Magical Midlife Challenge, page 5
“Crap, Nessa. Crap, crap. What do I do? I can’t run. Animals love to chase.”
“I thought ye said they shouldn’t be called animals.” Niamh sauntered up with a beer in her hand. How that woman always seemed to find alcoholic beverages, Sebastian did not know.
“They turn into animals, and animals love chasing gangly mages running for their lives,” Sebastian said, trying to break through Jessie’s spell lock. “Help me, Nessa. Maybe if you help, we can manage it together. Hurry, before the alpha decides to free his mate by breaking my neck.”
“I don’t have the power to even try,” Nessa replied, fear evident in her voice. “Why would she turn on us? I thought you said these people were loyal and trustworthy.”
“Calm yerselves, would ye? Listen to the lotta’ya. Here, Nessa, have one of these. It’ll help calm the nerves.” Niamh motioned behind her.
Edgar jogged up, doing that strange, lurching, high-kneed lope of his, and held out a beer wrapped in a doily. It was only then that Sebastian noticed the cooler behind them.
“Earl gives Jessie a lotta grief over her oul pair bringing a cooler everywhere,” Niamh said, watching Jessie plow into the dome a little more violently, like she was starting to get seriously pissed. Seriously, horribly, terribly pissed. At Sebastian. Which was crazy, because she had done this to herself.
Did she really want to sic the alpha on him? Because that would certainly make a statement—at his expense.
“But if ye ask me,” Niamh went on calmly, “her oul pair know what they’re about. Drink that down, Nessa. Yer nothin’ but a spectator.”
“Wha—what?” Nessa asked, ignoring Edgar’s outstretched hand and attempting to work her magic with Sebastian. They worked very well together because they’d been doing it forever, but Nessa didn’t have a third of his power. She wouldn’t be of much help if an enormous, angry shifter charged him without warning.
“No one is goin’ta kill ye, ya donkey,” Niamh told Sebastian. “They like ye for some reason. Jessie needs ya, in any case. No, no, yer safe. But ye heard Ulric. The town needs to know they are safe, and to do that, they need to know Jessie can combat mages. Mouse, meet hawk. Go on, now. She’s waiting for ye to go in and meet her. She wants a magical duel. Here, Nessa, take that beer. Don’t you worry, I got plenty. I brought two twelve-packs in case this dragged on. Go on, ye might as well. Go on, take it. Go on.”
Her confusion evident, Nessa hesitantly took the doily-wrapped beer.
“Now.” Niamh nodded and looked back toward Jessie.
“How do you know all of that?” Sebastian asked, his body starting to shake. “Are you sure the alpha isn’t going to come for me?”
“I know all of that because it is my job to know all of that. Also because her call to arms, as it were, has reversed. See how the gargoyles have backed off, letting her be? She’s sending out a sorta all-clear. And I can feel her impatience through the bond. In just a minute, that gobshite Earl will be down, wondering what is keeping Jessie waiting.”
“But why wasn’t I told?” Sebastian whined, lowering his hands.
Trying to get around that spell was no good. When Jessie did a spell like that, correctly and putting all her power behind it, he was sunk.
A gargoyle broke from the others, flying in their direction.
“See? What did I tell ye?” Niamh chuckled and shook her head. “He’s like a mother hen. It’s a good thing Jessie doesn’t mind being fawned over.”
Mr. Tom landed somewhat gracefully before shifting.
“Ye weren’t told because Jessie didn’t know herself,” Niamh told Sebastian. “Ye were here—I had to basically yank that gargoyle to the surface. It’s taking point now, and a good thing, too. She made a show of that bird a moment ago, and now she will prove she can handle a mage. That’s what’s needed to cement her position as alpha. Sure you must see that.”
“But why would she pretend to be stuck?” Sebastian asked. “Isn’t that undermining her?”
“She’s showing how strong ye are, giving the people what they most fear, and then she will show that she can best ya. She will show them that she can overcome it.”
“What is happening over here?” Mr. Tom said once he’d regained his human form. “What is the holdup? The miss is impatient— No, Edgar, I do not want a— Why is there a doily around that beer? Your obsession with doilies has gone too far. Go back to the flowers. At least that was useful. Old woman, are you distracting Sebastian from doing whatever it is the miss needs him to do?”
“Me, old? I’m not the one with his bollocks dangling down around his ankles,” Niamh replied.
“I’d really rather not die today,” Sebastian said softly.
He knew he sounded like a coward, but he couldn’t help it. Usually, Jessie was his security blanket around all of these very dangerous and somewhat unpredictable magical types. Unpredictable to him, at any rate. The idea of her turning on him, even for show, crushed any sort of courage he’d thought he possessed.
“Come, now. We all must do our part.” Mr. Tom patted Sebastian on the back, getting much too close for his level of undress, and began forcibly shepherding him toward the dome. “She won’t kill you. She likes you for some reason.”
“I think they’re right, Sabby,” Nessa called, cracking open her beer. “She didn’t kill you when she thought she hated you, so it stands to reason that she won’t now. Like they said, she likes you for some reason.”
“Why does everyone keep saying for some reason?” he murmured in a wispy voice.
“There, see?” Mr. Tom pushed him at the dome. “Nothing to worry about.”
Deciding to trust the Ivy House crew, because he really had no choice, Sebastian walked into the dome. The spell was a magical trap of sorts—one people could enter but not escape—and he regretted showing Jessie how it worked.
“Why didn’t you shift and take to the sky?” Mr. Tom demanded of Niamh.
The dome wasn’t soundproof, an intentional decision on Sebastian’s part, because he’d wanted everyone to hear the squawks of Jessie beating her challenger. Which had happened. Had he known the next set of squawks would be his own, he might’ve rethought the matter.
“I couldn’t be arsed,” Niamh replied. “What good would it’ve done? All yer doin’ is flyin’ around in circles. And anyway, someone had to watch Edgar. All we needed was for him to gallop into the dome like some crusty vaudeville act hollering whoopee at the top of his lungs. Now that would be embarrassin’ to us all.”
“I’ll try not to be offended,” Edgar said.
“Show a little support for the heir and your employer, would you? Team spirit,” Mr. Tom said.
“Sure I am showing team spirit,” Niamh said. “I’ve got an Ivy House doily, a beer, and a front-row seat. I’m all set. Now feck off. Yer ruinin’ the taste of me beer.”
Sebastian lost the thread of the conversation as Jessie caught sight of his loitering at the edge of the dome. Swirls of pinkish-purple light drifted behind her as she altered her course. One minute, she was beside the dome walls, and the next, she was cutting a path through the center of the space, flying directly toward him.
“Fight with everything ye got,” Niamh hollered at him. “She might take it easy on ye, but her gargoyle sure won’t.”
“Fantastic,” he murmured, inching out a little farther.
“And for the love of God, lad, look like the powerful mage ye are. Yer embarrassin’ yourself.”
He took a deep breath and tried to straighten up. It was easy to strut and swagger and look like he owned the world when he was playing the Elliot Graves role. His alter ego was ruthless and vicious and morally gray at best.
But he wasn’t Elliot Graves in this shifter town, and it was impossible to maintain any kind of swagger at Ivy House. For one thing, Niamh loved to poke holes in people’s confidence. For another, everyone was just too weird. Sebastian was sort of weird, too, and he’d enjoyed being himself here in a way he couldn’t in the magical world. He hadn’t needed his usual armor.
He had to remember, though, that Jessie was also playing a part. She had helped him feel safe, and now she was trying to help the rest of her territory feel the same way. This was her job. As part of her team, he needed to help her with it.
Besides, didn’t they do this exact thing in practice? Granted, they weren’t usually trapped in a magical dome, surrounded by lethal creatures who hated his kind and would give anything to rip him apart, but even so…
He blew out yet another breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and rolled his shoulders.
Time to hide the nerd who wanted nothing more than to work magic. Time to resume his cloak as the most notorious magical villain this world had ever known.
“Now, here we go.” Niamh drained the last of her beer and handed it back to Edgar as excitement unfurled through her.
Sebastian straightened out of his usual hunch. His shoulders rolled back, and his head came up. He went from a mousy-looking guy to a magical badass owning his space. He strutted forward, his arms loose at his sides, his steps purposeful and aimed directly at Jessie. Even from behind him, Niamh could tell his gaze was hard and direct. A challenge.
A surge of rage tumbled through the bond. Not from Jessie, though—from Austin Steele. The big alpha didn’t like someone challenging his mate.
“Well, now, this isn’t something I’m used to seeing with Sebastian,” Mr. Tom said, forgetting the other gargoyles were still in the sky and crowding close to the dome.
“Git yer nekked arse away, would ye?” Niamh shoved him. “Jaysus, Mary, ’n’ Joseph. Yer all sweaty, like.”
“Sebastian’s ready to play hardball,” Nessa said before draining her beer.
Jessie paused in the air for a moment. Sebastian paused as well, his stance cocky. He leaned in such a way that said he was bored with his opposition.
A thrill curled through Niamh’s bond with Jessie. Excitement. The gargoyle had found its match. It was time to play.
She snapped out her wings before tilting her head up and roaring into the sky. The gargoyles above followed suit. The great thunderbird and mighty phoenix added their voices before the shifters on the ground joined the call. All around the dome, the challenge was voiced on Jessie’s behalf.
“Whoopee!” Edgar pumped his fist and accidentally crushed the full beer he’d been about to give Niamh. She sighed.
Within the dome, Sebastian shivered.
Nessa did as well before shaking herself out. “It’s never going to be a bunch to one, though,” she said. “It’ll never be this lopsided of a battle. A mage by himself would never go head to head with her in this sort of way.”
“Well, o’course they wouldn’t.” Niamh waved that thought away. “They’re in a magical dome, for feck’s sake. This is a spectator sport. It’s marketing. We need this territory to know that we have powerful magical people on our side. If those fool mages come calling, we have more than just a bunch of paws to answer the challenge.”
Sebastian lifted his hand before doing a little circle in the air with his finger.
“Oh, crap,” Nessa whispered, leaning forward.
Jessie’s wings crunched in to her sides. Her feet kicked for a moment.
Then she dropped like a stone.
“Oh, sh—” Niamh leaned forward as well.
Emotions rolled through the bond from the Ivy House crew. Cyra dove through the soaring gargoyles toward the magical dome, her fire zigging and zagging in the air around her. Her beak hit first, and an explosion of fire followed. It raced across the surface of the dome and nearly down to the ground. Pressure cracks spiderwebbed the spell, rough and angry. Niamh could feel the heat before it dwindled.
“Crap cones.” Nessa looked more closely at the spell before glancing up. “A few more of those dive bombs, and she’ll crack it wide open.”
“I think that is the point,” Mr. Tom said. “She seems to think Sebastian has turned on us.”
Jessie plummeted toward the ground, nearly there, still frozen. Sebastian didn’t move, watching her fall. Niamh wished the mage were connected to the house so she could get a read on him. From what she could see through the clearing webs of fire, his posture conveyed the confidence of a victor.
“C’mon, girl,” Niamh said. “Don’t wait until after ye’ve bounced.”
A burst of bright purple light exploded around Jessie, and then her wings snapped free again. She pulled out of her dive and headed straight for him, flapping her wings to get more speed.
Sebastian raised his hands, working magic, but she barreled into him before he could get a shot off, ripping him from the ground.
“Holy—” Nessa reached her can back. “I need another, Edgar. Please.”
“Your command is my…order.” Edgar hurried to comply.
“Didn’t quite get that one, Edgar,” Niamh muttered.
“She does know not to kill him, right?” Nessa said with a slightly shaking voice. “She knows that? I believed you earlier. Was that a terrible judgment call on my part?”
“You have to be careful when inciting a gargoyle,” Mr. Tom said before stepping back and readying to shift again. “We are very unpredictable.”
“The good ones are, at any rate.” Edgar handed Nessa another doily-wrapped beer. “Like you used to be, right, Mr. Tom?”
Holding Sebastian suspended by an ankle, Jessie carried him to the top of the dome. He hung upside down without thrashing or even wriggling in her hold. Unlike Zoe, he was perfectly composed in her grasp.
Jessie roared near the top, spun, and let go.
Nessa shook her head as Sebastian flew. “He could’ve gotten a shot off before she threw him.”
“She could’ve pulled his legs off during the journey to the top of the dome,” Edgar countered, pushing in a little too close to Nessa. He unconsciously made it his duty to creep people out. He was very good at it.
She didn’t seem to notice, though, watching Sebastian’s trajectory.
Sebastian hit an invisible impediment in the sky that slowed him to almost stopping. He dropped straight down again until he hit another. And then another, like a series of nets catching him and then releasing, dropping him to safety.
Jessie was after him. She streaked through the dome in swirls of colorful light. Nearly on him, she blasted magic in his direction. It spread out under him in a sea of bright blue and then almost seemed to peel away. He crashed through the failed spell and thunked onto the ground.
The landing wouldn’t have kept a shifter down for more than a moment, but Sebastian rolled onto his side and curled up in pain. The fall must’ve knocked the wind out of him.
“Good show,” Niamh muttered.
“What?” Nessa asked, her whole body tense.
“Mages aren’t as durable as shifters. They hide behind their magic. Jessie just showed everyone here what waited behind the smoke and mirrors. He might as well be non-magical with that sort of fragility. Take away the magic, and you will have no problem killing the enemy.”
Jessie landed a ways away from Sebastian and fired off a spell. He rolled onto his back and erected a shield, catching her spell and tossing it back at her. She waved it away and fired another, and another.
Sebastian got to his feet in between deflecting her spells, playing defense now. Once he was up, though, he was ten times more active. Approaching her at an angle, he fired off a spell. Before it hit, he quick-stepped in the opposite direction and hit her with another.
Her shields caught and threw the spells, but they were designed to counter an attacker who was staying in one location. Sebastian was rendering them useless.
She countered, hitting him with harder spells. He braced as they came in, then shrugged them off. He fired two to her one, much more experienced and savvier in a magical duel.
“Get mad, girl,” Niamh said. “Get mad and hit him with yer power.”
Jessie took to the air again, making Sebastian bend back to fire spells off. It hampered his effectiveness, slowing him. And then she went for it, slamming down spells of pure power.
“Yes!” Niamh shook her fist, the call of battle singing within her. She knew from watching Jessie and Sebastian practice that these spells lacked any sort of complexity. Most mages wouldn’t dare use them in a life-or-death situation because of how easily they could be torn apart. Except, as Sebastian had explained to them, most mages didn’t have as much pure power as Jessie did.
When in doubt, beat them with brawn.
His shields were durable, but he didn’t have anything to brace against. Her first spell shoved him back three paces. Her second one, fired off right after the first, made him stagger. The third made him roll across the ground.
She dove, hit the ground, fired off another spell, and shifted to her human form. Here, she used her more agile hands and added complexity to the spell, pounding it into his shield.
His protective spell started to tear away, and he rolled, trying to get more distance. She walked faster, catching up.
A loud bang hit the dome again as Cyra dive-bombed it. Fire ignited within the spell’s cracks. It burned anew, momentarily cutting out their view into the dome. The spell pulsed before dimming, losing power.
Cyra pulled away, and then thunder rolled. Lightning sparked around the thunderbird as Hollace followed Cyra’s previous path. He slammed into the dome with his much larger size. Lightning followed the route Cyra’s fire had burned. It fizzed and crackled, and the spell groaned like an old man getting out of bed before it shattered. The orange glow diminished until the spell was no more.
“Well, that’s not good,” Edgar said with his crochet hooks in hand. “That dome was keeping Augustus Steele from going to his mate’s aid. Jessie isn’t the only one whose animal dunks them into violent darkness. She’s just the only one who shies away from it.”
SIX
My breath came in fast puffs, and fatigue dragged at my limbs. We were almost to the end of this battle. I just had to make Sebastian submit, and my job here would be done.
