Magic Triumphs

My shoulders and thighs burned from the scratches, and the gashes in my back simmered as if someone had poured salt into the wounds. Only four creatures left.

A blast of magic rocked me, nearly taking me off my feet. Some massive power had just broken through the boundary of my territory from above.

I spun around. In the northwest, a fireball tore through the clouds.

Teddy Jo swooped over us, his hands empty. Where was Conlan? I spun around and saw Julie holding him.

“Kate!” Teddy Jo pointed toward the fireball.

“I’ve got this,” Curran snarled next to me. “Go!”

He gripped my waist and threw me up. I shot up ten feet into the air. Teddy Jo caught my arms and pulled me up to him, locking his arms around my ribs, and then we streaked through the air toward the column of smoke.

Note to self, once this is over, explain to my husband to never throw me like that again.

The ruined streets slid under me. Wind tore at my face. The column of smoke drew closer. The area above it boiled with magic. Something terrible was happening up there.

“Fly faster!”

“Don’t make me drop you.”

Seconds ticked by. Roofs rolled under us, followed by ruins, then more roofs, and then we were in the Unnamed Square. The pillar of smoke rose from the middle of the street. Teddy Jo dived. Ten feet above the road he let me go. I dropped down and rolled to my feet.

The street was empty. I spun around, looking for the enemy. Where the hell are you, bastard?

Magic punched at me from above. I jerked my head up. Above, in the thick, low-hanging clouds, something flashed with bright red. Magic pealed like a giant bell, vibrations shaking the ground.

“Shit!” Teddy Jo snarled. A sword appeared in his hands and burst into flames.

Something tore through the clouds, glowing red, and plunged to the ground. I dove out of the way. Teddy Jo veered to the side. The object crashed into the pavement like a cannonball, steaming. The asphalt around it softened, melting.

I ran toward the glowing thing, Sarrat ready.

A wall of heat blocked me. I pushed through it, shielding my eyes with my hand.

The red glow was fading. A body sprawled on the pavement. Young, about twenty, male, probably Chinese, his shockingly beautiful face torn and mangled. I knew him. He’d gone to school with Julie. His name was Yu Fong. He’d come to the house to study once or twice with Julie and Ascanio, and he and Ascanio had spent the entire study session glaring at each other.

He had fallen for at least five seconds, maybe more. What the hell was going on?

Magic crackled in the clouds above me. The intensity of it took my breath away. It pressed on me like a massive hand. It wasn’t just old; it was ancient the way mountains were ancient. Every hair on the back of my neck rose.

I planted my legs and drew on the currents around me, calling to my land, shaping the magic it breathed into a shield. Phantom wind spun around me. The chunks of fractured pavement shuddered, rising slightly, grasped by the stream of magic surging up.

Above me the clouds churned.

The magic flowed to me, and I built it above the three of us.

A dark shape slid through the clouds, so huge my mind refused to accept that it was real. It was there, and then it vanished into the sky, melting into the mist.

I braced myself inside the maelstrom of magic, my hands raised at my sides, and grinned at the sky. Come on. I have a score to settle.

The dark shape hovered above me, hidden by the clouds but emanating magic like a lighthouse emits light.

Bring it. Let’s see what you’ve got.

It hesitated.

Fine. I pushed. The magic shield I built above us split. A geyser of power shot up.

The thing in the clouds streaked away from me, climbing higher with alarming speed. A moment and it vanished.

I waited.

A tense minute crawled by.

Another.

It was gone.

Teddy Jo landed by me. “What in blazes was that?”

“I don’t know.”

I released the magic, smoothing it back into its natural state, and crouched by Yu Fong. The heat had subsided. I reached over the still-warm asphalt and touched his neck. A pulse.

I couldn’t even tell from how high he’d fallen: a thousand feet, two thousand, more? He didn’t look completely broken, and he was breathing. I reached out, trying to sense his magic. Nothing but a mere hint. Every drop of his power was directed inward.

Teddy Jo swore.

I turned to him. “He’s breathing. Please go back to Curran and tell him we need a vehicle.”

“Stay alive!” Teddy Jo spread his wings and soared into the sky.

CHAPTER

6

I CROUCHED BY Yu Fong’s body. The bruises on his face had turned bright red, the gashes closing and smoothing over so fast, I could actually see his flesh moving. The fingers of his right hand jutted at an odd angle. Broken. His clothes hadn’t burned off. He’d fallen from a catastrophic height, so hot he melted the asphalt, but his faded jeans and gray T-shirt weren’t even singed.

Curran came running around the corner and sprinted to me. Sweat soaked his hair and forehead. He hadn’t bothered with the car. I straightened. He almost skidded to a stop and grabbed me, squeezing me to him. My bones groaned.

“Okay?” he asked.

“Okay,” I squeaked. “Conlan?”

He let me go, kissed me, and looked me over, as if he didn’t believe me. “Teddy Jo has him. He’s locked himself in the office.”

Oh good. It would take a tank to break into Cutting Edge.

“Look.” I pointed to Yu Fong.

Curran’s eyes narrowed. “I know this kid.”

“Yes. He’s been to the house. Used to go to school with Julie.”

“What is he?”

“I have no idea,” I told him. “But he’s something.”

Distant water engines roared.

“Are the kids okay?”

“They’re fine.”

People began to emerge from surrounding office buildings. The morgue at the eastern end of the square glowed pale blue. Its wards must’ve activated, which wasn’t exactly surprising. Anyone with a crumb of magic in a three-mile radius would’ve felt that explosion. Being directly under it was like standing inside one of those ancient church bells while the priests pulled on the ropes. It had rattled through my skull, and I had better defenses than most of the people in Atlanta. PAD would be here soon, and then we’d have uncomfortable questions we couldn’t answer. It would eat a day, maybe more, and we didn’t have a day to spare.

We had to move Yu Fong. He’d fallen from the clouds, so jostling him wouldn’t exactly make it worse.

Our two Jeeps rolled into the square and stopped. Just in time.

Julie jumped out of the first one, and Derek followed her from the second.

“Honey?” I asked.

Curran reached over, grasped Yu Fong by his T-shirt and jeans, and lifted him out of the warm asphalt. I caught the body for a brief second, and Curran picked him up into his arms, as if Yu Fong were a child, and carried him to the nearest Jeep.

“Yu Fong!” Julie ran over. “Is he okay?”

“He just fell from those clouds,” I said. “How is he still alive?”

“He is a Suanni.”

I blinked. According to Chinese myths, the dragon had nine sons, each with a female of a different species. A Suanni was the hybrid of a lion and the dragon, a being of fire. That made Yu Fong the closest thing to a dragon to be found in Atlanta.

“Julie. He’s been to the house. Why didn’t you tell me?”

She waved her hands. “It didn’t come up.”

“What do you mean, it didn’t come up?” Curran growled.

Damn it. “The next time you bring a half-dragon to the house, I want to know about it. That’s the kind of essential information I should have.”

“He’s just a guy I went to school with. We don’t make a big deal about it.”

Argh. “Can he regenerate?”

“I don’t know. I never asked. I think so. Dali would know. They’ve met before. He calls her White Tiger like it’s her name.”

“Does he shapeshift?” Curran gently loaded Yu Fong into the backseat.