Natural Mage (Magical Mayhem #2)(91)

Find.

Magic ballooned into the sky before raining down again. I weaved a spell, working within my desire to keep us hidden. Emery shot off a different spell, then another, burning bigger holes in our concealment spell each time.

I let mine loose, rising to meet the spell falling down. When they touched, a smear of blue blazed above us. Our concealment spell disintegrated.

“Crap,” I whispered. “That didn’t work.”

Emery grabbed my hand. “Come on—”

He barely made it two steps. Shouts and yells preceded a dozen people crashing out of the dark foliage looming around us. Someone hopped up onto the lip of a dry fountain, ingredients in his or her hands. At the distance and in the oily darkness, all I could see was a shape.

“Call Darius,” Emery said, turning his back to me. “Quickly.”

“Come out, come out, where ever you are,” the person on the fountain said in a scratchy voice. “Or is it ‘ready or not, here I come’? Either way, your hiding is at an end.”

I navigated my crappy phone with a shaking hand. If we made it out of this alive, I was definitely going to cave and get a smart phone. This was the last straw.

“After the call, get ready to throw out the nastiest spells you have, Penny,” Emery said in a low tone, viciousness ringing in his voice. “We have the power scale on our side.”

“I’m not at all sure that is true, especially considering how many casings we have at our disposal,” Scratchy Voice said. “And don’t trouble yourself with your vampire friends. We’ve made a few vampire friends of our own. They think working with the Guild is a better business arrangement than working against us. They want a piece of Seattle, you see. And Durant holds the monopoly. Through us, they can turn the tide of power. With them, we can rid ourselves of the shifters, and have a monopoly of our own. You see? A smart alliance will yield the greatest results.”

Ten of them, tightening their circle around us. All held ingredients in their hands and had magic writhing in their grasp.

“Unless you have Vlad on your side, and I doubt he would openly go against Durant, you lot are the biggest group of idiots I’ve ever encountered,” Emery said, his tone much lighter than the situation seemed to warrant. “And I have encountered a lot of idiots.”

The brown dog skittered out from a bush and turned to the side, staring at us as though wondering what we were doing. The thing had a terrible understanding of impending danger, hanging around here.

“There isn’t even a voicemail box,” I said, checking to make sure I’d dialed the correct number.

A huge well of magic rose up around us.

We could build a Lego house, but they were constructing a village. Several pieces of an enormous whole were about to come together.

With the intent to lock us in the middle.

“Give them everything you have, Penny,” Emery said, and I could hear the worry in his voice.

Without help, he didn’t think we could make it out of here.





38





I dropped the phone, no time to spare. The little dog scattered, finally, and I wished I could go with him.

In hurried movements, I dug out the power stones and tossed them on the ground as streams of magic rose from all around us, zooming toward Emery. My collection of raw power hovered above me, as usual when I was upset or in the midst of a battle, and I tore the elements down in harried clumps, thinking of the poor dummy in Reagan’s yard, which had taken so much abuse these last few days.

As if on cue, the spells we’d practiced rolled through my memory—the feeling of them, the intent behind them, and a new way to balance them. Not thinking, just reacting, I focused on what needed to be done, trusting in Emery, our balanced bubble, and my knowledge to have my back.

A spell blasted out from him, smacking one of the mages. She screamed, a high-pitched sound, and dropped to the ground, clawing at her chest. I let loose one of the nastier spells the poor dummy had suffered, feeding it power as it rose into a whirlwind before darting forward and slapping the mage directly in front of me with a series of magical razor blades.

Three people ran in from the messy park path, all mages with satchels open and casings in their hands.

“Faster, Penny,” Emery said, zipping off another spell.

Breathing deeply, I pulled power from Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky, weaving and mixing in jerky movements, trying to work faster.

Emery let off a spell, which hit its target, but two more mages ran in to take the place of the fallen.

Another weave was ready, this one downright vicious, and I flung it out, waving my hands through the air as I did so, remembering the underlined directions in the spell book.

The magic wrapped around the three intended mages before invisible spikes punched holes in their bodies. Screams turned to gurgles as they sank to the ground.

I worked on another, not pausing, as still more people crowded into the clearing, one wearing a leather duster and stupid hat. A mercenary.

Emery fired off spells faster now, sacrificing complexity for speed. Mages fell, and the looming spell around us wobbled before stabilizing, more hands present to keep it alive. To finish it…

A spell from a casing streamed toward me. I caught and countered it easily, but it cost me the spell I’d been making.

Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky pulsed in impatience. The other rocks added their chorus, but I found it very strange that Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky, usually such a happy fellow, should start a mutiny. When I got out of this mess, I was going to send it on a ride with the safest person I could find. That would piss it off.