Magic Hunter (The Rover series Book 4)

by Amelia Shaw

  “Fin,” I shouted.

  He easily took the goon out and left him in the pile of his friends, prepared for another wave. I couldn’t split my attention to him. A red line of fire across my cheek proved my point. I fought the guy off and Helix finished him. We’d been pushed back toward the doorway. If many more of them attacked, we wouldn’t be able hold them off here.

  I touched my cheek where blood poured out of the cut. It was only an inch away from my eyes. I’d gotten lucky.

  “We have to move. This spot isn’t defensible if they keep pouring men down here,” I told Helix.

  He turned my chin and studied my cheek, which I jerked from his grip with a scowl. “I’m fine. We need a new plan before more guys come down. I don’t think we can get that door open before we are attacked again.”

  “You’re right.”

  Fin and Melinda poked their head out the door.

  I waved toward them. “What about that door? Can we hunker down and let them batter themselves out?”

  Helix shook his head. “I don’t know. The point of the layout of this place was to ensure the upper doors closed and gave us enough time to open the hatch and get out.”

  I rushed to the hatch, moving a goon from on top of it. “Let’s start it and if we can keep making progress then eventually, we can get the hell out of here.”

  Helix handed me a set of keys and I glared at him. “Really? Did you really think this through when you set this up?”

  “Zoey,” Fin warned.

  He was right. Grumbling at Helix and his apparently poor planning on the hatch wasn’t going to help.

  “Match the numbers,” Helix said, his tone as sharp as his knives.

  I recognized that bite as anger toward himself and not me. They’d never had to try their plan so he didn’t realize where the roadblocks might have been.

  I started on the keys, but only got one lock undone before more goons came out of the hallway. I slapped the keys into Fin’s hand and rushed forward, grabbing the knives out of the sheaths of my thighs as I went.

  Helix and I worked together to cut down three more guys. They didn’t even seem like they were trying. Both Helix and I were good fighters, but this felt too easy.

  I turned to call out to Fin. The first wave of magic tingled across my senses. “Shit, we need to get into the room and lock the door. The magical goons are coming now.”

  “How do you know?” Helix asked.

  I headed toward the door with Helix on my heels. “I can feel it. Like a vibration in the air.”

  The vibration grew stronger as I slammed the door and locked it behind me. Leaning against the door, I sighed.

  Fin stepped forward and rubbed the cut on my cheek. “Are you all right?”

  I nodded. “Yes. I just hate being trapped like a rat in a cage.”

  He used his shirt to wipe the rest of the blood away and Melinda passed him a bandage over his shoulder. “You were lucky that guy didn’t take out your eye.”

  He spread the bandage over the cut and smoothed the edges while he met my eyes. A world of emotion swam there. Once I would have shied away from the intensity of that look, but now, I cupped his cheeks in my hands and kissed him gently, still holding his gaze.

  We stayed that way a heartbeat longer, feeling each other. Even with the bond dead inside my chest, his skin under mine felt perfect. I knew without a doubt, even if we didn’t have this magical guide locking us together, we belonged to each other. It was something I’d likely have to remind myself in the future over and over. For now, it bolstered me just knowing he was here and caring for me, as I did for him.

  Melinda touched Fin’s shoulder, drawing our attention to her. “If he comes, or if it looks like he’s going take me again, I want you to kill me.”

  Helix’s head jerked up from where he’d been dabbing at some blood on his side. “What?”

  She didn’t pay him any attention, her eyes locked on Fin’s. “You want my forgiveness more than anything. If I get captured, kill me, that’s how you can earn it.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but Fin pressed his hand over my lips. With a glare, I shoved his hand away.

  “I don’t know if I can do that,” he told her.

  She took a step forward, blocking him in against me. “Then find the strength because I refuse to be a puppet for that monster again.”

  Despite Fin’s need for her forgiveness, I knew from somewhere in my chest that if he had to kill his sister, something inside him would die too.

  I nudged Fin to the side and met her eyes. “If he can’t do it, I will.”

  She gave me a long appraising look and then nodded. “Yes, you look like you could do it.”

  “I know what it means to have that man in your head uninvited. I was violated by him. Not in the same way you were, but I understand your need to keep it from happening again.”

  We shared another long look, the pain of our mutual interactions with Esteban swimming between us.

  Helix came over, to drag her away. “I didn’t agree to this.”

  “You don’t have to agree to it. I didn’t ask you to kill me. We know that it would go against your contract and I wouldn’t do that to you.”

  He gripped her arm tighter, so tight I almost intervened, but she shrugged off his hold.

  “If you die...” Helix began.

  “Then your contract is fulfilled.” Melinda said, dismissively. “It was always written that way. I know your concern isn’t for me, but for yourself. So, don’t worry about that.”

  I shared a look with Fin, trying to figure out what the hell was going on between these two. It also seemed like it probably wasn’t my business.

  “We need to figure out how we can get out of here with no one dying,” I said. “Let’s try that first before we start dividing up who is going to take out who.”

  A scowling Helix took up a place by the door, his usually perfect hair mussed, his collar open, his tattoos a juxtaposition against his tailored clothing and weapons. “We need to fight our way back up to the main floor and out the front. Once we get out, then I can get Melinda to safety and you two can go about whatever it is you do.”

  “Your concern is touching,” Fin said, deadpan.

  Melinda cut in. “You want us separated so there’s no chance one of them does what you can’t.”

  Helix charged forward and captured her shoulders. “Do you have a death wish? Everything I do is to ensure you stay alive. How is this any different?”

  Fin looked like he wanted to interrupt but I put my hand on his chest and shook my head.

  “Whatever is happening there, is between them,” I whispered.

  Another loud crash came from above. The entire building seemed to shake with an impact.

  “How is it that they are out there attacking, and no one is noticing this much noise or damage?” I asked, more to myself than anyone else.

  “Maybe that’s the magic you sensed. If they are shielding the building, making it look completely normal, no one would notice or come to help.

  Well, shit. Not that I expected anyone to rush to my aid. No one ever seemed to do that when I needed them, but it was always nice to have the tiny glimmer of hope.

  “So, we fight?” I asked, checking the straps on my leg sheaths and dropping the sword off my back. If I couldn’t use it, then I didn’t need the weight.

  Fin kissed my cheek and palmed two of his daggers. Damn, I loved a man with knives.

  “We fight.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  NONE OF US BROUGHT up the fact that our knives were pretty much going to be useless against mages with magic.

  We braced around the door, ready for the magic to hit and the door to explode when Melinda whispered, “The cave.”

  Helix glanced at her. “What about it?”

  “We could hide out there, wait out both the magic and the destruction. No one would be able to get through that door.”

  “What’s a cave?” I asked.

&nb
sp; Melinda rushed to the back of the room and moved aside a weapon rack to reveal a door. “It’s where I go when I need to recharge, shut out all magical interference. It’s magic proof.”

  I glanced at Fin. “Like the cabin?”

  He shrugged as she shoved the door open and ducked inside the low doorway. The inside was no bigger than a walk-in closet. Pillows dotted the soft carpet and a small fridge with a glass door sat in the corner filled with water bottles.

  I forced myself to follow her in. What choice did we have?

  I moved over to a wall and sat on a pillow, adjusting my knives to lay along the floor parallel to my legs. “I don’t know how I feel about being trapped in an even smaller space than before.”

  Fin hummed his agreement, sitting behind me to pull me back into his chest. We were both sweaty but I didn’t care. It felt good to have this moment of connection.

  I lay my head against his collarbones and closed my eyes. “I guess it doesn’t matter. One tiny trap is the same as any other tiny trap.”

  Fin chuckled and the sound vibrated against my back. “So negative. I don’t know how I forgot you were such a pessimist.”

  I snorted. “You have met me, right? Because I’ve been a pessimist all my life.”

  Either way, I didn’t like our odds, especially if they’d planned this thing in waves with the goons, then the mages. Obviously, it had been a plan, which meant someone out there, and I likely knew who, had been waiting for us to make this move.

  And we’d walked right into it, leading him straight to Melinda. Damn it, I hated being a pawn. Especially the pawn of an evil mastermind.

  “Fuck,” I said, loud enough the word echoed around the small room.

  They all looked at me.

  “The bastard planned this entire thing. He knew we’d try to find a solution to the knife, likely after he took a shot at Fin, and he knew I’d go for the one person who might be able to help cut it out of the picture.”

  “But if this was his plan, why didn’t he come to see it through?” Fin said.

  I shrugged. “Maybe the ritual you guys performed did something to the knife, or to him, if he’d been wearing it. We can hope, right?”

  Fin sighed, his breath tickling my neck. “We aren’t that lucky.”

  I elbowed him in the belly. “Now who’s the pessimist?”

  Settling against him again, I let my mind wander on the problem. If Esteban planned for us to hunt down Melinda for him, it meant he still needed her for something. It also explained why he’d only brought this all-powerful knife out in our last fight and not the many beforehand.

  I thought back to our first fight in his mansion and how Fin and I both almost died in the under-ground cavern below Esteban’s mansion. The place which had felt tainted by all the magic he’d stolen from fae over the years. I remembered the metal ring set into the floor, the sort of siphon for the magic.

  Maybe we’d damaged it somehow? If he no longer had access to unlimited magic, it would explain why he’d been so unhinged in our last fight.

  I eyed Melinda who huddled into herself against the wall across the room. She didn’t want to talk about what Esteban had used her for, but it might help us understand him and his motives better if we knew.

  “Melinda,” I said, keeping my tone gentle. “Can I ask you a few questions? It might help us understand Esteban and what we’re dealing with here.”

  She glanced over my shoulder at Fin, and then back at me. “Fine.”

  Like speaking to a wild animal, I tried to keep my tone mild and soft. “What exactly did he use you for?”

  Wrapping her arms tighter around herself, she tucked her chin, staring at her knees before she answered. “Anything he could. At first, I expected him to steal my power like he did all the fae he brought into his house. But then he started using me to make weapons, jewelry, anything he could use to trap more of my kind. I hated doing it, but he made it clear that if I didn’t, he’d strip me of my magic and then kill me. Back then, my self-preservation instincts wouldn’t let me give up.”

  “But that wasn’t all he wanted from you, was it?” I prompted.

  She shook her head. “After a while, he started wanting bigger magic, things that tapped me out completely. He started bringing in others for me to take their power and use for whatever he needed. It’s how I made the knife for him all those years ago. He wanted more weapons like that, but making it almost killed me, and I refused. It was the first time I tested his resolve to kill me, and he balked.”

  “What other big magic did you do for him?”

  She looked at me, her eyes filled with self-loathing. A feeling I knew well. “He used me to create a vault. A way for him to trap magic in metal and manipulate it afterward. Making it killed two other fae and almost killed me. After that, I knew I had to get away or I would never walk out of that house.”

  Her gaze shifted over to Fin. “I wasn’t the only one he wanted. He planned to take you at some point too, but you’re too strong for him. He wanted to use your power to control minds to trap more fae. And once he figured out how to make your power his power, he planned to take everything you had left and kill you. He spoke about it often enough, using his horrible stories to scare me into doing his bidding. After he reminded me over and over how you were the stronger of us and you should have saved me by now but chose not to.”

  Fin stiffened behind me, and I wrapped my arm over his around my waist. “I’ve been trying to find you, to save you, for decades. I never stopped looking for you.”

  “It’s how he and I met, actually,” I piped in. “He came to me because he thought he was out of options. His research into finding you was extensive.”

  I let my brain assimilate this new knowledge. It still didn’t explain why the Black Mage was coming so hard at me now though. I’d never been a part of his evil plan, only Fin and Melinda. I tried to think back to our last fight but all I saw was the Captain’s blood and I blocked the memory again. One day, I’d need to go back there, but not yet, and definitely not now.

  When it came to long term strategy, I wasn’t the best at profiling. Short term moves were clearer to me, as well as the motivations behind them. The long-term game had always been more of Hawk’s purview. He could reason out a long game like a chess grandmaster, a skill I could never quite pick up no matter how many times he tried to teach me.

  Pounding in the outer room reached us. We all glanced at the door. Helix moved to sit there, his back at the edge of the jam.

  I sighed and shifted forward, ensuring I had easier access to my weapons. “I was hoping we had a little more time before they got through that door.”

  “Me too,” Melinda whispered, huddled in the farthest corner by the water fridge.

  “If they get into this room though, that means their magic will fail, right?” I asked, looking between Helix and Melinda for the answer.

  “Yes. Magic is dead in here.”

  Even if it would give us an advantage, the space was too small for any maneuverability.

  “We can’t fight them in here,” I said. “We have to go out and try to fight in the bigger space.”

  Helix nodded and stood, adjusting his weapons as Fin and I did the same.

  I pulled my knives and glanced at Melinda. “You should stay locked in here. If anything, we can draw them away and you can escape.”

  She glanced at Helix who gave her a slight nod. “Go to the meeting point. If we get separated, wait there. I’ll join you when I can.”

  Helix opened the door and the three of us ducked out back into the weapons room. He closed the door behind us. The outer door to the room shook violently, at the same time I felt the sharp pull of my bond with Fin flutter to life.

  “Zoey,” he breathed.

  Helix was already two steps ahead of us, throwing one of his super wards at the door just as it burst apart in a shower of metal. The shards of metal bounced off his invisible barrier and hit the men who’d blown apart the door.

&nb
sp; “That was handy,” I said, waiting for the next wave of goons.

  We braced as two more guys stepped into the doorway, over their fallen friends. “We know you’re there. We feel this ward. Let us in, give us the women, and we’ll leave you alone.”

  “They want the women...” I said, pulling my magic around me to shield.

  I’d learned getting gutted hurt like a bitch and preferred not to go down that way again.

  “If we have to take apart this ward, we will kill anyone keeping us from the women,” the man said. He wore black leather from head to toe, and just looked like a stereotypical bad guy. I hated him on principal. And the fact that he kept saying the women, like we’d lost our autonomy along the way, really got my goat.

  Fin eased his hand down my spine. “Calm down. I can feel how much you want to put your knife in that guy. You’ll get your chance, but not until it’s time.”

  At least he didn’t try to step in and take my anger from me. The man appreciated my blood thirst. I loved that about him.

  A flicker went through the ward and Fin and I glanced at Helix. “He’s using more power than I have to rip it apart. He must be one of Esteban’s higher ups. They’re the only ones who he shares power with.”

  We spread out in the room, trying to cover all the angles to ensure no one reached the door where Melinda hid.

  When the ward fell, the goon took one step forward, surveying us. “We have no need to fight. Give us the women and we’ll go in peace.”

  Before I could think about it, I’d gathered my magic, and Fin’s magic. I launched it at the bad guy who wanted ‘the women’. He unsheathed his blade and shoved it into his chin. With wide shocked eyes, he sank to his knees, and then over to his side, his hand falling away from the weapon as life left him.

  I startled. Fin and Helix both glanced at me.

  “Sorry, he just really pissed me off.”

  It felt strange to use this weird mix of both mine and Fin’s magic. I wondered what mine felt like to him.

  Another man stepped into the doorway. This one wore jeans and a t-shirt. He was shorter and looked far more unassuming than his friend, but I never went by what people looked like when it came to a fight.