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HANK

Callie's words burn in my ears as I face the dozen or so men who rush toward us. We throw everything we've got at them. Fire bursts from Will’s fingertips, and the fire mage isn’t holding back in the least as his magic lights the night sky. James and I throw translucent balls of magic that shimmer as they fly and explode when they connect with their intended targets, an attack that would make any witch proud.

James, Will and I stand shoulder-to-shoulder in front of Callie, a wall of muscle and magic. She may be powerful in her own right, but she's barely trained, and none of us even want to consider risking her life. And not because if she dies then the battle would be over before it’s even started. That might be what our enemies see, soldiers protecting their queen, but it’s love that keeps us there, not honor.

My life would be over if we lost her.

I push those thoughts aside and focus on the problem at hand.

It's easy to lose myself in the fight. Even though I’m usually a guy who would rather solve problems in the smartest way possible, right now, I know these people need warriors, not thinkers, and so I give into it. It's easier to rely on my instincts to fling my magic rather than think things through every time.

Perhaps it's reckless, but despite the chaos, we manage to keep the king's men at bay. They don’t even have a chance to launch their own attack yet. They’re too busy using their magic to shield their bodies from taking too much damage while ever-slowly pressing forward.

It feels like a weird standoff, like we’re all just waiting to see whose nuts are bigger. Sweat trickles down my brow. Soon, we’ll either run out of magic, or they will... I just hope it’ll be them. And then, one of them crumples. I don't know if it's because he's dead or has just spent too much of his magic.

A shiver rolls down my spine. Despite the fact he's on the other side, I find myself hoping he isn't dead. No one deserves to die for the king. Actually, that's not right. There are a few people who do, but most have been taught the wrong thing. We can fix that. Teach them that there's another way.

I take a moment to look around, trying to work out how many enemies there are. I can't make out the real number; the only thing I can tell is that there are still too many. My dad [1] stands several feet away, locked in a battle of wills with an enormous wizard. Blue magic flows from my dad in a wave of light before crashing into red magic that flows from a man with a cruel smile.

My heart rises to my throat. I know my dad’s more than capable of holding off the man, but it doesn't stop me worrying about him. My father, my family, we were never warriors. We’re just… normal people. But now, my dad looks like some kind of fantastical warrior. Even if the wizard does seem to be outpowering him.

For Will's sake, I'm glad Fran [2] came to collect his mom a few days ago. She's safer with the others than here. Plus, she's a bit of a liability when it comes to everything. We'll always look out for her, but it's easier when we don't have to. Especially in the middle of a literal firefight.

Without slowing the pace of the balls of energy I'm flinging toward the men in front of us, I point at the man slowly overpowering my dad and send a bolt of lightning toward him. A handy trick I’d learned in high school. It isn't powerful enough to hurt him, but it does what I intended and distracts him enough for Dad to get his footing and overpower him. The man crumples onto the lawn, unconscious, as Dad lets out a nervously triumphant laugh.

James throws up a quick shield, and a fireball that is about to slam into my face bounces off it and fizzles out. Fuck. I look around, and ice runs through my veins. I thought there were more of us. Hell, there were more of us.

Now? Now… we're outmatched.

"Where the hell did Theresa and the guys go?" I yell as we back up.

The rest of the inhabitants of the house crowd together behind James's weakening shield. No doubt they appreciate a moment's respite from the onslaught.

A small flicker in the shield catches my eye, and without thinking, I throw another shield up behind it. A fireball smashes against James's shield and shatters the whole thing, raining over us like bits of glass that slowly fade away. My heart races. If it’d been a moment later, the ball of energy could have killed us all.

Damn it, there’s no way we can keep going much longer.

I push that thought to the side. I'll worry about us all dying once we're out of this.

"Go toward the firehouse," Callie says in a loud whisper. She has to make sure we can all hear her, but the people attacking us can't. "We have to get around them. I know where to go."

We stop backing up and twist so that the house is to our left. The men follow, so intent on battering my shield with their magic that they don't seem to notice we've shifted direction. That's good. Callie must have a plan if she's telling us where to go.

"When I say go," Callie instructs. "Everyone run past the firehouse and into the woods. Go to the beach and regroup under the pier."

No one argues. I think we all know our cause is lost if we don't listen to her. We're all powerful on our own, but we've had no warning and no chance to come up with a plan. I'm not even sure everyone who was in the house is with us, other than Theresa and her men, but I'm too focused on keeping the shield up to look at the people around us.

One of the fireballs whizzes past us and hits the house. I wince. Several of us can do fire magic, but in our current situation, we can’t waste time trying to stop the fireballs. Nor can we extinguish the blaze now coming from the porch. Hopefully, our enemies will disappear soon, and the regular fire crew can take over, or else Callie’s house will be burned to a shell.

"Now!" Callie shouts.

I hold still for a moment to keep the shield up and give the others a head start. I can keep it up while I'm running, but there's more of a chance that I'll accidentally let it drop if I do that, and I don't want to expose the others.

As soon as it becomes obvious to the men what's happening, I start running backward. The shield wavers, but to my relief, it still holds up. To my shock, a massive wave of power erupts from behind me, knocking me off my feet. But arms grab me immediately and yank me up. The power hits the witches chasing us, giving us time to sprint across the lawn and street into the woods.

I manage to keep sight of Callie running in front of me. James and Will stay just behind her, probably focusing more on keeping her safe than getting away. I trail behind, but I've lost sight of anyone else from the house as we all race as fast as we can through the trees. I have to hope they're all making their way to the pier. We all know we can't turn back and look for them, even if my dad is one of them. It's too much of a risk. I'm reasonably sure they've run off more to the right. Which is good news. The men behind us will choose to follow Callie, not them.

When we're about halfway through the span of woods separating the ocean from the street we lived on, I realize I've stopped hearing the sounds of anyone chasing us. I'm not surprised. The woods are too dense for them to follow in numbers, and there are too many directions we could have taken. Their strength is together, and we've negated that now.

"Hang on," I call, panting. Stopping, I listen, then cast a net of magic behind me, looking for heartbeats. I find dozens and dozens of tiny, fast hearts racing. All the critters that call the woods home are frozen with fear as we crash through their spaces. But there are no human hearts in this woods behind us. "They’ve stopped chasing us."

"You sure?" James asks, sounding just as out of breath.

Nodding, I start forward at a slower pace, my breathing growing more even with each passing second. "Positive." When I pass Callie, I hold my hand out, and she takes it with a grateful smile.

"You know where we're going?" I ask.

She squeezes my hand. "Fran put the path to the caverns they're staying in my head. It's way down the beach."

Silence falls over us as we make our way to the pier.

Dad and most of the others are waiting for us, and the knot of worry in the pit of my stomach loosens. We may have lost the house and the base of our operations in the firefight, but at least no one seems to be hurt. The only people missing are Theresa and her men, but they're strong as a team, so I'm going to try not to worry about them too much.

Once we're on the beach, it's easier to see everyone else, and I'm relieved to discover none of us are actually hurt. We look a mess, but it's all superficial.

I keep my hand tightly wrapped around Callie's. We're exposed here, and I'm not a huge fan of it.

"We should walk closer to the trees," Will says, echoing my thoughts.

After grumbling our agreement, we move closer to the tree line.

I almost sigh with relief. It feels better to not be in anyone's direct line of sight.

"We're about halfway there," Callie says about a half-hour later. She wasn't kidding when she said it was way down the beach.

Two women hurry out of the woods, making their way towards us. Callie drops my hand, and we all stop in our tracks as we prepare ourselves to throw magic if they try to attack us. As soon as they're a bit closer, I relax, realizing its Fran and another woman I recognize as one of the teachers from the school. The others do, too, so they must have come to the same conclusion as I have.

"Are you all okay?" Fran shout-whispers once she's in earshot. "I was terrified." She runs her gaze up and down Callie, no doubt wanting to be sure about the safety of her step-granddaughter. I'm glad being close to Callie and the rest of what's going on is giving her purpose after Phoebe passed.

"How'd you know?" Callie asks, her voice breaking a little on the question. "You knew as soon as the ward went down!"

Fran pulls Callie into a quick hug.

"I had my own wards still up at the house as a little extra security. I felt it as soon as they lost the support of Theresa's. Why was she the only one with a ward up?" Fran looks at us in surprise. "You should've all had a layer up."

"It was her idea," Callie says miserably. "She said we'd take turns so our wards would be strong. It was their turn."

Oh hell...

“She betrayed you,” Fran says, speaking the realization I’m sure we’ve all come to out loud.

“We don’t know that,” Callie protests, though there's a hint of doubt in her voice. I’m leaning toward Fran’s thinking, but I know Callie, she'll want to believe the best in people, even when she's presented with the worst. “She might have been overpowered,” she adds weakly.

Fran opens her mouth to reply, but thunder rumbles across the sky, stopping her from saying anything. Lightning splits the sky, but it's clear it's only across the town. An image like a projector shooting it across the sky shows the king sitting on his throne. The whole thing is in bright technicolor.

His mouth twists into a sneer as he stares down at us, and I want to throw a fireball up at his smug face. I don't. But only because he'll probably have people looking for that kind of reaction, and all it will achieve is that he'll know our location.

The others are staring up at him, too, none of them saying anything as we wait for whatever crazy thing he has planned for us.

When he speaks, his voice projects over the whole town. "Anyone who joins my side now will be spared. All humans will remain sleeping in the town until this little skirmish is finished. They have until the solstice before their sleep becomes permanent."

I glance at Callie and see tears glistening in her eyes. She won't stand for this. And neither will we. The king won't get away with it. But that doesn't stop her from feeling it. I know what she's like.

The king leans forward, and Callie's cat comes into view as he drags her into his lap.

Callie cries out and reaches up as if the gesture will bring her cat back to her. She hasn't talked about it much, but we've all noticed that she's missing her. I'm glad she's all right and didn't simply disappear when Callie's magic was unlocked.

The cat mewls piteously, and Callie sobs. It isn't piteous, though. It's angry. The poor kitty has blood all over her fur.

I reach out for Callie and pull her into my arms. This must be torture for her after she's been so worried about her cat, thinking that unlocking her powers destroyed the feline without her getting a chance to say goodbye. Somehow, this is almost worse.

Hopefully, we can make sure they're reunited when all of this ends.

The scene moves and stretches, and the king reveals people on the floor at his feet, bound and gagged. I spot my mom and my breath catches in my throat. It's my first proof that she's alive. Relief courses through me, then rage. I can barely think through it as the anger courses through my veins. I guessed that's where she was, but I've been trying not to think about what he might be doing to her too much.

My father's voice cuts through the frozen moment. "That bastard."

The scene fades from the sky.

"What did he mean they'd die?" James asked. "If everyone in town doesn't pledge to him, the humans die?"

Will shakes his head, but my eyes are glued to the sky where my mother lay on the floor at the king's feet.

Covered in blood like Callie's cat.

He did it for show. It's not their blood . If I keep telling myself that, then perhaps I'll start believing it at some point.

"I have to go. I have to turn myself over to him. He's going to hurt all those people," Callie whispers. She turns her big eyes to me. They're filled with pain, anger, and a little bit of relief, all the emotions streaming through the rest of us, I imagine. "Your mom, Hank. I have to go for her."

Before any of us can persuade her otherwise, she's turning on her heels and beginning the long walk back to town.

I react first and reach out, clasping my hand around her wrist to stop her but being careful not to hurt her in the process. "Callie, stop. Don't be a fool."

She stops and glances back at me. For a second, she looks pissed, and it's not hard to guess why. No one likes being called a fool.

I don't give her time to argue. "It fucking kills me not to go to him and demand mom back! But that won't work. It won't stop this. It'll only get worse, and all of us, all those who pledged our loyalty to you, they'll all die. It won't be just my mom. It'll be everyone's mom, or brother, or sister. Don't you see that?" My voice is strained from the torrent of pent-up emotion I'm feeling. She's not the only one so angry they could cry.

Except that her dam breaks and the tears stream down her cheeks in deep and angry sobs.

She steps into me, pressing her face into my shirt. "I'm so sorry," she says between sobs. "I want to save her."

"I know," I promise. "I do, too. But the best way to do that is to make a proper plan." The words come out as a whisper, an intimate secret between us, even if everyone knows it as true. As I soothe her, I find myself calming too. She does this to me. Makes me feel steadier than anyone I've ever met. I know she wants to help more than anything in the world, and somehow, that makes me feel like I can face this.

"James," Will whispers. "Look."

We all turn toward the woods to see someone walk out of them.

"Benedict," James whispers, confusion plain in his voice. "What is he doing here?"