Page 21

Chapter 21

Andy

M y magic roiled through me in angry waves as I took in the chaos around me. We were supposed to wait for backup. We were supposed to find good positions where we could work our magic from a distance when needed, and let the rebels handle all the hand-to-hand stuff. While some of our group were more bloodthirsty than others, none of us were trained soldiers.

But there were kids out there. Children ranging in size from barely out of toddler years to teens on the cusp of adulthood. There was no way they were there voluntarily. And on top of that, there were adult slaves scattered in among them, people I would have eventually marked as being controlled, even if I didn’t already have Aahil’s confirmation. How were we supposed to stop the cult, when their soldiers were innocents?

Babies were out there, killing and dying, caught up in the battle of greed and heartless power-lust between the fucking cult and the SA.

And all along the sidelines—lying defenseless on the sidewalks or sleeping in their stalled cars—were citizens who couldn’t defend themselves from the collateral damage caused by flying spells, stray bullets, or debris. I watched, frozen, as a cultist stomped on a woman rather than step over her. He seemed to take great delight in the action.

It was all so pointless. So callous and senseless. I knew evil existed in the world, had barely dodged being raised by it and fully indoctrinated into it by my family. But this…

I wondered if there was really anything good left in the world, or if every last person in both realms was nothing but this dark, empty greed, covered by a thin, fake veneer of civility. Was this really all the world was?

I glanced at the others around me and saw my rage and despair reflected in their eyes. Was there really even any point in trying to stop this? People would only find some new reason to hate and destroy each other when this conflict was over. It was never-ending.

Somewhere the sharp, keening cry of a scared child carried over the noise and horror before me. I shook myself, and the rage that had been slowly dying out under the suffocating weight of despair flared back to life.

It was only then that I recognized the feeling of emotional manipulation. Something like Hasumi’s magic…but bitter, dark. Evil spells, or more fucking artifacts that never should have been created. Whatever the hell it was, I shook it off, pushed it back with my own force of will. I didn’t care if the world was worth saving or not. There were children out there, for fuck’s sake. Why was I just standing here?

I grabbed hold of my magic, opened myself up to it much faster and more recklessly than I ever had before. I had always been afraid the power inside me would corrupt me or fry my brain if I dug too deep. But right now, I didn’t care. I just wanted this all to end.

“Give me the artifacts,” I bit out, not turning my eyes away from the disaster before me. The disaster I had let happen by dragging my feet and refusing to get involved. Dyre and Aahil took the nullifier and amplifier from their warded carrying cases and placed the artifacts into my hands. I poured my restless magic into the donut spell I had developed. No one said anything about my disobeying Bella’s instructions to wait for the rebels. They all had eyes in their heads and warm, beating hearts in their chests.

“Keep close,” I ordered. Then I moved, my circle of lovers and friends following along in the zone of protection.

The rebels who were with us dispersed at their leader’s order, fanning out and following our lead, prepared to fight. I let them do their thing, since they probably had way more training than I did. My focus was solely on my own team.

Rather than finding a good place to lie low, like good little minions of the cause, we surged forward as a group, out of our hiding spot, across the sidewalk and into the center of the paved square in front of the SA building, where the worst of the fighting was taking place.

Spells turned on us in an instant, fizzling out harmlessly when they hit the null zone. Bullets bounced harmlessly off the shield Dyre had cast inside the amplified zone. We were untouchable. But… everywhere I looked there were either children or unconscious citizens. There was no safe place to cast spells with any sort of big impact. We couldn’t really attack. Not without killing more innocents.

Niamh, Zong, and River guarded us from anyone who might make it into our circle of protection, taking them down with good old-fashioned fists and knives. Dyre and Aahil cast offensive spells at cultists and SA goons whenever they could get in as clean shot. And Ambrose darted in and out of the donut, leaving victims convulsing with terror.

It was something, but it wasn’t enough. We could end this all in an instant, I knew we could—if only there weren’t so many innocents in the way. A blast of jinn fire, a wave of black nightmare energy, a few big concussive witch spells… It would be easy. But there was no way to keep from hitting the kids and the slaves being controlled by the cult.

Then I heard a voice calling my name over the chaos.

It gave me more joy than I ever would have dreamed to hear Field Mage #3765’s strident voice. “Lovell—Oleander Lovell, look sharp!”

Jacki. She was wearing an SA uniform, but it was different than the regular issue, with bright blue stripes across the shoulder. And she was accompanied by not only her group of partners, but a force of maybe twenty other magic users, all dressed in that same altered uniform. They were shielded. Some of them fought off any cultists or SA members who got too close, but the rest of the force was focused on the civilians.

My chest expanded with a relieved breath as I saw that they were dragging, teleporting, or magically floating the prone, sleeping bodies out of harm’s way, stacking them up in a sheltered and warded alley where they couldn’t be killed by stray spells or careless feet. They moved with the ordered efficiency you’d expect from a highly trained government unit, but with much more care than anyone else around us.

“They’re clearing the way for us,” Niamh said from my side, snapping me out of my surprise. “There!” she pointed to an area where Jacki’s people had managed to clear out all the unconscious citizens. The fighting immediately spilled into the space, and a group of standard SA agents were exchanging spells with several clearly powerful children under the age of ten.

It would still be hard to avoid hitting the children, but we had more room to work now.

I moved forward as fast as I could, taking our circle of protection and amplification with us. Slowly, we shoved our way between the two groups, and Aahil gleefully set the SA agents on fire.

The children looked terrified. They sent a few half-hearted spells our way, but they were clearly trying to fight the mind control, or whatever hold the cult had on them. Whatever combination of magic and artifacts the cult was using to control their slaves, it must be stretched thin trying to dominate the will of so many people all at once.

“Ignore them,” River said from behind me. “I know you want to help, but they will only keep attacking. Focus on the SA.” He paused. “And maybe stun spells, if any of you magnificently terrifying creatures know something a little less lethal?”

Dyre laughed, but the sound carried no humor, and was flavored with a hint of Sunshine’s darkness. “If we stun the children, it will just make them easy targets. The SA will kill them.”

Damn it. He was right. They both were. But I couldn’t just ignore the children fighting and dying all around me.

“Can we get them inside the donut but keep them from casting magic?” I said, my attention divided between maintaining the combination spell on the artifacts, trying to solve the kid problem, and watching Niamh quicky and efficiently slit a man’s throat and shove him back out of our bubble.

“Possibly,” Dyre said as he animated a couple of corpses to add to the ones already shuffling along around our group like an undead honor guard, a buffer between us and the fighting. “But it would divide our concentration. The cult hasn’t chosen weaklings. These children are brimming with power. You’d probably have to take over the shield and hold both that and the donut spell while me and Sunny overwhelm their magic. And they’d still be able to attempt physical attacks.”

“I can help,” Elijah said, raising his voice to be heard over the noise. It was the first time he had spoken since we came upon this nightmare scene. “I think I can, anyway,” he added, suddenly looking unsure when we all turned to look at him. “The jinn,” he said, forcing his shoulders back and looking me in the eyes. “The air jinn the cult was controlling before. They weren’t using mind control on her. They were able to control her because they had stolen a little bit of her soul . We destroyed that artefact, but they could have replicated it. If the magic they are using now is similar, well… I may be able to interfere with it enough to make the children and slaves see reason.”

“One at a time,” Niamh grunted, shoving a cultist away. “You’ll never be able to save every—"

Zhong interrupted whatever else she was going to say, stepping past her to grab a guy and throw him so hard he hit the pavement and didn’t get up again. “But if we can even save one of the little ones, isn’t worth trying?” he huffed. He finished his murdering, and turned his big yellow puppy dog eyes on me.

I nodded, already imagining the strain of carrying both my current spell and a strong shield spell. And when Dyre finally passed the shield over to me, it was even worse than I’d anticipated. I wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long. The rebels better hurry their asses up and come riding in to save the day before my brain exploded.

I didn’t have the mental space to concentrate on both spells and keep track of what the others were doing. River started guiding me around by the arm when my vision started going fuzzy at the edges, keeping me—and our bubble of destruction and safety—moving in whatever direction was needed. But I did sense a few more strong magic users close to me, and I could have sworn I felt a little hand fisted in the hem of my t-shirt, clinging tight.

I don’t know how long it went on like that, as I funneled magic into both spells. My power kept steady. It was a bit strained, but I had plenty to draw from. It was my mind that was breaking, staggering under the weight of the concentration and willpower needed to maintain these high-level castings. This was why covens existed. Coven members not only bolstered each other’s power, but also their will.

Thankfully, I had some sort of coven of my own these days.

I nearly cried in relief when I felt Dyre and Sunshine’s attention and energy turn toward me once more, through our lifebond. I gratefully released the shield spell back to Dyre and some of my vision returned. Enough to see that we had gathered a small herd of children, all silent and wide-eyed, stuffed into our little zone of safety, crowded and bumping into each other, herded like cattle by Elijah, Niamh, Zhong, and River.

“We can’t fit anymore,” Elijah said, close to my ear. “I know you want to keep going, Andy, but even if you weren’t struggling to do it all on your own… there simply isn’t room for us all inside the protections. We need to get them somewhere safe, then disperse the spells so we can spread out and fight.”

I knew he was right. We couldn’t hide inside our bubble forever. I couldn’t hold the spell much longer. And besides, we could all work better with a little more space.

“You can keep the amplifier at the center,” I told him, knowing Elijah hated violence, that it affected him differently with his soul magic. “Protect the artefact and amplify the rest of us while we do what we can.”

He squeezed my shoulder. “I will do my best.”

Just then, the shouting around us increased, and a rattling boom shook the ground. I felt a familiar magic signature and my shoulders slumped in relief. “Fucking finally , Bella,” I said on a massive exhale. The rebels had arrived. We weren’t mired in this alone anymore.

“I’ll warn them about the cult using children and slaves, and update them on the situation,” Ambrose said as he appeared before me. His red and black eyes bored into mine. “Be careful, witch. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Then he pressed a kiss to my forehead and dematerialized, off to play messenger.

“Goddess,” I muttered, my hands beginning to tremble with the strain. “I need to let it go. Someone get ready to take the nullifier the moment we reach Jacki.”

“I’ve got it,” Niamh said, stepping close.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’ll be weakened,” I reminded her. “No stunts. And the second it’s too much you put it in its case and get the fuck away from that thing!” From our experiments, we knew she would gradually lose her magic—her life spark. But it was probably less dangerous for her to carry it than the others. And it made more sense. Magic wouldn’t work around it, which would hamstring the witches and other casters on both sides of the fight. And Zhong could help fight off any physical attacks. River couldn’t take it. I didn’t want to risk him getting hurt, the way he had last time the nullifier took away his luck magic. And the others needed their magic either to stay alive, like Elijah, or to cast spells that would stop this madness.

I held onto my tentative grip on the spell that fused the nullifier and amplifier together as we slowly made our way to where Jacki and her group were protecting the sleeping citizens of the heart. A quick, hurried exchange sent the children we had managed to free scurrying to Jacki, and behind the sturdy magical barrier her people held and defended.

Then, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let the fusion spell collapse.