Smiling back at her, I nodded in acknowledgement, then turned my attention back to the twins. Austin had finished highlighting his chosen runes with the bloody ink mix, and they were both now speaking some words in their language.
“So what happens now?” I asked the informative mage, unable to curb my curiosity any longer.
“Now each and every mage in attendance needs to step into the circle, speak their oath, and then be anointed with the blood ink. It forges an unbreakable bond between the Mages and their subjects.” She spoke with reverence, and I understood this was a sacred ritual I was witnessing.
“What sort of bond?” I pressed. “What does it do?”
The girl—woman—wrinkled her nose. “I’m not totally sure, but from stories it is supposed to prevent anyone from lying to the Blood and Ink Mages. It’s how they’re able to settle disputes fairly within our community. When they can sense the truth of any situation, there can never be any unfair judgements.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded, and we fell silent as mages began lining up to take their turns swearing fealty to my lovers.
After some time, I needed to stifle a yawn, and my new friend snickered.
“Yeah,” she laughed quietly. “It’s a long process. Be glad this is only family heads and not every mage in existence. Excuse me, I need to jump in for my turn.”
I nodded to her, and she slipped back into the shadows only to reappear in the line of waiting mages. As she approached my boys, she threw me a wink and then sank to her knees before them in the rune circle.
They repeated the same ritual with her. Words exchanged, a dot of blood ink pressed to her forehead, then a flare of light as the ink absorbed into her skin, and it was done.
Returning to me, she was beaming with excitement and practically glowing. Actually... on closer inspection, she really was glowing a little bit.
“That was incredible,” she breathed. “Totally, totally unlike Yoshi and Jackson’s power. There is something different about these Mages.” She narrowed her eyes at me in playful suspicion. “I think I have a fair idea what that might be too.”
“Hmm?” I cocked my head at her in the picture of innocence. Neither twin had offered up any information about me this far, so I was keeping my mouth shut. As much as I liked this girl, I didn’t even know her name. Besides, I wasn’t really turning out to be the best judge of character when one looked at how my adoptive father was turning out.
She smiled at me for a moment longer, then changed the subject. “Can I get you tea or coffee? This is going to probably take an hour or longer.”
“Coffee would be amazing,” I gushed, suddenly realising I hadn’t had any since waking up from my daytime nap with Cole and River.
“You got it,” she enthused. “I’m Emerald, by the way.”
I grinned, glancing at her green hair. “Fitting.”
Emerald snickered and left to get my coffee. I stifled another yawn and shifted in my seat again. If I’d known how tedious this ritual was, maybe I wouldn’t have insisted on coming.
Nah, I still would have.
It was some time later, when a solid three-quarters of the room was glowing with that same faint shimmer Emerald wore, that things got interesting.
A large man with a silver-shot beard had reached the front of the line, but instead of stepping into the circle and kneeling as hundreds had before him, he just stood there with his arms folded over his chest.
“Is there a problem, mage?” Austin snapped, and I could hear exhaustion in his voice. I wondered if that had been this guy’s intention. Wait until they’d used their magic on several hundred mages before stirring up shit? They were bound to be tired as hell by now, but if this guy thought it’d make them any weaker, then he was in for a shock.
“Yeah, there’s a problem,” the guy snapped back, and a few mages behind him nodded their support. “It’s been seven hundred-odd years since new Blood and Ink Mages came into power. How the hell are we supposed to believe you are what you say you are? Or even if you are, that you’re anywhere near strong enough to lead us. From what I hear, you two were nothing more than human just a few weeks ago.”
A range of gasps and murmurs rose from the gathered mages, and Austin’s jaw clenched.
“If we weren’t your rightful leaders,” Caleb informed the man in a deathly quiet voice. “Then the fealty spell wouldn’t work.” The crowd nodded, and the general feeling was that they agreed with him. “As for your other concerns. Yes, we were human. But we’re not now, as you can plainly see.”
Caleb’s back was to me, but I assumed his fangs were still on display. It had been a long time since he and Austin had bled into the bowl though, so it must be a conscious choice on his part.
“So what?” the older man sneered. “You’re still probably watered-down at best. How can we be expected to swear fealty to you when you were raised human.” He spat the word human like it was a venereal disease or something. What a cocksucker.
Around him, the same group of men cheered their support, and it became pretty clear that he had primed them for this. God forbid someone take a stand without a gang of supporters at their back.
“No, I say we don’t need you two children in charge of us,” the man continued, puffing himself up more as he heard his supporters’ approval. “We need someone strong to lead us.”
“Oh yeah?” Austin challenged in his menacing voice, “Like who? You, Necromancer?”
My eyes widened, and I sucked in a sharp breath. This must have been the guy we’d been warned about. I carefully set my coffee cup beneath my chair, just in case I needed to intervene. Somehow. My magic was still on the fritz, so I had no idea, really, how I could be of any help, but just in case.
The man smirked, full of confidence. “Yeah. Like me.” His arms unfolded from across his chest, and in his left hand he conjured a ball of glittering light. “Consider this an official challenge for your titles.”
Around him, his cronies all conjured their own magics, and I knew from lessons with Austin what a punch they could pack when thrown at someone. Hell, if there was enough power and intent behind it, those balls of energy could kill.
My guys weren’t putting up with that sort of shit, though. My fingernails gripped tight to the edges of my seat as I watched their familiars unravel from the ink on their forearms and materialize beside them both.
A hush fell across the room as Tyson stretched his massive jaws in a growl and Sam reared up to flicker his tongue at the challenging mage. The two magical creatures glowed with power and were significantly larger than I’d ever seen them before.
“You...” the man gasped, and I noticed several members of his backup let their magic fade as they melted back into the crowd. “You’ve got...” He trailed off again as he swallowed audibly.
“Familiars,” Austin finished for him. “We do. But you didn’t come here today to chat, did you? Or have you changed your mind about challenging us?”
The bearded mage flickered his gaze at both Tyson and Sam, then back to Austin and Caleb, then finally over his shoulder to see if he still had any supporters. He did, though not as many as he’d started out with.
Stupid man that he was, took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes. He was clearly going to follow through because the only thing worse for a man like that was to look weak by backing down.
Without any other indication of his next move, he launched his ball of power at Austin. Quickly, his supporters did the same, but they all evaporated before ever reaching the twins. Meanwhile, Tyson bounded forward, knocking the bearded mage clean on his ass and locking his massive jaws around his neck. Sam had darted between the other mages who’d participated, sinking his fangs into each and every one of them before returning to Caleb with blood dripping from his mouth.