And to be fair, the only damage my body had encountered as a result was a hangover, because Billy took his pay in beer. I traveled mostly in the flesh now, but those early lessons hadn’t been for nothing. Because I’d learned a thing or two about possession.
Like the fact that it didn’t have to be voluntary.
And right now taking control of the dark mage leader, even for a few moments, was the only way I saw us surviving this. But that required finding him. And after Enyo’s initial assault, he’d pulled back behind his men and I hadn’t seen him since.
And I wasn’t going to this way, I realized.
The war mages’ coats rose around me as I pressed through the ward, thick and black and suffocating. Worse, they had spells woven through them to provide an added layer of protection. And all those spells altogether left me feeling like I was sinking in a swamp of dark magic, one that had me choking and blind, with zero chance of finding anyone.
And I didn’t have a lot of time.
Sooner or later, somebody was going to realize the obvious: that all they had to do to beat us was to organize themselves into a unit again. And stop trying to fit through the narrow opening that was restricting their numbers and allowing us to defend a small area. And just take out the rest of the ward—
And then somebody did.
I was still trying to see through the crowd when all of a sudden, I didn’t need to. The leader jumped up on a barrel in front of the shops on the other side of the drag, putting him head and shoulders above everyone else. And grabbed a post so he could hang off the side, yelling and waving an arm.
“Form up! Form up! Damn you—form up!”
And shit.
I tried pushing forward, but nothing worked. There were so many bodies, and so much magic being slung around, I could barely tell where forward was. And then it got worse, as the gridlock around the “gate” started to pull back into formation. I ended up on the floor, getting trampled by boots that stomped right through me and coats that slung in my face and dark magic that weighed me down, like a heavy blanket—
Until the surreal moment when I pushed off from the floor, just desperate to get away, to get up—
And I did.
Way up.
It suddenly felt like I was a helium balloon some kid had dropped, that was spiraling out of control, up and over the crowd and rushing toward the ceiling—
And then through it, into the conference room above, freaked out and flailing because I wasn’t sure how to get back down again. Because I didn’t do this. I stepped out of my body and into someone else’s; I didn’t go floating around like a female version of Billy Joe!
But at the moment, that’s what I was. And I found that my thrashing did have an effect. I stopped just short of the ceiling, banked, and swooshed back around, like pushing off the side of a pool when swimming. Except the water was air and the air was in the wrong room and I needed to get back down there, get back down there fast—
Okay, little too fast, I thought, because the ceiling flew by in an instant, and then the crowd was rocketing toward me, and I was pulling up, flying out over their heads, banking and searching—
And finding.
The leader was still on his barrel, and a second later, so was I. And almost falling off the other side, because I didn’t know how to stop properly yet. But I didn’t need to. All I needed now—
Was to step inside.
I’d invaded the body of another dark mage once, one who’d shielded with wood. Or what had looked like wood, because we’re talking magic here. But any element will work as long as it has meaning for you, since it’s just a way to focus your power.
In his case, he’d chosen to visualize what looked like a wooden wall all around his body. Which had been lucky for me, since I ward with fire. My fire had burned through his wood, letting me in and putting me momentarily in charge. Until he figured out what was happening and kicked me out on my insubstantial ass, because the owner of a body always has an advantage.
I’d expected something similar this time.
I didn’t get it.
There was no discernible wall, of wood or anything else, in my way, which should have worried me. But it didn’t. Not until a horrible, shudder-inducing feeling hit as I breached the skin, which I didn’t remember from before. Like I didn’t remember the face that abruptly turned toward mine.
It was made out of fire—not good, not good, because I only knew how to shield with one element. And how was I supposed to burn through fire with more fire? But I didn’t have time to worry about it.
Because, the next second, the eyes rose and locked with mine, and I realized that I had a much bigger problem.
Because they weren’t eyes.