Chuckles shook Emery’s body. “Your naivety is cute.”

That was all well and good, but it didn’t answer the question.

The woman crushed leaves of some kind before pouring some sort of powder into her palm. She added something green, then straightened.

“That mixture won’t tell her squat,” Emery mumbled, pushing away from the window. I followed him as he trekked through the house and into my mother’s room. He applied the spell from before to the window, letting me memorize a few components of it, before leaning out to look down at the backyard. “There’s another one out there. They want this cracked quickly. They know you’re trying to hide from them by now. And because of the ward and spell, they know I’m helping.”

He turned and looked down at me, and I noticed for the first time the blaze of color within his eyes. They weren’t just blue, as I had previously thought. A ring of gold circled his pupils, and from that, light blue streaked and webbed over darker blue, almost like magic itself. The colors deepened to a smoky blue toward the outside.

“You’ve been dragged into this, Penny Bristol,” he said, his voice deep and urgent. “It isn’t fair that my fight has suddenly become yours. I realize that. I also realize you know nothing of the magical life. All of this will be new. It’s going to be an incredible shock. An incredible, dangerous shock. But neither one of us has a choice. Your magic is both a blessing and a curse, as I said. And you’re about to see why, firsthand. But at the end of it all, please know that you can trust me. If everything else falls down around us, you can always trust me. I will never sell you out. I will never turn on you. Never.”

Fierce determination rang through his voice. His eyes bored into mine.

“I will tell you as much as I can,” he continued, “and explain along the way when I’m able, but when things get hairy, I’ll do what needs to be done to protect you. I won’t ask. I’ll react. That is where the trust will come in. Can you live with that?”

Tingles drifted down over my body. “I have no idea,” I blurted. “I’m never really in control during highly pressurized situations. There’s no telling what I might do.”

A smile tugged at his lips. “Then be smart regarding who you run over with your car.”

Chapter Nineteen

I took two deep breaths and felt Emery’s rough hand take mine. He was clearly a hand holder.

We stood facing the front door with my mother and her shotgun at our backs. I’d had enough time for a hasty goodbye before she turned me toward the door. Outside, the two men and the woman were still there, one trying to figure out Emery’s ward while the others looked on. The plan was to run out to the car and get out of here without dying.

It was not a very complex plan.

“What do you wash your hands with, sandpaper?” I muttered, my face flaming, though I had no idea why.

“No. Dragon’s hide.” He put his other palm against the door and lowered his head. I had no idea what he was doing, but I did know my heart was hammering and adrenaline was pumping through my blood. I was a little worried at my unpredictability in stressful situations. We were about to rush out of the door. Anything might happen, and it was likely I’d be the cause.

I tried to ignore him, but the bait was too tempting. “Do dragons really exist, or are you kidding?”

“I don’t know, but someday I’ll get down to the underworld to see for myself if the rumors are true.”

“Oh super, there’s an underworld.” I unstuck the hair from my damp face. “That’s not terrifying or anything.”

“Here we go.” Emery ripped open the door and yanked me out behind him.

“I can walk on my own,” I muttered, staggering after him.

Magic rose all around us as my heart thundered in my ears. We were still within the protection of the wards, but not for much longer.

“Remember, this is all about your will,” Emery yelled, his free hand extended, the fingers moving quickly.

I catalogued all the colors and patterns, the mixtures of them, and compared them with my tiny database of knowledge. I thought about the men on the other side of the street flying away. I willed them to roll end over end up the street and give us a second to escape.

They cocked their heads, as if listening for something.

“I think there’s more to it than will,” I said, yanking my hand out of his iron-clad grip. “Let me go. I’m faster on my own.”

We sprinted across the grass and burst through the ward. Emery swung his hands forward and a concussion of light and sound blasted out, smacking those across the street before they could even raise their hands to defend themselves. They fell backward and tumbled, and I tried to log that into my memory bank, because it was similar to what I’d tried to do with just my mind and naivety.

Magic continued to rise all around us. Emery turned and flung out a hand, sending a streaming jet down the sidewalk. It separated and rounded, turning into a ball and rolling just off the ground.

The woman started and dug in her satchel. She only had time to throw up a handful of orange dust before Emery’s magic was upon her.

I tore my gaze away and ran around the car, yanking open the door before sliding into the seat. A shotgun blast made me jump.

“This has nothing to do with you, Lewis, move on!” my mother yelled before opening the back passenger door.

“Did you shoot someone?” I asked, jamming the key into the ignition.

“No. I scared that busybody Lewis back into his house.” She shut the door behind her.

“Wait, what are you doing? You’re not coming with us!”

Emery flung another hand, directing the magic, before throwing himself into the passenger’s seat and slamming the door. “Let’s go. Hurry.”

“Of course I’m coming with you!” My mother reached up and motioned me on. “Hurry up. There were more out the back.”

“But you weren’t supposed to come—” Someone ran out from the neighbor’s yard, dressed in black. He had something in his hands.

“Go, go, go!” Emery pounded on the dash.

I threw the car in gear and slammed on the gas. We shot forward.

The mage’s long legs and arms pumped. He raced us to the center of the street.

“You will lose, son,” I hollered like a madwoman.

“I knew there was some of me in you somewhere,” my mother yelled. She leaned forward between the seats.

“Put on your seatbelt, Mother.”

“And quite a lot of your father.”

Emery grabbed my arm, and a surge of electricity shot up through me and over to him. He reached the other hand out through the window and hit it against the door. My car buzzed, and I remembered what Veronica had said yesterday.

Maybe I had supercharged the car. I just wished I knew how, but this wasn’t any time to ask.

The mage in front of us braced. Magic budded in his hands. A wave of spicy violence rushed toward me.

I cranked the wheel to the right, then zigzagged back to the left. I knew that spell would come right at us, and I didn’t want to be an easy target as well as a large one.

We bore down on the mage. He hastened to the right. Suddenly it wasn’t enough for us to get away. I didn’t want him to get away.

I cranked the wheel after him. The violent intent blistered. The spell was about to be released.

My front bumper barely clipped him, but it was enough. A blast of energy flung him back, the sound like a fly hitting a bug zapper. We zoomed down the street, leaving him rolling in our wake. Another mage joined the first on the street, a phone to her ear.

I turned the corner. Tires screeched from behind. I glanced in the rearview mirror to find a black car gaining on us.

“That is probably for us,” I said, taking another corner at a breakneck speed.

Emery turned in his seat, looking out the back window. He glanced around him, a knot forming in his brow. “I don’t have enough elements in this car to take out an object that large.”

“I got this.” My mother labored to move her girth over in the seat behind me. She rolled down the window. “Get us to Green Street, then slow down a little. I’ll take care of it.”