Page 118 of Ascendant King
“We have you, Phelan.” Cade crossed his arms, not even bothering to smirk at the show of wolves. “You need to give up. All we want is Leon.”
I growled. We only wanted Leon for now. Part of me couldn’t let what Phelan was doing to mages stand. It was too similar to the old-school way of treating consorts: as nothing more than creatures to be used rather than real people.
Phelan snorted, lifting his lip in a sneer. “Youhaveme?”
The mocking lilt in his voice twisted his words. He looked around. My pack inched closer, creeping toward him.
This was how wolves were supposed to hunt. This was the way we could win. The key to winning against Phelan was distracting him, putting him off-balance, until he made a mistake. Then we would have him.
And I was too familiar with the fact that mage blood tasted the same as any other mammal.
Nia edged forward, so low that her chest was nearly dragging on the ground. The growling in her throat vibrated through theair, and I saw the wolves around her perk up. We were fifty, sixty on one. It wasn’t even a fair fight.
“You don’t have me.” Phelan grinned, extending his hands out. Magic swirled through the air, lines of it so thick that they were impossible to distinguish from each other.
With a wave of his hand, his shirt flew open, and I could finally see his chest.
It was a rainbow of color, a thousand different tattoos crammed onto every square inch of his flesh, making it impossible to see the skin underneath the ink. Some were half-formed animals, others plants. One was a series of letters that didn’t quite make sense, not forming a real word.
“Now we can play.” Phelan swept up all the wolves surrounding him, trapping them in lines of ink that twisted around their necks and legs, binding them together.
I ripped at the magic that was trying to catch me, pulling it apart. But as I tried to dodge through the web of spells, I kept getting caught, magic wrapping around my paws, dragging me down to the ground.
Snarling, I tore free again. Phelan didn’t even flinch at the loss of magic as it disintegrated to ash. I reached the nearest wolf, recognizing her as Heather immediately. As soon as I tore the magic from around her neck, she was up and moving, dodging with more dexterity than me, until she reached Phelan, grabbing hold of his leg and pulling him off-balance. He went down with a crash, the spells trapping my pack shuddering.
There was a clang, and Jay stood in the middle of the battlefield, naked, bleeding from several places where he had ripped himself free of the spellwork. His wrist was twisted at an odd angle, hanging limply, but he was still able to brace the long iron chain Elizabeth had worn earlier against his forearm.
With his good hand, he swung it in a circle, slicing through the magic that trapped the wolves around him. Phelan screamedin frustration, slamming his hands into the air as though touching a physical wall of glass.
Magic pulsed out of his hands, flowers and stars flying loose, one hitting Jay in the chest so hard that he flew backward, cracking his head as he fell. He didn’t get up, and there was a loud scream that set off car alarms.
Orange magic cascaded onto the battlefield, flowing across the concrete like lava, freeing every wolf in its path until it reached Phelan. His pants caught on fire, shoes melting onto the ground as he screamed in pain.
Isaac appeared in the air, the pop of the teleportation spell inaudible over the chaos. He wrapped Jay in his arms, and they blinked out of existence. I freed myself, sliding across orange magic until I caught the iron chain in my mouth.
I scrambled free, dragging it with me. It disintegrated Isaac’s orange magic wherever it touched. We couldn’t afford for any of our mages to lose their magic. Not now.
I shifted fluidly, my skin jumping and twitching at the sudden onslaught of sensation. Grabbing the chain in my hands, I swiped it through the air, slicing off more of Phelan’s magic, freeing more wolves.
They moved as a unit, like a pack. Pablo darted in, grabbing at Phelan’s pant leg, tugging at it. Annoyed, Phelan raised his hand, about to slice down with a teal line of magic, when Evelyn leapt onto his back, digging her teeth into his shoulder.
Shrugging her off, he pinned her with pale gray lines of tattoo, more of an outline than actual ink. When he raised his hand, Pablo was already gone, and Phelan was forced to circle, only to leave himself exposed when Coral slammed into his legs.
Angry, Phelan didn’t even use magic, kicking her in the head with his leg. Before he could make contact again, Lily was there, her pale pink magic wrapping around him, pressing him hard into the burning heat of Isaac’s orange ink.
Using his distraction, I swung the iron chain in an arc, freeing every wolf I could reach. Then, I sprinted for the other side, swinging the iron until the pack was free. Turning, I readied myself to face Phelan.
He was panting, fat drops of sweat dripping from his creased brow. His sandy-brown hair was plastered to his forehead, and he swiped at it with his free hand, then grinned.
Slapping his hand down, Phelan closed his eyes. The orange magic that surrounded him, blistering his skin, began to disappear, pulled inward as he absorbed it. Lily’s pink magic still had him pinned, but I noticed the graceful lines of her tattoos were disappearing as pink lines formed on Phelan’s face.
He was consuming their magic.
I understood a moment before Lily did. She was too late to do anything more than cover her head with her hands as her own magic slammed back into her, sending her flying through the air. Coral was after her in a second, the fur of her back burned off by the orange, fiery lines of Isaac’s tattoos.
“No!” I looked around as Phelan turned, grinning. One of his eyes was completely red, blood vessels bursting and covering the white.
His hands extended, and long lashes of orange tattoo extended from his palms. He raised them, bringing them down in a violent sweep that took all the wolves off their feet.