Natural Dual-Mage (Page 48)

Now that I knew something about magic, I could put knowledge to my gut feelings. And the watcher emanated a feeling of deadness. Absence.

“Magic can’t thrive in a place with no life,” I said, losing the thread of the conversation, and my focus on the people around me and whatever was waiting on the other side of the ward. All I saw and felt was that big, looming beast, cutting the compound off from all the natural elements, and perpetrating the death and rot inside. “No wonder the mages are going crazy. They are magically suffocating. The lack of freshness, of magical wonder, is twisting their minds. They’re shut up in there with no idea what they are doing to themselves in the name of defense.”

“That’s a poetic way of saying they screwed the pooch, and now they have to pay for their sins.” Reagan put her palms up next to the ward, feeling. “Wow. This is a beast.”

“Let’s go,” Emery said urgently.

I felt the shifter and vampire magic draw closer. I also felt other spells rise, called into creation.

The phone in Emery’s pocket chimed. He pulled it out and studied the screen.

“They are looking for a report,” he said. “How could they not know we’ve already made it this far?”

“I’m sure they know.” Reagan sidestepped, still feeling out the ward. Her magic wound through the air. “If nothing else, they know that we’re some distance in. We killed everyone we came across. It’s hard to check in when you’re running for your life. Or when you have claws.”

“Hopefully the mages inside think we’re all fighting the vampires.” I closed my eyes and sank into Reagan’s magic before fitting it with the ability I hadn’t intended to blindly rob from the goblin. Then I mixed in Emery’s and mine, working at the pieces like a puzzle. The trick was in creating the right blend.

“What are you doing?” Emery asked me quietly.

“She’s not working on this beast of a ward, that’s what she’s not doing,” Reagan said.

“I’m trying to work all of our magic together to quickly erode this abomination and, if possible, point us to whoever masterminded it,” I said. “I can’t imagine a mage stupid enough to put it up without immediately realizing they needed to take it down again.”

My phone vibrated in my hand. I sighed, momentarily distracted, before passing it on.

“Good shot, Cahal,” Reagan said, clearly watching the show and not participating like she should. “Holy hooker stockings, Batman, you’re a freaking machine.”

“From your mother,” Emery said. “Watch out.”

“Oh good, yeah. Super helpful.” I pushed away the sound of my phone vibrating again. Pushed everything away. It was just me and nature. The wind at my back. The packed earth at my feet. The soft moisture in the air, silkily petting my cheek and frizzing my hair.

I drew in a sweet breath, letting the life vibrate through me. Letting the magic I’d collected lead the way, moving within my energy.

Electricity singed my awareness, like a storm on the horizon. Emery.

Cold froze the air before swirling into flame. Reagan.

A calm breeze moving a single leaf across a still pond. Me.

The pyramid of power.

“Use the roots,” Emery said at my ear. “Use the roots to anchor you.”

I was already there, moving on to the next swirl of magic, solid and steadfast, ancient and fixed. A man trapped in a destiny he didn’t choose. A magic that masked the obvious, but uncovered the hidden. Cahal. The druid.

I sucked in another breath as it all mixed together, around and around, finding a way to mingle. To coexist.

I touched Reagan’s shoulder, knowing her hands were feeling out that ward, that her magic was worming through the fabric, trying to find a way to break it down. Emery’s rough hand took mine, giving me a greater zing of his magic.

“Why is everyone touching me?” Reagan said, trying to scoot away.

“The vampires and shifters are here,” Cahal said, and then his hand was on my shoulder, his fingers curling around my bones and digging in.

“Hey, guy, I’m breakable,” I said, wiggling my shoulder. I didn’t think he was in touch with his own strength. Immediately, he loosened up.

I felt Reagan’s power climbing upward along the dome. I branched it off and nudged it down to reach into the earth.

“Who’s in charge here, me or you?” Reagan asked. It wasn’t rhetorical; she honestly wanted to know.

“You. You’re more experienced. Unless I see something, then I’ll just take over.”

“I miss working alone,” Reagan said on a sigh.

A roar shook my bones and made me grit my teeth.

“Steve has a great roar,” Reagan said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Steve is such a mundane name for a roar that size,” Emery said.

Reagan started laughing, and though her concentration seemed to waver, her magic spread out quicker, covering more ground and feeling out the spell in a way I hadn’t realized was possible. It crawled along like a live thing, tracing the seams and digging into the holes. She was identifying all the weaknesses.

“Smart,” I said, accidentally peeling an eye open as Cahal jerked me.

A vampire lashed at him, its jowls loose and hanging, fangs dripping blood.

Cahal didn’t take his hand from me. He snatched a knife out of who knew where and slashed it across the vampire’s throat. Another claw came up, and I couldn’t help but react. Taking my hand from Reagan’s shoulder, I sent out a pure pulse of dazzling white.

The magic hit the vampire center mass, knocking it back and opening it up. Black sludge oozed out of its middle as it hit the ground.

Emery fired off another shot behind us, and my phone buzzed in his hand. He glanced at it.

“‘Hurry up,’” he read.

“That isn’t very helpful, Mother,” I said through clenched teeth, shooting off a complex though one-handed spell that ended up a bit cock-eyed but worked just fine.

Another vampire broke free, running at us. I called up magic, but before I could get it off, a massive lion (probably Steve) leapt forward from outside my line of sight. He slammed into the vamp, taking the scraggly, leanly muscular body to the ground. Steve’s incredible jaws locked over the vampire’s neck and he wrenched, taking off the head.

“Wow. That is freaking gross.” I squeezed my eyes shut and turned back to Reagan.

“What happened?” Reagan asked, and I felt her jerk around to look. “Atta boy, Steve.”

The magic was at the top of the dome now, inching toward that strange presence in the sky.

“No,” I said, leaning into her and pushing the magic around it. “Don’t touch it. Not yet. It has a…personality. It isn’t just magic. It’s more.”

“Do not tell me that your weirdness is going to come in handy,” Reagan said incredulously.

“Hurry, ladies,” Cahal said. “We have mages approaching from the other side.”

I snapped my eyes opened, looking at the approaching line of color as the higher-powered mages drifted through the compound toward us. They all had their hands up, and while they were too far away for me to make out details, I was sure they had ingredients in those hands.

“Dolittle’s scapegoat. Go, Reagan. Hurry!”

33

“Do you need my hand?” Emery asked, his eyes widening as a vampire broke loose from the shifters and made a mad dash toward them. The enemy knew that Penny, Reagan, and he were the only way the group as a whole would get through the ward.

He shot off a spell, raking invisible nails down the vampire’s middle, giving another shifter time to catch it before it healed.

The vampires were few and far between now. The first line of attack (or was it defense?) was just about exhausted.

“No, I have the feel of the magic,” Penny said, under strain. He could feel her splinter some of Reagan’s magic and use it as her own, shooting it deep down into the earth, looking for the root of the spell. The connecting threads. That technique shouldn’t have been possible. But then again, they’d been doing the impossible together from the beginning.

Black fog clouded his vision. Magic zipped toward him from the side.

He turned immediately as his premonition faded away, spotting a mage who’d just run through the ward and fired off a spell. He met it with his own, easily counteracting it, and then took the mage down.

Cahal grunted as Penny shrugged off his hand. “Don’t use all your arrows,” she said. “We’ll need them if we get through this ward.”

Emery gritted his teeth. It wasn’t time to pull the plug and drag her out of here. He wouldn’t let himself give in to his fear.

Another mage ran through the ward. Two wolves broke off from the battle and ran at her. She dug through her bag with jerky movements, obviously not expecting the attack she was about to receive.

Emery turned, leaving them to it. She didn’t have the wherewithal to get out of that.

A vampire, scraped and bleeding from many wounds, slashed through a shifter and jumped beyond another’s reach. He sped at Reagan, whose back was totally exposed.

Emery braced himself, a spell at the ready, but didn’t get a chance to attack.