“Can’t,” she answered. “They take a blood oath when they’re young.”
“What if he didn’t take the oath?”
Reagan scratched her nose. “Don’t know.”
“Then I would’ve died many lifetimes ago,” he said. He didn’t elaborate on that point. Before I could push for more, Emery glanced at me expectantly. I lifted my eyebrows, silently asking what he needed.
“Ready?” he asked.
I stared at Cahal for another moment, feeling a tight ball of anxiety sitting in the pit of my stomach.
“You cannot keep me from protecting you,” he said in a low hum that spread a feeling of trust through my body. “Your safety is my duty.”
“Stop emotionally manipulating me,” I ground out, feeling the pressure of everyone waiting on me to get going.
A small smile curved his lips. “I cannot make a person feel. I can simply be who I am with conviction, and let them decide for themselves. Listen to your magic, Penelope Bristol. It will not lead you astray.”
Frustration gnawed at me, but what could I do? Time was running out, and everything pointed to him being legit.
Then again, if he was legit, why was the person who’d sent him trying to keep it a mystery?
“Fine,” I said through clenched teeth. “Let’s go.”
I turned and started walking, joined immediately by Emery.
“I don’t like all the unknowns in this endeavor,” I said, still feeling frustrated.
“No one does. The odds are stacked against us.” He took my hand. “But it isn’t the first time. If there is any certainty here, it is that we perform incredibly well under pressure.”
The shifters took off, cutting through the woods so they could do their jobs and come around from behind. Cahal drifted up nearly to my side, staying a little apart and behind us.
We approached a curve in the road. Once we got around it, we’d be able to see the house. Expectation filled me, and we drifted toward the trees. A little farther and Emery let go of my hand and motioned for me to stay back.
“Let me check it out.” He took cover behind a large tree at the last bend in the road before slowly looking around it. A moment later, he was back and everyone leaned in to hear what he’d seen. “They’ve got ten mages sitting out front, facing our way. Bored, by the look of them. I doubt they’ve seen any activity for as long as they’ve been here.” He glanced at Cahal for any input, and got no response. “There are also groups gathered near the house. Most of them are working on the ward, and the rest are a bit removed, idle until needed. They’re all in a stupor. If we go in hard and fast, we’ll have the upper hand.”
“What are the odds the mages at the Guild will be in the same stupor after waiting all this time?” Callie asked, digging through her satchel.
“Slim to none, I’d imagine. We caught them off guard last time. They won’t let it happen again. These are likely the derelicts sent to thin us out, if possible. What happened at Roger’s house showed us that.”
“But it thins them out, too,” I whispered. “It lessens their horde.”
“Absolutely.” Emery ran his hand down my arm, leaving a trail of lightning in its wake. “Ready, Turdswallop?”
“Yep. But you lead. I don’t want to accidentally blow up another of Darius’s houses.”
He laughed and then took a moment to collect himself. Another moment passed before I realized that wasn’t what he was doing at all. He was waiting for the older dual-mage pair to get all their ducks in a row. As soon as their hands were filled, Emery nodded.
“Give ’em hell.”
29
Emery peeled out from around the tree and started at a fast run. I was with him a moment later, ready to help him take the brunt of the attack from the lookouts so Callie and Dizzy would have an easier in. Sprinting at the house, I immediately loosed a spell at the slouching mages out front. Emery followed it up with another.
Magic slammed into their bodies, catching them completely by surprise. Ingredients fell from their hands and littered the ground as they clutched their chests or immediately sank to the ground. Magic boiled through the air and the wind kicked up, pushing at me from behind. A spell from the dual-mages whirled past me, building strength as it went. It neared the house before it formed a full tornado, its funnel starting high and dropping down until it churned the dirt.
“Very cool,” I said as it moved off to the right, toward more surprised mages. Some reached for their satchels, and others looked up in fright and started back-pedaling.
“Harder,” Emery said. His next spell slithered across the ground before starting to roll, shooting out sparks and magical spikes. He was still trying to make fire.
“Nope.” I stole from Reagan, who was running beside us with her sword out. Heat and ice wrapped around me, complex and beautiful. I mixed it with Emery’s and my energy, with our magic, and then added in a dash of the goblin’s donated magic and some silky darkness I realized was from the druid loping behind us.
My spell tore through the sky, zipping, pausing, spinning, and then rushing forward again, never in a straight line. It burst into flame as it met a group of mages who were speaking to life a spell. Turning solid, it knocked them back and kept going, sliding over the fallen mages and scraping half of their bodies away in the process.
“Oh yuck. I didn’t mean for it to be so gruesome…” On it went to another group, slinking around a tree as it did so. That must’ve been the druid’s influence. Fire flared again, mages were slapped through the air, and then the gross finale got an encore.
“That is…not at all the same spell as before,” Reagan said. “That is…”
“Unique,” Cahal said. “And rare, the ability to—”
“Shoplift,” Reagan supplied.
“—use the magic of others,” Cahal finished.
“Good ol’ Fast Fingers.” Emery shot off another spell. Like a blowtorch, magical fire surged through the side of the house before branching off in shoots, blowing through the trees. “She shared it with me. It’s a much easier way to create fire.”
“Ever think of asking first?” Reagan said, pulling the fire from the trees before the whole place went up. She dodged to the right and slashed with her sword. Someone screamed. Someone else went flying. When she rejoined us, she said, “It’s kind of nice when everyone knows who I am. I don’t have to hide as much.”
“You should not hide at all,” Cahal said, having done absolutely nothing to help us, beyond letting me crib some of his power. “Lucifer will find you regardless. You are hindering yourself by not reaching for your true potential.”
“Easy for you to say,” Reagan said. “You don’t run the risk of being trapped in a job you don’t want.”
“I am already trapped,” he said.
“Well, that blew up in my face,” she muttered, before darting into the trees again.
“Trigger the surprises before the shifters get on scene,” I said to Emery, meaning the little land mines we’d installed on our first night here.
On the outskirts of the house, I felt the magical detonators spark before magic bloomed out. I triggered mine, feeling the rush of energy as they struck out at whoever was around them.
That done, I started the weave for the giant rolling ball Emery had made up earlier. He noticed and helped me construct it, adding in a magical seeking property. Hopefully it would hunt the mages down before it ran out of steam.
“This will be a good one for the Mages’ Guild compound,” he said, shoving it off.
Someone ran out from the bushes, a spell ballooning up in front of them. The construction was straightforward, weave loose, and intent unoriginal.
Kill.
I countered it easily, washing it away before zapping the mage with my rodent zapper. It hit him dead center. He cried out as he fell backward.
Our magical ball rolled away before curving, the addition of the tracker doing its work. It took out two mages hiding in the thick trees before rolling away to the next group. Reagan crossed behind it before running down a mage trying to escape.