Magical Midlife Meeting (Leveling Up #5)(33)

“It can certainly be construed as such.” Austin crossed an ankle over a knee and extended his arm until it was resting across the back of my chair. “Not all mages give a show of their power. If the host knew the mages he’d invited were more powerful, for example, he wouldn’t take the risk. A more powerful mage would tear the spell down and send a message, not only for the hosting mage, but for everyone else at the…meetup. Or party. Elliot Graves put on a show to declare that he is the most powerful mage here. He holds all the cards.”

“And by tearing it down…”

“You’ve just sent your message.”

“Except I didn’t know I was doing it,” I whispered.

“You knew exactly what you were doing. You just didn’t know it was a statement. You also wrecked his transportation and blew a hole in the side of his—certainly warded—front door. If there was ever a question of who had more power, you just answered it. We just have to be more careful now, is all.”

“Why is that?”

“Because he’ll know that, head to head, your brawn will win. If he comes at you, it’ll be from behind. When you least expect it.”





THIRTEEN

SEBASTIAN SAT at his desk and watched the cameras in utter delight. The heir of Ivy House had made an entrance that would be gossiped about for years to come. Her team apparently hadn’t alerted her to the protocol at one of these things, and wow, he marveled at her sense of survival and her reactions in a tight situation. Blowing out the limo doors and the entrance? Scaring the staff?

That display would create fear-soaked rumors that would travel to the other mages, no problem.

She was wild and unpredictable. Incredibly powerful. She’d broken Sebastian’s spell from the inside out. Cracked it open like an egg. No finesse, no meticulous approach, just brute strength.

No one else would be able to counteract that spell. Not in the time allotted. The drivers had been given precise instructions on how fast to drive from the start of the tunnel until they pulled up to the curb. Not even Sebastian could work a counter-spell—or counter-curse, if you wanted to be dramatic —in that amount of time. Not with the precision it required.

Still, every single mage he’d invited would try to do the impossible. They’d experience the power of the spell for themselves, which would make it even more difficult for them to believe she had torn it down. They’d probably tell themselves the staff had gotten it wrong. Or maybe they’d convince themselves the shifters—the animals—had wrecked the place.

But that would scare them, too. This was a no-lose situation. Ivy House would be proud of her heir’s debut in the magical world; Sebastian would make sure of it. He might die for his troubles, but magic was risky.

The huge and hairy basajaun entered the screen on the main camera, angled to pick up the loading zone. The basajaun held his prize, a scared-senseless driver who would almost assuredly quit and take whatever punishment he was given. Sebastian wasn’t sure he blamed the guy.

The driver hung upside down, his palms over his face and his ankles captured in one of the basajaun’s giant hands. It was the worst game of peekaboo the world had ever known. For that driver, anyway.

“Sir, the living quarters are ready for— What in the…”

“Yeah, yeah.” Sebastian motioned to Nessa, his right-hand woman, organizer of all things, and the only person he could really call a friend in the magical world. “Get a load of this.” He pointed at the screen, then gestured to all the other screens showing the entranceway and tunnel.

“Oh wow.” Nessa leaned closer, pointing at the basajaun. “You weren’t kidding. Holy hell, that thing is huge.”

“And ferocious. Seriously, you will pee your pants, I am telling you. I hope they sign up for the trials. I half wish they didn’t have to be a secret until the last minute so I could have gotten a general feel for if she’d go for it.”

“She wants to kill you. She’ll sign up.”

“Let’s not dwell on the details.”

“She did all that? Or did the shifters help?”

“No, no. She did all that. Amazing, right? She literally blew through my magic. Like…blew it up, I mean.”

She gave him a look that was half amused and half perturbed. “Normal mages wouldn’t be tickled by that fact.”

“And they also wouldn’t get the opportunity to train an ancient, fabled magic that will dwarf all other magics.”

“If she doesn’t kill you first,” Nessa said dryly. “Your sister didn’t finish her Sight. ”

A heart attack had knocked Sebastian’s sister out of her trance right before she made it to the outcome of the final battle. She’d died five minutes later, before they could get help.

Sebastian had been preparing for years, counting down to this meeting, with the blind hope that the heir wouldn’t kill him in the final moment. He very well might have been planning his death all this time. It was a helluva leap of faith, but he’d clung to his sister’s dying words, which she’d struggled to say right before giving in to eternal night. “You must…walk this journey. You must follow the stars. ”

Follow the stars. It sounded lofty and full of purpose. Or so he hoped. It was what he’d clung to this last decade.