by Riley Storm
Earth magic covered the tracks she made in the ground. Water magic acted like a filter, obscuring her scent as it manipulated tiny invisible moisture droplets in the air around them, while the wind moved swiftly around her in one layer. It made her effectively blend into the background, while also removing all source of sound from ever reaching Liam.
She was invisible, and he had no idea where she was, what she was doing. Jennifer, on the other hand, could see and hear everything going on around her. Liam wasn’t panicking, but was clearly unsure of what was going on. It was a great spell. But that was only one way to cast the spell.
A wicked grin came over her as she lifted a hand and cast the same spell on Liam. But in reverse. The big shifter’s movements became even more panicked as he clawed at his eyes. His mouth moved, but no sound reached her ears. He pounded the ground with one foot, but no dirt moved, there was no footprint visible.
“Let’s see if you keep disrespecting me now,” she said, stalking forward, on a straight line to the blinded shifter.
If the spell she cast on herself was a one-way filter outward, casting it in reverse on Liam filtered everything coming in to him. He couldn’t see, hear, smell, or to a certain degree, even feel. He was effectively blind to all his major senses.
Jennifer waited for him to take a step, and as his foot lifted from the ground, she kicked it and put all her strength behind a push of his upper body. In his panicked, blinded state Liam flailed around and hit the ground hard.
Stepping back, she dismissed the spells with a focused thought and a flick of her hand.
Immediately, Liam’s shouts reached her ears, and a moment later his attention snapped over to where she stood off to the side.
“What the hell was that?” he snarled, jumping to his feet.
“That was my magic, you ignorant ass,” she said, standing her ground, hands on her hips as he stormed over toward her. Jennifer was done letting him intimidate her. She wanted him to know she could do that to him anytime she wanted. “I am very good at what I do. I’m just not a combat mage.”
“What is your specialty?” he ground out, sounding like he was torn between anger and begrudging respect for her abilities.
“I was the Dean of Stealth Studies at the Academy,” she said, proudly. “For three years. This past year, I stepped down to be solely a professor. The extra admin work wasn’t worth it.”
There was far more to it than that, but she wasn’t about to give this good-looking jerk a deeper look into the politics of the Mages Academy. Despite her own misgivings of things she felt brewing there, that wasn’t something she was going to share.
“Stealth,” he spat. “Great. So, you’re really good at hiding. Some wit—mage, you are,” he said, forcibly using the preferred terminology.
“Many practical applications of stealth magic can be used in combat,” she countered. “Things like, oh I don’t know, sneaking soldiers into places without being seen? Blinding opponents to their enemies. Obscuring defenses. I may not be able to blow my way in there, but I can help open the door.”
Liam yawned. “Great. Then we get in there, magical alarms go off. Magical defenses come to life. The Magi comes down on us like a ton of bricks, and you have no combat magic to fight him off.”
“Why do you think I’m here!” she shouted into the empty field. “To practice. To train myself up. I have the raw talent. Just no experience.”
“That’s just it,” Liam said, his voice losing its edge. “You don’t understand, Jennifer. I can see your strength now. I won’t argue that, I’ve never known anyone capable of casting such a spell once, let alone reverse engineering it to cast it on someone else. You have talent.”
“Uh, thank you?” she said, stunned by the complete turn-about of his tone and treatment of her. The respect he gave her just then was so unexpected she almost missed what he said next.
“The thing is, there’s more to it than that. Combat isn’t just about power, or about knowing the spell. We don’t have years to get you ready. A few weeks, a month at the outside, that’s what we’re looking at. This is suicide for you to do this,” he said, those big eyes darkening, like the depths of the ocean. Tempting, but dangerous.
“Yet,” she said fiercely. “I’m. Still. Here. Aren’t I?”
Liam glared at her, but it was an empty glare. Devoid of true hostility anymore. Something had passed between them. Jennifer didn’t understand it, but it was like she’d earned his respect by standing up to him and taking him down a peg with her spells.
Men are so weird.
“I’m not dumb,” she said in a quieter voice, trying to extend the same sort of truce he seemed to be offering her. “I know what I’m doing may not necessarily be the smartest thing. But I have to do it, Liam. Can’t you see that?”
“Why? Why is this so important?”
She bit her lower lip, looked away. “Sometimes, the scales need balancing. Errors in the past need making up for. Leave it at that,” she added, shaking her head when he started to push further.
“So, there is more to this than doing the right thing, isn’t there?” he asked, ignoring her silent request not to pry.
Jennifer stayed quiet, looking away. Thinking.
10
“I freaking knew it,” he muttered, storming away, putting some distance between the two of them. “I called it from the start. I told them you weren’t telling us everything. That you were here for another reason, that you were hiding things from us on purpose. Did anyone believe me? No, of course not.”
Jennifer stayed quiet, arms crossed under her breasts, black robe drawn tight around her frame like always. Normally, he might have enjoyed the way it accentuated the curves of her body, but just then, he wasn’t able to think about something like that. His mind was too worked up over the realization their ace in the hole had just become a joker.
“If you’re not dumb,” he said, stabbing a finger at her. “Then you know what’s at stake here. In this operation. You’re aware of it, you understand it.”
“I am,” she said, some of the fire re-awakening in her eyes. “Believe it or not, I thought this over a lot before coming here.”
Liam nodded. “Of course, you did. Which means you know you’re overmatched. Over-powered. The Magi might not have your strength, he was never considered to be super powerful, but his focus is in an area you can’t hope to match. That means he can bring more refined power to bear on you. It will overwhelm you. You’re outmatched, Jennifer. Am I saying this in enough different ways to get through to you?”
“Yes, Liam. I understand what you’re saying.”
“Good. Then you’ll understand why I don’t believe you. Because if you know all that, and you’re still here, that means you have a bigger iron in the fire than you’re telling any of us, don’t you?”
Jennifer looked down, then away.
“What is it?” he pushed, moving to block her as she took a step back toward the four-wheeler. “No, we’re going to get this out in the open now, I think. Before we go back to the farm. So when I report to Logan, he can make a decision based on your real reasons for being here. That, I think, is what we’re going to do.”
“I’m not lying to you,” she said so quietly he almost missed it.
“What?”
“I said, I’m not lying to you. I’m here because it’s the right thing to do. That’s the truth of it. There is no lie there.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “Sure, I’ll give you that. But just because there’s no lie, doesn’t mean it’s only a fraction of the truth. That’s like me saying I’m not a little person. I’m not. But I’m actually extremely tall and built. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes,” she said just as quietly. “I’m not stupid either, Liam. I’d really appreciate it if you started treating me with at least a modicum of respect.”
He snorted. “That goes two ways, Jen. You act like I’m just supposed to nod along happily like some big dumb bear when you say you�
��re here to do the right thing, as if I can’t easily see through your flimsy excuse. Nobody throws themselves in harm’s way to do the right thing. Not without a reason behind it. You aren’t some sort of righteous crusader either, so don’t try to feed me that line of bullshit.”
“It shouldn’t matter why I’m doing it. I’m here, I’m telling the truth that I want to help. Anything personal aside from that should be inconsequential. It doesn’t matter.”
“They definitely do matter!” he growled.
“Why? Why do they have to matter, Liam?” she challenged, taking a step toward him.
“Because!” he said, throwing his hands in the air in frustration. “You’ve got personal involvement of some sort. For whatever reason. When there’s personal involvement, that means there’s emotion as well. Emotions interfere with rational, logical thought, Jennifer, and don’t try to tell me they don’t. We’ve both already established we aren’t stupid. So, don’t pretend like they don’t.”
“Okay, so? I’m acting rational. Logical. What’s your problem?”
Liam came closer, looking down at her, trying not to focus on her features and how pretty she was, and instead drive home the importance of what he was saying to her.
“I need to be able to trust you to do the right thing, that’s what my problem is. And I can’t do that if you aren’t acting rational, because you’re distracted by your emotions. You need to do what’s necessary, not what you want to do. And that’s compromised.”
“It’s not,” she said, stepping forward, standing tall.
He respected her for not just backing down to him. Liam was well aware how intimidating he was, the size, strength, reach advantages he possessed over her all impossible for her to ignore. But she didn’t falter. That was impressive, he decided, hating that he was finding more and more reasons to respect her.
“It is,” he said gently. “If you’re here for revenge, then you’re going to end up getting a whole lot of people killed, most likely including myself. And truth be told, I want to come out of this alive. I’m prepared to die if I must, but I won’t go into battle with someone who might get me killed because they weren’t thinking right.”
Jennifer frowned, but he kept speaking.
“If revenge is your motive, just go now, please. We’ll be better off without you in that case. I won’t be the only one who dies either, and I cannot allow that to happen. So please, just go. Open one of your fancy portals and go back to the Academy.”
She visibly flinched at his last words, which caught Liam by surprise, but she still didn’t back down.
“I am not here for revenge. I can assure you of that,” she said forcefully. “That is the truth. I’m here to do the right thing.”
“I don’t believe you anymore,” he said bluntly.
Fresh anger blossomed across her face at the bluntness of his statement. Liam hadn’t wanted to get so in her face about it, but her constant refusal to tell him what was truly going on was starting to bother him. It was a simple case of telling the truth, but she was steadfastly refusing to do that, and he was running out of options.
More anger spread, twisting her normally beautiful face into something…just as beautiful? What the hell? Liam was finding Jennifer more attractive the angrier she got all of a sudden. The way it amplified her features, bringing out the green in her eyes to counter the red of her hair.
Then there was the way the fast-flowing blood heated her cheeks, shading them a tinge of red. The little nostrils of her pointed nose flared as she stared up at him, and he felt a stirring in his body out of all proportion to any interaction the two of them had had so far.
Liam had to forcibly resist an urge to reach out and touch her. It wasn’t the first time he’d thought she was attractive. He’d noticed that the moment she walked into the command room, full of bluster and confidence. But right now, he was feeling something else, and he didn’t know how to process it.
“Now who’s the one looking at the other funnily?” Jennifer said, lifting her eyebrows in accusation.
“That would be because I’ve never seen the angel of death before,” he said, couching his embarrassment in anger, lashing out at her over it. “But that’s what you’re going to be for me and my friends if you can’t do what you said you could. Which, it turns out, you can’t.”
Jennifer rolled her eyes at him, but he was already heading back toward the ATV at this point, mumbling to himself.
“I really hope Logan wasn’t basing his entire plan around you blasting in the front door. Because if he was, then we are in for a serious load of trouble with you on our team.”
Jennifer caught up to him, walking at his side, glaring up at him, obviously not willing to risk being left behind. Smart girl.
“At least Logan’s smart enough not to hand the keys to the plan to you!” she snapped. “Because all you would do is drive up to the front gate and whine to them to open up!”
Liam came to a halt, quivering like a recently struck lightning rod as the insult hit home. His brain was firing in several different directions, and not one of them could win out over the other. So instead of picking one path over the other, he did the only thing every side of him was screaming to do.
He took several steps until he was standing right in front of Jennifer, looking down at her, keeping her pinned between him and the four-wheeler. But he didn’t speak. Didn’t do anything else. Just stood there, too unable to decide what to do, different parts of his mind and body warring with one another until one won out.
11
The solid plastic of the four-wheeler pressed up against her butt as she stayed completely and totally still, trying not to provoke Liam any further than she already had.
You went too far. He’s going to kill you for insulting him like that. Blind him. Cast a spell on him. Defend yourself!
But she couldn’t. Jennifer was paralyzed by fear, unable to move, not wanting to risk it. Her last comment had gone too far, she could see that now. It had pushed too far, struck a nerve with Liam. He was pissed.
Yet he just stood there, mere inches from her, his thick, taut chest at her eye level, while he stared down at her, eyes blazing with royal blue fire. She was sure an answering viridian fire lay in her own face. If he was going to strike her down, she wasn’t going to turn away from it. No, she was going to face it, head on.
Lifting her chin, she raised her face, looking Liam straight on, all but daring him to do it.
All at once the mood between them shifted. It happened faster than she could parse. The anger turned to heat, the irritation to thick tension.
Jennifer’s mind was left behind, unable to completely understand what was going on, as neurons fired and her body began to react in ways she didn’t want it to. The warmth that had been in her arms and her face rushed inward, circling her core before settling between her legs, igniting a brand-new fire there, one of pulsing, pounding need.
Her peripheral vision began to pick out individual muscles on his body via the outline of them through his t-shirt. She saw his biceps flex and swell, his pecs as large as ever. His traps were solid. Even the tautness of his stomach was more defined than ever, the shirt rippling along with his abs.
Why did he have to be so damn attractive? Couldn’t Logan have assigned her an ugly escort, someone she didn’t find so pleasing to the eye…and to the rest of her body?
This is crazy. Absolutely crazy.
Wasn’t it? It had to be.
Yet her body wasn’t lying to her. She could feel her nipples against the inside of her bra, sensitive and turned on. Just like the rest of her body, warm heat spreading throughout as her arousal grew. She could scent the attraction. His smell, musky and oaken, so thick, so powerful. Manly.
Her knees trembled ever so slightly. She tried to hide it, to cover it from Liam, but he saw, and he came just a little closer, ready to grab her, to steady her if she needed it. Every muscle in her body, ever desire screamed out, begging for him to put a hand on he
r. To wrap it around her waist. She longed to know what those fingers would do, pressing deep into her flesh. If he just came a little closer, maybe they—
Both of them inhaled sharply as the sound of a fast-approaching vehicle shattered the little globe of intensity that had been surrounding them.
Liam blinked first, looking over her shoulder, then back at her.
“Um,” she said, displaying her genius intellect for them both to see.
They exchanged some looks of, did you? Did we? But…
Then Liam stepped back, tugging at the bottom of his t-shirt and clearing his throat. “Right.”
She smiled, wishing she could just melt away to avoid the awkwardness as another four-wheeler came closer, bearing a solitary figure upon it.
“That was a pretty good insult,” Liam said under his breath as the rider dismounted and jogged over.
“Just the truth,” she said, getting in one last double-edged jab as she turned, seeing it was Logan.
This can’t be good.
“Is it true?” the rebel leader asked without preamble, looking directly at her. “Are you not a combat mage of any sort?”
“Word travels fast,” she remarked, glaring up at Liam. “I didn’t realize he’d somehow told you.”
“He didn’t,” Logan said tersely. “But when there’s a massive brawl in my house, I do tend to get word of that, including what set it off. So, tell me, are the rumors true? Are you not combat-capable?”
“They are true,” she said reluctantly, preparing herself to go through her arguments all over again. “I was a stealth and creation professor at the Academy.”
Logan stared at her in disbelief. “Why the hell would you come and say you want to take on a combat-trained shifter-mage then?” His expression morphed to one of anger as he spoke.
It was clear he too, like Logan, had assumed she could just blow in the front door for them. Now he was going to be just as mad at her as Liam was. No, scratch that. He is just as mad as Liam. Crap. Now she’d pissed off two of them.