Thwarting Cheaters (Artemis University Book 5)

by Erin R Flynn

  “You have a traitor. The question is who are they working for,” I grumbled. “We need to change the plan and lead them into a trap. Fast and without cluing them in. Mel, can you text some family and maybe get some other help here and in a good spot to lead them to and spring the trap?”

  “On it. I need a location and a portal,” she answered.

  “We can help with both,” Mr. Silva promised. “The focus is clearly you, Tamsin. We need you to distract them and keep eyes on you so they’re not looking at us and what we’re doing.”

  “I can handle that. Forgive me in advance for being a pain in the ass.”

  It was hard not to react when the three of them mentally laughed in my—our heads. Glad they didn’t think I was one.

  “Tag,” I announced to Darby as I kissed his cheek before taking off.

  “Agra, what are you doing? Was there caffeine in that smoothie?” he worried as he hurried after me. “Did someone spike her drink?”

  “I want to play and shop,” I called back as I kept jogging. “Oh, look at all the pretty!” I darted off my course and headed for all the woven bags, blankets, and garments. I explained in his mind when he started to get worried but then he was really upset that we had major problems.

  Yeah, I wasn’t happy either, and we had the serious disadvantage of not even knowing who we were going up against besides a traitor. I mean, was this a council or… Honestly there could be a list. Sad but true.

  But I could fix that.

  “Mel, get someone to our house in the garage. I’m going to grab a guy, get off the telepathy blocker, and send them there through a temp portal. At least then we’ll know who we’re up against. They can get us answers for the plan.”

  “Got it. I’ll have Mother go as she’s allowed through that portal and the dogs like her.”

  Smart.

  “Darby, I need you to trust me and hang back. Call out for me like you lost me. I’m going to make a move.”

  “Fine, but be careful. I would die if I lost you, Tamsin.”

  “Never.” I wasn’t sure I could always keep that promise but I knew I could right then. I used the shadow and barrier rune to hide myself as I turned another corner, following the sort of void I felt from the telepathy blocking charm. Even if people could use shields to keep their thoughts in, they were there and I could feel them when I had my telepathy on.

  The charm was too good, as if a nothingness was in the area instead, which actually made it really apparent they were using a charm. That or I was extra powerful as a fairy and so it made the charms scream out for me like that. Either way, when I found one of the guys and he came looking for me as well to either report my location or take the chance to grab me, it was easy to get the drop on him.

  I didn’t even bother appearing to him, reaching out and snapping the necklace off of him as I pushed my magic onto the wall and opened a temp portal. I’d done it on accident before, or that was how the one in my garage had been set up, but now I’d repeated it so I knew how to do it for emergencies.

  I got enough of a read on the guy before shoving him through the portal into my garage where Chief and the fae dogs would guard him until Mrs. Rothchild would get handle him, and then pulled back my magic to shut it down. I swallowed loudly as I pulled myself together, what I’d gotten shaking me badly.

  Because I wasn’t the only target.

  “It’s Underground and I’m not the only target. They want me but it’s also an assassination of the Diazes. They plan on overthrowing them and putting their person in place as a new tactic to start recruiting harder and have an impenetrable base. The plan is after the market to show us a famous church around the corner and attack there. They’re waiting and a lot.

  “I suggest we alter that plan in two ways. One, say we wanted to check that church, but see a different church first and a place to eat as well in the opposite direction and lead the people tailing us there with our own trap. Two, we send our back up to that other place and fuck them up, over, and into body bags.”

  “Maybe just in cuffs to the police, Tams,” Mel drawled.

  “Fine, that too,” I grumbled. “Sound good?”

  Once people agreed, I decided to call in who I thought could help and fast.

  Tamsin: Slight problem on the outing. It seems Mr. Diaz has an Underground traitor who wants me and to overthrow the South American royals. Any takers to help? We have a plan but I doubt anyone’s going to let me be the main fighter.

  Edelman: What do you need?

  Geiger: Of course, you should not be the main fighter! Can you never just behave and stay safe?

  Tamsin: I did text you and warn people right away. Doesn’t that count?

  White: Yes, you are such a dear and I’m sure completely perfect with your safety. What is the plan?

  Geoff: I can get some of my wolves in to help if someone makes sure we get some credit for captures. I could always use some of that instead of pressure and bullshit.

  That was what I figured. I told them where we were at—literally and figuratively in the plan. Things moved fast as we didn’t have much time before it was all supposed to go down as the market wasn’t supposed to be all of the event and just the first half of the morning.

  Next was supposed to be a bunch of street vendors in town and by then I should have—hopefully—have been happy enough to charge the crystals. Obviously that plan was now out the window, but we had to act as if we were still on track so timewise we had to hurry.

  And honestly the crystals were still flaring with color changes because I was eating and excited to jump into a fight. It really wasn’t as if I was a psycho who liked to beat on people, but I did enjoy turning the tables on assholes and thwarting the bad guys who came out to abduct me seemed like good fun.

  Well, at least in my book.

  Right on cue, the traitor suggested we go see the church that was the trap.

  “That’s fine, but we want to see another one first and visit the chocolate shop near there,” Darby said dismissively. He named it and pointed it to me on his phone as if we hadn’t gone over it. When the guy argued, he raised an eyebrow and stared down the aide with his prickly pear attitude I adored. “I’m sorry you believe you get some vote in how these outings run, but you don’t. This is the agenda.”

  I snorted and kissed his cheek. “Show me what you have planned.” I smirked at the guy. “Unless there’s some reason my boyfriend can’t show me what he wants to?”

  “No, no of course not,” he quickly agreed, realizing he was making a scene, especially when Mr. Diaz glared at him. “We can see the church next. I simply didn’t want you to miss the splendor of it when you are right here.”

  Yeah, right, asshole.

  I confirmed mentally with everyone that things were in place and we headed out, only needing to walk a couple of blocks to our location. I kept Mel updated telepathically when I felt the others wearing the charms tailing us. Something still felt off and I got from her mind that what her mom texted her worried her.

  Namely they didn’t get a lot from the guy I’d sent through the temp portal. That was odd given they’d had over an hour with him. How could they not get a lot… Unless the peons didn’t know much of the plan.

  Which meant there was more to the plan and we should be worried.

  Fuck.

  Just to be safe I made sure to describe the guys who were tailing us and wearing the telepathy blocking charms so someone could grab them. The second we reached the church, I grabbed the aide and yanked off the charm, reading his mind and getting what we needed.

  And finding out we were seriously fucked.

  They didn’t only have a trap set at that church, they were planning to open temp portals and bring in heavy hitters from the Underground to make it all go down.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  I cloaked myself and took off, using fairy runes so I could move faster than even the dragons. “Mel, it’s a much bigger trap. Keep Diaz there and safe but I’m going to
help Geoff and the others. They’re bringing in big power players. Don’t let Darby get in the middle of this! We need more power and I need him out of the way.”

  “Tams, you will fuck all of us forever if you die,” she growled.

  “Not today,” I whispered, praying I was right. I rounded the corner to the church to find White, Edelman, Geoff, and dozens of his wolves had everyone for the trap already handled.

  Except they didn’t seem to notice the portals opening up behind them that were going to bring in a whole new wave of hell. I used a wind rune to push them closer together and threw a barrier up around all of them before going on the offense.

  The first three that came out of the nearest portal I used the muting rune I did in the Power Playoffs… And the bone breaking one. I shattered their legs so they silently crumbled to the ground in a mess. I did the same to the few that came out of the second and third portals but then I changed tactics since I was still cloaked.

  I physically knocked out a few and by then people poured out of the three portals like cockroaches. I let loose a power clap to knock them over like bowling pins but unfortunately, these weren’t over inflated college freshmen and only a quarter even fell over.

  And I’d just given away my position even if I was cloaked.

  I flipped out of the way of the attacks, one clipping me in the shoulder and a good deal of a power clap to get me back. I thought of the ice rune on the run, shooting spikes from my location and above to fuck with them. I got several that way and then for another distraction I sent an array of colored roses all over the church.

  A waste of magic in the middle of a fight with several dozen adversaries?

  Fuck yes.

  Tactically smart to confuse them?

  Fuck yes.

  I caught White wildly flagging me and while I couldn’t figure out what she wanted, I decided she could help. I took off my bag with the charged crystals and made a door in my barrier, tossing it through and allowing her to use it at will. Then I went back to the fight.

  When I saw more people were still coming in through those portals, I decided that was where I needed to focus. I thought back to geometry and Professor Richardson, how he pulled up the magic of our quizzes and exams, our circles and how I knew to lock portals.

  And the next thing I knew the portals were closing, that magic rushing to me.

  Okay, even I couldn’t deny it was really fucking cool to be a fairy right then. That was totally fucking badass to simply think I needed to shut the portals down and have my magic just agree and make it happen. Nice.

  Really, nice.

  “Show yourself, Vale,” one guy growled, looking like he was a boss or at least the biggest boss there.

  I bit back a snort. How often did that shit work? Men with egos and poking pride actually fell for that idiocy and dropped their advantage to their peril?

  Good thing I was a woman and didn’t give a shit about showing how big my nonexistent dick was.

  I did, however, shoot a fireball at him.

  I flinched when I saw a guy go down next to him as if completely restrained, knocked out and tied up by some invisible rope or handcuffs. And then I realized that was exactly what I was seeing.

  And Professor White was the one who’d done it. She was outside of the barrier, using one of her own, and tossing her magic around using some sort of rune that probably the supe police or councils used to apprehend bad guys.

  I’d have to ask her about it later… And learn how to deflect it because it looked wicked effective and I might need to learn how to dodge it if another rogue council aide came for me.

  More like when they did. Yeah, that seemed more likely.

  Still, their focus shifted to her as she was visible and clearly able to take them out. Fuck.

  I pulled off my cloaking and used the rune for electricity, focusing it like two long electrical whips. “Come and get me, boys.” I smirked at the nearest ones before flinging out my magic and hitting them with the whips, watching them get zapped and going down like rocks. I picked that because it also had another interesting trick to them which I got to show off when the next guy attack.

  He gave a very confident power clap… That my whips cut right through. Yup, the electricity runes used that way sliced right through a lot of other focused power. It was a happy accident I’d figured that out, but Professor White nailed him while he was distracted. I kept them focused on me while she and then Edelman got them from behind.

  By the time the others caught up to us and the reinforcements they’d called for arrived, White was securing the last person. I pulled back my magic and let out a shaky breath.

  “Take down the barrier,” White ordered as I sank to my knees.

  I nodded, glancing over there and realizing that had been zapping my energy and badly. The Underground assholes had been going to try and get their people and trying to bust into my barrier. The moment I pulled it back, Geoff about flew over to me and caught me before I sank to the ground.

  “What are you?” he whispered as he blinked down at me. “I’ve never seen a teenage supe fight like you, have such power.”

  “She’s special and do not repeat what you saw,” Geiger warned as he took me from Geoff. “You are going to be the death of me, Tamsin.”

  “I’m fine,” I promised. “Just zapped after the crystals and just getting better. It was fun.”

  “She needs fuel and fast,” Edelman declared as he came over and checked me out. “Well done, Ms. Vale.”

  “Diaz? Are they safe?”

  “Yes, they only opened portals here,” Mr. Rothchild confirmed as he came into view. “Melody and others stayed behind to protect them on your orders while we came here. We have the Vogels locked down at their castle so we could afford the personnel.”

  “I suggest asking Tanesha to quietly but quickly speak with everyone in the Diaz and other royal camps,” I suggested, giving him a meaningful look. “I don’t think the Underground is planning on staying in the dark much longer. The councils are so focused on me and gaining more power, dismissing them and their growing numbers, they think everyone’s easy pickings.”

  He studied me several moments. “You’re sure?”

  I snorted. “Death, taxes, and heartbreak are the only securities in life, Mr. Rothchild. I’m telling you what I got from the thoughts I picked up before and during the fight. They thought this was going to be stupid easy and I was the only threat. Just a powerful kid who shines against weak elites so they sent powerful fighters. These guys weren’t fucking around but they weren’t their best either.”

  “Understood. We’ll get more when we interrogate them.”

  “Make sure this information gets fucking shared this time,” I grumbled, snuggling up against Geiger. “Everything keeps getting swept under the rug, even everything we learned from the op we ran for the havens. It has to stop. The threats are real. People aren’t getting it because they aren’t getting the info and live with their heads in the sand.”

  “She’s not wrong,” someone agreed.

  “She charged up the crystals, but we used some to help fight, Your Majesty,” Professor White said as my eyes got heavy. “I can easily recharge them later, but I needed them now to help her.”

  “Yes, of course, it’s fine, whatever you needed to do to protect her,” Mrs. Diaz agreed. “She did all of this?”

  “Most of it, yes,” Professor White confirmed.

  “She’s a miracle. She was simply gone after she read the mind of that traitor. I do not even know how she did it. It was as if she had wings and flew away.”

  I mentally smiled. One day. One day I would have wings. I knew that now about fairies. I had years until then but I looked forward to that. It would tell me a lot about who I was or at least who I was born of. The different colors of wings fairies had told them a lot from whether they were farmers and gifted with growing magic all the way to the color of wings the queens had.

  I simply had about six more years to l
earn those answers but from what everyone told me I was born of warriors, noble fairies. I had started to guess that I was born of a dark and light fairy mating—which wasn’t really allowed—and that was why I was snuck out of Faerie during the war or everything was closed.

  That was my best guess and not anything I’d ever share. It explained why I had a lot more darkness in me than what I’d read most light fairies had.

  Then again, I’d lived through a lot of darkness never knowing I was a fairy and without any of them which I’d read time and time again was bad for me. So, one day I’d get answers but not today and not anytime soon. I had to be patient.

  “She needs to be interrogated in our chambers immediately,” someone demanded loudly, waking me up when I didn’t realize I’d drifted off.

  “You are not using this as a chance to get access to her and have her under runes to get all her secrets,” Geiger snarled, more upset than I’d ever seen him. “She risked her life to protect the South American dragon royals and take out dozens of Underground agents. How does that fall under the jurisdiction of your council? She can answer any questions the supe police have for her as is procedure.”

  “You are making enemies of the wrong people over one little girl, Geiger,” the man warned, his tone full of such venom it made me shiver.

  “No, I’m fighting for what’s right and reminding people they should too,” Geiger replied. “That honor is not lost among all of us but unfortunately too many of the people in power.”

  I sat up and focused on the man he was fighting with. “And if I was just one little girl, you all wouldn’t be tripping over yourselves and acting like idiots to try and control me and my power instead of fighting the real threat you should.”

  “Watch how you speak to me,” he snapped. “Do you know who I am?”

  I snorted. “I don’t care. Another blowhard who can’t respect people and looks down at women but wants to use a dangerous situation for selfish gain? You rush here to try and take advantage instead of offer help.”