Page 109 of Magic Claimed

I held out a hand in front of me and tried to summon my fae power… but got only a single blue spark that sputtered in my palm and then died. “Not yet, I guess.” Hopefully, it wasn’t going to taketoomuch longer.

“So what’s our play?”

The gateway was right there. Still swirling with all its magical colors, leading to exactly where I wanted to be.

Home. Helping to defend my family and my city.

If that gateway collapsed, I had no way of knowing how long it would take us to get back. No way of knowing how far we were from the battle front.

But if we went back before we pinpointed our location, and the gateway collapsed, we would also have lost our chance here. A chance to hit Blake where it would hurt him the most, so that even if he succeeded in turning humanity against us, he would lose the one thing that had enabled him to bring his endeavors to this point.

“Where are the kids now?”

“Looking for another hostage that was brought in last night.”

“And you just let them goalone?”

Shane’s look was deeply sarcastic. “Tell me, Kendrick, exactly how much luck do you think you’d have convincing six teenagers to do something they didn’t want to do?”

Okay, he had a point. I was barely able to handle one. Andbesides, no one was likely to risk hurting Blake’s precious “test subjects.”

“Then our priorities are still the same as we planned. We try to figure out where we are, and find a way to destroy the artifacts. Then we take everyone home. Gateway or no gateway.”

Shane nodded. We turned to go, and as if they had been waiting for my decision as some kind of signal, that was the moment Blake chose to launch his offensive.

One by one, the screens on the wall erupted with scenes of violence so appalling, it was difficult to believe they were real. There was no sound, only images, but it was no less horrifying for the silence as the crowds of protesters scattered, shock and terror written across their faces.

The cameras were stationary, so even as I silently begged them to show me what was happening, I could only see so much.

Broadway Avenue splitting down the middle, opening up beneath the feet of unprepared humans—swallowing a luckless few and dividing the crowd in two.

A black gryphon diving out of the sky, scattering protesters and knocking a handful of them to the ground.

Roots erupting from the earth, cracking the sidewalks and trapping struggling victims beneath their winding coils.

Fires that flared and then disappeared unpredictably, leaving buildings smoldering in their wake.

And as the silent battle raged, I felt a surge from the battle within—a rising tide of emotions that must have come through the bond. Callum was furious—whether at the picture Blake had sent him, or the senseless violence tearing the city apart—and for a moment, I actually took a step towards the swirling colors of the gateway, as if being pulled by an unseen force, desperate to return.

“We have to trust them.”

I whirled on Shane, feeling a sudden wave of helpless anger. “Trust? That’s ironic, coming from you.”

He didn’t flinch. “Believe me, no one is more surprised than I am. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Your family has their own tasks, just like we do. Trust them to handle it.”

Trust… Drat him. Trust, even when I could see what they were facing. Trust, when I knew that the very heart of our home might be overrun by enemies. Trust, when it seemed that forces on every side were arrayed against us. Trust, even when I could feel all these emotions through the mate bond and knew that Callum was suffering…

But Shane was right. They were all trusting us to have their back, so no matter how much it tore me apart, we could not fail.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “You aren’t wrong. I’m just…”

“Feeling torn in two?”

I nodded, and when our eyes met, I saw the banked glimmers of rage in his golden stare.

He was afraid too. The person he loved was also somewhere in the midst of that chaos, and he could do nothing to help her.

“Okay. Let’s go do this so we can go home. They can hold the line until then.”