Natural Dual-Mage

“Wait, you don’t—we don’t need to stay and—”

Reagan cut me off by shoving me along. “Let’s go. Let’s circle around them while they think we’re dying a horrible death.”

As Reagan ran past the vampires, Vlad turned and watched her go, looking awestruck.

He clearly knew what she was, and he clearly wanted her.

I did not like that at all.

“Come on, Turdswallop, you can pick a fight with that elder later.” Emery plucked at my sleeve to get me moving.

I had no idea how he’d read my thoughts.

Once again, we ran through the shifters and vampires, the numbers, thankfully, not terribly thinned by the latest assault. Just as thankfully, they hadn’t become a disorganized horde—they waited for their respective leaders to start after us before filing in.

Reagan sprinted for the Guild compound, laid bare without that horrible spell suffocating the life from it. As we entered the compound, it felt as if it were taking a big breath.

Two mages ran from behind a corner of a building, harried and frantic, glancing over at us and staggering. One fell; the other regained her feet, turned, and ran the other way.

Emery zipped off a spell, catching the one trying to get away. It hit her in the back, making her arch and fall forward. Reagan was on the other, a knife in one hand, and a sword in the other.

“What’s the plan?” I yelled, because any sense of direction was better than running around with our heads cut off.

The beast of a spell, now half the mass it had been, moved toward us still, stopping where we’d turned and slowly changing direction to follow us. The fire continued to eat it alive, defusing it a little at a time. Still, it wasn’t gone yet, and the shifters at the back of our group knew it. They ran forward, spreading out around us, fur for miles.

Darius moved up with Reagan, looking at her. She shrugged and glanced back, their communication silent.

“Literally anything, you guys,” I said, bouncing from one foot to the other. “Anything at all.”

Emery, still holding Plain Jane, handed over my phone. A text message glowed on the screen.

I read it aloud. “‘Cut off the head. Sweep out the legs. Reap what you sowed.’

“What the hell does that mean?” I yelled at the screen.

“Penelope Bristol, just because you are in a battle, does not mean you can start swearing,” Reagan said in a terrible impersonation of my mother. “What’d she say?”

One of the wolves started to whine.

The intent of that beast of a spell throbbed into my back. “Yeah. We gotta move.”

“Head—the High Chancellor,” Emery said, grabbing my hand and pulling me along. “The feet must be the peons at the bottom. Though I’m not sure why that would be the case. Why wouldn’t we go for the upper tier? The power players?”

“I’m sure they’ll get hit in the crossfire.” Reagan started a jog, moving right through the center of the compound.

“Split up,” Emery said, motioning away our reinforcements. “Their forces need to be pulled apart. Fractured. Take away their— Oh. Cut off the head. Cut off their ability to think. We need to separate the horde from the mages who’re orchestrating these big spells.”

“Raise chaos,” I said softly.

“On it.” Reagan picked up speed, and I ran after her. There was one surefire way to turn everything on its ear—Reagan and I trying to work together.

Darius kept pace as well, but Vlad peeled off, joined by another vampire.

“I don’t know that it’s wise to let him roam around on his own,” I murmured as we turned a corner.

“Now you’re thinking like a true magical person,” Reagan said, slamming on the jets. “Found some bad guys.”

Ten mages stood facing the opposite direction. At Reagan’s voice, they turned, all holding ingredients, magic billowing around them. Without warning, Reagan took off running, sprinting right at them. Darius was with her a moment later, claws out like Wolverine, mouth open.

I shot a spell ahead of them, felling three mages. Emery took out two more before I felt a tingling at my back. A haze clouded my vision, interrupted by a red spell headed straight toward me…but when I blinked, it evaporated.

Emery pushed me to the side and Cahal grabbed me around the waist and ran, bumping up against the wall and shielding me with his body. A mage popped out from around the corner of a building up the way, got a shot off, and ducked back down. It was the same color I’d seen. The same event.

“He can feel traces of my ability to read intent, and I can see traces of his premonitions,” I said, momentarily tingly inside. That lasted a nanosecond. I elbowed Cahal and pushed out of his grasp. “I was fine. Save it for when I’m actually in danger.”

I darted out and zipped off a quick spell to down the last guy in Reagan and Darius’s fight before catching up with Emery, who was running around the corner after the other mage. A shifter got there first, sneaking up behind the mage and launching at his neck.

A lion’s roar seemed to shake the earth beneath our feet. Another deep-throated roar followed. Wolves took up the call from the other direction. That crazy warthog ran by, alone. If there wasn’t more than one confused warthog, then Roger really needed to have a talk with that guy.

“Keep going,” Emery said, running toward the records room that we’d broken into before.

Mages jumped out and spoke magic to life. Before they could get it realized, I countered their spell. Emery followed up with a spell to take them all down. From the other side, three more mages broke capsules and shot them at us. Reagan jumped in front and slashed with her sword, killing the spells before yanking out her gun and shooting the casters.

“I’m pretty sure that’s cheating,” I said, feeling winded and knowing we still had a ways to go.

“Cheat to win.” Reagan ran through the middle of the quad, and two vampires skirted in to join Darius. Marie and Moss, if I had to guess, though I was no expert at deciphering monster forms. Shifters filed in behind, in packs or alone, depending on the animal. One of them was limping.

Magic throbbed somewhere to my right.

Obliterate!

“They aren’t trying to capture us anymore,” I said, grabbing a hold of Reagan and pulling her back. “They’ve got another monster spell brewing.”

“Unless they are making it while having a parade, this is a different group than the last,” Reagan said, clearly better at directions than I was.

“Cut off the head,” Emery said, marching forward with determination. “Swipe their feet. Ruin their concentration and careful planning with absolute chaos.”

“Take them from behind,” I said, adrenaline running hard through my body. Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky started to vibrate. Emery had tucked Plain Jane into his utility belt, but even though it wasn’t on my person, I felt the deep drumbeat of its power pulse to life.

“This is where it gets hairy,” Emery said. He grabbed my upper arms and stared down into my eyes. “If things look bleak, if you don’t think we can make it through, you run, do you hear me? You let Cahal take you out of here.”

“No.”

He shook me a little, a deep pain moving in his eyes. “Please, Penny. For me. Get yourself clear. Get yourself safe. Live, Penny. I need you to live.”

“You will be pampered. Looked after,” Cahal said. At my hard stare, he did the first human thing I’d seen him do. He put his palm to his chest and, with wide eyes, said, “Not by me.”

I barked out laughter. I couldn’t help it. The super-old druid, who’d seen it all, did not want to be shackled to a nut case like me.

“Join the club,” Reagan said, and I realized I’d said that out loud.

“Penny,” Emery said again, pleading. Willing to sacrifice himself for me. Wanting me to live above all things.

My heart twisted in my chest. I held his gaze, everything in me breaking.

The world went silent for a moment, but my resolve only strengthened.

“No,” I said, tired of other people telling me what to do. Tired of living a life someone else had chosen for me, and a path someone else had made me walk. Now I was carving out my own future, and I would choose the direction my feet walked. “You stay, I stay. We’re a team. We’ll finish this together.”