“Which is?” Brad asked snidely, and I decided I hated him.
I grinned at him. He flinched. It made me happy. “Thank you for asking, Brad. The alternative is that Kevin and myself kick your collective asses and then take you to Randall, who’s waiting back there at the gate—ah! I can see by the looks on your faces that you know that name really well. Yes, Randall is here, and he is not in a good mood.” I didn’t know if that was true, but it was Randall, and he usually looked pissed off. “So, choice is yours, my dudes.”
“There’s only two of you,” Brad said, full of bravado. I hoped he chose to fight, because I wanted to punch him.
“One of whom is a dragon. But yes. You’re right.”
Brad had less bravado then. “And Randall is old and way back by the gate.”
“Oh, Brad. Brad, Brad, Brad. You’re not sounding like you’re going to make the right choice here.”
Then, quicker than I expected, a fucking fireball hurtled toward me, bright and hot and burning the air around it as it flew at my head. I held my hand out in front and the fireball stopped, hovering in the air inches away from my palm.
“Neil,” I said, a little startled. “I didn’t expect that to come from you. I thought we were friends. You’ve chosen… poorly.”
Neil looked shocked. “How are you doing that?” he demanded.
“Oh, the stop-the-fireball-in-midair thing? Yeah, as it turns out, I’m actually stronger than most people thought. Funny how that works out. Also helps when this guy is with me.” I nodded up at Kevin. “He acts as a conduit of sorts. Focuses my magic with a precision that you wouldn’t even believe.”
“I tamed him,” Kevin said. “All he needed was a stern hand. Call me Master Kevin of the Winds.”
“Oh my gods, we talked about this.”
“Right. Just making sure you hadn’t changed your mind or anything.”
I looked back at the Darks over the fireball. “Sorry about that. Where were we? Oh. Right. Hey, Brad. Catch.”
I barely put anything into it, and the fireball flew back at the Darks. Neil screamed in warning, but Brad was already moving, fingers twitching, and the earth broke apart before them, a wave of dirt rising and colliding with the fireball, which sputtered and hissed before it went out. The dirt fell to the ground, but it was already too late for them.
Before, with the sand mermaids and again with Myrin in Mashallaha, I couldn’t control the furious burst of magic that exploded from me. It was rooted in desperation, in the fear that I was losing those closest to me. Seeing Tiggy and Ryan sinking in the sands had whited out all thought, and I acted instinctively.
I wasn’t in control then.
But I was now.
It wasn’t so much pushing or pulling the magic anymore.
It was about thought.
Almost like I was wishing it so.
Kevin helped, as did the others, but it still came from within me.
I raised my hand.
The air rippled like the surface of a lake, and the pulse of green and gold was brighter than it had ever been. Lightning pushed through the scars on my chest and crawled along my skin, wrapping around my arm and hand and fingers. The ripples became electrified, and with Kevin growling low behind me, the lightning leapt from my fingertips, crisscrossing until it became like mesh, a web far larger than anything I’d created before. It fell upon the Darks, cocooning them in a domelike structure that crackled and sparked.
It took seconds.
I barely broke a sweat.
I lowered my hand.
“Huh,” Kevin said. “That was new. They don’t seem too happy about it.”
I tilted my head up at him and grinned. “Pretty cool, right? You could say I’ve found them… en-lightning. Get it? Because they’re trapped in ligh—ow. You didn’t have to hit me!”
“You deserved that,” Kevin said. “I approve of your sex puns because they’re about sex. But I draw the line at lightning puns. Because those are stupid and I hate them.”
I rubbed the back of my head as I watched Brad get electrocuted when he tried to touch the dome. He was knocked back on his ass, smoke curling up from his ears, eyes sliding unfocused.
“Ha! I bet Brad found that that hertz. Get it? Hertz with a z, because—ow! Kevin, if you hit me one more time, I’m going to—oof.”
I was knocked off my feet and landed on my back, suddenly covered from head to toe by a rather frisky knight. His lips were on mine and his hands were wandering, trying to find as much skin as he could. His tongue was in my mouth before I could think, slick and hot, and I couldn’t stop the groan that rumbled from me. Ryan ground his hips against me, and I pulled away from his mouth with a gasp. He proceeded to nip at my jaw before attacking my throat, sucking up a mark.
“What the hell—” I tried to say, but it fell off into a strangled squawk when his tongue went into my ear and my eyes rolled back into my head.
“Ungh,” Ryan said.
Oh. Oh.
“You liked that?” I growled at him. “You liked me putting my magic all over them?”
His breath was warm on my neck as he panted. “They shot a fireball at you. And you caught it.”
“Yeah, I did. And now I’ve got a fire in my pants that I need you to put out—”
“Oh my gods,” the portly Dark moaned. “This is worse than any torture that could be thrust upon us. Please, I’m begging you. Waterboard me. Anything so I don’t have to witness this horror.”
“What are they doing?” Neil asked, sounding horrified. “Are they eating each other?”
“Shhh,” Kevin hissed. “You’re going to ruin it.”
And it might have gotten worse if we didn’t have water poured on us right at that moment. Ryan sputtered as he jumped up. But then he tripped over my legs and fell on his back, breathing heavily.
Randall stood above us, frowning deeper than I’d ever seen before.
“Not cool, bro!” I snapped at him. “You didn’t need to get us wet.”
He rolled his eyes. “That’s what you do when dogs are in heat and tied together.”
I grimaced. “Ugh. Mood ruined.”
“Noooo,” Kevin moaned. “Why would you do that? Have you seen Ryan’s ass? It’s a thing of beauty.”
“Thank you,” Ryan said, pushing himself up. “I do a lot of squats.”
“You could be squatting on my dick right now,” I muttered. He snorted, extending a hand toward me. I let him pull me up.
But instead of letting me go, he pulled me to his chest, his mouth near my ear. “Tonight.”
“Yeah? You still mad at me?”
“Yes. But I’ve heard angry sex is cathartic.”
I nodded furiously. “Yes. Yes, it is. I agree. All of that. You should be so pissed at me. And then I’ll piss on you—whoa.” My eyes bulged. “Too far. Way too far.”
“Why would you say that?” Ryan asked, sounding horrified.
“I was caught up in the moment! This is all your fault! You tackled me!”
“Well, you’re the one who caught a fireball and then did that lightning dome!” He glanced around, flushing. When he spoke again, his voice was lower. “You know I have a kink for that kind of thing.”
“Please kill us,” Neil begged from behind the electric barrier. “I can’t listen to them anymore.”
“Are you two finished?”
I turned to glare at Randall. “The next time you’re feeling frisky, I’m going to—you know what? Scratch that. If you’re ever feeling frisky, I don’t want to know.”
Frisky, Ryan mouthed to no one in particular.
Randall nodded toward the crackling dome. “This is… impressive.”
“Wow. Thank you. Maybe next time, don’t sound so constipated when you say it.”
“Oh, trust me, there probably won’t be a next time.”
“Rude. But expected. Thank you, Randall.”
“Can you move it?”
“The dome?” I grinned at him. “Fuck yeah I can. Dude, I’m a wizard now. I can pretty much do anything.”
He sighed. “May the gods have mercy on us all. Bring them to the camp, if you please. We need to find out what happened with Mama. Ryan, stay with Sam. Kevin, come with me. I have a job for you.”