Malignant Magic Page 16

  I couldn’t tell what direction we were in, but if it wasn’t John, then why would there be the low and mournful howling?

  Unless the shifters had gone for more help.

  That didn’t seem to be the case. It didn’t seem as if the call was one for help.

  “What if it’s Torn?” I asked.

  “It won’t be Torn,” Aron said. “He would have no reason to help.”

  “That’s not the sense I got.”

  Another howl split the air. This one was sharp, piercing, almost a challenge.

  It was closer.

  Five more wolves split off, and they darted into the forest after the sound.

  “How many more need to go before we risk it?” I asked.

  There were still a dozen or so wolves forming a circle, but now I could easily see Ariel. She was in her human form, and she lay completely naked, stretched out across the ground, not moving. From here, I could see her breathing, the steady rise and fall of her chest, but not much more than that. I couldn’t even tell if she was injured in any way. The fact that she didn’t move suggested that she was, even if I couldn’t see it from here.

  “A dozen still too many,” Aron said.

  It was. There were four of us, and a dozen would invite a battle—one we wouldn’t be able to easily survive.

  And that wasn’t counting the other wolves that might return.

  Another howl. This one had moved off to my left. It was difficult to tell what compass direction it was, as I had no idea which direction we’d been heading. Three more wolves peeled off, and they headed into the forest, moving toward the sound.

  The fact that so many wolves split off to go after the sound meant that the shifters worried about who was out there.

  Regardless of what Aron thought, it had to be Torn.

  Seven shifters remained. That wasn’t so many that we couldn’t get in there.

  Power still built from the shifters, and whatever spell they held created a circle around them, but I wasn’t able to detect the void of my grandparents had referenced. Whatever it was remained blank to my sense of magic. Their power faded, slowly diminishing.

  “We have to go after her,” I whispered to Aron.

  “There are still seven shifters.”

  “Seven shifters and four of us. We could get in there, grab her, and—“

  “Anything we do will get noticed, and when the rest of the shifters return, we will have them pursuing us.”

  Someone grabbed my arm. I couldn’t tell who, but the soft touch reminded me more of Gramps than of Gran.

  “Katie. We tried. You can’t save everyone. I’m sure you learned that in medicine, too. You can try, and you can come at it with the best intentions, but there are times when you simply can’t get to them.”

  I stared Ariel. If we did nothing, if we left her, she would be forced to cross the Veil and be fed to the Great Ones. Was that what I wanted?

  But if we failed, would the Great Ones escape the Veil?

  “Keep me concealed.”

  I started forward, holding on to my barrier, separating from the other three. I was forced to shift the nature of my shield around us, focusing it to something of a point and driving it forward while at the same time keeping it wrapped around the others.

  “Katie—“

  I ignored Gramps. I couldn’t have him slow me down, and all I needed to do was slip in between two of the nearest shifters and grab Ariel. I thought I could do that. She was there, so close.

  As I got up to the circle of shifters, I stepped between two of the shifters, reaching for Ariel.

  A warmth washed over me.

  Shit.

  The warmth came from their spell.

  The two shifters howled and turned toward me.

  12

  Without waiting, I grabbed for Ariel and pulled her. She dragged across the ground and were it not for my strength—and the fact that I held on to magic, letting it pour out of me—I might not have been able to move her. I backed up, and nearly collided with someone behind me.

  “Help me with her,” I said.

  “This was a mistake,” Aron said.

  “Fine. It was a mistake. We got her. Come on.”

  Aron grabbed her and let me focus on holding onto my magic. One of the shifters slammed into my barrier. Had I not taken a moment to fortify it, the power that slammed into me might’ve been too much.

  The rest of the shifters turned toward us. They were sniffing at the air, trying to figure out where we’d gone. At least the barrier prevented them from picking up on us, but how long would that last?

  Eventually they would pick up on the magic I held, and I suspected they would figure out some way to overpower it.

  As the shifter attempted to slam into the barrier, I withdrew it, and he flew through the air, colliding with one of the other shifters. When he did, I hurriedly threw it back in place.

  “What did you do, Katie?” Gramps asked.

  “I made a decision. That’s what I do in medicine. Sometimes they’re the right ones, and sometimes they’re the wrong ones. Either way, it’s done. Now we need to get moving.”

  I turned and realized that maybe I was wrong. The shifters didn’t have to know where we were. They formed a circle, ringing the clearing. Power began to build from them, and it was cold, though not as icy cold as when the entire clearing had been filled with shifters.

  That magic pushed upon us and I resisted the urge to fight it, but knew it would pick up my barrier.

  The shifters stalked toward us.

  They knew I was here, but did they know everyone was here?

  “Get her out of here,” I said to Aron.

  “No, Kate. You are only here because I brought you to her.”

  “I’m here because I made the choice to do this. Now I’m making a choice to get you out of here. Besides, I think that using the sword, I can draw enough magic to push them away, but let me be the diversion. You get her out of here. You can keep her concealed.”

  “Katie…”

  I turned toward the sound of Gramps’ voice. “I need to do this, Gramps. You’ve been wanting me to understand my connection to magic, and I think I do, at least in a way that is useful. You can get Ariel away, but only if I draw the shifters off. Besides, members of the council can’t be detected, not interfering with shifter dynamics.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Gran snapped.

  Magic built from her and circled around her and the others.

  I reached for her, touching her arm. “You know I’m right. Make sure the others get out of here.”

  I stepped away, pulling my shielding with me.

  When I removed it from them, I was able to tighten my control over it. I sent it out toward the nearest shifters, exploding it toward them and driving them back into the trees.

  I didn’t know if I was concealed, but I doubted it. It didn’t matter anyway. Not now that they had detected the effect of my magic. Hopefully mine was the only one they had picked up on and they didn’t know there might be other magic users here.

  There came a howl from deeper within the forest. Was that the same howl that had drawn off the other shifters, or were the other shifters returning?

  I started forward, trying to find an opening in the trees for the three mages to get through. Two shifters converged on me from either side and I directed my blast outward at them, slamming into them. Holding on to the sword allowed me to draw quite a bit more power than I had been able to do when I faced them the last time, and it left me feeling not nearly so helpless.

  “Go,” I urged. I didn’t know if they could even hear me or if the barrier wrapped around myself prevented them from it.

  There was an opening in the trees, and I hoped they took it.

  Something slammed into me from behind. I dropped to the ground and rolled over. An enormous wolf snapped at me, snarling.

  And I had thought Torn was enormous.

  This creature was almost twice his size. Dappled brow
n fur caught the sunlight, but it was the enormity of his jaws and the length of his claws that caught my attention. Power emanated from him like nothing I’d ever detected.

  A Great One.

  It had to be.

  We had thought we’d stopped it from crossing the Veil. That what they intended with Ariel was to push her across the Veil. That hadn’t been the intent at all.

  They had brought it here.

  The wolf clawed at my barrier, ripping at it. Even enhanced with my sword, maintaining it with the wolf tearing at it like this was difficult. This creature was incredibly powerful, and I didn’t know how long I’d be able to hold on.

  It took everything in my power to push back against the attack. I hoped that Gran and Gramps and Aron managed to get away. I needed to buy them time.

  The barrier began to slip. I tried drawing more power through the sword, but there was only so much I could reach. Even holding the sword, I had limits.

  And I was reaching them.

  “No!” Aron roared, and he exploded out from Gran’s barrier, two swords unsheathed. Magic built within him, practically crackling.

  What was he doing?

  He was an archer of the mage council. He shouldn’t be here, exposing himself.

  “Don’t do this,” I shouted at Aron.

  It didn’t matter. He roared, slamming himself into the shifter, and as he did, the shifter tumbled away, freeing me. I staggered to my feet and, as the shifter turned his attention to Aron, I pushed an explosion from me, changing the focus of my spell, wrapping it around the shifter.

  It held him.

  Aron stood before the shifter, magic swirling around him, visible to me.

  “We need to go.” I grabbed him and pulled.

  There came another roar, and this time it was close.

  I dragged Aron along with me, and we staggered out of the clearing before breaking into a run. I couldn’t tell if shifters followed us or not, and I didn’t know if we were running in the right direction. All I knew was that we headed away from the clearing, away from the collection of shifters intent on destroying us.

  Away from the Great One.

  “Did Gran and Gramps get away?”

  “They’re in front of you,” Aron said as we ran.

  At least we had managed to escape. “Do they still have Ariel?”

  “We still have her, but she is getting heavy,” Gramps grunted. He lowered the shielding protecting him and glanced back at me. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to hold on to her.”

  Aron grabbed Ariel, scooping her over his shoulder, leaving her naked ass exposed.

  Taking a moment to glance over my shoulder, I could feel the approaching shifters. With as tired as I was after expending so much magic, I didn’t know how many more times I could fight them off.

  And where was the Great One?

  We might be able to deal with shifters, but that Great One was more than we could handle.

  We needed to get to the car.

  “How much farther do we have to go?”

  “Not far,” Aron said, breathless.

  In the distance, I saw the two Sentries.

  They were close, but still almost painfully far away.

  Three shifters approached.

  I spun around and held the sword out as I tried to run backward, sending a surge of magic out from the sword. It crashed into the nearest shifter and sent him into one of the pine trees with a loud yelp. The other two shifters split off and started to angle toward me from either side. They were smart and knew better than to get too close.

  I couldn’t attack both at the same time, and if I struck one, the other would get to me. The most I could do was place a barrier, and I did that, but how long would it last?

  The sense of magic built from behind me, and I hazarded a glance to see Gran turning her attention toward me. Her hands were pressed out in front of her and a swirl of color surrounded her, surging out.

  What sort of spell was she using?

  “It’s time to keep moving, Katie,” she said. Her voice was tight and she kept her words clipped.

  I threw my spell at the nearest shifter, letting it crash into him, and Gran took care of the other. Spinning around, I raced off into the trees after Gran and Gramps. Aron ambled along beside us, still holding onto Ariel.

  Where was John?

  Sunlight glinted off the car in the distance, and we still hadn’t come across the shifter.

  “We can’t leave John here,” I shouted to Aron.

  I didn’t know how long we could remain, not with the shifters after us. And the Great One.

  When we reached the car, I paused and surveyed the forest. Enough sunlight filtered through the trees to illuminate the forest floor, but I didn’t see any sign of John. No other shifters moved, leaving the entirety of the forest empty other than us. A distant howl erupted and I perked up. Could that be Torn?

  Even if it was, there wasn’t a whole lot we would be able to do to try to find him. After confronting a Great One, I had a hard time believing even Torn would be able to do anything against the Great One.

  “Into the car, Kate,” Aron said.

  I jumped into the passenger seat, slamming the door closed behind me. Gran and Gramps crawled into the backseat, and Aron deposited Ariel gently into the rear seat before hurrying around and climbing into the driver’s side. He mashed on the ignition and threw the car into reverse, sending the tires spinning as we sped away.

  When we reached the gravel, I thought we were in the clear.

  Something slammed into the side of the SUV.

  Aron jerked the wheel, holding us on the gravel road. A massive shifter—the Great One—ran at the car, slamming into it again. It twisted the rear of the car, forcing Aron to jerk the wheel.

  “Do you have any suggestions?” I asked.

  “I can only go so fast on this road.”

  “It seems as if he’s able to keep up with you.”

  “So it seems. A shifter shouldn’t be able to keep pace like this.”

  “He’s a Great One. We don’t know what he should be able to do.”

  He continued to ram into the side of the SUV. How much would we be able to withstand before he sent us careening into a tree, crashing where the shifters could then make short work of us?

  It was bad enough being surrounded by shifters, but trapped within a car with no real way of escaping would be much worse.

  Magic built from Gran and Gramps, and as it did, I suspected they created a shell, a barrier that surrounded us. It might delay the onslaught of the attack, but for how long?

  We needed an offensive attack, not just defense.

  I rolled down the window, and Aron shot me a look. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m trying to see if there’s anything we can do to keep him from attacking.”

  “Kate… He’s too powerful.”

  “Right. That’s my concern.”

  And he was able to overpower Ariel—and Aron—but could he overpower my demon magic?

  Augmented by the power from the sword, maybe we stood a chance.

  As he started toward the SUV, I pulled on my connection to magic, drawing from deep within myself. It started slowly, a cold chill that washed over me, and continued to build, rising up from within me and out through the sword. As the massive shifter approached the car, I unleashed the spell.

  It slammed into the shifter and he tumbled off to the side.

  “Go!”

  Aron stomped on the gas and we surged forward. The rear of the SUV fishtailed and he gripped the steering wheel tightly as he tried to maintain control.

  “Katie?”

  Gramps pointed out the window and I followed the direction of his finger. The shifter had gotten back to his feet and sprinted toward us. We were moving fast and somehow, he was able to overtake us.

  Could he outrun us even when we hit the highway?

  That didn’t seem possible, but it also shouldn’t be possible for him
to overpower us quite like this.

  Angling the sword out the window again, I focused, holding on to that connection, and unleashed the spell.

  It missed.

  Trying again, I summoned every bit of magic I could and sent it toward him. It might be the last chance we had to get away. If this failed, it was possible we wouldn’t be able to escape.

  Another spell struck the car, and I looked into the backseat to see Gran holding her hand out, palm pressed against the glass of the window. “You don’t have to be the only one to do this,” Gran said.

  “This runs the risk of putting the council in conflict with the shifters.”

  “Not the council. Me. I’m not about to let some deranged shifter continue to attack us like this.”

  Gran and Gramps changed their approach. No longer did they focus on defensive spells only. They began to throw attacks at the oncoming shifter.

  The shifter was powerful, and he managed to either ignore each attack or somehow defend it, deflecting every spell that Gran and Gramps threw his way.

  “I haven’t seen anything quite like that,” Gramps said.

  “No. For him to be able to simply ignore these spells would require power like I’ve never seen.”

  They were much calmer than I felt, though I had seen Gran and Gramps in battle before, and they always managed to stay calm when things began to get out of hand. It impressed me. “He’s a Great One.”

  “It’s not that we aren’t capable mages, Katie. We should be able to handle this,” Gran said. Another spell built from her and burst out of the car, sending a streak of blue-tinged lightning toward the distant shifter. The spell was more powerful than others they’d used, and I expected the shifter to dodge, to do something to avoid it, but instead he simply ran through it.

  “Is that what you mean?” I asked.

  “That would be an example,” Gran said. Another spell built. “This isn’t insignificant magic. For him to simply dismiss this spell suggests a kind of power that is staggering.”

  “This wasn’t designed to send Ariel across the Veil,” I said. “It brought the Great One here. I’m not sure how Morris learned how so that he could challenge Ariel, but someone revealed the secret.” And probably the same someone who was responsible for what Rory and Tony had done. The similarity was too great to be chance.