Page 52

I stiffened when I felt the unfamiliar sensation of gossamer wings brush my mind. “Something’s coming. Grove!”

Grove popped out from behind a tree he’d been investigating. “What? I’m searching like you asked!”

“Incoming!” I shouted.

As Grove sprinted towards us, I turned so I stood back-to-back with Juggernaut. I was surprised when he backed up to me so we could cover each other’s blind spots.

The road vibrated under our feet—whatever was coming our way wasbig.

I heard distant squeals and just when Grove reached us, the monsters turned on to our street.

Three giant, pig-like creatures that were the size of draft horses raced towards us. Their tusks were chipped and stained with what appeared to be dried blood, and their wiry coats were a coal black color while their tiny eyes were a milky shade of yellow.

Those must be fae creatures.

“Grove?” I asked.

“They’re miasma boars,” Grove shouted over the pounding of their hooves. “They’re destructive and violent, and they live in the fae realm but the threat they pose is that they can ram through magic. They’re a pain to get rid of if they break into a Court.”

Juggernaut slipped out from behind me—since we saw the enemy, we didn’t need to be back-to-back anymore. “That sounds great for all the city taxpayers.”

“Can you make a stand?” I asked as the boars raced closer.

“I can try,” Juggernaut said, “but I only recently learned how to make magic shields from April—that’s not a typical wizard skill.” He pushed his arms out and his purple flames were snuffed out, only to be replaced with raw magic—purple colored—that he formed into a shield that was just barely big enough to cover Juggernaut, Grove, and myself.

Meanwhile, the boars reached the Curia Cloister car we’d brought to investigate the magic report—a little Honda Civic.

They smashed into the car, setting off the alarm, breaking all the windows, andcrunchingthe front bumper like it was tissue paper.

Once they’d destroyed the vehicle, they returned to racing down the street unharmed even though they’d just body slammed a car.

“Grove, call back up.” I unholstered my sidearm and flipped the safety off. I waited a moment and then racked the gun, pulling back on the slide to load a bullet into the chamber, barely aware when I heard Grove shout into the radio our location and the discovery of the monsters.

If there’s a monster I need to kill fast, it’s going to be these things.

The boars were almost on top of us before I felt the sparkle of fae magic. I had to wait until they were close enough to get a good shot—pistols didn’t have the greatest aim.

I ducked around the side of Juggernaut’s shield and took aim, shooting the boar in the lead.

It squealed and went down, but I hadn’t killed it.

The second boar slammed into Juggernaut’s shield, shattering it.

Juggernaut dove to the side. Grove boldly remained where he was and flung a bottle of medicine-pink liquid at the boar’s face.

The vial broke on impact, and the pink liquid dripped into its eye. The boar squealed and wildly tossed its head as it backed up.

“Success!” Grove declared, pumping his hands over his head. Juggernaut grabbed him by the collar of his uniform and yanked him out of the way, so he narrowly avoided getting clipped by the boar’s tusks.

The third boar ran past and continued to thunder down the street. It apparently had no loyalty to the other two boars. That meant we’d have to chase it. First, though, we needed to finish off these two.

I cautiously approached the boar I’d shot, keeping my gun pointed down at the ground—Mom had drilled it into me at a young age that you only pointed your gun at things you’re willing to shoot.

When I got close enough, I saw my shot had clipped the boar’s forehead.Its skull must be scary strong because the angle should have been right.

I tried shooting it in the head again, once again the bullet seemingly clipped it, and then I shot it in the chest—approximately where I imagined its heart was.

It shuddered and its loud squeals cut off as it died.