Nessa reached out and grabbed Sebastian’s hand.
“Here we go,” Sebastian said quietly.
Twenty-Five
I held between my palms an intense ball of pure energy and power, pulled from everyone’s defenses. Nathanial flew me up to the dome, knowing I needed speed and that my smaller wings couldn’t do that job. The gargoyles above us circled the dome, waiting to join us, eager to fight—I felt it clouding the air.
I answered with a pulse of power, not quite sure how or what it meant, but it felt as natural as breathing. I was meant to lead. It had taken giving in totally to my beast in the mating to feel it. To know it.
I liked it.
Somewhere below, I heard the basajaun roar. The rumbling of the mountain grew louder, more violent. A deep, subatomic groan spoke of large, probably horrible things about to happen.
I needed to make sure my people didn’t get caught up in that. Thankfully, I’d summoned enough gargoyles that we could transport all of our non-fliers to safety, much as the shifters might hate it.
When I neared the magical dome, I closed my eyes, drawing magic from my very core. Light flared against my eyelids, and I felt the heat between my palms as I hurled the ball with all my strength. A pulse of raw power rocketed out from the point of impact.
I felt the magical dome bend, stretch…and then shatter. Magic released in a heady wave.
Sky clear, gargoyles dove in around us, circling, waiting for what came next. Waiting for me to lead.
I pushed away from Nathanial, and he let me go immediately. I put out my hands to clear the gargoyles in my way and dove down to join the rest of the team. Isabelle and Kace circled the last two standing mages, flinging spells that only added to the strength of our defenses. They had courage but not much power, which was more than I could say for Rufus, who was hightailing it across the field toward the locker rooms, followed by five of his people, Edgar whooping and hollering behind them.
A few more mages lay on the ground, either curled up and hoping for this all to go away or (hopefully) playing dead. My team had showed their merit, and the mages had shown that they didn’t usually do a lot of actual battling. My early experiences in the magical world had clearly been unique. They gave me an advantage. Regardless, the fight with Rufus was over.
The fight with Elliot had just begun.
Something told me that Elliot wouldn’t roll over and play dead quite so easily as the others. He had a list of faces on his wall. He was an outlaw. You didn’t get that status by playing nice.
The chairs in the small stands rocked. People jumped to their feet, hands out, looking at the ground, looking around, probably wondering if it was an earthquake. Elliot had already stood, hands out for balance, staring at me. I couldn’t read his expression, but he knew it was on. He had to.
He’d wanted to test me, to see what I was really made of, and he was about to find out.
I flapped my wings as hard as I could, pushing forward with as much speed as I could muster. The ground gave a mighty heave and the basajaun roared. The standing mages toppled over. The shifters braced or stumbled. Everyone in the stands was thrown onto their sides or forward. Elliot somehow remained standing, still staring at me, seemingly unmoved by the scene around him.
Dirt and rock slid down from the peak in front of me. A dust plume rose into the sky just beyond the stands, and beyond that the ground caved in, crushing the network of tunnels within it. I realized with horror that we’d left all our stuff in our rooms. Hopefully the basajaun had worked out some kind of compromise with the mountain.
The people in the stands staggered, running toward us to escape the collapsing mountain behind them. I swooped down toward Elliot, hands held out in front of me to deliver the first spell, but he disappeared.
I kept going, not believing my eyes, cursing myself for not bringing a revealing spell. Nearly there, I sent a jet of magic at the spot he’d inhabited, then fired off more magic all around it, trying to hit anything still there. The mountain heaved. More areas caved in, probably the second series of tunnels the basajaun had mentioned. Anyone in them was lost to the rubble and rock, a thought that might have made me feel guiltier if an anguished roar hadn’t risen behind me. A moment later, Austin went offline. Unconscious, not dead.
Heart in my throat, I snapped my wings taut and angled, wrapping myself in a tight defense spell so I could safely look back.