A busy street lay up ahead, two lanes of cars in each direction flying past. Beyond it was a green area with looming trees and wild bushes. An old cemetery, a tourist attraction, was down that way, leading into a rougher part of town.

It was probably safer than where we were.

“Hit that park. Let’s lose them in the night.” Emery didn’t turn left or right to look for a crosswalk. With a firm hold on my wrist, he stopped for a moment to survey the cars, then pulled me forward.

“Wha—eeiiii?” I let out a squeal, panic stealing my motor skills, and was half dragged across the pavement. A car zipped past our backs, swerving away from the splash of red on our bubble, which was now dying down. Another almost hit us in a head-on collision before Emery yanked me forward, pulling me onto the concrete divider in the middle of the street.

“Are you insane?” I asked through the fear chattering my teeth.

“That’s how you cross the street in a great many third-world countries,” he said without apology.

“They’re all on the same page in those countries. Cars can see you in those countries. You’re going to get us— No!”

He yanked me out again, stopping a little beyond the white line, somehow knowing the car would see the fading red light, swerve, and bump the curb before correcting too much and nearly catching us. The car in the other lane swerved the other way, reacting to the first car.

Before I could yell a profanity that was sorely deserved, he’d yanked us across and was running, towing me like a boat on a trailer.

“You’re out of your mind,” I said, barely keeping up with the adrenaline trying to lock my knees. “We’re in a fight right now. I know you’re just back, and this should be the honeymoon period or whatever, but we’re fighting.”

“Thanks for the warning.” He pulled us onto a wooded path and then into the trees as a spell streamed past us. It hit a bush and blasted outward in a rainbow of color, very pretty, given that it could have put a hole in our backs. “Hurry.”

Shouts sounded from all around us. I looked back to find more than a dozen people trying to get across the street, half of them running for the crosswalk. A stray brown dog had joined in the melee, scampering across the street with the first group of mages.

Honks drowned out the dog’s playful bark. Drivers yelled out their windows at the mages forcing their way across the street.

Bushes stole my view and I blinked in confusion.

My brain had gone offline.

“Okay. No biggie. We’re alive.” I wrestled past the fear and pushed forward, easing my tense grip on Emery’s arm.

Trap. Maim.

Someone was in the overgrown, wild park with us, waiting idly with a spell nearly at the ready. I’d felt the same thing in the Quarter. They used the ingredients to call the spell to life over and over again, letting it dissipate at the last moment. Ready to fling should they see us.

Why not just put the spells in casings?

Like I’d done in the Quarter, I pulled Emery away from the feeling, not even seeing the mage this time, but knowing they were somewhere in that mess of foliage off to the right.

After a short jog, he slowed and shook his head, pulling me a different direction. His breathing quickened as he slowed again, looking back the way we’d just come. “What was wrong back there?”

“A mage lying in wait,” I said.

I could barely see the troubled expression cross his face in the soft moonlight. “We can’t go these other ways,” he whispered. “They have something like wards set up. I don’t understand why we can’t fight through them—I just know we won’t. One of us, in each scenario, will die.” He shook his head. “I didn’t get any flashes the other way. Maybe that was because you steered us away, but we should try—”

Find.

Magic ballooned into the sky before raining down again. I weaved a spell, working within my desire to keep us hidden. Emery shot off a different spell, then another, burning bigger holes in our concealment spell each time.

I let mine loose, rising to meet the spell falling down. When they touched, a smear of blue blazed above us. Our concealment spell disintegrated.

“Crap,” I whispered. “That didn’t work.”

Emery grabbed my hand. “Come on—”

He barely made it two steps. Shouts and yells preceded a dozen people crashing out of the dark foliage looming around us. Someone hopped up onto the lip of a dry fountain, ingredients in his or her hands. At the distance and in the oily darkness, all I could see was a shape.

“Call Darius,” Emery said, turning his back to me. “Quickly.”

“Come out, come out, where ever you are,” the person on the fountain said in a scratchy voice. “Or is it ‘ready or not, here I come’? Either way, your hiding is at an end.”

I navigated my crappy phone with a shaking hand. If we made it out of this alive, I was definitely going to cave and get a smart phone. This was the last straw.

“After the call, get ready to throw out the nastiest spells you have, Penny,” Emery said in a low tone, viciousness ringing in his voice. “We have the power scale on our side.”

“I’m not at all sure that is true, especially considering how many casings we have at our disposal,” Scratchy Voice said. “And don’t trouble yourself with your vampire friends. We’ve made a few vampire friends of our own. They think working with the Guild is a better business arrangement than working against us. They want a piece of Seattle, you see. And Durant holds the monopoly. Through us, they can turn the tide of power. With them, we can rid ourselves of the shifters, and have a monopoly of our own. You see? A smart alliance will yield the greatest results.”

Ten of them, tightening their circle around us. All held ingredients in their hands and had magic writhing in their grasp.

“Unless you have Vlad on your side, and I doubt he would openly go against Durant, you lot are the biggest group of idiots I’ve ever encountered,” Emery said, his tone much lighter than the situation seemed to warrant. “And I have encountered a lot of idiots.”

The brown dog skittered out from a bush and turned to the side, staring at us as though wondering what we were doing. The thing had a terrible understanding of impending danger, hanging around here.

“There isn’t even a voicemail box,” I said, checking to make sure I’d dialed the correct number.

A huge well of magic rose up around us.

We could build a Lego house, but they were constructing a village. Several pieces of an enormous whole were about to come together.

With the intent to lock us in the middle.

“Give them everything you have, Penny,” Emery said, and I could hear the worry in his voice.

Without help, he didn’t think we could make it out of here.

38

I dropped the phone, no time to spare. The little dog scattered, finally, and I wished I could go with him.

In hurried movements, I dug out the power stones and tossed them on the ground as streams of magic rose from all around us, zooming toward Emery. My collection of raw power hovered above me, as usual when I was upset or in the midst of a battle, and I tore the elements down in harried clumps, thinking of the poor dummy in Reagan’s yard, which had taken so much abuse these last few days.

As if on cue, the spells we’d practiced rolled through my memory—the feeling of them, the intent behind them, and a new way to balance them. Not thinking, just reacting, I focused on what needed to be done, trusting in Emery, our balanced bubble, and my knowledge to have my back.

A spell blasted out from him, smacking one of the mages. She screamed, a high-pitched sound, and dropped to the ground, clawing at her chest. I let loose one of the nastier spells the poor dummy had suffered, feeding it power as it rose into a whirlwind before darting forward and slapping the mage directly in front of me with a series of magical razor blades.

Three people ran in from the messy park path, all mages with satchels open and casings in their hands.

“Faster, Penny,” Emery said, zipping off another spell.

Breathing deeply, I pulled power from Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky, weaving and mixing in jerky movements, trying to work faster.