by May Dawson
There were rough voices in the distance: police calling to each other. The voices just seemed to be getting louder.
“We’ll hold them off if we need to while you open the rip,” Rafe said. “All that matters is getting that shield through to our friends.”
Even in the worst-case scenario, if we didn’t make it through but we could send the shield through, the shield’s magic breaking through should alert them. Clearborn had altered the wards on the walls; any portals opening sent an alarm through campus.
Silas dove under my skirt, and I said, “Oh,” at the feel of his hands against my skin.
“Getting the weapons,” he said, crawling out from under my skirt. He pulled open the second concealment bag, and suddenly it tripled his size and he almost dropped it. He pulled swords loose and tossed one to each of us.
I kicked off my high heels, barefoot and ready for a fight. “Help me get this off.”
Jensen moved swiftly to my side, but Silas snapped his fingers, and suddenly the dress fell away into nothing but slivers of blue magic that drifted in the air, then dissolved. The bags with the lock picking tools and the shield fell to the grass.
I scooped up the bag with the shield. It was as small as a clutch purse, easy to fit under my arm.
Jensen paused. “I’m not sure Silas should be trusted with that kind of magic.”
“Because you know you couldn’t be,” Silas returned. He threw out his hand, and a new gown formed on my body, light and airy and easy to move in. I was ready to fight—and I was glad I didn’t have to do it in garters.
He murmured a few words, and his magic began to shape in his hands, golden swirls combining in his palms before he began to write the shape of a door into existence with his finger.
The police should be able to see the door’s glow above the wall. I watched the wall, waiting for them to come.
The sword was fine, nicely weighted and a good leather-wrapped grip. I missed my academy sword though. I wondered if I’d ever seen that sword, lost in the fae world.
I wondered if I’d ever see Tyson again, if he’d be waiting for us back in our world.
I wondered if once we got through that portal, if Silas would stay or if he’d come back to the Greyworld.
The stone wall suddenly exploded in front of us. Rafe threw up a shield instinctively, magic rising in a wave to cover the four of us; shards of stone rained down on the shield, which shimmered under the assault as if it might crack.
A dozen Establishment magicians raced through the gap toward us, some carrying swords and some carrying wands.
Silas turned his back to them, ignoring them as he continued forming the shape of a glowing door in the air.
“Stop him!” A voice yelled.
Silas muttered, “Oh, Warren. So tiresome.”
Before he could quite finish the last section of the golden magic shimmering in the air, a magical hail of arrows flew through the air toward Silas.
Rafe jerked his hand up, magic sparking at his fingertips, and a shield formed in front of us, just for a moment. It crackled into existence, and then it was gone.
But the arrows bounced harmlessly off of us.
Silas had lost the thread of his magic just for a moment, though, and he began again. The magicians were all focused on him, and Rafe and Jensen moved swiftly to fight them, trying to hold them back from Silas.
I melted back into the shadows of the garden, hiding behind a statue—man, the Greyworld loved their statues—and forming my own pocket of shimmering magic. It didn’t need to be big.
But whether or not my friends and I made it through that door, the shield would.
No one noticed the glow of my smaller magic. The Establishment was so distracted by Silas Zip and all his flash.
I murmured the words to open a pocket-sized rip between worlds, imagining the academy, and slipped the shield through. Then I closed it, and the glow between my hands faded. There was nothing but the sound of the fight in the distance, the clash of swords against sword and the sizzle of magic in the air.
Our mission was complete. Now we just had to get out of here alive.
I emerged from behind the shadows to find Rafe and Jensen engaged in a fierce fight with the Establishment magicians. I brought my sword up and dove into the fray, blocking a magician who had been about to blast Rafe. The three of us fought with blasts of magic and with our swords. We were outnumbered, but that never stopped us.
“I’ve got your friends,” Warren Campbell shouted.
Two men dragged Isabelle, bound and gagged, her eyes wide over the fabric binding her mouth, into view.
Silas looked back over his shoulder as Warren said, “Don’t make me hurt her, Silas. You did all this for her.”
Silas formed the last of the door and turned. The frame burned bright and golden against the night, although it hadn’t yet shaped into a doorway. He glanced at me, and there was a whole plan in that look.
He wanted me to turn his frame into a door and go through. To leave him behind to deal with this on his own. All I had to do was murmur a word and go through.
But what happened to Silas Zip as he fought for his friends’ lives, desperately outnumbered?
Then he glanced at Rafe. “Well?”
Rafe seemed to understand too.
This was the choice we’d faced before, in the Fae world; we’d had the choice to abandon Tyson’s spring court and complete our mission. We’d disobeyed Rafe’s orders.
Rafe glanced at me, reading my face quickly as I begged him to help, then looking at Jensen. I’d thought he didn’t care what we wanted. I was surprised he took even a few seconds to gauge what we thought we should do.
Rafe glanced at Silas last.
“First we save your family,” he said, “then we save mine.”
The four of us moved to fight the Establishment. Behind us, the shimmering magic of the door fizzled to nothing.
I fought with my magic shielding me as I made my way to Isabelle’s side. The guard who gripped her arm threw out his hand, sending magic flying my way. I met his magic with my own, and as our streams of magic pushed against each other, they threw off white-hot sparks.
I dropped my shield just long enough to step inside his grip and elbow him in the face. The guard stumbled back, gripping his face.
Magic was great, but elbows always get results.
I cut Isabelle’s bonds on her hands; we needed her to join the fight.
She ripped the gag over her mouth away and shouted, “You’ve got to get away from me! It’s a trap!”
She dove for the gap in the wall.
But a blast of magic washed over us all. For a second, my ears rang and the world turned sideways. I saw Silas stop and lurch toward me, magic sputtering at his fingertips as he tried to form a door.
Then he fell, and I realized I was already on the ground myself.
The world went dark.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Penn
My rifle slammed into my shoulder with recoil as I picked off another target. The wolf I’d just shot stayed on its feet though, continuing to careen through our lines. It disappeared behind a barricade and I swung away, searching for another target.
Things were growing desperate. All around me, our side was falling prey to the wolves and witches who rampaged. Until we could shift too, even firearms and magic weren’t enough against them. But I didn’t have time to think about that; I just needed to keep finding new targets, keep fighting.
Through the sites of my rifle as it swept across the field, I glimpsed the witches who were fighting with the wolves, then realized one had a familiar face. For a second, I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing, and then I remembered.
Bennett. I’d been pretty distracted by the fact that Winter had almost killed me that day, but Bennett had taken on Clearborn’s face in a ruse to convince Maddie to use the dark collar.
That day, she’d ripped all of our wolves away.
And the one who h
ad paid the most had been Maddie, who couldn’t forgive herself for what she’d done, for one human moment of failure.
My finger tightened on the trigger, easing out the slack as I sited in on Bennett’s center of mass, covered by the leather jacket he always wore. Maddie had told me she called him Indy until she learned his name, and I could see why; from his dark blond hair to the way he dressed, he had the same vibe as Indiana Jones.
Right as I pulled the trigger, he threw up a shield, looking straight at me. My bullet ricocheted harmlessly off his magic. No matter, I was already looking for my next shot, waiting for him to drop the shield.
Clearborn dropped beside me, his back against the barricades. His breath was coming short. “Penn, I need you.”
“I never thought I’d hear you say such a thing, sir,” I said. Bennett wasn’t dropping his shield, so I finally gave up and looked at Clearborn.
“Someone opened a rip onto campus,” he told me. He’d changed the wards so he knew whenever a rip opened; that was probably the only reason we’d all been ready when the wolves charged us. “I’m hoping it’s Maddie and Rafe with the shield.”
“If not, it’s more bad news.” I changed my grip on my rifle, keeping the stock in my shoulder but the barrel trained toward the ground ahead of me. I was ready to run… and fight.
Clearborn nodded, then rattled off a location in the forest. “Will you go check and if it’s them, make sure we reunite the two halves of the shield? That spell working and restoring our wolves… it’s our best chance.”
He sounded so calm, but I knew it was our only chance.
“I’m on it,” I promised.
I took off running for the forest. I moved desperately fast because I had open ground to cover. I heard magic sizzle behind me, then it suddenly died. One of my friends must have taken care of the attack before it could reach me.
I all but dove into the shelter of the forest, and plunged deep inside, searching for my friends.
“Maddie?” I dared to call softly as I reached the point where they should be waiting for me. But there was no one there.
Instead, I found half of a shield lying in the soft earth. The trees shifted slowly around me, pushed around by the wind. The shield was half-hidden by the gloom of the forest.
I pulled it up from the dirt, dread settling into my gut. Where was Maddie and the others?
I heard a faint footfall behind me, breaking a twig, and I whirled. But because I hoped it was her, I didn’t raise my magic.
That was my mistake.
The witch who faced me wasn’t so slow. The red-headed witch flung her hands out at me, and magic blazed into my chest. I was thrown backward, slamming into a tree so hard that I lost my breath.
“Very good, Victoria.” Bennett stepped from between the trees. He held his hand out to me for the shield. “We’ll take that, thank you.”
They’d have to kill me first.
Not that they would mind.
I came off the tree, already seating my rifle in my shoulder, beginning to squeeze off a round—
Bennett held up his fist, tightening it as magic flared around his hand, and the barrel of my weapon crumpled. If I fired it, it would explode on me, so I quickly released the trigger and tossed it to the ground, moving to fight another way.
“I’m on your side, as long as you don’t shoot me,” Bennett said mildly.
Victoria whirled to face him but he was already holding his hand out toward her. “Sleep.”
She crumpled into the soft brush.
I reached over my shoulder and drew my sword, still holding the shield with my left arm. “Why do I doubt that, Bennett?”
“Oh, Maddie told you about me,” he said. “I can’t imagine she had much kind to say, after the dark collar incident.”
The witches still wanted the dark collar; they’d kidnapped Blake and Skyla trying to get it to us. I wondered if I should try to kill this asshole now, or if I should try to get him to keep talking. There’s nothing like a villain who wants to monologue.
It seemed like he’d helped me with that other witch, but he’d seemed as if he were helping Maddie too, right until the moment he tricked her into using the dark collar. This was just another trick.
“None of us are big fans now,” I said. My magic crackled along the edges of my sword.
“She had to fulfil that prophecy,” he said. “The only way she would was if she thought she was saving you all.”
“What prophecy?”
Bennett raised his hands as if to signal to me he was no threat. I didn’t see any magic curling around his fingertips, but that didn’t mean I trusted him.
“The prophecy said that for witches and wolves to live in peace, the Warbreaker had to destroy their magic.”
“Warbreaker?”
He shrugged. “The Fae are dramatic, what can I say?”
“So you were just helping.”
“As I’m trying to help now. I’m not from the Coven of the Day—I’m not even from this world.” His lips turned up at the edges. “Like your friend Silas, I’m just a Rebel Magician who can never go home again.”
“And you just want to help me now.” Of course this guy wanted me to take him to the other half of the shield. The witches probably wanted to get that from us just as badly as they wanted the dark collar, if not worse—the shield could reverse the spell they’d used on us, allowing us to shift back, and then the balance of power would shift yet again.
“I don’t care much about helping you, Penn. Just trying to save my world, one step at a time. Our interests happen to align—without the shifters, without Maddie Northsea, my world would be torn to pieces.”
I didn’t believe in prophecy, so I wasn’t impressed.
I did believe in Maddie, though.
I extended my sword toward him, and the self-assured look on his face disappeared as my magic rippled out at him. This time, he was the one who went flying. I didn’t waste any time looking back but took off running desperately for the building where the other half of the shield was hidden.
As I ran back past through the battlefield, Lex was battling a pair of wolves. His sword and magic flashed but no matter how agile he was, he was outnumbered. Then a witch blasted him in the back with magic. He stumbled and went down to his knees, and one of the wolves jumped toward him.
I threw a blast of magic their way, knocking the shifter off Lex, buying him a moment of time to get back up and keep fighting. I wanted to stop and help him, but I had to focus on the one thing that could save us now—getting the shield back together and working the enchantment. We’d all learned it when we were studying in preparation to seek out the dark collar. Even if some of us died, someone had to be there at the end to reverse the spell and give us a chance to survive.
I threw open the door to the academic building. A sleek gray-and-tan wolf watched me, her lips peeling back from her teeth, but let me go. That must be Lex’s sister who could still shift; there was no one else on our side who could shift.
I took the stairs two at a time and burst into Clearborn’s office. There was the other half of the shield out on his desk.
I fit the two halves together. They clicked into one piece, and magic tingled under my hands, filling me with a sudden sense of power. The front of the shield was a picture of two heads, one wolf, one man, rising from one pair of shoulders. It was the perfect shield for Saint Cain, who gave rise to all of us who were marked to follow in his footsteps.
I murmured the words of the spell in Latin.
Then I stared at the shield, waiting for something to happen. Maybe that tingle of magical power grew, or maybe that was my own wishful thinking.
Impatiently, I moved to the window that overlooked the campus below. Out on the green lawn, wolves were fighting.
Including a familiar great white wolf, who was fighting with two other wolves. As I watched, Lex ripped the throat out of one of those other wolves.
Then I saw Bennett, blasting magic at witches and c
ertain wolves.
Well. I still didn’t trust the man any further than I could trust him. With the exception of Silas, I didn’t trust any wizards, and even Silas was suspect sometimes.
Time for me to shift. There was still a fight to win out there, even though the tide of battle seemed to be turning.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Maddie
“You know, I never spent so much time in prison until I met you, Silas.”
He winked at me. “I take you to all the nicest places.”
Our conversation wasn’t exactly intimate. We were chained to the wall, and there were two guards watching each of us, all very well-armed. Isabelle and Frederick and Sebastian were with us, too. Isabelle looked miserable, no matter how much anyone assured her it wasn’t her fault. I was glad that the blast of magic hadn’t hurt her. It had just caused all of us—Establishment and Rebel and shifter alike—to black out, and then Warren Campbell’s reinforcements had picked up the pieces. We’d woke in this prison.
I couldn’t reach my pendant, which still dangled against my skin, but maybe that didn’t matter. I found myself closing my eyes. I believed in the pendant’s magic as more than the magic itself. I formed the word on my lips. Familia.
There was no way they could hear my call. But there was some crazy part of me that believed in a bond of magic between us all that was greater than the walls between worlds.
When I opened my eyes, Jensen was watching me. I felt silly for a moment, knowing Jensen never missed much; those glowing golden eyes seemed to register that I’d just thrown out the magical version of a hail mary. But he just winked at me, and I felt a little better.
Rafe worried his lower lip between his teeth. “I made the wrong call.”
“No, we made the wrong call,” Jensen said. “Isn’t that the point? You looked to us.”
“I…it’s still my responsibility,” Rafe said. “I was thinking about that damn round table. I was thinking maybe there was another way for all of us.”
