“You’re intentionally painting a target on your back?”
“I always have a target on my back, Miss Ironheart. All powerful mages do. You will have a larger target than I do, just you wait. Your power level, your power type, and your dirty little fetish for laying animals…”
His eyes glinted, and a deep, dark rage washed over me, followed by a powerful undertow, sucking me under. My magic stuffed the tunnel, churning and spitting and electric, a hairsbreadth from being unleashed.
“Not here,” Austin said softly, and I felt his calming touch on my back and through the link. “Don’t unleash whatever that is, babe. I hate to say it, but he’s right. It could jeopardize the structure of the tunnel.”
With incredible effort, I forced down the blackness seeping into my blood. The rage. The disgust. I blinked, trying to clear the red haze from my vision.
“I apologize,” Elliot said, his smile dripping off his face, his eyes laser-focused on me. “I was just testing your…closeness to your alpha. I didn’t mean the last. Don’t get me wrong, that will be a common thought, but it isn’t shared by me. As I said, I think shifters are my favorite magical type. I would’ve liked being a shifter. Anyway, yes, Kinsella was one of the mages that I took out. Quite recently, in fact, as I’m sure you know. You just met him, didn’t you?” He touched his pointer finger to the edge of his nose. “I’m well informed.” He surveyed the wall again and slipped his hands back into his pockets. “There are many, many more faces that could go on that wall, but the repository doesn’t care about lesser mages, or those without money. It’s a pay-per-play system, you see. Bribe them, and get protection and what passes for justice. Ignore them, and if you’re small potatoes, you are also ignored. But if a wealthy, powerful mage like me ignores them, they won’t stand down so easily. You might want to establish that professional relationship soon. It’s easy for bodies to pile up in this business.”
“Why did you kill him, though? Where did you even find him? He ran away from me.”
“Maybe someday I will explain. Maybe I won’t. We shall see.”
Frustration still ate at me. “And Sebastian? Why isn’t he on that wall?”
Elliot’s grin faded. “He was just a kid who liked doing magic. The Mages’ Guild crunches up people like that. They don’t respect them, and they certainly don’t waste time looking into their murders. They are the small potatoes I spoke of.”
“You also crunch up kids like that. Since, you know, you killed him.”
“He chose his path. He accepted what came. As we all will. It’s been really lovely talking with you, Miss Ironheart. Don’t bother looking for those exits—if you break through the wards, I will know, and you’ll be in a world of hurt.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brochan tense. His fists clenched.
“My goodness,” Elliot said, his gaze slipping to Brochan. “Broken Sue is a good name. His leash will prove faulty. I don’t envy the person who gets on the business end of that wrath.”
“When do I get to see you in person?” I asked him, anger brimming.
He took a step back. “You’ll find out this evening. Goodbye.”
His image vanished.
“He looked like a hologram,” I said, staring at the empty place he’d been standing.
“I wonder if they can use an invisibility potion when they’re like that.” Austin turned, facing me, able to watch both directions of the tunnel out of his peripheral vision. “I couldn’t smell, hear, or sense him.”
“Even if they can’t… They can all do that,” I murmured, starting to walk again. I wanted to see the exit for myself, warded or not. “The high-powered ones can all do it. They can spy without putting themselves in actual danger. Unless there is some sort of risk…” I shook my head. “I’ll need to add that to my list of spells to research, which doesn’t help at the moment because there’s no internet in this godforsaken place.”
“Alpha,” Brochan said, his voice gruff. “I think I was mistaken. When that mage was threatening your mate… I don’t think I have as much control as I thought I did. I might be a danger to your efforts.”
“Understood,” Austin said. I suspected his need to suss that out was the reason he’d brought Brochan with us instead of sending him off with another group.
“Don’t worry about being a danger to our efforts,” I said. “I don’t recall you trying to blast a hologram twice in as many minutes. You’re the least of our problems. I nearly brought the mountain down on us.”
A roar echoed through the tunnel, thick and ferocious. The basajaun ran into view at the other end, his hair puffed out, making him look even larger. He stopped in the center, facing us, and let out another roar. The mountain trembled beneath our feet, as if quaking from the force of his anger.