Natural Mage (Magical Mayhem #2)(15)

In the world of mages, he was a king.

As he came closer, he could feel the hard thrum of power from within that plain circle of rocks. It pulsed in time with his heart before quickening just a bit, infusing him with energy. Closer still and his adrenaline surged higher. Energy spread through his limbs and tingled in his fingertips and toes.

An arm moved sideways by the end of the rock wall, and magic rose around him, rolling and boiling, shifting and spinning, practically churning in anticipation.

Ready to kill.

It was what he excelled at. What he could do with barely a thought.

It was why he’d walked away from Penny, lest his blackness of character corrupt her goodness.

A sad smile graced his lips as the magic around him darkened, his survival magic infusing it.

The person by the rock wall stilled again, probably bracing for his attack.

One footfall at a time, Emery made his way more carefully toward the circle, weaving together the first spell as slowly as he possibly could. His hands were low, his waggling fingers hopefully blending in with the darkness of his pants. The mages were still too far away to see clear detail.

Ten feet to the circle and the power throb ramped up again. Blackness crowded his vision for a second and an image of him standing with his back to a blast of magic took over his sight. It disappeared the next second.

He dove to the ground and rolled, finishing the weave and seeing two mages behind him with their hands full of ingredients. If not for his ability to foresee mortal danger to himself, he would’ve been dead ten times over.

Their spell was already airborne, rushing at him in a sloppy, loose weave that wouldn’t do much more than stun him.

They were trying to capture him. What fools.

As soon as he zipped off his spell, he immediately worked on another one. He sent it off to the people at the ruined castle as he called up yet another one.

A blast of magic sped toward him from the group of mages gathered at the end of the rock wall. He caught it with a shield built of his survival magic, which encompassed the spell and then ate through it.

He hopped up and weaved familiar spells together as he jogged toward that circle of rocks. He sent another spell at the ruins, one at the rock wall, and then turned to hit two mages behind him, standing much too closely together.

“Thanks for making my job easy,” he said. He’d reached the rock circle now and glanced down to the middle.

His heart fell.

It was a stone, all right. A gray, ordinary stone that blended in with the other mundane, easy-to-look-past stones around it. There was nothing exciting or unique about it. Nothing that drew and kept the eye, making a person want to look at it for hours on end.

Basically, it was more like him than her. He should probably just leave it there and make the last stone he sent to her something truly exceptional.

He fired off one more spell into the ruins. A scream rose before cutting off. Someone stood up from behind the rock wall forty feet in front of him. A jet of blue raced toward him.

He rolled, annoyed that he was nearly soaked now, and felt a surge from the power stone. If he were a betting man, he’d say the stone was desperate to be used.

Is this what Penny feels when she’s around the stones?

Pulling on it, he amped up the spell he was weaving, adding a touch more energy to the effort and spicing it up with a little extra nastiness. There was that lack of moral character he was talking about. Let Penny try to tell him he wasn’t evil now.

The spell plunged through the mage’s chest, then ballooned out, ripping his body apart. He barely had time to scream.

“I really should just leave you here,” Emery said to the power stone, still using the extra boost to form a spear to send through the air at the last mage he could see. She took a big step forward and shoved her hands in front of her, trying to use her body for an extra push or something. Emery hadn’t seen it done before. Maybe it worked, but it sure looked stupid.

He added an acidic component to his spell and sent it off before she could fire hers. Rather than watch the spell’s trajectory, he snatched the power stone off the ground in all its humdrum, dull glory, and turned in a circle, seeing if anyone else planned to pop up like a jack-in-the-box.

The mage near the ruins was working on something else, but she didn’t get a chance to fire it off. Emery’s spell had torn her initial spell apart without dissipating, and was carrying on toward her.

Smarter than the average bear, the mage turned to run. But too late.

Emery’s spell smacked into her back. The scream sailed across the green fields before ending in a ragged gurgle.

Back at his bike, Emery tucked his stone away, still looking for anyone hiding among the rocks. No one had made a move.

“I should’ve gone for a truck or something,” Emery said to the stone, then laughed. He was talking to rocks now. Penny had turned him into a weirdo like her.

His thoughts drifted back to her. He hadn’t had any communication with Darius for weeks. Last he’d heard, Penny was safe and sound, living and training with the Bankses, a mostly calm dual-mage pair with decades of experience.

She had the life she deserved. Balanced, just like she was.





7





“Mother trucker. Holy fudge sticks…butter frack…nickel turdswallop!” Sweat poured down my face. My hair clung to my cheeks. I’d been on the defense for about twenty minutes and couldn’t get out from under my attackers.