Protector

by Nancy Northcott

  “You’re drawing a line from your dad to you, assuming you would be the same in a similar situation.” He blinked, looking startled, and she dared to hope. “Josh, you’re a combat pilot, a veteran. You’re all about soldiering on, no matter what comes at you.”

  “Little kids need their mom.”

  “Yes, but they’re resilient. They cope. The parent you and your sisters needed most was your dad, and you didn’t have him.”

  He stared hard at her for a long, painful moment. “I thought you understood. Clearly, you don’t.”

  That icy manner of his hurt more than a shout would’ve, but she wouldn’t turn back now. “What I understand, Josh, is that if you ever were in your dad’s shoes, taking care of your kids would be your first priority.” Edie sucked in an aching breath. “You coped. You always will, and you’re not dependent on a wife for that.”

  “That’s not the issue.” He stalked to the door.

  “Not for you, I realize.” Maybe she shouldn’t have started this. Now that they were into it, though, she might as well say her piece. “But ask yourself what happens if someday you meet the woman you want, and she’s a cop or a soldier or—”

  “A firefighter?” The edge in his voice grated.

  “I didn’t say that.” Despite what his earlier question had implied, she knew better than to hope that would ever be. “People get killed crossing the street. Whatever she is, would you rather enjoy whatever time you’re given with her or pass up the chance because you’re afraid?”

  “I’m not afraid. I’m careful.”

  Edie shrugged. Around the lump in her throat, she said, “However you want to look at it, I hope you’ll be happy.”

  The stone in his eyes softened, and his mouth twisted in a ghost of a smile. “Thanks.” Some of the tension left his shoulders. “You, too, Edie.”

  Edie, not angel. They really were done here. She held the tears until the door closed behind him.

  * * *

  Josh zipped the duffel bag. Wearing a flight suit again, getting ready to go to work in his own apartment with its familiar dark blue and brown decor, he felt almost normal. Too bad he couldn’t look at the bed without a little stab of relief that he’d never shared it with Edie. He couldn’t shake the feeling he hadn’t handled their good-bye very well.

  Just like last time, asshole.

  Maybe if he’d waited to ask her…Ah, who was he kidding? The answer would’ve been the same. He’d crossed the line they’d set, and she’d politely, but wrongheadedly, unloaded on him.

  Game over. Time to reboot.

  He glanced at his watch. Eighteen minutes to noon, when Davis and his team would smash the orb, putting a permanent end to the problem. Josh and Edie were supposed to wait with Harper in his office while that happened. A precaution, the doctor had said, in case the ritual hadn’t completely freed them.

  Josh headed out. Most of the Collegium was working or, in the case of the academy students, in class. Deputy reeves and cadets would normally be pounding the cross-country trail, but everyone had orders to stay indoors until the destruction team had done its job.

  He walked through the quiet hallways, trotted down the stairs, and crossed the grass to the infirmary.

  The door to Harper’s second-floor office stood open. Tapping on the oak panel, Josh stepped inside.

  Edie sat in one of the two pale green, upholstered armchairs facing the reception desk. She flashed him a brief, cool smile that stabbed him to the heart. “Good morning, Josh.”

  “Morning, Edie.” She didn’t sound as though she’d come apart in his arms less than an hour earlier. But she was right.

  They had to play this casually. In time, surely, it would feel casual.

  Except that it never had.

  Behind the desk sat the Collegium’s chief physician. “Coffee?” Harper asked.

  “I can get it, thanks.” Josh poured himself a mug, added cream, and sat beside Edie.

  She said, “Thank you, Dr. Harper, for everything you’ve done. Even when this was scary, I knew you would do anything you could to help us.”

  Us. Strange, how that word made Josh want to put his arm around her. Instead, he said, “I couldn’t have said it better. Thanks, Doc.”

  “It’s part of our service around here.” Harper toasted them with his mug but didn’t seem as pleased as Josh would’ve expected. “What will you do when you return to camp?”

  “I’ll be flying water drops,” Josh said. Eagerness hummed in his blood. He hadn’t been aloft in three days.

  “You’ll probably be glad to fly again, huh?” Edie studied her mug. “I know they’ll be happy you’re back. A friend texted me the relief pilot is costing a fortune.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Maybe she understood him better than he’d realized.

  “You’ll be pounding ground again, I guess.” Josh glanced at Edie. The thought of her breathing smoke, dodging flaming debris and falling trees, hit him like an icy fist to the chest.

  “As soon as I’m back on the schedule,” she agreed.

  The phone on Harper’s desk rang. He picked up the receiver. “Stefan Harper.”

  The sounds that came out of the phone seemed agitated, but Josh couldn’t make out the words. At his side, Edie leaned a little closer to the desk.

  Harper’s brows knitted. “No. That’s a bad—Yes, I know.” His frown deepened, and he seemed to be studiously ignoring Josh and Edie.

  “I’ll ask,” he finally said, “and call you back.”

  Josh’s gut knotted. He and Edie exchanged an alert, concerned glance.

  Harper hung up the phone. “It didn’t work.”

  “Excuse me?” Josh leaned forward in his chair. “How can it not work? Are Edie and I still tied to that thing?”

  “My guess is no,” Harper replied, “since neither of you shows any ill effects. However, it’s resisting the power blasts they’re shooting at it, and the backwash has the flavor of mage power.”

  “Ours.” Frowning, Edie said, “It isn’t siphoning more from us, though. Can’t they blast it until its stores are depleted, then smash it?”

  Harper shook his head. “That might work, but Will thinks the thing may be absorbing some of the power they’re firing at it.”

  “Just as one mage can absorb power from another. Crap.” Josh made himself sit still. Harper probably wouldn’t appreciate having a hole punched in his office wall.

  “Will wants us to try smashing it, doesn’t he?” Edie asked before Josh could.

  “Yes,” the doctor said. “I don’t recommend it. If that thing absorbed your energy, firing more at it might enable it to reconnect with you. We mages have stored dangerous magical objects for millennia. We can store this one.”

  “These things are hard to make,” Edie said, “right?” When Harper nodded, she continued, “That’s an incentive for ghouls to steal one that’s already made, enough reason for attacking a place like this, where so many mages live. Even if it doesn’t open a portal, they know it can steal mage power.”

  Josh said, “She’s right, much as I hate to admit it. They’ve tried once to regain that thing. They’ll try again, and they might bring Mundane hostages with them.”

  “Then I’m in.” Edie’s eyes looked huge in her pale face, but determination filled them.

  Josh realized she was thinking the same thing he was, remembering the damage that thing had done in starting the fire, and worrying about what else it might do.

  His heart swelled with pride. He’d picked an amazing woman to…whatever they’d been doing these past days. Too bad he had to stop her.

  He turned to Harper. “Doc, can you give us a minute?”

  * * *

  The door closed behind Harper, and Edie braced herself for a fight.

  Josh stared hard at her. “You’re not doing this.”

  “That’s not for you to say.” Edie kept her chin up and told her stomach to quiet down. She’d survived wildfires that ate miles of forest. She could do this.r />
  “You’ve never fought in a magical battle, Edie. You have no experience manipulating this kind of energy.”

  “I know the basics, even if I’m rusty at some of them. I’m not sitting up in the nice, safe building while you risk reconnecting with that…thing.” Good tone, strong, with disgust all over that last word. “We agreed, Josh, we’re in this together.”

  “Leaving it to those of us with experience would be wiser.”

  “So you’ve demolished a portal orb before, have you?” She threw him a skeptical look.

  “You know that isn’t what I meant.”

  “When people I care about face danger, I stand with them.” She put steel in the words. “Besides, I know how to blast raw energy, even if I rarely do it, and Davis thinks he can’t succeed without both of us. I. Am. In.”

  The anger in his eyes would’ve melted a blast door. Only the shadow of fear behind the fury kept her temper from flaming to match his.

  “What if you had kids?” he demanded. “A family?”

  “This has to be done, and I have to do it, no matter how little either of us likes the idea.” If a foolish part of her wished they could be each other’s family, that was her problem. Plenty of women survived falling in love with the wrong man.

  Josh’s lips tightened, and then he let out a slow breath. “If you get hurt doing this, Edie, or worse, what d’you think that’ll do to me?”

  His words struck dead center in her heart. But they also struck her temper. “Your pain would be so much worse than mine if you were killed, is that what you mean, Josh?” She marched to the door. “I imagine it’ll do to you what the reverse would to me. Let’s go.”

  She yanked open the door and stalked through it.

  She, Josh, and Harper walked out of the building and down to the woods together. The air felt still, almost brooding. The only sound came from the crunch of their footsteps over dry leaves and twigs. No bird or animal sounds reached her.

  At the standing stones, Davis greeted them.

  “Edie has never destroyed anything magically,” Josh informed him. “I’m thinking those of us accustomed to wielding raw energy should handle it.”

  “Josh…” Edie spoke under her breath, but not too softly for him to catch the threat in her tone.

  “Ordinarily, I would agree,” the assistant loremaster said. “Since the orb was bonded to you both, however, I’ll need you both to destroy it.”

  Harper asked, “What about the chance it could reconnect with them if their magic touches it?”

  “It’s a risk.” Davis rubbed a hand over his face. “If you want to back out, I won’t blame you.”

  Josh directed a hopeful look at Edie. “Last chance.”

  Edie shrugged. “Then who would destroy that thing?” If only she felt as nonchalant as she was trying to act. “Let’s get to it.”

  She and Josh followed Davis into the circle. Gleaming blood red with a purple tint in the sunlight, the orb sat on a pedestal at the circle’s center. The same group of deputy reeves who’d been there a few days ago waited among the monoliths. They nodded greetings to the newcomers.

  “Edie,” Davis said, “you take the east position. Josh, you take west. You’ll hit it from two sides and maybe cut down on any directed backlash that way. I’ll hold the southern point, and Kent will take the north.” Over his shoulder, he said, “Maya, Hank, ward the circle.”

  Standing behind the northern stone, the slender woman touched it. Silver energy crackled around her hand. The stone glowed. Her counterpart, a sturdy, brown-haired man, did the same by the southern stone. They walked clockwise, wispy energy trailing them, and charged each stone before returning to their starting points.

  A silvery curtain of energy enclosed the circle.

  “When you’re ready,” Davis said, “give the word.” He and his counterpart held their arms at shoulder level with their hands close together and their palms aimed at the stone. Josh and Edie took the same stance.

  Josh cast an inquiring look at Edie. She nodded.

  “Now.” Blue energy crackled around his hands.

  Edie summoned the power from the woods around them and then from her own core. When she felt it humming in her veins, she visualized it around her hands. The green glow that suddenly shrouded them made her want to crow in triumph.

  Josh fired what he’d drawn at the stone, and the rest of them did the same. Magic roared through Edie, invigorating and elating. She had the hang of it now. What a rush!

  The orb glowed, repelling the four-way blast. Edie poured in more power. This thing had to go. She—

  Something reached into her head and yanked. She choked back a yell. Her power stream faltered, then turned red.

  Had to keep it going.

  Josh called her name, but she barely heard him over the hum and crackle of power in the clearing. Roaring filled her ears, her power draining. Through the haze of pain and clashing energies, she saw him stagger, though his stream of magic held steady. Edie fell to her knees but pulled in more power and shoved it out.

  This thing might kill her, but she would return the favor. If only Josh would be safe.

  “It’s tapping into you two,” Will shouted. “Push it back.”

  Edie gritted her teeth. That thing was not sinking its magical claws into her again.

  “Edie!” That was Josh. “Stay with me!”

  Through the haze of pain and magical energy, she saw Josh’s agonized face, his eyes dark with a combination of pain and fear for her. He couldn’t help her, though. If one of the quartet stopped, the ball would rocket in that direction from the sheer force of the magic slamming into it on all other sides.

  “Edie,” he called. “Feel the power, think of grabbing it, and push.”

  “I know,” she shouted back. “I’m…trying.”

  “You can do it,” he yelled, his voice hoarse with effort. “Kick its ass, angel.”

  She drew in more power, and then still more until it seemed to blaze in her veins. Then she flung it against that malevolent force. In the torrent, Edie gained her feet.

  The red in her power and in Josh’s slowly faded.

  A loud cracking noise echoed off the stones and hurt Edie’s ears.

  “Shield,” Davis shouted.

  Edie did her best and hoped Josh still had enough power to protect himself.

  The orb shattered, pieces flying, and the magic pulverized the bits. At last! Edie drew a shuddering breath.

  “Stop,” Davis called.

  Edie let her power fizzle and die. Josh rushed to her. His face strained, he yanked her into his arms.

  “Edie. Angel.” His mouth caught hers in a fervent kiss as their companions traded congratulations.

  “That was close.” She buried her face in his neck. They’d made it through, both of them, and the orb was totally destroyed.

  Josh pulled back. “You scared the crap out of me.”

  “Out of me, too, but we won, Josh. We won.”

  “Yeah.” He brushed back her hair but didn’t smile.

  Edie knew him well enough now to realize seeing her in danger had reinforced all his fears. At least that couldn’t make anything worse. They’d officially called this thing between them done already.

  Harper and his colleague, Dr. Susan Moore, were examining the other mages.

  Grinning, Davis offered congratulatory high fives all around. “Once that thing had attuned itself to your power, it was also partly attuned to ours, but you overloaded it. Great job!”

  They let the doctors check them over and pronounce them free of any magical taint. Harper told Edie, “When you’ve grabbed your gear, head down to the main lobby to meet Valeria and Griffin. They’re returning to Wayfarer, and they’ll drive you to camp.”

  Josh would fly the Huey, of course.

  Harper continued, “You should do light duty for the next three days, but I realize that’s unlikely.”

  “Kind of,” Edie replied, thinking of flame and smoke and digging li
ne.

  “Call me if you feel the least bit ill,” he ordered, and wished her well.

  Edie walked out of the standing stones without waiting for Josh. The sooner she got back to her real life, the better.

  10

  Josh rolled out of his tent and stretched in the cool air.

  To the south, billowing clouds of dark yellow smoke filled the horizon, a stark contrast to the gray predawn sky. The smell of burning pine teased his nose. The fire crews still had plenty to do.

  He and Edie had arrived too late yesterday to snag assignments, but he’d be in the air today. By tonight, he’d be tired enough to crawl into his sleeping bag and drop off without thinking of who wasn’t in there with him.

  On the way to the chow line, he exchanged greetings with others getting ready to go. One wave of firefighters was coming off duty soon, with others preparing to take their places.

  Near the chow line, a slender young woman struggled with a large box.

  Josh hurried to grab one end. “Let me help you with that.”

  “Thanks.” She flipped caramel-brown hair over her shoulder and smiled. “I tried a little too hard to cut down my trips.”

  “No problem. Here, I got it.” He took the box, which contained big packages of paper plates, cups, and napkins. It was more unwieldy than heavy.

  Judging by her jeans and red pullover, she wasn’t fire camp personnel. “Show me where you want this. Are you one of the people from Wayfarer who’ve been helping us out?”

  “Sally Beale.” With a grin that lifted his spirits, she added, “I’d offer to shake, but your hands are full, and thanks again. If you could set that over here, we’d appreciate it.”

  “I’m Josh Campbell.” He followed her to the starting point of the line and set the box on the ground. “Anything else you need carried, Ms. Beale?”

  “Sally, and no, thanks. Since you helped me out, can I grab you some breakfast from behind the line?”

  “Thanks, but I have time.” He wouldn’t cut in front of people who’d be on their feet all day. “What do you do, Sally, when you aren’t helping feed firefighters?”

  “I’m a teacher. Third grade.” Her brown eyes sparkled up at him. “I love my kids, but feeding y’all is way easier.”