Lady Renegades (Rebel Belle #3)

Alexander lifted a hand, cutting him off. “Like I said, the spell was theoretical. Something I asked Saylor to work on before she vanished so precipitously. I’d never meant to actually test it.”

And then he suddenly smiled again, looking up at Dante and saying, “But no time like the present, hmm?”

He said some words then, nothing I understood, and the scene in front of me started to shake. I wasn’t sure if the room itself had shaken when this happened, or if Dante’s memories, locked away in some faraway corner of his mind, were just becoming unstable.

Either way, everything fell apart. There was a sound like wind wailing in my ears, and suddenly we were being thrust away again, hurtling backward, until I felt hot, muggy air again and the scratch of grass on my legs, and I was once again standing in a field, my hand falling away from Dante’s head.

Next to me, Bee had a hand on my shoulder, her face creased with worry. “Are you all right?” she asked, and I nodded, even though I definitely wasn’t sure about that.

I looked over to see if Blythe was all right, but her eyes were fixed on Dante, and when I turned my head, I saw why.

He was still staring sightlessly ahead, his chest rising and falling rapidly, but now a trickle of blood was slipping from his nose.

“What’s going on?” I asked Blythe, and she shook her head frantically, paging through Saylor’s journal.

“I . . . I think the spell was too strong. Or maybe Alexander added some kind of, I don’t know, like, booby trap to it.” Her voice was thin, higher than usual, and her fingers moved over the pages of the journal so quickly that death by paper cut seemed like a real hazard.

“You did a spell on him without knowing what it would do?” Bee asked, stepping forward and slightly out of the headlights’ glare. She’d pulled her hair into a messy bun, and she was looking at Blythe with her eyebrows raised. “Isn’t that what you gave us so much crap for?”

Blythe’s head shot up. “The kind of magic we’re dealing with is dangerous,” she spit out. “I’m sorry it’s not a freaking chemistry problem with formulas or whatever, but it’s not, and—”

“And the two of you need to stop fighting and figure out what we’re going to do,” I finished, crouching down at Dante’s side. His pulse was strong underneath my fingers, even though he was still breathing fast. Still, in the bright glow of my headlights, his pupils were so wide that there was hardly any iris showing.

“Should we call nine-one-one?” I asked, wondering what we would even say to a dispatcher. “‘Hi, we did magic on this guy in a field and now he seems catatonic, please assist’?”

But then Dante’s head suddenly whipped in my direction, his hand flying out. The ground rumbled and a wave of power shot out from his fingertips, strong enough to knock me backward, making my teeth clack together hard.

“The hell?” Bee squawked, but I was already on my feet, reaching for Dante.

Another wave hit, no real specific spell, just magic, lots of it, powerful enough to make all the hair on my arms stand up and to start a ringing in my ears.

“He’s not supposed to have powers!” I yelled, but that seemed kind of ridiculous to say when he lifted his hand again, sending out another bolt that had Bee stumbling against the hood of the car.

Blythe was still looking through the journal even as she had one hand out, sending blasts of power. But they just seemed to roll off Dante, who was already rising to his feet and raising his hand again.

Blythe cried out as the journal flew from her hands, and I was so freaked out from taking a walk through Dante’s mind that I wasn’t sure if my powers were up to the challenge of taking on a Mage Gone Wild.

But I was certainly willing to give it a shot.

As I moved forward, something caught my elbow, and I turned to see Bee next to me. Apparently her stumble against the car had given her an idea.

When I got my first car, my dad had given me a toolbox for the trunk. It was pink (and both the hammer and the screwdriver inside had flowers on their handles), which I’d appreciated, but it was also heavy as all get out. As she held it out to me, and as I closed my fingers around the handle, I flashed Bee a smile. “Thanks, Squire.”

“Thought there might be something in there that would help!” she said quickly, already moving back.

And maybe there was, but then Dante was turning his gaze back to me, and I realized I wasn’t going to have time to rifle through the box for the handiest tool.

Instead, I hefted the entire thing, power flowing through my muscles, and swung.

Hard.





Chapter 24


“I MEAN, AT most, there’s, like, a thirty percent chance I killed him.”

We were speeding down the interstate toward Atlanta, the car thick with tension. I’d let Bee drive, and now I twisted from my spot in the passenger seat to look at Blythe in the back.

“He was out when we left, but he was still breathing. And we called nine-one-one. I’m sure he’s fine.”

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