by Alicia Wolfe
And that would be that.
I remembered the imprint of his lips on mine, and the feel of his body, and I knew I had more to lose by getting kicked out of the Order than just revenge.
“Sis?” Ruby said, touching my arm.
I cleared my throat. “Sorry. Um, I was, er, strategizing. Right this way.”
I picked a direction and started down it. We passed through dark, silent offices that had been stripped of computers and desks and light fixtures. Ragged holes shown in the walls, and in some spots even the carpeting had been pulled up, leaving the bare glue-covered concrete behind. Cobwebs spanned the corners.
Leaving the complex of offices, we pushed down one hall, then another. Hearing noise ahead, we packed into an alcove and held our breaths. I was glad Federico had put his cigar out. Someday I would have to learn a spell for dampening scents. A line of biker-type goons filed by, each armed and ready for war. A big guy with a bristly black beard led them. He wore only a black leather vest over his torso, his bulging arms naked and covered in tattoos. One was Angela’s mark.
A troll, I thought. I had no doubt this guy could transform into a troll. Did he need to say a magic word first, or could only Angela trigger the transformation? It might be an important thing to find out. How many others in this group could transform? One of them? All of them?
The patrol group rounded a bend and passed out of sight. Breathing out sighs of relief, Davril, Ruby, Federico and I slipped down the hall in the direction we’d been going—toward the center of the stadium. The field. I had no doubt that’s where Angela would be. Where the ley lines crossed. The builders had probably built it here because of the lines, even if they hadn’t realized it. Magic had subconsciously influenced them.
We passed into a large open concourse—the main corridor that lopped the football field. Deserted and empty vendor stands lined the hall. Dirt, debris and random crap heaped on the floor, and we had to navigate around it.
“Sheesh, what a dump,” Federico said.
“Quiet,” I whispered.
Noises ahead. Grunts and swears. The sounds sent chills down my back, because whatever made those noises was big. So I wasn’t too surprised when we hit an intersection and found three great big trolls guarding it. Fifteen feet high and clad in ragged, torn clothes, each one held a club made from a ripped-up light pole. To our left was an opening that led into the stadium seating, but the trolls, damn it, stood right in front of it.
“Guards,” Davril whispered.
“Don’t worry,” Ruby said. “Jade’s spell should protect us from their sight.”
“We have to go there,” I said, pointing to the opening. “That’s where the football field is. Angela’s probably on the fifty-yard line with the mirror.”
“And a buncha goons and uglies,” Federico said.
I pressed against the wall and sidled along it, making for the opening, and the others followed my example. The trolls grunted and stomped about. One picked his nose and examined the booger; it was pretty impressive.
Interesting, I though. Whatever process turned Angela’s goons into trolls seemed to limit their IQ, making them stupider than they had been before. Really, that shouldn’t surprise me. There’s always a tradeoff in magic.
At any rate, the trolls didn’t notice us. They were tough, but their sense of smell wasn’t much better than a human’s. Probably all that nose hair got in the way. Not to mention the boogers.
We reached the opening and turned down it, then started up the cement slope toward the huge open area of the stadium and field. I heard noise there—chanting and crackling, the ripple and boom of magic. Also the sounds of many people. I braced myself for action.
Suddenly I stiffened.
Silhouetted against the glare of the field were a dozen low, hunched shapes. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that they were wolves. The same ones from Shadowpark, no doubt. Was Ringo among them, or his alpha? Or was this a different pack altogether? Their noses quivered, and the lead wolf, huge and black and scarred, turned his head right toward me.
His lips lifted back, and he growled.
“Fuck,” I said.
The wolves launched toward us. My cloaking spell could protect us from random goons and trolls, at least for a limited time, but it was worthless against a pack of wolf shifters. They could smell right through it.
Ruby’s eyes glowed. Damn. I’d never seen that before. It was freaky. She held her hand in front of her like a baseball, and a ball of magical green fire gathered there. Winding it up, she hurled the fire at the wolves’ feet. It exploded and they recoiled, yelping in alarm.
Davril ripped out his sword. I remembered Shadowpark, though. The wolves had overwhelmed us then, sword or no sword.
Recovering, the wolves gathered themselves and rushed toward us. Ruby and Federico cast spells at them, but the air shimmered around them and nothing happened. Angela had protected them with expensive magical wards.
“Run!” I said.
I fled back the other way. Ruby and the others followed. So did the wolves. They growled and howled, and I could practically feel their hot breaths on our ankles.
Below us, in the intersection, the trolls were stirring and turning toward us. Now that they knew we were here, the spell couldn’t protect us. I felt it dissolve as soon as their gazes landed on us.
We were right between the wolves and the trolls. In other words, we were dead meat.
“Don’t worry, folks,” Federico said. “I’ve got this. You guys owe me one.”
He snapped his fingers. The gray walls of the corridor disappeared, as did the wolves and trolls. Instead, green artificial grass stretched in all directions, lit by the weird witch-fires all around—the only light to be seen. Night pressed in.
We were in the middle of the football field.
Right in the middle of Angela’s army. Arrayed all over the place, they turned to stare at us.
“We owe you what?” I said to Federico.
Chapter 21
Well, you can’t win every time,” the imp said.
The army stirred, moving toward us.
“Get us out of here,” Davril ordered Federico.
The imp snapped his fingers again, but nothing happened except a few errant sparks. My heart sank. Federico had run out of mojo, or at least it was too far depleted to be of any help to us.
“It’s been nice knowing you guys,” Federico said.
I squeezed Ruby’s hand again. “See you on the other side, sis.”
Her eyes glistened and her chin trembled, but she said nothing. Angela’s goons pressed in from all around. Not all were biker-types. Some were well dressed or clad in military garb. Some were shifters who had already shifted—ape shifters, wolf shifters, tiger shifters, lion shifters. I bet my old lion-shifter pal Gavin was in there somewhere, the bastard. Davril’s hand tightened on the handle of his sword.
“Stay close to me,” he said, and we all bunched in toward him.
The horde attacked. I shot one biker in the head, then another in the chest. Ruby waved her hands, which shimmered with magic, and hurled the blast at the oncoming enemy. Twenty of them turned into sheep instantly, and the sheep then proceeded to impede the flow of asshats from that direction. Federico snapped his fingers. A brightly burning sword popped into existence in his hands. He may not have enough mojo to get us out of here, but he had enough to conjure a weapon. That was something, anyway. He flew over the heads of a wave of onrushing apes, slashing at their heads and backs. One reared up and clutched at him. One leapt high, almost snaring him. The imp laughed (it sounded forced) and flew higher.
The enemy was too many, though. We shot and stabbed and kicked and punched, but they drove at us without mercy. In moments we’d be completely overrun. I wondered where Angela was and if she was done with her spell. I’d probably never know.
“There!” Ruby said, excitement in her voice. She pointed upward, and I craned my head to see Queen Calista’s army bursting in from the top of t
he dome. Fire and metal rained down, fortunately well away from us, and a tide of Fae Knights on armored pegasi flew through the gap.
Magic shimmered above, hinting an energy shield, but Fae sorcerers waved hands and staffs, and the rippling in the air faded. The Fae Knights rushed down … right into the waiting Razor Wings. Screeching awfully, the giant birds of prey attacked the Fae knights with beaks and talons. Fae hacked and sliced, and the birds spun to the ground, dripping blood.
Seeing that the Fae Knights were too many for the Razor Wings to overcome, the bikers and shifters and others that were assaulting me and the others in our band paused and drew back. Some, those who could fly, sprang into the air and joined the fight, while others looked for rides.
I scanned the field for Angela, then smiled when I found her. She and a group of witches, surrounded by several goons, stood on the sixty-yard line, really not that far away. I guessed it was where the ley lines converged.
“Let’s get her,” I said. “Now’s our moment.”
“The distraction didn’t go according to plan, but it served the purpose,” Davril agreed.
Without another word, we ran toward Mistress Angela. She stood before the antique mirror, waving her hands dramatically. Arrayed beside her were Razor Wing witches. They were half-transformed, with black feathers sticking out at all angles, some of their faces sprouting beaks, some of their feet curling into talons. They were using their magic, too, and the air rippled violently around the mirror. Whatever they wanted it for, the spell was at a critical point. They were almost there.
The remaining infantry, those who couldn’t join the fight in the air overhead, converged, putting themselves between us and Angela.
“I don’t think so,” I said, and shot one biker in the belly even as he ran at me twirling a heavy chain.
Another lifted a shotgun, aiming right at my head. Suddenly, his own head was split by a small blade made of fire. Federico laughed and flew at another foe, then another, leaving bodies wherever he went. A tiger leapt at Davril, but he slashed it with his blazing sword and it fell away. A lion jumped at me, but I shot it in the nose. Howling, it slunk off. A dude in a vest and a bowler hat tried to tackle me. I kicked him in the balls and he went down.
Two apes came at Ruby, but she seemed to vanish and they crashed right into each other, then hit the floor. She appeared a second later right beside where she’d appeared to be standing: an illusion. Clever sis.
Then we were to Angela.
Barely casting us a glance, she spoke a Word. The biker-types who had been loitering near her and her Razor Wings erupted into hugeness, splitting their clothes and becoming trolls. Now looming over us, they stomped at us with huge feet sporting wicked overgrown toenails. I mean, damn, they needed a pedicure.
The howling mob rushed at our backs.
Overhead, the Fae Knights were locked in vicious combat with the Razor Wings and others. They seemed to be winning, but they were no help to us at the moment, and they probably wouldn’t be able to reach Angela till long after she was done with the mirror.
I had an idea.
“Blind them!” I said, indicating the trolls that separated us from Angela, and that prevented us from escaping the army behind us. To illustrate, I drew out an acorn from one of my spellgredient pouches and dipped it in the powder formed from mashing a hydra’s dried gallbladder, then threw the acorn at the nearest troll’s feet and cried, “Vitum ortallis!”
The acorn struck the creature in the shin. A moment later its eyes turned white with cataracts. I ducked between its legs, shooting it in the knee as I went past. It screamed and clutched at me, but I was already gone and instead it grabbed up two of the bikers who had been pursuing me, crushing them to pulp.
Seeing my plan, Ruby and Federico cast spells, too, blinding two other trolls, and Davril spread his fingers and loosed a beam of light that temporarily blinded the final troll. They ran between the trolls’ legs or around them. Howling in fury, the trolls grabbed at them but instead plucked up confused bikers and others. Enraged, Angela’s army began attacking the trolls, who just redoubled their efforts at stomping on and crushing the members of the army.
“Two birds, one stone,” I said.
“Good thinking,” Ruby said.
“Don’t celebrate too soon,” Federico told us.
He was right. We may have stymied the trolls and the army, but we’d reached Angela and her shifter sorcerers. The shimmering and glowing surrounding the mirror intensified, as did their chanting. Whatever their spell was, it was just about finished, or at least one stage of it was.
Mistress Angela broke off chanting for one moment and turned a furious glare at me—only at me—and I shivered, feeling cold despite the adrenaline coursing through my system, making me sweat and feel alive even in the face of impending death at any moment.
“You,” Angela said.
Her voice dripped with hate. I didn’t have to wonder why. I’d killed her daughter, after all. Or rather her daughter had sacrificed herself to save Angela by intercepting my blade with her chest.
I’d slowed, as had the others, now that we’d reached the heart of the swarm.
“Whatever you want with the mirror, we can’t let you have it,” I said.
“You’re finished, Angela,” Davril said.
Angela’s gaze swung to him, and there was something sly in the curve of her lips. “Oh, you’re going to like this. Oh, yes.”
A quizzical look passed across his face, but he only narrowed his eyes.
“Or you would, anyway,” Angela added. “Sadly, you’ll die first.”
To her Razor Wings, she said, “End them.”
The half-shifted women shifted fully and dove at us. I shot one in the head, then kicked another in the side as I just barely dodged its pass. Ruby turned one into an ice cube in midair. It fell and cracked into a thousand pieces. Davril still wouldn’t kill one, but only blinded it with a beam of light, and then whacked it on the side of the head with the flat of his blade. Federico snapped his fingers and a Razor Wing shrank down to a normal bird-size, which then became trapped in a suddenly appearing birdcage.
Behind us the army of goons had killed two of the trolls and were surrounding the final two. A few more Razor Wings flew around us, snapping their beaks and grabbing at us with their talons. We dove and ducked, fired and punched.
Angela shouted a final chant. I knew it was the final one because the fine hairs on the nape of my neck stood up. At last the air around the mirror blurred violently, and reality shifted around us. The glass of the mirror grew hazy, then filled with purple smoke. I realized I was looking into some netherworld, some bubble dimension created by the mirror, or at least by whatever sorceries the Shadow had placed upon it before it came to Earth.
“At last!” Angela said. “Come forward, my friends!”
Shapes appeared in the purple smoke. They approached the plane of the mirror, what must be the portal from their limbo world to our real world.
“I don’t think so,” I said. I shot one more Razor Wing in the head before advancing on Mistress Angela. Ruby, Federico and Davril were right beside me.
“Damn you!” Angela snarled.
To nearby Razor Wings, she said, “We have what we came for. Let’s do this elsewhere.”
Two Razor Wings grabbed up the mirror, while Angela jumped on another one’s back. Evidently she’d left her broom behind, or maybe she just wanted more room to maneuver in. Several other Razor Wings took up flanking positions. Helplessly, the others and I watched as the evil witch and her coven ascended into the fray above, having to fight their way through it to the hole the Fae Knights had created on their arrival. Ruby and Davril threw spells at them, but all were deflected.
Davril whistled, summoning Lady Kay, and Ruby clapped her hands, calling her broom. In the minute it took Mistress Angela to fight her way to the opening, Lady Kay and the broom sailed down through the gap and alit on the ground before us, or in the case of the broom, ho
vered just above the ground.
“Are you ready for a running fight?” Davril asked me. His eyes gleamed with the joy of battle, even though his face had drawn taut with the tension of what was at stake.
I nodded. “Hell yeah.”
“Then come with me. Fae Knights should stick with their partners in battle.”
This was a not-so-subtle rebuke about going with Ruby earlier, but I didn’t mind. Hell, he was probably right. I turned to Ruby to see her already climbing onto her broom. Federico flapped in the air next to her.
Davril slipped behind the wheel of Lady Kay, and I jumped into the passenger seat.
“I’m ready,” I said, reloading my crossbow.
“Ra!” Davril said, mashing the gas pedal.
Lady Kay blasted up into the air, her white wings stroking the air to either side of us, and Ruby and Federico flew right beside us. Just as we left the ground, the army of goons reached the spot where’d we’d been standing. They shouted and threw stuff at us, but we were safely away. I turned and gave them the finger, then returned my attention to the front.
We ducked and wove our way through the battle, sometimes having to return fire, then burst out the opening of the stadium and scanned the night skies for Mistress Angela and her cohorts. The cool night wind blew my hair out behind me; Lady Kay was in her convertible mode.
“There!” Ruby cried, pointing.
Sure enough, I saw Angela and her winged terrors flying away into the night.
“Ra!” Davril cried again, and we set out after her.
Chapter 22
I blinked sweat out of my eyes as Lady Kay tore down the avenues of steel and glass created by the buildings of New York. Ahead of us, Mistress Angela flew with devilish speed—but not fast enough to escape Lady Kay. Davril’s steed groaned and rattled around us as we raced after the powerful witch.