Page 35 of Magical Midlife Rescue (Leveling Up #11)

TWENTY-ONE

Jessie

I stepped into the crisp morning air, which would’ve been downright frigid and unbearable if I didn’t have magic shielding me from the worst of it. I was trying to save my energy for what would surely turn into a battle for a territory.

“It’s as cold as a witch’s tit out here,” Ulric said, meeting me in front of my suite.

“I never understood that expression,” I said as Jasper joined us, and then Dave and Cyra. Indigo and Edgar came next, followed by a trickle of the rest of them. Today, they were early. Yesterday, when it was important, they were late. It was like they didn’t want to do things the expected way.

“Witch’s tit.” Jasper pointed at the sky. Ulric and I looked up. Nothing but pale blue. “Like…they fly on their brooms, and it’s cold, so their tits would be cold.”

“Huh.” I nodded. I could see that.

“Okay, but what about a witch’s nose?” Ulric countered.

“It’s a swear.” Jasper frowned at Ulric. “You don’t swear using nose . ‘It’s as cold as a witch’s nose out here!’” He lifted his eyebrows. “Not the same punch.”

“What about warlock’s balls?” Ulric asked.

“In the stories, do warlocks fly brooms?” Jasper paused, but when Ulric didn’t supply him with an answer, he shrugged.

“Well, even if they do, their balls are probably the warmest part about them in that scenario. Also smashed. Now, ‘it’s as uncomfortable as a smashed dick’ might work, but then you lose the witch and warlock scenario. Or wizard. Or whatever.”

“Flying brooms aren’t actually a thing, right?

” I asked as Austin stepped out of our suite in a dress shirt and trousers.

I wore a similar outfit. This was a professional situation, and it was thought we should dress the part, even though it was almost certain that we’d end up fighting. A muumuu made a lot more sense.

“Not that I know of,” Jasper said.

“Neither are witches or wands,” Ulric replied as Austin started walking. “Dicks and Janes got that part of magic wrong.”

“Wait, sir!” Mr. Tom hurried out of the suite with a breakfast burrito wrapped in foil. “You forgot the other half of your breakfast. You can’t be fighting and killing on a half-empty stomach. Here?—”

Austin slowed, cocked his head in annoyance, and put out his hand. Mr. Tom filled it with the burrito.

“What do you say?” I grinned at him.

“Thank you,” Austin growled, giving me a look before starting forward again.

“Manners. Lovely.” Mr. Tom sniffed. “Now, miss, do you require more coffee for the drive?”

“No, I’m fine.” I hurried to keep up with Austin as Mr. Tom headed back to the suite, where he’d left a whole basket filled with treats for the group.

“I should probably be more nervous,” I murmured as we took the stairs and met the others out by the building’s main door.

Tristan and Broken Sue had everyone in formation, a larger crew than we’d brought to the meeting yesterday.

Basajaunak waited in the trees, no more than a handful.

Traveling with a large force was difficult, and so we’d brought as many as we could comfortably handle. We hoped we wouldn’t need them.

“Why?” Austin asked.

“I’m always nervous before a potential battle.”

He directed people to the vans, and Tristan and Broken Sue took over.

“You don’t have enough information to be nervous yet, on purpose.” Austin glanced back at my people still waiting by the door. “I’ll fill you in on the ride. Why aren’t they coming?”

I stalled and turned, putting up my hand to block the glare of the late morning sun. Immediately, it was clear. “Where’s Niamh?” I asked.

“I got it.” Ulric pulled out his phone.

“Also, why aren’t you guys with the gargoyles?”

It was Jasper who answered: “We’re with you today. Remember the subset of training we’re doing now?”

Right, right. My team within the larger team of fliers. Essentially, the people who would help me stick to the plan.

“Jessie.” Niamh walked in from the right, Fred in tow. Her steps were hurried and her eyes tight, not usual for her. Fred’s expression was closed in solemn worry.

“What’s wrong?” I asked immediately.

“Momar’s people know where Sebastian and Nessa are,” Niamh said without preamble.

“We spent the morning making sure. Nessa had some tagalongs, as Fred calls them, on their setup. Spies, in other words. Fred bucked them off, but that just changed their spying from computer to in-person. They’ve kept their distance, but they’re there.

They’re documenting schedules, activities, dwellings—they’re gearing up for an extraction.

Sebastian is powerful, but they have more people. ”

Shadows pooled and coiled as Tristan joined us. His arms flared out from his sides, and his power thrummed. I put a hand on his arm to keep him calm—or maybe keep myself calm, because I was suddenly blanketed in a cold sweat.

“Where are they?” I asked.

“Kansas, two states away.”

“That spider is meticulous,” Fred said, and there was no hint of her humor or color in her tone.

She realized the seriousness of this. “Momar, I mean. If it were up to the ground crew, as they’re calling them, they would’ve gone in and grabbed the mages weeks ago.

The spider is nailing down all the many details so nothing will go wrong. ”

“Jessie, I think he knows that Sebastian and Nessa are Elliot Graves and the Captain, and that they were the ones helping us.” Niamh put her hands to her hips.

“I can’t be sure, now, but it wouldn’t be too hard to deduce, like.

They weren’t active leading up to and during the time at Kingsley’s, when some unknown and powerful mage was helping ye behind the scenes.

A mage with a special interest in ye. An ingenious mage, one that knew the dark web so well that they could hide the weapons purchase.

And then ye showed up to collect. They have the two mages that escaped the caves—or had .

They’re probably dead now. They knew Elliot was moonlighting on ye.

And then the deaths they framed us for—that looked like their handiwork, not ours.

I noticed right away. If Momar is as good as he seems, he would’ve noticed too.

It’s all there if ye piece together the details. ”

My blood ran cold. “But…” Elliot and the Captain had gone dark when I was getting training from Sebastian, but then they’d immediately shown up on the map when I went to Sebastian’s caves.

“Kinsella,” I drew out. I would’ve killed him, not knowing it would get me in trouble with the Mages Guild, but he’d disappeared.

Disappeared, and then turned up on Elliot Graves’s kill list.

I hadn’t known who was behind Elliot Graves at that point, and then so much had happened. I hadn’t properly backtracked to think about the ramifications. Elliot Graves had been dark all those years…until he showed up with an interest in me and did me a favor by taking out my enemies.

“The Anal Repository never would’ve made those connections,” Niamh told me, using the name she called the Mages Guild.

“Their game is in extorting and throwing their weight around. They want easy money. Momar is a different sort of animal. A much more dangerous one.” She snapped her fingers at Mr. Tom.

“Come here, ya eejit. Can’t ye see there’s a change in plan?

We need to get the plane here as soon as we can, boy.

We need to get those mages out of there. ”

“How much time?” I asked Niamh.

“We don’t know, and that’s the honest truth. There were messages of the extraction crew going dark, but Fred was able to get their locations, though we’re not sure how valid that intel is. They appear to be moving into the area, but not necessarily into position. We want to get moving.”

It felt like my brain was rapidly firing.

It had always taken us a few days to sort out private jet travel, what with the various planes, pilots, and tiny airports.

There wasn’t a magical strip in this area, and we needed a magical pilot and certain size plane for the basajaunak.

I didn’t dare leave them here. If we showed up to grab the mages while Momar’s people were attempting the exaction, we’d need the extra hands.

But there was no way we could leave right now to handle this. The earliest would likely be in the evening, but more probably the next morning or even the day after.

“Can you get a message to the mages?” I asked.

“I’ve left a message on the encrypted phone,” Fred said, “and through their setup in the woods, but we don’t know how often they check those. The IPs they use seem to be cafés and other random locations. Going off-grid means they aren’t easily reachable.”

“Damn it.” I dug my nails into my sides.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Austin waited to the side, and Broken Sue stood in front of an open van door. They would leave right now to get the mages, not bothering to prove anything to the collection of alphas.

But we had no transportation. That was the sum total of what we needed to plan.

Get there, bust in, and either force the mages to come home with us or fight them out of the enemy’s grasp.

Until we had planes, however, we could do nothing but wait.

Doing one thing at a time was a luxury we hadn’t had for a while now.

“Dang it. Mr. Tom, get on that transportation. Niamh, you and Fred find out more information, or help Mr. Tom. The rest of us are going to take care of a bad alpha while you handle that. Call if you have something, but don’t interrupt us if you don’t.

The very moment we have a way to get to Nessa and Sebastian quickly, we’re taking it. Okay?”

“Right, so.” Niamh motioned for Fred to start walking back the way they’d come.

Mr. Tom held out the basket to Edgar.

“No, not to—” I started.

“I got it.” Ulric ran that way, intercepting the basket just as Edgar’s fingers brushed the edges. “Sorry, Edgar, but you get really weird about food.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Edgar said. “No one seems to eat my offerings anyway.”

“He just told you why,” Jasper said.

I started toward the vans. My power blasted out, a call to arms. “Load up.” I made a circle in the air with my finger, belatedly noticing Kingsley and some of the other alphas down the way, watching.

I pointed at them. “We’re doing this to prove to you that we can handle ourselves in battle.

Better get there on time, because we can’t dally. We have other people to save.”

Austin didn’t need to bark orders. Everyone filed in quickly, with the basajaunak in the large cargo vans at the back of the convoy.

“How hard is this going to be?” I asked Austin as he climbed into the van. Tristan sat in the driver’s seat.

“Kingsley doesn’t think we’ll have a problem. With you in this mood, that is almost certainly true. We’ll knock this out and figure out what needs to happen for Nessa and Sebastian, okay?”

I looked out the window. The saving grace was that I knew the extraction team wouldn’t kill the mages.

They’d want information, and for that, the mages would need to be kept alive.

Sebastian had undergone torture before, and Nessa was tough.

Even if we didn’t get there first, we could still save them.

Still, I’d really rather we got there first.