Natural Dual-Mage

“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.

Cahal took two unhurried, though extremely quick steps to cover the opening. Knees bent and body relaxed, he waited for the vampire to reach him in a dead sprint. The vampire jumped at him, claws out, mouth open, drool hanging from its fangs in a thick rope. Cahal stepped forward diagonally, bending gracefully to miss a claw, before reaching forward and grabbing the vamp by the neck and upper arm. He spun, using the vamp’s momentum to redirect the creature, and flung him into the shifters running toward them in a herd.

Once done, Cahal straightened, took two steps backward, and resumed his position at Penny’s back. He wasn’t even winded, as though he handled upper-middle-level vampires on a daily basis.

Whoever had hired this druid had clearly paid out of the nose, and he had been worth every cent. Emery never would’ve defeated this guy if he’d accepted the other bid—the one to kill Penny—though he would have died trying.

“Fracken crackhead’s pajamas, we have to break through this!” Penny yelled, sweat dripping down her face. He saw her glance up, then her body stiffened.

He followed her gaze…and almost emptied his stomach.

A seemingly endless number of mages walked toward them in horizontal lines, dressed in purple, red, and orange robes—high-powered magical workers, extremely capable, and sheriffs who were used to fighting under pressure. They’d increased their faction tenfold, obviously gearing up for this skirmish. Reagan, Penny, and he had a lot of power, but they were nothing compared to what was gathered within the dome. They wouldn’t be able to compete.

“Just blow it up, Reagan,” Penny said through clenched teeth. Her voice rose in pitch. “Just blow it up, or we’ll need to move this operation elsewhere. Soon they’ll be within striking range.”

“I can’t. That sucker up there is…trying to play footsie. What are you?” Reagan’s voice was wispy, all her concentration on her task. “I haven’t seen you before.”

“It’s a thing. It’s a reflection of someone’s personality,” Penny said, still working on the root. She was closing in, Emery felt it, but they needed Reagan to crack the cusp of the spell. The watcher.

“But it’s in the air,” Reagan said. “It’s just sitting on top of this ward. Or is it creating it?”

“You want her to live, yes?” Cahal asked Emery, his voice low and smooth. If he felt any pressure from the coming danger, he didn’t show it.

“Yes—”

“Above all, you want her to live?”

“Yes.”

Cahal’s eyes flicked to the side. To the mass of power slowly walking their way, working on a monstrous spell, he had no doubt. They’d banded together to face a common threat. It would’ve been commendable if his people weren’t the targets. “I will await your word to extract her. I would take her now, but—”

“No.” Emery knew Penny was there. Knew Reagan was close. Knew that if he helped, he could push them over the edge. “Not yet.”

“I will wait. I will rely on you for her survival.” The druid’s ice-blue stare burned into Emery’s brain, and he felt the duty to protect Penny pass to him. Felt it slither in his blood and take root.

Emery nodded, accepting the responsibility he had already assumed, before moving to Reagan and gripping her hand. Magic ran between them, the feeling strange and surreal.

“That’s unusual,” she said with a furrowed brow.

“Penny needs you ready, and you’re lagging. Show me.” He closed his eyes like Penny always did, focusing on what Reagan felt with her magic. Unbelievably, an image lit the backside of his eyelids. The top of the sphere, incredibly high off the ground, the surface pocked and the seams weak. Reagan’s magic had already eroded the weak points. But a glowing beacon sat in the middle, on the defensive, ready to react if foreign magic touched it.

“You said it has a personality, Penny?” Emery asked, going through his huge Rolodex of spells. Thinking of things he’d personally used, techniques he’d only heard about, and the Guild’s unsavory practices.

“Yeah. Here. Quick!” Penny sucker-punched him with something hard.

He lost his breath, but captured the stone she’d thrust at him.

“Plain Jane,” she said. “Your Plain Jane. It wants to be with you.”

Emery didn’t have time for power stones now, but he took it anyway, trusting her.

“They are advancing faster,” Cahal said, voice still calm, body close to Penny. “They all hold something in their hands.”

Emery felt the magic building, felt a wisp of deadly intent, which meant Penny had to be drowning in it.

“You’ve got thirty seconds,” Penny yelled at him.

What sounded like a bear roared. Wolves growled. Air whipped behind Emery as if something had raced past him. A vampire, he’d bet.

Magic shot close to them. Emery felt the pull to leave Reagan so he could defend them.

“Let them handle it, Emery,” Penny said in an urgent tone. “We need you here. Help her get that done.”

Penny knew him incredibly well. It was almost eerie.

The stone throbbed in his hand. Reagan took a step back, her silent urge for him to take over. He kept his grasp of her hand. He couldn’t properly use her magic without contact yet. He was slow to learn Penny’s innate gifts.