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Color returned to Owen’s face, but he remained unconscious. A calmer Lysandor cradled Owen’s head. All traces of the dark magic were gone from my brother’s body.

“How is he?” I asked, still scanning for a counterattack. “Can we move him?”

“He’s well enough to travel,” Elspeth said, fatigue tinging her words. “But I need to treat him again once we’re less exposed. I’ve never seen dark magic like that before. It... resisted me.”

Of course it did. Any chance Blackstone got to kill us, he’d take. Bodies lay scattered across the wheel site, and magic built into the stones hummed with agitation. Something pressed against my senses, unsettled and wary.

Avie approached Darius, pointing to the black mage stones contained in blue energy. “We should take those with us if we can,” she said. “They may have useful information we can extract.”

“I’d advise against that,” Darius said. “Eldwin and I devised that spell because Blackstone has a habit of killing his co-conspirators by detonating their stones.”

“I know, Uncle,” she said in a tone that was only slightly patronizing. “I was there when his people’s stones exploded. I still think we need to try.”

Darius sighed and looked at Eldwin. Avie was pragmatic, not stubborn. If she persisted despite the danger she had a good reason.

“Provided we can do it safely, I agree with her,” Eldwin said. “We need as much information on Blackstone and his plans as we can get. I believe our magic will keep the self-destruction spells in the gems dormant until we can study them.”

T he chance was slim, but better than letting them explode.

Jan joined us, his emerald stone glowing faintly as he maintained vigilance.

At the edge of the wheel, the two surviving mages lay unconscious, wrapped in Eldwin’s pink containment spell.

If these were like the mages Conall captured on his brother Braylin’s farm, they wouldn’t be privy to Blackstone’s plans.

I studied the nearest captured stone—a smoky quartz that pulsed with unnatural energy. Something about the rhythm of that throbbing struck me as wrong. “Something’s happening.”

We raised shields to protect ourselves and the non-mages. The pulse intensified, the glow grew brighter with each beat. Around the circle the other stones acted similarly.

Darius and Eldwin strengthened their containment spells, but I doubted they could stop the gems from exploding.

Blue and pink energy swirled around the captured stones, fighting against the building pressure.

For a moment, it seemed they might succeed.

Then a gem cracked, and a flash erupted from its core.

Avie cursed under her breath as the stones exploded one at a time. Darius and Eldwin’s shields held, and only a fine crystalline dust remained.

I watched the two unconscious captives, wondering if they’d explode as well. Fortunately, only the gems self-destructed.

Beneath the closest stone, I noticed something peeking through the dirt. While Avie discussed what to do with the prisoners, I knelt by the anomaly. Brushing dirt aside, I exposed a partial glyph.

“Darius,” I called out, not looking up from my discovery. “Can you look at this, please?”

My uncle joined me, crouching to get a better look. “That shouldn’t be there. Not like that.”

I pressed my diamond against the soil and channeled a gentle burst of energy. The dirt shifted, vibrating away, revealing more of the hidden pattern beneath.

“Someone—three guesses who—drew runes on the ground and then covered them in dirt,” I said. Clearing more space, I realized the glyph was massive.

“Step out of the wheel,” Ignatius said, standing behind me with the Elven mages. “We’ll uncover the entire casting.”

We all stepped outside the circle, and the elves quickly removed the dirt. As I surmised, the glyph filled the entire medicine wheel. “This isn’t something he could’ve drawn in a day, or a week, or maybe not even in a year.”

“The symbols match the one at Utrecht that nearly killed Bart,” Jan said. “Only this one is much larger.”

“The glyph itself is no more powerful than the one on campus,” Darius added. “The size of the wheel, however, makes this one infinitely stronger.”

“Blackstone clearly hopes to capture a demon prince,” Eldwin said. “If the medicine wheel were fully powered, even the mightiest prince wouldn’t be able to escape.”

“These stones contain no energy,” an elven mage said. “The runes are strong, but without more, they won’t be strong enough to hold a prince of hell.”

The work that went into creating one of these was mind-blowing, but Blackstone or one of his ancestors built multiple medicine wheels on tribal lands. Finding the right one before it’s too late might be impossible.

“He’s mad,” Jan said, still studying the exposed glyph. “He thinks he can capture and control a demon prince to kill Ailpein.”

I shook my head, tired of trying to outguess Blackstone. “That isn’t right. He doesn’t need a demon prince just to kill Ailpein.”

“And these runes won’t help kill the demon,” Darius said. “He means to keep it alive.”

“Why?” Jan asked. “It’s not like he can make it do stuff outside the circle.”

“That’s not his game.” Avie touched a symbol before standing. “If he’s able to kill Ailpein, Blackstone will bring down the ward. He’ll likely also generate a great deal of excess energy.”

“Energy he can use to power a medicine wheel,” Ignatius said. “With the Ward down, demons would pour into our world. Control the prince, control the underlings.”

Blackstone would be unstoppable if he controlled a demon prince. “Exactly.” I stood, brushing dirt from my hands. “He’ll be the most powerful mage left and also control the demons who remain after the fight.”

“We need to report this and get back to the mage council,” Avie said.

I let Avie give the report and continued to study the ground.

Blackstone might have more of these circles, but that didn’t mean we had to leave him this one.

“We need to erase this,” I said, pointing to the runes.

“Given the amount of work that went into making this glyph, removing key sections should make this wheel useless to him.”

“We can handle that part.” Eldwin pointed to Ignatius, Darius, and the Elven mages. “As you said, removing several sections is as good as erasing it entirely. He won’t have time to repair this one before it’s time to act.”

Nothing seemed impossible to Blackstone, but there were other wheels still intact. It wouldn’t be safe for him to expose himself to redraw the symbols. And with six mages working on the project, it wouldn’t take long to disable the wheel. “Thank you.”

At the edge of the clearing, Elspeth and Lysandor stood watch over Owen. Cinaed’s sister reminded me of how long it had been since I spoke to my mate. The familiar ache in my chest I got when I thought of him intensified.

I’d been able to feel enough of his emotions to know he wasn’t hurt, but I needed more. My fingers closed around my stone and I reached for our connection. Before I called him, I released my walls. I didn’t want him to panic when I made contact.

“Cinaed?”

He’d followed my example and lowered his walls before answering. Concern flooded through our link, mixed with anger and weariness. “Rod!” he said, relief in his voice. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”

We’d shut each other out, but that wasn’t how mates should act toward each other. “I know. I did the same thing.”

“Let’s never do that again,” he said, and I could feel his smile.

The hollow space in my chest felt less empty with his presence there. “Agreed. I have so much to tell you.”

“Same,” he replied.

We tried to speak at once, and our thoughts collided. “You first,” I said. “ You’re older.”

“That’s not a precedent you want to set.” We laughed and it felt good. “But since you insist, I’ll go first.”