Fire Fall (Old School Book 4)

by Jenny Schwartz

  A stick cracked under her boot and she dropped to the ground.

  The man by Seth also crouched as he moved swiftly away from the betraying light of the campfire. He didn’t ask who was there, he just moved.

  Her kidnappers had moved like that and they’d had military training.

  What do I do?

  The man had reached the cover of a pine tree. Now he was a shadow among shadows, and he’d be searching for her. If she ran to Seth, there was no guarantee she could free him. That he wasn’t using his magic was ominous. She glanced at the campfire—Seth was gone!

  He’d taken advantage of the distraction she’d unwittingly provided and run.

  She got up, crouching low, and ran for the pine trees on the far side of the fire from where Seth’s captor had vanished.

  “Got you!” An arm locked hard around her neck, lifting her up, while the man’s free hand knocked the gun from her grip.

  She reacted instinctively, leaning back into her captor to get a smidgen of breathing room even as she lashed out with her boot heel and twisted.

  He was trained, but a rock shifted beneath his feet, and that tiny challenge to his balance gave her an opening.

  She dropped to the ground, rising instantly from a crouch, poised to run.

  He was on her in two steps

  But that two-step gap was all she’d needed to draw the knife from her ankle sheath. She stabbed backwards, not caring what she hit.

  She felt the knife slide in. Heard his gasp. She pulled the knife out and ran—into Seth.

  Seth moved faster than thought. He side-stepped her and kicked in a single, flowing motion.

  His former captor fell back, dropping with the uncoordinated floppiness of unconsciousness. The kick to his jaw might have broken it. It had certainly knocked him out.

  “Seth!” Vanessa went to hug him and found his hands cuffed behind his back. It reminded her that now wasn’t the time for hugs.

  Nor was Seth pausing for one.

  He knelt beside the unconscious man and wrenched at his shirt. He pulled out a chain that rattled with charms. Seth flicked through them, paused and muttered, “Release.”

  The handcuffs restraining him clicked open. He ignored them in favor of unlooping the chain laden with charms from the man’s head and slipping it into his pocket. Then he stood and looked at Vanessa.

  It was all the invitation she needed. She ran to him and his arms closed hard around her. He was at least as tense as her. Adrenaline pulsed wildly through them.

  “Thank you.”

  “I wasn’t sure if I could help,” she said. “But I had to try.”

  He smiled at her. “You did more than try. You got Andrew in the shoulder.”

  “So you do know him.”

  His smile turned grim. “So do you.” He stared down at the unconscious man. “This is Andrew Krayle, the former Stag agent who betrayed his team by working with your kidnappers.”

  Her legs went wobbly.

  Seth seemed to understand. He helped her sit down by the fire.

  A campfire might be banned under current dry conditions, but the flames were reassuring. She stared at them, while her mind and emotions struggled with the shock of Seth’s revelation.

  Meantime, he dug through a pack and extracted a first aid kit.

  She was vaguely aware of a lantern going on and Seth working on the unconscious man—on treacherous Andrew Krayle who’d been responsible for two men dead and the prolonging of her hostage situation.

  “He’ll survive.” Seth returned to the campfire. “It was a clean cut. It missed anything vital, and I’ve stitched him up. He’ll come around soon, and then, I have questions for him.”

  The flames were dying. Neither he nor Vanessa fed the fire more wood.

  “Did you know he was involved in this, whatever this is?” She had cleaned her knife, first on grass, then with a sock from Andrew’s pack. She put the knife back into her ankle sheath.

  “I had no idea he was involved.” Seth crouched down and gripped her knee. “I would have gotten you out of the mountains if I’d guessed he was anywhere near here. I’m sorry, Van.”

  It was the first time she’d heard her nickname from him. Urgency deepened his voice.

  A groan from the shadows indicated that Andrew was waking up.

  Seth didn’t look at him. His attention was for Vanessa.

  “I want to know why he’s here. What he’s involved in,” she said.

  “I’ll get the answers.” He rose smoothly and strode back to Andrew.

  She detoured to the fire. It had been a beacon that drew her here. That meant it could draw others. Seth mightn’t be worried about that fact, but with her brain starting to work again after the shock of Andrew’s identity, she wanted the fire out. Plus, there was a total fire ban. She kicked the coals apart before smothering them in sand.

  By the time she walked over to Andrew, he was awake and glaring up at Seth. He transferred the scowl to her, but after a few seconds his expression changed.

  Although Seth had turned off the lantern he’d used while stitching Andrew’s wound, the moonlight was sufficient to reveal a person’s features. Unmistakably, Andrew recognized her.

  “It seems you got your revenge.”

  She controlled a shudder. The wind was cold, that was all. “I stabbed you before I knew it was you. You were holding Seth prisoner.” And how had he achieved that feat? Seth was the essence of dangerous power.

  The handcuffs that had bound Seth now manacled Andrew’s hands together in front of him. He sat up with a grunt of pain and effort. “I should have done more than hold him prisoner.” He glared at Seth. “I should have killed you for what you did to me.”

  “You signed the contract,” Seth said bafflingly. “Stag makes clear the cost of betrayal. More interestingly, how did you know it was me who did it?”

  Andrew spat to one side. “You’re not the big secret you think you are.”

  Whatever he was, it remained a secret from Vanessa. She made a mental note to ask Seth later, or at least, to think of asking him later. Perhaps she ought to wait for him to confide in her? After all, there were secrets of the Old School network that she wouldn’t share with him, including the reason she was in these mountains, and Seth’s secret sounded as if it involved the Stag Agency.

  He scowled down at Andrew. “You kept me alive because you wanted answers. So I’m sure you understand the situation I’m in now. You can give me the answers I want, or I’ll leave you here and go find them on my own. But if I leave you, you’ll be tied hands and feet. You smell of blood. If you survive the bears and the scavengers, and if I survive—”

  “Enough with the threats. If I give you the answers, will you let me go?”

  “I’ll take you with us.”

  Us? Vanessa’s stare flashed from Andrew to Seth. “You’re taking me with you?”

  “Would you stay behind?” He might have been grateful for being rescued, but impatience and worry also tinged his voice.

  “She’s changed,” Andrew said into the silence. “She was passive during the rescue attempt.”

  The one you screwed up, on purpose. But Vanessa was silent, because the truth was she had been passive. When the Stag team had charged the kidnapper’s hideout to rescue her, she’d frozen. She hadn’t even attempted to make use of the confusion to escape. Fear, helplessness, her own sense of inadequacy…

  She retreated a step, and found that Seth had moved.

  He now stood at her back. “Mind games.” It was an observation, but also a warning to her.

  Vanessa took a deep breath and nodded. Lacking other weapons, Andrew was using words. She blocked her mind to the sting of his comment. Seth was here, alive and free, because she’d acted. A slow smile started. She, a mundane without a skerrick of magic, had taken out Andrew, a wizard. “Do the handcuffs block his magic? Is that why he had you wearing them?” she asked Seth.

  Andrew barked a laugh that must have hurt his shoulder woun
d. “She doesn’t know?” He, too, addressed Seth. Then Andrew looked at her. “You think that stabbing me is your revenge. You’re too late. They. Him.” A jerk of his chin toward Seth and her. “He bound my magic. I can’t use it. These.” He raised his wrists, shaking the cuffs. “They were for him. But for me, it’s the metal that holds me. For now.”

  “For now is all we need.” Seth touched her back fleetingly before he moved away. “How are you involved in this, Andrew?”

  “Svenson needed a guard for his geek wizard. More like a keeper. Josh Brosky is useless. I’ve been more nanny than bodyguard. Any practical problem, and precious Joshie waits for someone to solve it and serve him. Food, power, fresh supplies.”

  Magical supplies? Vanessa wondered.

  “Who else is here with you and Josh? Any other guards or wizards? Is there anyone else inside the area Josh has warded with a look-away spell?”

  Vanessa frowned at Seth’s detailed question.

  “It’s just Josh and me. The more people, the more supplies that have to be transported in. We’re the only people in the area.”

  “How did you detect me?”

  “Surveillance drones, and military software for detecting human-shaped heat signatures. The system beeped an alert and I came to investigate. Wizards rely too much on their magic. I’ve had to learn to adapt. You haven’t and that was your mistake. You didn’t scan for a mundane.”

  Vanessa didn’t buy it. “But still, Seth, you’re trained. How did he get close enough to cuff you?”

  “I was distracted, scrying. I should have stayed clear of the trees and the cover they gave Andrew. Instead, I thought they’d hide me.”

  “Hell, it was satisfying to hit you,” Andrew said.

  “I’m sure it was.” Seth’s tone was dryly amused. “Where are you and Josh based?”

  “There’s a cave a mile and a half to the south west, above the plateau.”

  It didn’t compute for Vanessa. “You’re living in a cave? Why?”

  Andrew ignored her.

  “Did you bring Josh to the cave?” Seth asked.

  “Yes.”

  Seth pressed the issue. “What are the advantages of keeping Josh at the cave?”

  “The cave is discreet. There are no tents to attract anyone’s attention. It’s weatherproof.”

  Seth stared down at Andrew. “There are other places that wouldn’t attract attention. Why base yourselves here?”

  “Svenson’s orders,” Andrew said, a note of rebellion mixing with the resentment in his voice.

  Vanessa had a suspicion that she wanted confirmed with a question, but she held her tongue. Getting the answers to Seth’s questions was far more important than her curiosity about how those answers were achieved.

  “Why did Svenson order you to this area?”

  “You’d have to ask him.” Andrew struggled a moment. “The area is a magical hotspot. Josh said he asked Svenson for this location.”

  Seth nodded. “Is Josh your prisoner or your boss?”

  Andrew laughed. “Smart. He thinks I’m here to serve him, keep him safe.”

  “Are you?”

  “Yes.” Andrew rolled to his knees, then stood, hands cuffed in front of him. “But once Josh has proven his barrier spell, I get to kill him.”

  “Every job should have a reward,” Seth said mildly.

  Mind games, Vanessa reminded herself.

  Seth stood taller but significantly leaner than Andrew’s powerfully muscled figure. They regarded one another steadily in the darkness.

  Andrew had betrayed the Stag Agency at least once, leading to the death of a member of the hostage retrieval team he’d been part of. They couldn’t trust a word he said, unless…

  “Are you using a truth spell on him?” she asked.

  Andrew answered. Despite the pain he had to be in from his stab wound and Seth’s kick to his jaw, he was the chatty sort. Or else, determined to retain the one weapon he had: words. “An interrogation spell. A truth spell fails when the subject refuses to answer. It’s a spell for lesser wizards. Seth compels the truth from me.” His gaze stayed on Seth. “Using the magic here, within the wards Josh set, he’ll know another wizard is here.”

  “Will he?” Seth shrugged. “And what will he do with that knowledge?”

  Andrew had said Josh waited for someone else to solve his problems. At the direct challenge, Andrew coughed. “Panic. Grab a gun. Call for help.”

  “Communication is blocked,” Seth said to Vanessa. And to Andrew. “Lead us to the cave.”

  Vanessa wasn’t sure how Andrew managed to scramble over the rocks while injured and with his hands cuffed together. But that was his problem. Hers was keeping up with the two men. Andrew set a fast pace in the darkness and Seth moved as lightly and swiftly as a wolf as he shepherded him along. None of them carried packs. She had her pistol and knife. Everything else had been abandoned back at the makeshift camp.

  She wished she had a moment to talk privately with Seth; a moment in which to hold him and be held. She craved reassurance.

  Seth seemed confident of directly assaulting the cave. Just walking in.

  She had nervous butterflies fluttering in her stomach and trying to crawl out her throat. She was scared.

  Could they trust what Andrew had said under the influence of the interrogation spell? Was Josh truly here as a willing prisoner? Did he want to be here? And going back to her curiosity when Seth had originally spoken of his purpose in being in the mountains, what type of barrier spell was Josh working on?

  “Stop,” Seth ordered.

  Andrew’s shoulders stiffened in silhouette. He continued a pace or two before halting.

  Seth waited for Vanessa to reach him. They stood at the edge of the last of the pine trees and shrubs. Before them was sparse grass and bare rock. Higher, much higher, a mountaintop to the right shone white in the moonlight. It had snow still and the cold of that carried on the wind.

  Seth moved so that he blocked the wind from her even as he kept his attention on Andrew and the wider environment.

  She could only guess at what spells he worked to scan the environment for threats, but he seemed confident that they were alone.

  They had walked for what seemed like five miles. So quartering that for the difficulty of hiking at night and without flashlights, Vanessa assumed the cave was above them, out of the trees.

  Seth drew the chain he’d taken from Andrew from his pocket. “These are charms. Andrew evidently invested in such aids after I blocked his magic. Or else Svenson supplied them?”

  “They’re mine.”

  Vanessa hadn’t thought the interrogation spell continued, so Andrew bothering to respond shocked her.

  “I’m keeping the charm that controls the manacles Andrew is wearing.” Seth undid the clasp on the chain and began sliding off charms. “And the others require extra study. But I recognize this one.” He handed her a silver shamrock and slid the other charms back on the chain before returning it to his pocket.

  “For luck?” she asked.

  “You activate it by placing it under your tongue.”

  Ew. She wished she had soap or sanitizer with her.

  “It enables you to resist a compulsion. If Andrew had used it, my interrogation spell might have failed.”

  “Might?” she queried.

  “Charms burn out,” he explained. “The more magic they’re using or, in this case, resisting, the faster they collapse. Anti-compulsion charms use a shamrock form because luck requires the courage to choose your own path. The charm will give you a breathing space in which to do so. If you’re unsure if your decision is your own, activate the charm and run as far and fast as you can.”

  She nodded. “Run and keep running since I won’t be able to sense how strong the magic it’s resisting is. Got it.” She slipped the charm into the inner pocket of her jacket and zipped the pocket closed. “Why haven’t I used charms before?”

  The question was for herself, but Seth answere
d.

  “Because they exact a high price. The shamrock is a minor, defensive charm. You’ll survive it.”

  She blinked. “I’ll survive it?”

  Seth started walking and Andrew set off in front of him. Surprisingly, Seth continued his low-voiced explanation. “When you don’t have magic, charms use your life force as their power source. With small ones, you won’t notice. With strong charms, you can lose consciousness, significant weight or bone density, or years from your life. You can lose fertility.”

  “Okay. Charms are for an emergency only.”

  “Enchanted objects are different. They’re more expensive because the enchanter pays the magical price in their creation. Those are what you could invest in.” Seth fell silent.

  Andrew walked faster as the winding path through the rocks approached a deeper shadow in the rock face.

  They were at the cave.

  If Josh was going to shoot them, now would be the time for him to try.

  Vanessa tried to breathe quieter, to tread silently. Not that either mattered. They were visible to anyone watching from the cave.

  A figure stepped out of the shadow of the cave’s entrance. “Thank God. I thought I’d die here.”

  Josh Brosky—it had to be Josh—dropped to his knees.

  Chapter 5

  Seth assessed the man kneeling in front of the cave entrance. The ground there was sufficiently smooth that the gesture of surrender wouldn’t hurt the man’s knees much.

  “You lying piece of—” Andrew stopped far enough from Josh that Seth had to divide his attention between the two. It was a smart tactic.

  Not smart enough.

  Seth flicked the knock-out spell he’d held ready in Andrew’s direction. The former wizard collapsed in an untidy heap that wouldn’t help the wound in his shoulder or the likely headache from Seth’s earlier kick to his jaw. But Andrew’s health was way down Seth’s list of concerns.

  First, was keeping Vanessa safe.

  Never in his wildest dreams would he have expected her to save him. But she had. She had stabbed a Stag-trained operative and rescued him.