“But here’s the real issue. The only one among you that can really fight—really fight—is Charity. Why? Because she knows how to survive. My fighting prowess isn’t magical, by the way. It was learned out of necessity. When I fought Romulus, it was clear he had spent most of his life on that practice yard. Charity saw it, and that’s why she intervened. If you go up against a bunch of vampires, you’re going to get a rude awakening. A force of stronger demons would ring your bell. Those buggers fight dirty. Hell, you went up against the shifters yesterday, right? They didn’t beat you because they were better, but because they have more real-life battle experience. A lot more. The longer you stay in this God-awful natural hideaway, the weaker you will inevitably become, until someone comes in and gets you. I was expecting to find a bunch of people like Charity here, but instead I found a bunch of softies that are going to need my protection, not the other way around. So you all better get your shit together, or you’ll lose the battle that is coming, and it’ll be your death sentence.”
Silence descended, everyone staring at me. Waiting for more. It occurred to me that I probably should’ve stormed out after that last bit to end on a dramatic note. Now I just looked like the doofus who didn’t know when to leave the party.
Take the concealing spell away, Darius thought.
“What?” I asked, barely stopping myself from turning and looking in his direction.
“You were just saying—”
I held my hand up to Romulus. “Sorry, I was just listening to Penny communicate with me. I can read thoughts, but I can’t inject them in others, sadly.”
“I didn’t—” Penny started. I threw a kick to shut her up, and she dodged the blow. “Stop trying to kick me.”
Our teamwork was impressive.
Take the magic away with a flourish and expose us. We have what we need. Your new information will be the nail in the coffin. Outing us will show them just how sheltered they really are.
“Oh, and one more thing,” I said, a little louder than was strictly necessary.
I ignited fire over the spell, realizing belatedly that the spell was a whole lot more powerful than I’d expected, and then quickly slapped up an air shield before the whole thing exploded outward. Fire and ice ballooned against my air shield. The back row of the audience jumped out of their seats, turning to look or struggling over each other to get out of the way.
“We’ve been experimenting with inverting the power so spells don’t read as powerful to other mages,” Penny murmured. “And you, I guess.”
“Yeah. Might’ve been nice to mention that before I blew everyone up,” I groused, tearing down the air wall.
Darius stood as though he’d expected that shitshow, and Emery slowly uncurled his hands from over his head.
“The explosion happens outward like we planned,” Penny said. “That’s good news. We didn’t have time to test it.”
I shook my head, turning back to Romulus. Definitely impressive teamwork.
“I don’t think I have to point out how naïve you all are when it comes to the magical world, right?” I hooked a thumb at Emery coming out of his crouch. “It’s pretty obvious?”
“I would say that you have made your point,” Romulus said, pressing his lips tightly together.
I pointed at Darius, who came to stand beside me. “He’s not even sorry. He was caught, and he’s not sorry. So…take a hint.”
He got that hint, loud and clear. Darius rested his hand on my hip. Let’s head back to our…very cozy hovel and keep our heads down for the rest of today. We’ll be leaving soon, and then we must part.
“Wait, what?” I let him nudge me toward the battered gates. He gave an apology he didn’t mean to Romulus, which I was sure Romulus didn’t accept, and then we were walking back to our bungalow.
“We have to part, mon ange,” Darius said. “I am not meant to go with you to the elf castle. They do not like my kind.”
“Which is a problem, since you should have equal representation there, just like everyone else.”
“A chat for a later day, perhaps.”
“And two, that can’t be right. We’re a team. We do dangerous things together. And paying a visit to the elves is very dangerous. This crowd isn’t going to provide me with much backup. I’m starting to really think we shouldn’t go at all.”
“The Seers both agreed.”
“And you tell me this now? No way they’re right about this. The Red Prophet takes hallucinogens and terrorizes neighborhoods. She likes that better than she likes it here. She’s probably just pretending so she can stay in the Brink.”
“Karen saw it, too, and we both know how effective she is.”
For the first time, worry lodged in my gut. Darius and I had been through the absolute worst together. We’d overcome incredible odds and combated incredibly dangerous situations…as a team. I didn’t know how this was going to go without him. I hadn’t been entirely honest a moment ago—the fae were excellent fighters from what I’d seen, but they definitely lacked battle experience. They lacked the ability to improvise on the fly. They’d be outgunned if we faced a large force of vicious fighters, and both the elves and Lucifer had numbers. They hadn’t thrown them at us yet, but they had them. It was only a matter of time.