Page 41 of Magical Midlife Rescue (Leveling Up #11)

Jessie and Austin, however, would have a chance to break out.

Slim at the moment—Sebastian had intended to build them a bigger force—but they were resourceful and powerful.

Determined. If anyone could beat Momar, they could.

Serving them up to Momar with himself was the only way to directly get them an audience.

Those were the rumors all over the mage world, and that was the distorted, strange vision he’d been sucked into.

In order for Jessie to get her chance at striking the elusive mastermind of the mage world, she’d have to be a captive, and Austin and Sebastian with her. She’d have to be betrayed.

He’d have to be the one to do it.

They would win and rightly kill him, or Momar would. Either way, it would be Sebastian’s end.

Was this his end?

No, not yet. First, there would be pain. Great pain. Elliot Graves had caused this magical outfit a lot of effort and humiliation, and they’d want to get their shot at hurting him. At breaking him.

Minutes passed into hours. He kept count in his head. Keeping time when there was no sun, no day and night, staved off insanity, he’d heard. Even if it didn’t, it had helped the last time he was in one of these types of cells.

Somewhere, water dripped. It rhythmically splatted on the floor.

Belatedly, he realized there were no spells draped in front of him. He didn’t think there were any coating the walls, either. The sheen he’d expected wasn’t present.

They couldn’t be so stupid as to think he couldn’t do magic without his hands, could they?

In another hour or so—his count surely wasn’t accurate—he heard something metallic. A shining metal disk on the teal-painted door spun in time with the grating sound. The door opened slowly, and someone prepared to come in.

He shot magic before he could see the face.

It hit off a shield and was absorbed into a female body. He’d never seen that happen before. What spell was that?

And then he felt faint.

“It soaks down into me and then filters through the connections to my army,” Jessie said as she walked in.

Redness lined her eyes, and disappointment creased her features.

“It takes the magic from the enemy attack and fortifies my shields on my people with it. Ingenious, isn’t it?

I found it in one of the Ivy House books. ”

“Jessie,” he said on a release of breath, sagging in his chair. “Why…”

He didn’t know what to think. How to feel. Their environment registered: the lack of spells, the tension in her shoulders, and the regret in her eyes. She’d been pulling away. She’d been betrayed.

The strength went out of him. “Please, Jessie, don’t torture me.

I deserve it, but please—it’ll strip away my feelings for you.

You’ll deaden me if you do this. I’ll tell you whatever you need to know, and you can kill me after.

Please, though, spare Nessa. She’s only involved in all this out of love for me and my sister.

She never wanted any of this for me or for herself.

Blame me, not her. She’s of no value to you. ”

He was babbling. He’d never babbled with a captor, but he felt like babbling still. Begging.

Niamh walked in with a plain wooden chair. The legs were painted red in the exact way the Guild did it. He remembered that vividly because when the chair appeared, the pain started.

“What…” He looked around again. All of these stains couldn’t have been from the cells Austin had prepared.

They couldn’t have been done by Jessie’s people.

Some of them were surely older than the length of time she’d had magic.

They couldn’t be another shifter’s, either.

Their type didn’t torture—they killed you face to face.

Gargoyles, too, with plenty of warning besides.

“Is this…a Guild holding cell?” he whispered, his mind spinning and dread spiraling.

Niamh smirked, then tsked as she left again. The door closed behind her but didn’t lock. That, at least, wasn’t Guild protocol. They locked in the questioner just in case the subject got loose.

The red wooden legs dragged across the concrete floor. “Yes,” said Jessie.

She placed the chair close to him and sat. He drank in her face. It hadn’t been long since he’d seen her last, but it felt like ages.

“This is exactly how you would’ve ended up had we not gotten to you in time.” She clasped her hands in her lap. “Nessa would’ve been taken to a different place. A horrible place, by the sound of it. Not that this one is good.”

“How…” His voice was pleading. “Why…” He cleared his throat and realized his face was wet from crying. “How’d you find me? Nessa hasn’t been able to find their holding cells.”

“How?” She quirked an eyebrow. “By paying an exorbitant amount of money for a private jet in the middle of the night, getting flown to your wilderness location at breakneck speed by Tristan from an airstrip we weren’t supposed to use, and letting him grab Nessa while I took on a team of mages by myself, waiting for the rest of the gargoyles.

I’m in a huge fight with my mate over this.

He’s livid that I got Tristan to take me ahead to then fight on my own until help arrived.

Livid . Banging it out isn’t going to work for this one.

The rest of the crew got carried by gargoyles, except the basajaunak, because they were too big and would slow everyone down.

They’re pissed they missed the fight, and they’re now talking about training regimens to increase their speed and endurance so they can be at least as fast as gargoyles. ”

“But…” Sebastian couldn’t stop crying. He couldn’t even understand how happy he was to see her, a joy that permeated every cell of his body. “How’d you get here ?”

“Oh, here ?” Now her eyebrows settled low in anger.

“We had an impromptu fact-finding session in the woods. That’s what I’m calling it, because ‘torturing the enemy to punish them and also get information’ isn’t something I want to say very often.

But my crew is, like…a nightmare incarnate, and this is apparently how mages work— for now —and so I’m trying to harden myself to it.

Niamh let Edgar help her make a fucking exhibit out of the leader.

An exhibit , Sebastian, like an art installation.

Out of a body. What’s next? A blanket made of human hair?

If I gave them half a chance, they probably would.

They’re not normal. How gruesome must it have been back in the old days?

” She shuddered. “For the record, I hate all of this, even though my gargoyle seems to revel in it. And also for the record, I let it happen because Austin said I had to. That Niamh needed to deliver the right message. Given he is so mad at me, which I blame you for, I didn’t argue. ”

Magic flared through the room, pounding Sebastian with Jessie’s frustration and pain and fear and worry. He’d caused all that, and while it hurt and he was sorry, the fact that she cared this much about him made him sob.

He’d missed her so much. He hadn’t realized how much he loved her and the others. Needed them, even Edgar.

“So,” she continued, “we got all the details of this place, including setup and magic and defenses. We pretended to be the extraction team with stolen clothes, and they let us in. Then we grabbed them, forced them into their little cells, and now…” Her lips tightened.

“I chose to see you. I don’t want to know what the rest of my team is up to. ”

“Fact-finding,” Sebastian helped.

Her beautifully expressive eyes narrowed, then softened, and a sheen filmed them.

“Why, Sebastian? Why didn’t you confide in us rather than setting us up?

I let you go so that you could regain your feet, but instead, you pushed forward without enough knowledge.

Hiding yourself from us. Not hiding yourself from the enemy.

You put yourself in needless danger while making the wrong choices for us.

” Tears welled in her eyes. “I’m disappointed in you two. You’ve broken my heart.”

Nail, meet coffin.

He lowered his head, overcome with emotion. Maybe the torture would’ve been better. It would’ve stopped him hurting instead of making it so much worse.

She stood, then pulled a knife from the back pocket of her jeans and cut his bonds. “We tied you up at my request. I wanted you to have a moment to think about your choices and where your line of thinking got you. You needed this lesson, Sebastian.”

He didn’t argue with her. She was right, after all.

“You’re coming home with us. Well…” She wiggled her hand.

“First, you have to go back to the shifter meeting with us because we have to tie things up. Oh, and then we have to— You’re going to stay with us now, that’s what I mean.

If it has to be a kidnapping, so be it. We’re doing this together from now on.

Your choice in the matter has been forfeited. ”

He nodded mutely. She was right there, too. “I’m sorry,” he said, dropping his freed hands to his lap. “I’m sorry for all of it.”

She hugged him from the side. “I know.” She knelt in front of him then, her glistening eyes serious.

“We’re going to talk all of this out. No more secrets.

Nessa won’t say a word without you present, which I’ve let go for now.

When we have a moment, I want to hear everything, do you understand?

Everything . We can’t stay alive if we only know half the story. ”

He nodded again and, as they stood, hugged her tightly.

“You can take me to her,” Sebastian said.

“She’s keeping secrets for my benefit. It’s time she stops being caught in the middle of all of this.

Her well-being has been a casualty. It’s time she starts making her own choices, and time I retire to a magical entrepreneur. ”

Jessie chuckled low. “Oh, no, you’re not retiring. Not by a long shot. Elliot Graves is just about to be upgraded.”