Natural Dual-Mage (Page 3)

I shot out a stream of white survival magic. After that scare, it was on hand and ready to be used. The creature morphed into stone, one moment an organic, living thing, and the next a bristling stone creature that looked way more like a gargoyle than the dopey thing from a moment ago.

“Oh yeah, it can change shape, all right.” My magic hit its stone surface and bounced off at an angle, catching a tree and burning a hole through its trunk.

“Oh-kay. That’s a helluva trick,” Reagan said as she thrust her sword at its middle. The blade clanged off the creature’s belly and the Redcap morphed back into an organic being, launching at her with a growl. “Bugger!”

She jumped and kicked, her boot hitting it in the face and sending it staggering backward. I shot out another stream of magic, but the creature shifted back into stone as it tumbled across the ground, once again deflecting my efforts.

“Shizlefritz banana hammock,” I ground out, weaving a more intense, highly powerful spell that should twist its head right off. It would be gross, but that thing and its crusty red hat had to go. “How the heck can it make its hat change into a scarf and back?” For some reason, that struck me more than the whole changing-into-stone thing.

I flung my hands forward as Reagan took a running leap at the creature, my spell getting to it just before she did. The spell splatted against the stone but wouldn’t wrap around its neck. Unrealized, it fizzled back into the nature around us.

“Did you do that?” I asked her, frustrated and possibly suffering from cardiac arrest.

“You’ll need to think outside of the box for this one,” Reagan said before ramming into it with her shoulder and rolling across the ground. “Come back to normal, you filthy creature, so I can kill you!”

“Oh yeah, that approach will work, definitely.”

And yet the creature bounded up, bucking her off. Its hiss emitted a putrid smell that made her hesitate for a moment, her eyes going hazy.

“Oh no!” I shot a trapping spell at it before following with a kill spell.

The creature stopped its lunge for her and snapped back into stone right before my second spell could make contact.

“Dang it, Penny, I would’ve had it.” Reagan kicked the now-inanimate statue, catching it in the head and sending it cartwheeling end over end across the ground.

“How was I supposed to know? I thought you’d been stunned.”

“Magic from creatures of the Underworld doesn’t work on me.” Her tone carried an implied duh. She ran after the creature, which had come to life again and was scampering up a tree.

“I didn’t even know vampires existed a year ago.” I sprinted after her. “How in Mary’s cookie jar am I supposed to keep track of the magic of random creatures and how it reacts with yours if you never explain anything?”

“I just did.” She caught up to it as it tried to scurry up a tree. She grabbed it by the ankle and swung her sword around.

As she should’ve expected, the sword clanged off stone. It dropped to the ground. Once there, it changed again, clearly not taxed by the constant shifting like a vampire or shifter would be. It slashed at her with its sharp claws.

She dodged and countered, just as fast, twice as vicious.

Her fist met stone. “Damn it. Stop with that stone crap.”

This wasn’t working. At this rate, it would wear us down until we were tired and making mistakes. We needed a Plan B.

I stilled, closing my eyes for a moment and racking my brain. The name of the game was to stop it from changing to stone. Which meant I had to somehow block it from using its magic.

The nature around me whispered its song, centering me in the moment. Fanning my magic higher. I let it balloon out then blossom, confident that Reagan would keep the creature occupied.

I felt what I was looking for, hidden within the natural elements. A strange sort of magic wove through it, turning certain wisps brittle. The differences between these rogue strands and the heavy fog I’d been feeling were minute, barely discernible, and the magic was slippery when I tried to tap into it. Evasive.

Like the creature. It refused to heed me.

This was a puzzle and I wasn’t totally sure how to put it all together.

“Taking a wee nap, are you?” Reagan asked, then grunted.

Peeling up an eyelid, I realized she was talking to me. I also realized she had met her match when it came to speed and cunning. The creature dodged her attempt to sweep its legs out from under it before ducking under her left hook with a feral grin. She jabbed with her sword, only to hit off stone. She surged in to grab it, but when she made contact, it was once again an organic creature, and its claws swung up seemingly out of nowhere.

Air wrapped around the creature, her ice magic (I could never remember the Latin name) lifting it and then crashing it to the dirt. But stone was more durable than the rain-softened ground, and the battering did nothing more than dirty the creature.

It turned back into itself before striking out. She dodged and blasted it with fire. The flame washed across stone.

“That is the fastest shift I have ever seen,” she said through clenched teeth. “I can’t even burn it. What a crock.”

Stone turned back to gray skin. “I will dip my hat in your blood yet.” Its voice was deep and scratchy, like the words were scraped with sandpaper.

“You’ll have to pull it out of your ass, first,” she replied, facing it with her hand and sword out. “Because that’s where I’m going to shove it.”

“How does it withstand your magic?” I asked her, trying to figure out the riddle.

“It hits off the stone and just…slides away. I have never, ever seen a creature withstand my magic. Never. I can’t feel any spells or anything. I can’t fathom how it’s doing it.”

“I was given special gifts by the gods,” the Redcap said as it tried to circle Reagan, looking for an in. This thing thought it could win. It was not worried. And if I knew Reagan, she shared its sentiment. “I am not like the rest of my kind.”

“Well, aren’t you suddenly Mr. Chatty. How’d you get up to see the gods? A great big ladder?” She dashed forward, faster than lightning. But not faster than the goblin. Her sword tip scraped stone.

“Try to rush it with your magic, not the sword,” I said in exasperation. “And there are gods?” Something else no one had bothered to tell me.

“Killing it with a sword will be so much more gratifying.” She hacked down onto the stone. “This. Thing.” She hit it with each word, putting all her strength into it. Venting. “Is. Pissing. Me. Off!”

Panting, she stepped back, staring down at its dopey smile. “Change back, bastard. I want another go.”

It did as she said, and I caught a little pulse of power, like a subtle spark way down in the depths of the thing’s magic. This was different from everything I’d felt before—this was what allowed the goblin to change.

“Got it,” I whispered, letting my eyes drift closed and focusing.

“Allegedly, there are gods, yeah. Though some people call them angels. The hearsay is vague on that topic,” Reagan said in a series of grunts ending in sword clangs. “Allegedly, I have strands of their lineage. Allegedly, you can only get to their kingdom of paradise through the dreamscape. Which you can only do if you are a Dream Walker, or guided by a Dream Walker.”

“Why do you keep saying allegedly?” I monitored that little pulse of the creature’s magic, feeling how it interacted with mine. I needed to coax it in so I could use it in a spell, but it was still evasive. Slippery. I couldn’t get a proper grip on it.

“Because I have neither met a Dream Walker—they are incredibly rare—nor heard of anyone who has seen, screwed, or gotten rewards from a god. It’s all a little far-fetched.”

“All the crazy in your life, and you think that is a little far-fetched?” I shook my head. “Think, Penny, think.” I squeezed my eyes shut while struggling to open myself to the magic. Invite it in.

“Don’t think…just do,” Reagan said with strained words.

I just did earlier, and that hadn’t helped.

My temperament was too even-keeled for this creature, that had to be it. This would work better if I shared Emery’s personality—wild and unruly, reflective of the harsher sides of nature.

I could work with that.

“Fine.” I rolled up my sleeves and immediately regretted it as the cold bit down on my skin. I yanked my sleeves back down. “You want it, you got it.”

I thought of Emery. Of his strength and power. The force he could wield with his broad, powerful frame. I thought of his occasional mood swings, the death and sorrow he’d experienced in his life plunging him into the depths of torment. Of his rough hands moving over my body as he entered me with a forceful and deeply passionate thrust.

My face heated and I quickly yanked my line of thought in a different direction. I wasn’t after X-rated memories just now, no matter how pleasant.

My magic boiled, turning and rolling above me. My mood blackened at the thought of what the Mages’ Guild had taken from Emery. At what they had taken from me. My father, his brother, our freedom.

Anger surged, soon burning into rage. Despair seeped in on its heels. I had no idea how we would beat the Guild at their own game, on their home turf, something we’d soon need to plan and get underway. Fear rushed in last, the fear that our second break-in wouldn’t go well. That I’d lose all that I held dear. All that I loved.