“Axel Rod dragged the bodies out of the way before running back to the house to get their people organized,” Callie said.
“It’s Alder, hon,” Dizzy said.
“Mages think with their spells, not with their heads,” my mother said, cocking the gun and flicking a switch. “Bullets are much quicker than spells. No offense.”
“None taken,” Dizzy said, his face screwed up in concentration. “Reagan usually employs a similar philosophy.”
Explode.
Another explosion sounded a moment later, debris flying up into the air from the back side of the house.
“Why are we standing here?” Emery yelled at Reagan. “Get the keys and let’s go.”
“No.” My mother looked out at the driveway. “We can’t get out that way. We’ve missed our window. They’re coming. The enemy. The Guild, it must be, unless the shifters have another enemy that can attack in the daytime. My cards, my ball—even the tokens and trinkets—all painted the same picture. The Guild is coming after us before we’re ready. But they have one huge, glaring issue. They don’t realize we have chaos on our side, led by the power of three.” She nodded at Reagan, Emery, and me. “Unpredictability. We need to counterstrike now, when they are occupied. We have to get out from under them. It is our absolute best bet. And unlike the pizza situation”—my mother shot Callie a look—“I am nearly positive about this.”
“My kinda plan,” Reagan said.
“It’s the worst kind of plan,” I moaned.
“But there’s a problem…” Reagan spun and struck out her hand, gripping her fingers in the air. A mage holding a fistful of green leaves sprouting magic ran around the corner and into an invisible wall. His nose spouted blood as he bounced off and fell onto his butt. The air condensed around him, squashing him.
I turned before seeing the completion of the gruesome display.
“Be more careful with your magic,” Callie warned, her knees bent, ready to release a spell should anyone charge.
Wolves ran around from the far side of the house in a loose formation, Roger at the front. A lion roared somewhere in the trees, the sound rattling my bones.
“Mages will be pouring in through those magical doors they’ve been making in the ward,” Dizzy said, his eyes aimed at the trees.
“They’ll be easy prey for the shifters.” Reagan patted her various weapons while shifting from side to side, clearly ready to go. “The shifters are in their element out there.”
“Yes. We need to head off whatever comes up that driveway.” My mother rolled her shoulders. “Roger had damned good timing, calling us when he did. Even still, they’ll likely have numbers on their side. We need to run for it.”
“If we can’t take the car, how are we going to get out of here?” Reagan asked. “And what about the shifters? We can’t just leave them behind.”
“I didn’t say we couldn’t take the car, I said we’d missed our window. We have to stay and fight for a moment. As soon as the coast is clear, we’ll get the shifters to follow us out.” My mother’s gaze didn’t leave the driveway.
“How?” I yelled, feeling magic emanating from somewhere in the trees. Pressure rose and fell, vibrated and pulsed. There was no intent attached to it. No threads of magic rising up. I wasn’t sure what it meant.
Emery’s hand landed on my shoulder. “The warning. It’s here again. Something is coming. Where’s your power stone?”
He meant Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky, the stone that sent out a shock wave whenever an attack was imminent and our people were grossly outnumbered.
I ripped open the compartments of my utility belt. The other stones were all present and accounted for, but not that one. I dashed to the car and looked in the back, belatedly remembering I’d taken Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky and Emery’s Plain Jane out because they were making sitting awkward.
“Stupid,” I muttered to myself, ripping the door open and grabbing the stones.
Plain Jane pumped out a blast of power. Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky practically sang in happiness.
“Whatever is coming, it’s coming right now,” I said, stuffing the stones into their designated compartments.
Roger looked at us as the presence drew near, his dual-colored eyes intense and intelligent. A darker gray wolf with a scar walked up beside Roger, scrappy looking and dangerous. Axel Rod, as Callie kept calling him. A large bear lumbered out from the side and chuffed, joining the wolves, before various other animals did the same.
A few minutes ago, this scene had been chaos. Roger clearly knew how to lead, and he was damn good at it.
My heart hammered in my chest as silence descended over the scene. A cloud drifted over the sun, darkening the air. A whiff of coming rain rode the breeze.
“Is there a road at the back?” I whispered.
“No. One road in or out,” Dizzy said, lifting his hand to wipe his forearm across his forehead. “Lots of woods all around. This is a shifters’ stronghold. Roger chose well.”
“The location, maybe, but not the people who were supposed to keep the location secret and safe.” Reagan took two steps out, giving herself more space to work. I stayed right where I was, behind my crazy mother and beside my dual-mage partner. Safest place to be—and a good position to do plenty of damage. I was just fine with using magic and not a gun.
The whine of a small motor made me tilt my head. Another joined it, then one more, the chorus drifting toward us.
“Motorcycles,” Emery said. “Dirt bikes, probably.”
Another lion’s roar made me grit my teeth, way too far away for me to feel any magic. A different roar—a bear—came from the opposite direction. The bikes’ whines wobbled as the riders tried to get through the woods.
Roger stepped forward a few feet, and those behind him fanned out. Those not in the wolf pack stood to the side, waiting patiently.
Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky sent out a pulse of power. Like a wave, I saw it roll through the shifters, each animal flinching or bracing as they felt it.
“The mages on the inside were probably supposed to attack as the rest of them made their way in,” Emery said quietly, anticipation in his voice.
Reagan’s phone rang. “Really? Now?” She dug it out.
“They would’ve been sitting ducks, too distracted by the surprise attack to act.” Emery rolled a ball of magic between his hands, and I saw immediately what he was going to create.
“Wait, add this.” I started working as more whines drifted out through the trees, all around us now.
“Two of Vlad’s strongholds are under attack,” Reagan reported. “They have a few combat-ready humans on hand to defend them. The third stronghold was left alone. Clearly the mages didn’t find out about that one. That’s the one he’s in. Of course.” She shook her head in annoyance, dropping her phone into her fanny pack. “That guy is just too good for his own…good.”
“Or else the Guild didn’t want to attack someone on their side,” I muttered, my unease over Vlad having grown throughout all of this. There was never any one thing that made me nervous, but a lot of little things. Things it was getting harder to ignore.
The crunch of tires on dirt and gravel invaded the quiet afternoon. The glint of sunshine on metal announced the first car speeding up the small road. It slid around the bend toward the driveway.
“I have always wanted to do this,” my mother said as she stalked forward.
“What?” I asked, my heart speeding up as more cars sped into sight.
She braced herself in the middle of the parking area entrance and lowered her gun. Brakes squealed as the drivers noticed. Tires locked up and skidded.
“This!” My mother aimed. “Say hello to my little friend!”
26
Kak-kak-kak-kak.
The semiautomatic rifle spat bullets at the incoming cars. The first cranked the wheel. It just missed a tree and came flying into the parking lot.
Emery yanked me away as the next car dodged the gunfire, slamming into a tree trunk on the other side. Metal crunched as the car behind it didn’t slam on its brakes in time to avoid a collision.