herself led to something entirely different. She decided to go for it and followed her instincts. “Can you hold the shield and make it rain at the same time?” she asked.
Eyes wide, Sloan nodded. “This is something we’ve never tried, Sunny. Even the previous fire handler didn’t know how to do that.”
The fact that he knew what she thought was pretty damn cool. She could feel his admiration and support through their temporary bond. Maybe being connected with this man on all levels wouldn’t be so bad. If she could trust him to support her when she was thinking of doing something so crazy, then she could trust him with her feelings.
“I know what I’m doing. I think,” she answered. “Can you hold it?”
He nodded and it started to rain. “I can hold this for as long as you need.”
“Good.” Hopefully she wouldn’t need him to hold things for long. Raven, Anna and Leith should already be on their way. If she could inflict enough damage, she should be able to hold off the attacks long enough.
A sudden understanding of her magic had swept her. She couldn’t create fire from nothing. But she could manipulate the temperature of any molecule, causing it to erupt into flame.
To test her theory, she focused on one particular drop of rain and willed it to heat up. Within seconds, she had created a drop of steam.
Would it work the same if she willed the heat out of it?
Instantly, the flame extinguished and the water reformed.
Concentrating intently, she drew the remaining heat from the water until it was nothing but ice.
Victory rushed through her bloodstream and she risked a glance up at Sloan. “Did you see that?”
He nodded. “Yes. You’ll have to tell me how you did it later.” She could tell he left out the, if we survive part.
She unleashed her anger, letting the hot rage rush through her. Her magic responded to her passion and she focused the energy on the raindrops Sloan created. Instead of summoning fire, she concentrated on the water itself, lowering the temperature of the liquid. Sloan hummed his approval and manipulated the shape of the quickly freezing drops into daggers. He flung them at the offending witches and she smiled darkly when she heard a cry of pain. Apparently, Sloan had really good aim.
The ice daggers slowed down the attacks but didn’t stop them. A tree branch crashed through their shield and just about took her head off. Wolves were hurling themselves at the wall of rushing water, sometimes succeeding in breaking through for a few seconds before Sunny was able to shoot a fireball at them.
She lost her temper again when a wolf broke through and nearly managed to close his jaws on the man she loved. Splitting her concentration in half, she continued to freeze the drops of rain even as she superheated the water shield so the water boiled as it fell.
Her efforts helped with the wolves but didn’t do anything against the debris the Takahashi handler kept hurling at them. “Where the hell is everyone?” she screamed.
Sloan squinted through the steamy water shield. “There’s some kind of attack from behind,” he said.
She strained her eyes, trying to see through both the water and the crowd of witches and wolves. Now that she knew the key to controlling her magic, she didn’t have a problem continuing to hold her attack. “I can hardly see them,” she cried over the din. “Why wouldn’t Anna help us fry these suckers?”
Sloan’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure. But we need to hold them off until then.”
Another chunk of metal came flying through the shield. It missed Sloan’s leg by a scant inch. “That’s it,” she screamed. She let her magic take over, giving it free rein.
What happened shocked even her.
Fire shot out of the shield, attaching itself to the falling rain. Instead of turning the water into steam, it turned the drops into flames.
It was raining fire.
“Holy shit,” Sloan screamed over the noise.
With another shift in focus, she was able to hold the fiery rain, as well as continue to hold the temperature of the shield and draw out the heat from certain drops so they were still able to use the ice daggers.
The immense amount of energy it took to hold all three took its toll though, and she felt her energy starting to flag. “I don’t know how much longer I can handle this,” she said to Sloan.
“I don’t think you’ll have to,” Sloan shouted. “It looks like they’re retreating.
They’re still being attacked from behind.”
Sloan’s last words were said a little roughly, almost as if he didn’t like what was happening. “What the matter?” she asked.
“I’m pretty sure they’re being attacked by hunters. I guess it was too much to hope they wouldn’t be alerted by the commotion.”
Well, so much for hoping they were in the clear. “Do you think if we stop now, we can slip out in the commotion?”
Sloan shook his head. “No. The water shield is pretty obvious. If we drop it, it will be noticed and if the Takahashis don’t attack us again, the hunters will.”
Her energy was draining rapidly, and with it, her ability to keep the three different strands of her magic powered. She’d never run into a problem where she’d drained her magic but, then again, she’d never pushed it this hard before. Her knees buckled and she sank to the ground. The raining fire and ice daggers disappeared and the water rushing around them went from boiling to lukewarm. “Sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart.” Sloan took over the defense, letting the shield fall since it was doing nothing to keep out the arrows and bullets the hunters were shooting at them.
She watched, dazed and exhausted, as he started sweeping hunters away with jets of water. The Takahashis and their allies were in full retreat, taking their dead and injured with them. She struggled to her feet and started summoning as many small balls of fire as she could. She couldn’t send them far, but at least if one of the hunters got too close, she could do something instead of just sitting there.
There were too many hunters, though, and as hard as they tried, they weren’t able to keep all of them away.
Finally, a familiar car came into view. Raven, Anna and Leith jumped out.
The arrival of their saviors caught her attention and was the distraction the hunters needed, and a horrible pain in her stomach had her doubling over. She clutched at her abdomen, her hands closing around an arrow.
