by K. F. Breene
I ran onto the property, the alcohol in my blood draining quickly now. My mind raced for a strategy.
“Jacinta.”
Sebastian’s voice was magically amplified. A beat-up old VW Beetle rolled down the street, silent as the grave. I couldn’t tell if he was propelling it by magic or if he’d magically cut out the sound. No lights announced its entrance.
“Can you trust him?” Kingsley asked. He stood beside me, loose and ready for battle, power pumping out of him.
“Doesn’t matter either way. Not on Ivy House soil.” I turned to Mr. Tom, coming out of the house, as Niamh touched down. “Get into the air with the other fliers so you can help Ivy House respectfully slow the basajaun down. Treat him with kid gloves. If he kills a few of the shifters, fine, but try to keep him from killing everyone.”
Mr. Tom nodded and immediately started to change. Niamh lifted into the sky again, Ulric and Jasper showing up. I gestured for them to join the others.
“What do you need?” Sebastian jogged over from his car, his shirt and pants rumpled and his hair mostly standing on end.
“I need to make a wall to keep those shifters from getting out.”
“You know how to do that.”
“Yeah. Right, yes I do. I also need to keep the basajaun from gruesomely killing everyone.”
“I sure hope you know how to do that, too, because I’m at a loss. I’ve only heard disturbing things about those creatures.”
“Yeah. Dang. The things you’ve heard are mostly true, I’d bet.” I ran toward the spot where the shifters would intersect, magically draping a wall over the property line.
“They might scatter once they hit the wall. Our best bet is to keep them contained. What if you magically redirect them?” Sebastian said, running beside me. Kingsley followed us, and Edgar puffed into insects, zooming ahead. “Create a mind confusion spell, or maybe an illusion to make them go where you want them.”
“Yeah. Genius. I don’t know how.”
“Okay. I’ll walk you through it. We’ll do it together.”
It wasn’t easy to learn on the run, but with Sebastian teaching me, it was manageable. Kinda. By the time those shifters hit my magical wall—literally slammed into it (oops)—running for all they were worth, a dizzying mind spell picked up from there and directed them back toward the front of the house. I ran to meet them, not good enough to keep the spell turning like Sebastian had suggested.
Which basically put us back where we’d started. Huge gray wolves raced toward us, their growls fierce and saliva dripping from their mouths.
Kingsley yanked me behind him. He quickly started shedding clothes.
“No, no, no!” I shouted, fear gripping me for the first time. “Do not change right now, Kingsley, whatever you do. If the basajaun thinks you’re challenging him, he might lose his mind. Just get out of the way.”
I tried the dizzying spell again as those wolves bore down on us, intent on chewing their way through us if need be. The basajaun wasn’t far behind, swatting at Ulric, who kept diving in front of him and then rolling away, his antics barely slowing the enormous creature. He was pissed and would not be easily distracted.
“Jessie,” Sebastian said, his tone wary. “Jessie…”
“Yeah, yeah.” I worked at the redirection spell, trying to get it to flow.
“I got it.” Sebastian stepped in front of me. Usually he gave a little hand wiggle when he set a spell, nothing more, but this time he moved his body, too, gyrating like a stream through rocks. The spell sparkled into the air in front of us and then pushed out about ten feet.
The wolves hit that, lips pulled back and teeth gnashing, expecting to barrel into us. Instead they curved into a soft turn, running along the front of the yard. I couldn’t tell whether they were confused.
“Trap them and stop that basajaun,” Sebastian shouted, and I had the feeling he was about to be afraid of one more creature. Mages clearly didn’t get out much.
The basajaun was hot on their tail, running toward the front lawn.
Ivy House was already on the bars for the wolves. Steel bars pushed up out of the grass on the other side of the lawn. The wolves ran into them, making bong sounds as their heads glanced off the unforgiving material. More bars sprang up on their right and then left, three sides of a cell I hadn’t realized were there. The last wolf wasn’t in, though, before the leaders realized what was happening.
I sent a shock wave of magic, forcing them forward. The final bars slid up, clipping the tail of one of the wolves and bumping him or her in.
Kingsley had his pants off, about to ignore me and change.
“No, damn it.” I ran in front of him, heading off the basajaun with my body.
“No, Jess!” Kingsley shouted, but I blocked him off with a spell.
“Wait, wait, wait.” I braced, my hands out, Kingsley still yelling for me to get out of the way. “Basajaun, wait, wait!”
The basajaun’s legs churned, his strides long, almost on me.
“Wait!” I shouted, amplifying my voice, sending a shock of manufactured fear through the property. Heavy sheets of fog drifted in, quickly cutting down visibility. Stars blinked out of sight.
The basajaun slowed, eyeing Ivy House’s fog warily. He probably remembered the last battle he’d taken part in here, when a poisoned fog had descended. This was just a trick of the air, though. It was my doing, not hers.
“It would be a grave insult to deny my right to punish trespassers,” the basajaun said, and his tone raised the small hairs all over my body.
Sebastian stepped in closer to me, and Kingsley thrashed against my magical hold, wanting to do the same. The fliers dipped down, ready to fight. Ivy House braced herself.
“I’m not going to deny you anything,” I said quickly, taking a step forward. Sebastian shadowed me. “I just need to talk to those wolves. They’re sneaking into Austin’s territory. He’ll want to know why.”
The basajaun’s bristled hair sent nervous tremors racing through my body. Austin was on the move, way late to the party.
“I just wanted to slow you down enough to ask if I might trade for a little time with them,” I said, remembering his preferred lingo. Everything was a trade with him. “They are on my territory, after all. I do have some say in their fate.”
After a tense beat, the hair on the basajaun’s body flattened. “Yes, of course. Where are my manners?” He smiled, his large teeth on display.
“Jess,” Kingsley growled.
“Oops.” The basajaun closed his mouth. “It is hard to know when to smile and when not. Shifters think it means I am about to attack. And you think it is pleasant.”
“I don’t know about pleasant…” I murmured.
“That is the tiger, is that correct? I remember his scent,” the basajaun said. “Austin’s brother.”
“Oh.” I tore down the magic keeping him put. “Yes. He was worried about my safety. I’m sure you understand.”
“Yes, of course. My family is the same way. There’s no one you can trust with your mate more than your sibling.”
“No, it’s not that, it’s just that I was drunk—”
“He has done no wrong here. Unless he charges now, and then I will have to tear off his limbs. That would hardly be my fault—”
“No!” I put out my hands. “All is well. Let’s not use language that might…cause issues.”
The wolves circled in the cage, not much room in there to move around, their hackles raised and teeth bared. I cocked my head, aware again of the feeling of approaching danger, but it wasn’t from them. It never had been. Something else lurked in the dark.
The woods were clear, though. Not even animals lurked in it tonight. The wolves and the basajaun must’ve scared everything off.
“Okay, let’s see… How will we divide them up?” the basajaun said as the fliers started to land.
I held up a hand, feeling that strange, pulsing sense of danger. It was getting closer.
“G
et back in the air,” I whispered. “Push out into the woods. Stay out of sight.”
I pointed at Kingsley, his stare now on the basajaun, who’d surpassed me as the most dangerous thing around. My gesture grabbed his attention. “Now you can change.” His glance back at the basajaun had me shaking my head. “Not because of him—”
Thunder rolled across the darkened sky. I released the fog, letting the stars twinkle down at us, not one cloud hindering their glow.
A flash of heat and light assailed me, Kingsley now a huge tiger, larger than his natural counterpart, his shoulder up to nearly my neck.
“Gracious,” Sebastian said softly.
Spiderwebs of lightning crackled through the air as another peal of thunder rolled, this one coming from the west. Beside it glowed a ball of fire; jets of flame dripped down from the sky.
“What is it?” Sebastian asked, turning to look up.
We waited in silence, the danger pulsing in my chest.
“The answer to my summons.”
Twenty-Two
A big, dark blot on the night sky ate the starlight as it passed. Another peal of thunder, closer this time, boomed through the air, chased by zips of electricity around what I realized were huge wings, beating in a steady drum. A different beast trailed the first, its wings leaving curls of flame in their wake.
“There are two,” I said, moving without meaning to, walking toward the porch of Ivy House.
“Prepare,” Ivy House said, as if I needed the warning.
“Blend into the shrubbery, basajaun,” I commanded. “I’m not sure how this is going to go. Edgar…keep to the shadows for now. Let’s see what happens.”
Even the wolves had stopped snarling, now all looking up at the sky.
“Shall I…create some sound and visibility barriers so the non-magical residents in town don’t call the police?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes, please, though I think Austin has someone on the police force.” I watched those enormous wings beat at the sky. They had to be twenty or thirty feet wide, the wingspan incredible. Closer still, and I realized the beast actually had two sets of wings, the second and smaller set at the back of its almost serpentine body. I couldn’t make out the coloring, but the body was lighter than the wings, which appeared to have a pattern, different areas catching and throwing the light.
It beat at the air, overhead now, before it opened its great beak and blistered more thunder across the sky. Lightning zipped around its wings and snaked out. The power concussed the air as the beast lowered to the ground, lightning still rolling across its feathers.
“Thunderbird,” Sebastian said, in awe. “I’ve never seen one. They are incredibly rare. Your magic called this?”
“Yes. I feel the danger of it.”
A phoenix soared above it, wings and tail dripping fire, doing lazy circles as the other landed.
“It called that, too?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes,” I said, keeping the “Mr. Obvious” to myself.
The thunderbird pulled in its mighty wings, standing on a pair of legs equipped with three vicious talons each. Lightning climbed from its head like hair before settling down.
The phoenix flapped its wings, and fire blew out in all directions. It lowered, landing next to the thunderbird in swirls of heated air and flame.
My stomach turned over with nervousness and a little fear, that danger pulsing hot, more so than calling the gargoyles. Much more so, because now that they were here, the feeling didn’t abate. If anything, it strengthened.
On the ground, a whirlwind of oranges and reds and ambers flurried around the phoenix, reducing into a petite Asian woman fully dressed in black pants and a shirt, with black-rimmed glasses and a black bob, a light bluish sheen to her midnight hair. Her age was hard to pinpoint; she could have been twenty or fifty—while her spry body and fresh skin indicated the former, she had the canny gaze of someone much older.
The thunderbird did not change, just waited patiently as the woman stepped forward, stopping at the edge of the property.
“You dare call us?” Her high voice, like she’d just sucked down some helium, caught me off guard.
“Uhhm. Yes?” I walked forward slowly, hoping it looked like I was standing on ceremony rather than hesitating. Kingsley followed me on one side, and Sebastian stayed close on the other.
“We answer to no mere mortal,” she said. “Our allegiance must be earned.”
“Right.” I stopped about three-quarters to the sidewalk. “And how do I do that?”
Kingsley growled softly.
She tilted her hand. “Only a master may know.” She waved her hand. A rush of blistering fire swept from her like a rogue wave, building higher as it moved, surging toward us.
Kingsley snarled and moved in front of me. Sebastian threw out an arm, smacking me in the chest to keep me back. I couldn’t think beyond grabbing it, my eyes widening, watching that flame.
Using his other hand, Sebastian made circles in front of us, his fingers moving quickly. A glittering red shield arched in front of us and then around, cocooning us, a spell I could do, but not with this much power. He needn’t have bothered. The fire fizzled and sputtered five feet into Ivy House’s territory. Not even the fire of a phoenix could breach her borders for long.
Silence filled the wake, interrupted by Kingsley’s soft growl and Sebastian’s heavy breathing.
“I have to dominate them,” I said, my heart banging against my ribs. “I called them with the understanding that Austin could dominate anyone powerful enough.”
“Austin isn’t here,” Sebastian said.
“Yes, I am well aware of that. That leaves me.”
“You don’t have the power to handle them,” Sebastian said. “Maybe the thunderbird, but I don’t think I can take that phoenix.”
“What about both of us? Can we do it together?” I asked as the woman eyed the property line. I wondered if she could find a way around Ivy House’s magic. She seemed incredibly confident. And competent.
“We don’t know each other well enough for that. You have to work with another mage for longer than a few hours a day for a week in order to form a magical union with them, and even then, the mages are usually sleeping together.”
“No. Long story short, no. Got it.” I gritted my teeth. “I can do it.”
“Jacinta.” Sebastian grabbed my arm and pulled me, forcing me to look at his worried eyes, the streetlights almost turning them pale blue. “Listen to me. You do not have enough power. Neither does Austin. Not for both of those creatures. Send them back. Or turn them loose. Or…whatever you have to do to make them leave. You’re not ready.”
“Yes you are,” Ivy House said. “But only if you accept the rest of your magic. It is time to claim what is yours.”
The woman smiled, as though she could hear everyone speaking, bowed, and retreated back to the thunderbird. “Let us begin.”
“No, no, wait—” Sebastian said.
It was then that I felt Ivy House’s magic flicker and fail.
“She has accepted your challenge,” Ivy House said. “She has deadened my magic. I cannot help.”
“But I didn’t say anything,” I said.
“Send them away,” Sebastian cried.
“I don’t think I can,” I choked out.
The woman smiled. “Until the death.”
Twenty-Three
“What does she mean, ‘until the death’?” I cried, wanting to run but knowing there was nowhere to go. I didn’t have Ivy House this time. I didn’t have any other artillery. I just had my crew.
“What’s happening?” Sebastian asked, his arm still held out in front of me like he was a mother trying to keep her child from hitting the dash.
“It’s too late. It’s a challenge,” I said, swallowing hard.
He swore. “Okay, well, let’s see what we can do. We have to kill the phoenix.”
“Because they are then reborn,” I said, piecing it together.
“They are reborn, yes. But if you die, it’s forever.” Sebastian dragged me a little closer, Kingsley pacing in front of us, his tail twitching at the end as he watched the phoenix.
Edgar ran in from the side in his purple sweats, wielding a long metal stake that was almost certainly more fatal to him than it would be to anyone else. The others flew in from overhead. They must’ve felt Ivy House’s defenses go down.
“Here we go!” Sebastian shouted.
Another burst of fire rose and surged forward, larger than the first, a great blast of heat and flame. Sebastian threw up the same shield, covering Kingsley, himself, and me. Heat bled through, and it felt like it was melting my face off. My clothes were hot against my skin. My eyes burned.
Sebastian swore again. “Think it through,” he muttered to himself. “Think it through. It’s fire. It is magical fire. It’s a natural spell created within the beast. Figure out a way to combat it.”
I nodded in encouragement. But the fire died and the thunderbird stepped forward, shaking out its mighty wings. It spread them wide, nearly taking up the whole bulbous end of the street, before flapping them forward and down. A great gust of wind slammed into us, and Sebastian’s shield did virtually nothing. The wind ripped us off our feet and flung us backward, slamming us into the house.
“Think it through,” I heard Sebastian muttering again, jumping up and running forward. He belted out a spell that twisted and curled into the air, sending the great thunderbird back a step. But the phoenix was ready for Sebastian. She sent off a jet of fire this time, like liquid magma, blistering in intensity, directed at his magical shield.
It would not hold. Not for this. The heat had almost made it through last time, and this attack was much more intense.
I flung out my hand, layering my own shield over his, pouring power into it.
The lava stream slammed against it. My shield held. At first.
Smoke billowed from my magic, melting down to nothing. The stream hit his shield next, blasting around the arch, sinking into the magic.
Yelling wordlessly, knowing that I couldn’t heal him if that lava made it through—it would kill him too quickly—I yanked Cheryl from my back pocket and ran forward, snapping it open as I did so.