Magic Awakened: A Reverse Harem Romance Complete Series

by Sadie Moss

  Kate pressed up to her hands and knees, trying to shake me off. I clung tightly, slipping an arm around her neck in a chokehold. The sounds of a fight filtered in from the hallway behind us, but I had to assume Jae, Corin, and Fen were safe. They could handle themselves.

  “Akio!” I called, but he was way ahead of me.

  He crouched down beside us, murmuring into Kate’s ear. I couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying, but the deep timbre of his voice sent shivers racing through me.

  Kate leaned toward him, seeming to forget all about my hold on her. His lips found her ear, whispering promises of sinfully sweet pleasure. A moan worked its way out of her mouth, and I scrambled off her, wiping my hands on my pants. I felt dirty all of a sudden.

  Though I tried not to watch as Akio pulled Kate slowly to her feet, I couldn’t tear my gaze away. Unreasonable jealousy burned in my stomach, but I forced it down.

  He was using her. He would never use me. When he whispered promises into my ear, he meant them.

  Akio’s large hand tipped her face up, his dark eyes blazing as he looked down at her. “Kate. Where does Rain keep the machine for his magic pull? What did he do with the magic he already stole?”

  She licked her lips greedily, pushing against his grip to try to bring her face closer to his, but he kept her still. Her eyes burning with desire, she murmured softly, “On the upper level, near the peak of the mountain. He moved the old magic there too. He’ll try to access it again after he does his second pull.”

  “How do we turn the machine off? How do we stop it?”

  Kate smiled seductively at him. “You can’t. He’s the only one who can use it.”

  He shot a glance at me over her head. “We’ll have to break it then.”

  “He’ll stop you.” Kate laughed, a throaty sound. “He’s destined to be the most powerful mage in the world. And I’ll be right there by his side.”

  The look Akio shot her was full of disgust, though she probably couldn’t see that through the haze of his charm.

  “Lock yourself in one of those cells,” he instructed, his voice hard. “Forget you saw us. And forget you ever knew Rain. Forget it all.”

  Her gaze lost focus, and she stumbled away from him, weaving across the room like a drunk at last call. She unlocked the door of one of the small cells then dropped the keys to the ground and stepped inside. I hurried over, retrieved the key ring, and locked her in.

  She watched me dazedly, the usual malicious glint in her dark eyes gone.

  I looked back at Akio. “Will she really forget she knows Rain?”

  He shrugged, coming to stand next to me. “Probably not. But I had to try.”

  As he neared, Kate licked her lips. She reached through the small window toward him, grimacing in pain as her arm touched the metal bars. Her fingertips brushed against his chest, and I slapped her hand away. We’d already gotten all the useful information we could out of her, and I was sick of watching her try to grope my man.

  Her arm slithered back through the window, and Akio raised an eyebrow at me. “Jealous, kitten?”

  “What?” I scoffed, a flush rising in my cheeks. “No.”

  He backed me up against the wall next to the door. “I like you jealous. I like to see your claws out. But you don’t need them now. Because now that I’ve had you, I’m never letting you go. Yours are the only legs I want wrapped around me.”

  Heat ran through me as he dropped his lips to mine, claiming my mouth in a possessive kiss.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake! I thought we said no making out on missions.”

  I jumped as Fenris darted into the room, followed closely by Jae and Corin. I slipped out from between Akio and the wall, hurrying over to join them.

  “I never agreed to that,” the incubus drawled.

  “Well, while you two were getting cozy, some of us were busy holding off a shitload of guards. The ones who attacked us in the hall are dead, but more have to be coming. We weren’t quiet about it.” Fen grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the tunnel on the far end of the room. “We gotta move!”

  “Did you find out anything useful?” Corin asked as we ran, keeping pace with Akio behind me.

  “Yeah. Kate told us where the machine for the magic pull is. We need to get to it before Rain comes back.” I pressed the communication charm at my ear. “Noble? You there?”

  “I’m here.”

  Sounds of a fight in the background accompanied his voice, and my stomach clenched. The people attacking the palace were giving us a chance to find and destroy Rain’s magic pull by keeping him occupied. We couldn’t let this chance slip away.

  “We’ve got a lead on the machine. How are things going on your end?”

  “All right. The palace was more heavily fortified than we expected, but with the help of the Gifted Resistance members, we were able to breach several weak points. And we’ve got numbers on our side.”

  I tugged Fen’s arm, leading him down an offshoot hallway. “Good. There are quite a few guards here too, but so far we’ve been able to get past them. Have you seen Rain?”

  “Yeah.” Noble’s words came in between sharp breaths, like he was running too. “He hurled bolts of lightning from the top floor of the palace when we breached the entrance. We’re working our way up. We’ve taken out most of the guards.”

  The tunnel we were in opened up into a large space—what looked like a natural cave in the rock repurposed as a huge storage room. Magical lights shone down from high ceilings, and two sets of stairways were carved along the walls, leading to doors high above. Several large hunks of metal and broken pieces of machinery littered the floor.

  Jerking my head toward one of the staircases, I made a beeline for it. Kate had said the magic pulling machine was on the highest level.

  “Well, keep him distracted, and let me know if you see him again. We’ll destroy his machine soon and join you at the palace as soon as we—”

  My words cut off as a large puff of purple smoke exploded into the middle of the room. Rain stepped out of the haze, followed closely by Jonas, Victor, and Nicholas. Several other Gifted and Touched goons stood behind them.

  “Never mind.” My voice was thick. “We found him.”

  Chapter 23

  “Is he there? Lana? Shit! Are you all right?”

  Noble’s voice echoed in my ear, but the words hardly registered.

  I stood stock-still, staring at Rain. His mousy brown hair with streaks of gray at the temples, the bags under his eyes, the small gap between his front teeth—they all made him look so human, so normal.

  But the veneer of civility and sanity was slowly chipping away. There was a mad glint in his eyes I hadn’t noticed before, a harshness to the set of his mouth.

  “I should have known you’d leave your friends to fight and come here, Miss Lockwood. I see you had a little chat with Kate.” He stepped forward, and his lackeys mirrored his movement. “You’ve never been able to just step back and let things play their course. You always have to interfere. Just like your father.”

  My heart thudded hard, my blood rushing so fast I thought my veins would burst. “I am like my father. Except this time, I’m actually going to stop you.”

  He smiled, and tension filled the space. “Don’t you imagine that’s what he thought too? That he would succeed in stopping me? But even then, I couldn’t be held back. Now? There’s nothing that can stop me.”

  As he spoke, he gestured with both hands. Bright bolts of lightning flew from his palms, twining together and driving toward me. I threw out a fireball, but the bolt barely slowed down. It absorbed the fire and barreled toward me, and I used the half-second of time I’d gained to throw myself out of the way.

  The lightning slammed into the wall with a boom, sending sparks flying in all directions. The hair on my arms stood straight up, and my whole body thrummed from the electric charge in the air.

  Holy fuck.

  He’d gotten even stronger.

  I leapt to my fe
et, my legs shaking beneath me, and hurled the biggest fireball I could conjure in Rain’s direction. It felt paltry compared to the blast he’d just unleashed, and he didn’t even bother to block it. He just swept his hand to the side and the fireball changed direction, hitting the wall harmlessly.

  “If that’s the best you can do, you are in trouble, Miss Lockwood.” The Gifted man smiled ominously.

  “And look, she brought her Blighted pet to this fight.” Nicholas’s lip curled in smug disgust. “I’ll take that one.”

  Fear and rage exploded in my chest. It was one thing for Rain to threaten me, but the look in Nicholas’s eyes as he glared at Corin made my skin crawl.

  Electric magic crackled between Nicholas’s fingertips, and he stepped forward.

  I moved to intercept him, but before I could, all hell broke loose.

  Apparently deciding the time for making grandiose speeches was past, all four of the Gifted men before us attacked at once. Nicholas’s bolt charged toward Corin, who dove out of the way. Jonas hurled a fireball toward Fenris, and Victor lashed out at Akio with a whip made of white light, catching his forearm with the stinging tail.

  Rain threw what looked like a web of lightning toward us—it expanded as it flew through the air, wide enough to strike us all.

  “Water!” I screamed to Jae, pushing the magic out of myself with the force of a tsunami. He joined my effort, and a wave of water crashed toward the electric web. They met with an ear-splitting popping sound, and the web exploded. The water flashed with light before splashing to the floor. It ran in a torrent over the uneven floor, pooling in one corner of the room.

  At least we had an effective defense against the lightning magic.

  Water splashed the Representatives as it struck the earth, but Rain didn’t look any less terrifying soaking wet. In fact, he looked madder and meaner.

  His chest heaved with angry breaths, and he gestured again. All the rocks and stones littering the ground, large and small, rose into the air.

  Oh shit.

  He flung his arms forward, and the stones hurtled toward us, impossibly fast. I barely had time to turn away before they reached us. Small stones bit into my skin like snakebites, and a large rock struck me between the shoulder blades, throwing me forward. I slid on the wet ground, scraping my palms and knees as the breath left my lungs.

  I coughed and heard someone groan beside me.

  Oh, gods, no. This could not be how this ended. I refused to go up against a super-mage and get killed by a bunch of fucking rocks.

  Stumbling to my feet, I turned around, reaching out with my magic and latching onto Rain. He began to rise into the air, propelled by my levitation spell. His face contorted with surprise, and his body jerked.

  “Get them! I’ll handle her.”

  At his barked command, the other Representatives and their backup raced toward us. The sounds of shouts and explosions reverberated through the room, but I kept my focus on Rain. I had to trust that my men would take care of each other. And if I killed Rain, I could end all of this.

  He was almost twenty feet in the air now, and he raised his hands to attack. Switching directions, I used my magic to propel him toward the earth. He flew downward, but when he was several inches from the floor of the cave he… stopped. His magic pressed back against mine, arresting his movement.

  I broke away with a gasp, unable to sustain the spell against his power. He righted himself, landing gently on his feet.

  “You’re resourceful. I’ll give you that.” Rain dipped his head mockingly. “But let me show you how it’s really done.”

  He threw both hands out, and a jet of wind hit me like a punch to the solar plexus. It picked me up and drove me across the room, slamming me into the wall so hard I felt like I’d been hit by a speeding car. It pinned me there, the force so strong I couldn’t even raise my arms.

  All I could do was watch in horror as Rain advanced toward me through the battlefield.

  Several yards away, Jonas threw blast after blast of flame at Jae. I knew Jae was good, but his father was the one who had taught him to fight, and Jonas was using every bit of that advantage now. Fen and Corin tried to hold off Nicholas, who attacked wildly. And Akio was doing his best against Victor Kruger’s magical whips, but I saw several more gashes on his arms and torso.

  We were strong, but Rain was winning.

  The thought made my blood boil, and I renewed my struggles against the wind pressing me back. The pressure was so intense it stole the breath from my lungs and made my eyes water.

  When Rain was a few feet from me, he raised a hand. A huge sword made of fire appeared in his grip, it’s hilt a shiny dark metal. The wind finally released me, and I fell to the floor, sucking in ragged breaths of air. The sharp toe of his dress shoe dug into my stomach as he kicked me. When I rolled over, his foot slammed into my chest, holding me down while he raised the flaming sword above me.

  Before he could land a killing blow, dozens of small green balls of light surrounded him. They moved in unison, knocking Rain off his feet. The sword vanished as he toppled.

  I blinked. Who the hell had done that? Jae? I’d never seen him use magic like that before.

  The little balls of power were pressing against Rain’s attempts to rise. I scrambled up, glancing around the room. My jaw dropped.

  Olene? And Noble!

  The Resistance leader had joined Akio against Victor, and several other Resistance members fanned out behind them to fight the guards. But I couldn’t take my eyes off Olene. She strode forward, her hands whipping through the air in front of her, and as they did, the balls of light surrounding Rain moved at her command, beating against his body and keeping him off balance.

  He crossed his arms over his chest, and a web of lightning surrounded his body. There was a pulse of electricity and the balls of power exploded outward. Olene fell back a step, but in a heartbeat she was on Rain again.

  “Help your friends. I’ll hold him off!” Using the small green orbs as a battering ram, she drove Rain backward.

  She didn’t have to tell me twice. I wasn’t sure what she was doing here, or why she had arrived with Noble. But with the extra firepower on our side, we actually had a chance.

  I spun around, rushing back into the fray.

  Corin’s shirt was singed, and Fen’s fur seemed to stand on end as they fought against Nicholas. The Gifted man threw bolt after bolt of lightning their way, keeping them on the defensive.

  “Hey!” My voice cut across the noise of battle, and Nicholas’s head jerked my way.

  Corin looked too, and as I ran, I flashed him our gesture for distraction and pointed to myself. His brow furrowed, and then he nodded. I hurled a ball of fire at Nicholas, forcing him to turn to deal with me. He blocked it with a bolt of white light, and I switched up my attack, throwing an ice spear at him.

  His lightning exploded the ice with a crackling sound, and he cackled wildly. He was too busy laughing to notice Corin running up behind him. Corin leapt onto his back, sliding an arm around his throat and reaching around to shove a small vial into his mouth. Then he shoved his chin up, clamping his jaw shut.

  The greasy-haired man choked and sputtered as I raced toward him, raising his hands to electrocute Corin. Before he could make contact, I launched myself into the air, using all of my forward momentum to land a punch on Nicholas’s face.

  I felt his jaw break, along with the glass vial inside his mouth. His half-lidded eyes opened wide as iridescent black liquid dribbled down his chin. Nicholas’s mouth opened in an approximation of a scream, but nothing came out except black bubbles and a gurgling sound.

  He fell to his knees, hands scrabbling at his throat, lightning spurting in small, weak bursts from his fingertips. Then he toppled over.

  Corin’s eyes flashed with triumph and disgust as he gazed down at Nicholas. But they softened when they turned to me. “Thanks for having my back.”

  I grinned fiercely. “Always.”

  We didn�
��t have time to relish our victory though. A howl caught my attention, and I whirled around. Fenris, still in wolf form, was facing down several guards. More were appearing through the same door we’d entered from. Rain must’ve called for extra reinforcements.

  Corin and I raced toward Fen.

  “How many more potions do you have?” I called.

  “Five!”

  “Then we’d better make ’em count!”

  We surged into the thick of the fight. I threw balls of fire, followed in quick succession by my daggers. The change from magic to nonmagical attacks put the guards off balance, and I managed to take two out quickly.

  A particularly vicious elementalist drove me backward, using his fire to separate me from the others. I fought back with water, finally managing to bowl him over with a strong blast. His head struck the ground and his eyes rolled back. I leapt forward to deliver a finishing blow when movement in my periphery caught my attention.

  It was Ivy.

  The ghost raced toward me, heedless of the battle going on around—and sometimes through—her.

  “Lana! Lana, come quick! I have to show you something.”

  “Kinda busy right now, Ivy,” I panted, gesturing at the chaos around me.

  A body lay a few feet from me. A woman. Blonde hair partially covered a face with delicate features.

  My heart rising in my throat, I dashed over, smoothing the hair back to reveal Olene’s pale complexion. I felt for a pulse and found a weak but steady thrum. But if she had been fighting Rain….

  I scanned the room, searching for the lanky mage’s brown and silver hair.

  He was nowhere to be found.

  “Shit. Where the hell is Rain?” I whispered.

  Ivy crouched down beside me, her flapper dress and blonde bob looking out of place in this dingy cave. “That’s what I have to show you. I found the magic pulling machine. And Rain is turning it on.”

  Chapter 24