“I’m coming!” Sebastian sprinted down the hall, caught his boot on the corner of a door, and spilled across the ground.
“Take a breath,” I told him, lifting him by the upper arm. “Take a breath. Think of Elliot Graves.”
He sucked in a breath. “I know. I know. Okay.”
Nessa stepped up to him, wrapping her hand around the back of his neck and pulling his forehead
to hers. “We got this, Sabby,” she told him in soft, urgent tones. “We’ve survived worse. Far worse.
We can do this.”
He closed his eyes, still breathing deeply, and nodded.
She let him go and hugged me before grabbing the back of my neck as well. “Do not pull any punches, okay? Give them the worst kind of hell. Hold nothing back.”
It was my turn to nod and breathe, feeling the conviction behind her words and her quiet strength burrowing into my body. It almost felt magical in some way, but then she was pulling away and heading through the door, throwing her head back to drink her vial as she did it.
Austin squeezed me into a tight hug a moment later, plastering my body to his. “Above all else, Jacinta Ironheart, you get out of this safely, do you hear me? If we have no hope, you get out.”
Yeah, right. Sure.
“Okay,” I said, because that was what he needed to hear.
His kiss was bruising, and then he was following Nessa out the door.
“Jessie, I’m scared,” Sebastian admitted.
“That’s because you haven’t had any coffee yet. Let’s hope Mr. Tom meets us with some, okay?” I smiled at him.
“He won’t. He’s mad at you for essentially ignoring him this whole time and allowing Austin to keep him from staying here.”
“Mad or not, he won’t stop forcing food on me. It’ll be fine.”
Wings sounded outside, and I pulled Sebastian out with me. The connections were frying my insides now, everyone out of bed, everyone active. I wrestled them together, joining everyone through me. They’d all be able to feel the company as a whole. A unit. Even if they were separated from the pack and isolated, alone, they’d have the comfort of their crew.
Nathanial landed, waiting for me, and a gargoyle called Trace touched down beside him—
Sebastian’s ride for the moment. I closed the door behind us and half pushed Sebastian toward them.
As we got closer, I shifted and rose into the sky, the others with me.
The next peal of magic I sent out said, I’m coming.
Sebastian had thought they’d come at dawn. He’d been spot-on, or as good as—the coming sun would start filling the sky soon.
Nathanial swooped in behind me and grabbed my waist before gaining altitude. In a moment, I saw why.
A pale light ran in a huge circle all around the town, glowing even in the water of the river.
They’d already begun their efforts to make the large dome. We’d hoped we’d removed enough of their hidden anchors to avoid this, but the mages had been sneaking in for months.
This wasn’t like Sebastian had described it, though. There was more to it, the glowing lines on the ground like stored energy they were now harvesting. They’d embellished the spell to make erecting the dome easier and faster, and were already way ahead of us.
It would’ve been a lot more gratifying if my swear had been coherent.
Nathanial dove, heading for the meetup location. My heart hammered now. I needed to land and shift. Needed to talk to Sebastian. I didn’t know by how much this would change things, but I knew it would.
“Jessie.” Sebastian stalked up to me as soon as I’d shifted. His determined, steadfast expression was illuminated by the glow from Kingsley’s streetlights. That was Sebastian, always at his best in a bad situation.
“How bad?” I asked, a little out of breath from flying and shifting so fast back to back.
His look said it all. “We need to take out their mages before they erect that spell.”
“How long do we have?”
“Depends on their power level and ability to work together. The color tells us what we’re dealing with—”
Another thrum of wings, lower this time. The enemy had been sighted.
Sebastian started talking faster. “Yellow means it’s fragile—”
“It’s still at blue, though.”
He jerked his head from side to side, his frustration evident.
“The blue is stored magic in the ground. It’s like they created temporary ley lines, an incredible feat. It’ll fuel them. No, I’m talking about the actual spell. The sheen of the actual dome. So yellow is at its most fragile. Orange is stronger, red is almost there, and blood red… Blood red means we’re trapped inside. They can fire at will or toss in Molotov cocktails or drop bombs on the town—
whatever. Breaking it at that point would be impossible. Not even Tristan would be able to get through. Do you understand me?”
“Yes. Blood red, we all die.”
“They’ll have invisibility potions, and given what Nessa described, it’ll be damn hard to see them in the dark. Watch for the break in the line. Watch for jets of magic. Home in on them that way.”
“Okay. Got it.”
He grabbed my upper arms, fully in control of himself now. “We need to take out those mages.
Don’t worry about anything else. Our job is destroying that spell.” He squeezed. “Hurry!”
“Jess.” Austin ran up to me, handing off potions to one of the gargoyles. “What’s the matter?”
“Your job is still the same.”
He didn’t waste time asking questions. He kissed me hard and then turned around and started barking orders.
I didn’t wait to see how fluid his teams were. I pushed into the sky, Nathanial with me. He’d taken the same potion—the concoction that would both render us invisible and allow us to see other invisible people. Their potions, unless they were made by a mage as powerful and talented as Sebastian, wouldn’t be able to do both.
Then again, they’d constructed temporary ley lines, something I’d never even heard of. They were good.
Nathanial grabbed me and put on a burst of speed, getting us high. He’d been there for my conversation with Sebastian and knew what was at stake. Most importantly, we’d worked together for long enough that he almost had a sixth sense when it came to me.
Sebastian rose with Trace and pointed in the opposite direction as me. Divide and conquer.
We flew out over the town. Garhettes jogged or walked briskly through the light cast by the street lamps below us, heading for their posts on the outskirts of town. Shifters raced past them, heading to their positions, ready to synchronize their attacks. They just needed to pinpoint the enemy.
That line glowed, the circle imperfect. Then again, it would have taken an alien with impeccable crop-dusting abilities to pull off a perfect circle. I wondered if that would matter. I bet it probably would, although that could be wishful thinking.
We flew closer through the darkness, nearly pitch black out here. No moon. I had a feeling that was by design. It would help their mages, no question, but it would screw their cavalry. The shifters wouldn’t be as affected by the darkness as human eyes. If Sebastian and I managed to do our job, we’d have the upper hand.