Magical Midlife Meeting (Leveling Up #5)(68)

I kept going, not believing my eyes, cursing myself for not bringing a revealing spell. Nearly there, I sent a jet of magic at the spot he’d inhabited, then fired off more magic all around it, trying to hit anything still there. The mountain heaved. More areas caved in, probably the second series of tunnels the basajaun had mentioned. Anyone in them was lost to the rubble and rock, a thought that might have made me feel guiltier if an anguished roar hadn’t risen behind me. A moment later, Austin went offline. Unconscious, not dead.

Heart in my throat, I snapped my wings taut and angled, wrapping myself in a tight defense spell so I could safely look back.

Bile rose. Austin was gone.

Elliot forgotten, everything beyond Austin forgotten, I banked fast and dove for Broken Sue, who was slapping at the ground and roaring. As soon as I landed, I changed into my human form so I could talk, not worried about nudity for once.

“What happened?” I demanded amid the deep rumble of the mountain’s shifting. It was quieting now, settling.

Austin’s distance grew. He was being carried away, not toward the collapsed tunnels but in the other direction, still unconscious. I sent a thread of healing in case it had been blunt-force trauma of some kind.

“What happened? ” I yelled, fear climbing into my throat. Black rage such as I had never known rose within me, seething, pressing for release.

“Elliot appeared right next to him,” Cyra said, newly changed into her human form and running over. “I saw it. He appeared right next to the alpha, the alpha collapsed, and they both disappeared.”

I swore, remembering when Elliot had made that delivery truck disappear. I still had no idea how he’d done it.

The Ivy House link between Austin and me went dead. My gut churned as I tried, and failed, to bring it back online. Fear ate at me.

But I knew he was still alive, because we had another link, a deeper one, that was alive and well. Our mating bond, newly forged and continually strengthening. His heart pulsed with mine in my chest, strong and sure.

“Shifters, change,” I ordered, a pulse of magic pulling the gargoyles to the ground. I had no idea how I was doing all of this, but I’d figure it out later, once Austin was safe. “Change into your human form. The gargoyles will carry you with us.”

Niamh landed beside me in her nightmare alicorn form, her crystalline horn bloodied and her golden hoofs stamping at the ground. Edgar, returned from chasing the mages, jumped onto her back.

Isabelle, the first to change, turned to Jasper as he touched down. “Give me a lift?”

He hopped, his wings fluttering, and she jogged over. He scooped her up in a princess hold and swiftly rose into the sky.

Kace changed and then shook his head at Mr. Tom, who’d stepped forward. “I’d prefer someone I don’t know. This is going to be awkward.”

“Only if you let it,” Cyra replied.

“Oh, I intend to let it,” Kace muttered as a large male I didn’t know grabbed him by the chest and pushed into the sky. “Holy sh—”

Broken Sue, face a mask of rage, stalked up to me, his body all scars and muscle, his beast owning his powerful movements. “Do not let him kill your mate, Jessie Ironheart. It is a soul-crushing pain that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Unlike me, you have the power to save your mate. Save him. ”

I nodded, unable to speak, overwhelmed by both his pain and mine. He walked to the nearest gargoyle, a big, scarred creature that kind of matched him, and held out an arm. The male swooped him up like a bride, neither of the guys caring or reacting, and pumped his wings. They shot up into the sky.

Cyra joined them, and Hollace and the other flyers were already up there. I prepared to change again, but Nathanial landed next to me.

“Yeah. Good call.” I jogged to him, turned, and stuck out my arms like a child. “I’d just slow everyone down.”

“It does nnnot lo-ok bad on you, I-ron-heart.” He grabbed me and shot skyward, faster than any of the others. “You we-re not ma-dde for aer-eeal warfare. You pro-tect with ma-gic.”

“Let’s hope so.” I pointed in the direction Austin was still traveling, moving fast. Elliot had to be flying somehow. There was no other way he could be moving so fast, not without a road.

Nathanial pumped his wings and carried us forward, faster than the others, and everyone else spread out behind us. The wind whipped at my face, and I realized flight was more comfortable in my gargoyle form. Too late now. I’d change once we landed.

“There,” I shouted over the rushing wind, my eyes watering, Austin’s heart beating true and mine on the verge of breaking. I let the black rage in my chest seethe and boil, the aggression blotting out some of my fear. I would get him back. He’d saved me yesterday. It was my turn.

And I would make Elliot Graves regret the day he’d shown up in my life.

Austin stopped moving, and I could feel he was being lowered. We were gaining on him fast, gargoyles blotting out the sky as they carried my fighting unit over a smaller peak and beyond. I monitored Austin’s movements and worked at the Ivy House link, trying to get it back online.

“Why won’t it respond? ” I asked Ivy House.

“Magic, somehow. A vulnerability? ”

I could feel the uncertainty in her tone.

It didn’t matter. Even if Elliot had severed it for good, it wouldn’t matter. We had our mating link, deeper than magic.