by K. F. Breene
“What happened?” I yelled, fear climbing into my throat. Black rage such as I had never known rose within me, seething, pressing for release.
“Elliot appeared right next to him,” Cyra said, newly changed into her human form and running over. “I saw it. He appeared right next to the alpha, the alpha collapsed, and they both disappeared.”
I swore, remembering when Elliot had made that delivery truck disappear. I still had no idea how he’d done it.
The Ivy House link between Austin and me went dead. My gut churned as I tried, and failed, to bring it back online. Fear ate at me.
But I knew he was still alive, because we had another link, a deeper one, that was alive and well. Our mating bond, newly forged and continually strengthening. His heart pulsed with mine in my chest, strong and sure.
“Shifters, change,” I ordered, a pulse of magic pulling the gargoyles to the ground. I had no idea how I was doing all of this, but I’d figure it out later, once Austin was safe. “Change into your human form. The gargoyles will carry you with us.”
Niamh landed beside me in her nightmare alicorn form, her crystalline horn bloodied and her golden hoofs stamping at the ground. Edgar, returned from chasing the mages, jumped onto her back.
Isabelle, the first to change, turned to Jasper as he touched down. “Give me a lift?”
He hopped, his wings fluttering, and she jogged over. He scooped her up in a princess hold and swiftly rose into the sky.
Kace changed and then shook his head at Mr. Tom, who’d stepped forward. “I’d prefer someone I don’t know. This is going to be awkward.”
“Only if you let it,” Cyra replied.
“Oh, I intend to let it,” Kace muttered as a large male I didn’t know grabbed him by the chest and pushed into the sky. “Holy sh—”
Broken Sue, face a mask of rage, stalked up to me, his body all scars and muscle, his beast owning his powerful movements. “Do not let him kill your mate, Jessie Ironheart. It is a soul-crushing pain that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Unlike me, you have the power to save your mate. Save him.”
I nodded, unable to speak, overwhelmed by both his pain and mine. He walked to the nearest gargoyle, a big, scarred creature that kind of matched him, and held out an arm. The male swooped him up like a bride, neither of the guys caring or reacting, and pumped his wings. They shot up into the sky.
Cyra joined them, and Hollace and the other flyers were already up there. I prepared to change again, but Nathanial landed next to me.
“Yeah. Good call.” I jogged to him, turned, and stuck out my arms like a child. “I’d just slow everyone down.”
“It does nnnot lo-ok bad on you, I-ron-heart.” He grabbed me and shot skyward, faster than any of the others. “You we-re not ma-dde for aer-eeal warfare. You pro-tect with ma-gic.”
“Let’s hope so.” I pointed in the direction Austin was still traveling, moving fast. Elliot had to be flying somehow. There was no other way he could be moving so fast, not without a road.
Nathanial pumped his wings and carried us forward, faster than the others, and everyone else spread out behind us. The wind whipped at my face, and I realized flight was more comfortable in my gargoyle form. Too late now. I’d change once we landed.
“There,” I shouted over the rushing wind, my eyes watering, Austin’s heart beating true and mine on the verge of breaking. I let the black rage in my chest seethe and boil, the aggression blotting out some of my fear. I would get him back. He’d saved me yesterday. It was my turn.
And I would make Elliot Graves regret the day he’d shown up in my life.
Austin stopped moving, and I could feel he was being lowered. We were gaining on him fast, gargoyles blotting out the sky as they carried my fighting unit over a smaller peak and beyond. I monitored Austin’s movements and worked at the Ivy House link, trying to get it back online.
“Why won’t it respond?” I asked Ivy House.
“Magic, somehow. A vulnerability?”
I could feel the uncertainty in her tone.
It didn’t matter. Even if Elliot had severed it for good, it wouldn’t matter. We had our mating link, deeper than magic.
Closer now, nearly there, I spotted a flat spot on a big outcropping of a mountain, open to the sky. A helicopter waited, its rotors still spinning. The maw of an open cave could be seen beyond it.
“How in the hell?” I murmured.
There were too many questions to process—how had Elliot managed to get Austin into that bird? How had he silenced the chopper? How powerful was this guy?
The most important of all—was he still toying with me?
I gestured for Nathanial to descend, and he squeezed me to his chest and dove at a stomach-losing pace. On the side area beside the helicopter, he snapped out his wings, slamming on the brakes, and gently lowered to a stop. Despite the fact that we’d practiced these maneuvers—a lot—my stomach rolled. I wasn’t sure if I would ever get used to that.
Austin’s progress had stopped, inside yet another mountain. Elliot was cutting off my aerial artillery.
Hollace dropped the basajaun before rising higher into the air and changing form. With people already gathered on the small platform beside the chopper, he was too big to land.
A gargoyle swooped toward him before I could point and shout, grabbing him up and depositing him next to us.
“What do you want me to do, Jessie Ironheart?” the basajaun asked as he caught up.
“What can you do? Can you feel his positioning within the mountain or anything?”
“When I get inside, I should have a better idea. It’s hard to make a first acquaintance on the surface.”
“Then let’s get inside.” I turned back to everyone, the platform filled up and gargoyles still in the sky. “Keep on your guard. We don’t know what we’re walking into.”
I stayed in my human form, checked to make sure the helicopter was empty, and then jogged to the large opening in the side of the rock face. The air changed as soon as I passed through, much colder than it should’ve been. I pulled magical warmth over myself as my eyes adjusted to the darker interior.
The tunnel had concrete sides and was similar in size to the one leading to our rooms. Service lights were on one side, giving off enough of a glow for me to see a few steps in front of me but not enough to illuminate the way ahead. I suspected that was by design.
The basajaun didn’t follow, and I glanced back to see what was keeping him.
A rockface greeted me. Rough and dark, it gave zero indication that it had ever been anything else.
I backtracked and put my hand against it. It felt exactly as it looked.
Scowling, I pulled at my magic—
“That’s not going to work.”
I jumped and spun, pulling my defenses tightly around me, recognizing Elliot’s smug voice and looking for the source. A momentary bout of vertigo dizzied me. The tunnel from a moment ago had changed. Smaller but just as dim, this one had electric-blue and butter-yellow flowers crawling up the sides. As I watched, they moved softly, swaying in a magical breeze.
I blinked and rubbed at my eyes, holding on to that well of black rage.
Instead of asking where I was, or what was going on, as I desperately wanted to, I took the situation in stride, walking forward with clear purpose. Austin’s presence pulsed straight ahead, a hundred yards or so.
“Do you want to cover up?”
A little table appeared on my right. A garment lay folded on the flat surface.
Right now, I didn’t care about my nudity. Nor did I care about the likelihood that I was trapped down here with a manipulative mage and no backup. I only cared about Austin’s safety.
Without comment, I continued walking onward, working closer to Austin.
“Are you at all nervous?” the floating voice asked.
No comment. I was done playing his games.
“Do you think your power is greater than mine?” he asked. “It was your team that won thos
e battles—all of them. I should know, I’ve been watching. But now you are alone.”
I was never alone. I had Austin in my heart, and my links to the Ivy House crew remained fully functional. They were all frustrated and angry and trying to find a way in. The basajaun was calm, probably because he was trying to make nice with the mountain, however that worked. They might not be physically present, but they were still with me. They wouldn’t give up on me.
Rage burning bright, determination fueling me, I strode on, getting closer. The tunnel was long and unchanging, the lights spaced a consistent five feet apart.
“So much for pleasantries,” the voice said. An opening glowed up ahead, bright lemon light spilling into the shadowy passage. “Let’s get to business, shall we?”
The slice of light was shaped like a half-moon on top and straight at the bottom. I couldn’t tell if it was a doorway or a bend leading to another tunnel with much better lighting.
“I want a trade,” Elliot said. “You for him.”
No. There would be no trade. There would be a dead mage and a safe shifter.
The opening grew in size as I neared it. Above, the basajaun stayed stationary while the others spread out farther, searching. If they found an opening, it would still be a chore to get through the tunnels without a map, unless they were all as straightforward as this one. My hope for reinforcements probably rested on the basajaun making friends with an inanimate object.
“Say yes, and I will put him outside with the rest of your crew. You’ll feel him out there. You’ll know he’s safe. You know I don’t have the forces to take them on. I just want to talk to you, Jacinta. I want to have a conversation with you. You’ll be perfectly safe too.”
I squinted when I reached the opening and slunk to the side, peering in. The space opened up into a large chamber with a sparkling chandelier hanging down over a dark, polished wood floor. Couches and chairs lined the sides, not unlike the setup of our common room, only it was much bigger, with more gaming tables and a few arcade games.
“I have something you need, Jessie,” Elliot said, and his voice stopped echoing, now coming directly from the source. “I have training that will be very valuable to you. I’ve spent these long years learning more about magic than anyone would ever dream of knowing, waiting for you to be ready.”
Then I saw him. At the side of the room, a metal cage hung from a chain. Austin lay inside in his human form, sprawled out. His chest rose and fell, but his breathing was too shallow for comfort.
My world tilted. My beast came roaring out, consuming me.
My wings snapped out, and then I was running into the large room. I sensed him before I saw him, off to the side, standing in front of a stone dais.
“I only want to talk!” He held out his hands, but I was already opening fire.
The magic I shot at him, one jolt after another, was simple but full of power.
He deflected the first two shots and danced to the side, the third slicing into his shield. He swore and then fired a shot back at me. It hit my shield but didn’t soak into it as it should’ve. As everyone else’s did. This one stuck and then festered, starting to unravel my defenses.
I had to kill him before he could get my magical shield off me. I had to beat him with power before he crushed me with experience.
I kept at him. All of my practice had prepared me for this moment. All of those long hours I’d spent battling my team had given me the ability to fight for my freedom.
A blistering spell crunched into his defensive shield, but he quickly erected another. I tore that one away too, slicing through his shoulder with my follow-up spell. He jogged to the side, making me turn. He fired back. My defensive spell started to smoke. I dropped more power into it and fired another spell at him, this one complex and intricate, taken from the second of Ivy House’s training books.
“Damn it, you’ve gotten so much better,” he ground out, still moving, hitting me with spells intent on breaking through my defense. Spells that were breaking through my defenses. He almost had me. “You learn magic so damn fast. You’re a natural, Jessie. I wish I could take more credit. Also, I wish I was powerful enough to combat these spells.”
Doubling down, summoning my power, I rocked him with a blunt-force spell. It slammed into him and knocked him back against the wall. I was on him in a moment, tearing at him with claws and slicing at his shield with magic.
“Think it through,” he said, his voice shaking, the smug arrogance gone. “Think it through.”
He sounded exactly like Sebastian when we’d taken on the phoenix. His tone, cadence, timbre.
I pummeled him with another spell, cracking through his defenses and leaving him wide open. His shoulders dropped and his face fell. He was beaten and he knew it.
“We didn’t have much time together,” he said, “but I’m proud of what we accomplished. I would’ve liked to be your mentor and your friend, please know that,” he whispered. The tension fled from him and then he closed his eyes, finding peace and ready to die.
Twenty-Six
My world came to a grinding halt.
The tone…the cadence…the words…
I stood over him, poised to kill. Ready with the spell.
The tone…
The cadence…
The words…
I straightened, confused. Elliot Graves lay prone at my feet, hands down, eyes closed, face peaceful. He would accept his fate.
I staggered backward a few paces, turning back into my human form, memories flitting through my mind. Pairing up Sebastian’s voice with what I’d just heard. Considering the fact that both he and Elliot shared an obvious (and rare) appreciation for shifters. Thinking through how he’d set up this whole thing to make me stand out.
“But you killed him,” I said softly, my mind whirling, my gut saying one thing, and my logic saying another. “You killed Sebastian.”
His right lid peeled open to reveal a pale blue eye, followed by his left. He didn’t move any other part of his body. “I killed Kinsella because you can’t be in bad standing with the Mages’ Guild. Not yet. I put the glamor you know as Sebastian over Kinsella’s face. Sebastian isn’t dead. I am the mage you knew. Elliot Graves is my stage name.”
I shook my head. “Fat chance. If that’s the case, why did you want to trade me for Austin?”
“I needed to get you down here so we could talk. But when that big shifter wakes up, it won’t take him long to get out of that cage, and I do not want to be on the other side of his wrath.”
I stared down at him, horribly conflicted, knowing this was a trick. Elliot Graves was great at manipulation.
But now that the idea was in my mind, it blossomed. Elliot and Sebastian, Sebastian and Elliot. Several of his tics were the same.
“If you’re Sebastian, how did you act around the shifters? How did you stand?”
He huffed out a laugh and closed his eyes. “You’re so freaking clever, Jacinta. If I had cracked someone’s mind open for their secrets, there’s no way I would have thought to ask that question.” A smile drifted up his face, a little crooked, and my heart beat faster. “How did I stand? I hunched, unable to help it at first because I kept wondering what I would do if one of them attacked me, delighted by my fear, and then on purpose to make sure no one thought I was challenging them.” He licked his lips and opened his eyes again. “I have a lot to tell you, Jacinta. I have a lot to explain.”
“Elliot Graves has a lot to explain.”
“Yes. But so does Sebastian. Two halves of the same coin. I meant what I said last month. I will never hurt you, Jessie. I want to be your instructor. You need one. I would be a great one. We worked insanely well together.”
“You’d never hurt me? You just tried to kill me!”
“I challenged you, and that was ordained. I knew I wouldn’t hurt you. I just didn’t know if our…contest, if you will…would result in my death, or a nice, long chat. I still don’t know.”
“Where did you
set up your lab as Sebastian?”
“My table and camping stove, you mean? Do you still have those? I’d like them back if you do. That stove had a really good control of the flame. I’ve gotten the same brand, but it doesn’t work as well. Or maybe it’s that crystal room.” He hesitated. “I’d like to work in there again. Within Ivy House. I have so many ideas for some of those spells.”
“I don’t…” I took another step back. I didn’t know what to say. What to do. I freaking believed him! It wasn’t his words so much, either. It was the way he was talking. The down-to-earth, chill vibe. The unassuming look in his eyes—when they were open.
But all of that was so different from the Elliot Graves I’d met in this place. The smug, arrogant guy who’d been dogging my steps.
“Please, Jessie, let me explain,” he said. “Let me tell you my history. You can lock me in that cage if you want. For God’s sake, let your mate out. I approve, by the way. I thought he would be perfect for you even before you mated. He’s perfect for an heir. The only reason I brought him here like this was so I could get the chance to talk to you without ending up like Chambers. You can let him out and put me in. Whatever will give me some time.”
He sat up, his hands clasped in his lap. Eyes wary, he stood, moving just as slowly. “I’ll just go let him out, okay? Will that work?”
“Why don’t you just wake him up? You can sit in the chair, and he can sit beside you…”
“I’d rather not. I think I’d be safer in a cage.”
I let out my breath. It was the kind of thing Sebastian would have said.
“Open it, wake him up, and sit in the chair.” I pointed at one in the back corner.
“You drive a hard bargain.”
With a snap of his fingers, the cage sprang open. Another wave of his hands and Austin jolted to consciousness, his eyes blinking open, rage immediately surging through him. Elliot practically sprinted to the corner and quickly sat.
“Please don’t let him kill me,” he said. There was no disgust or condemnation in his tone—just the fear of someone who deeply respected what shifters could do.
