Part 27 (2/2)

I blinked. The background now showed new figures, emerging under the moon's silver glow. I couldn't quite make them out, but they interspersed with the others, adding to the chase, the motion making me dizzy.

”Janet?” Gabrielle asked. Her tone didn't so much hold concern as it implied, What are you going crazy about this time?

I shook myself. The figures on the pot abruptly stopped, again becoming the still outlines of bear, tortoise, and lightning.

I took the shard of magic mirror from its bag. Even in the white moonlight, it was dark, holding secrets in its heart.

I moved as close to Nash as I dared, then I tossed the shard of magic mirror directly into the pot.

Chapter Twenty-Six.

Nothing happened. I hadn't thought it would. If Nash could cancel out something as powerful as the artifact, he'd cancel out the mirror, and any magical interaction between talismans as well.

Nash peered into the pot. ”Why did you do that?”

”Keep it in there for me, will you?” I said. ”And let's go have a talk with our mages.” As soon as Nash stepped away from the pickup, pot wrapped again and tucked under his arm, Drake peeled away from Mick and went for Nash.

He didn't care that the rest of us were two feet away from him. Dragon fire boomed around us, and Drake came down at our little group, huge talons curled and ready to strike. Dragon fire might not be able to hurt Nash, but Drake could always pick him up and drop him somewhere out in the desert, then pluck the pot from his dead, broken body.

Elena grabbed Grandmother and dragged her out of the way of the flames. The two women ran back to Nash's truck, diving inside the cab. Gabrielle ran after them, scrambling into the truck's bed to stand, Beneath magic in her hands, to defend them.

Mick charged for Drake, forcing the black dragon to roll away and climb again, but as soon as Mick and Drake were out of the way, Colby attacked.

I knew Colby didn't want to, but under his sentence to play slave for the dragons, he went for Nash.

I pushed my awareness at the gathering storm, grounding myself with it while I drew on the Beneath magic within me. Without the pot trying to enhance me, I might be able to deflect Colby without hurting him too much.

Colby came on. I saw his huge dragon underside, giant wings, talons as large as my body, as he dove for Nash. Nash ran and then dropped and rolled, trying to reach an outcropping of rock for cover.

As Colby pa.s.sed over me, I let fly my Beneath magic, right under his wing.

Colby screeched as he fell sideways, batting the air with the wing I hadn't zapped, the other one sweeping crookedly in reflex. He burst out with dragon fire, which I deflected with a Beneath-magic s.h.i.+eld. Colby jerked, trying to rise into the air, but his injured wing caught the ground.

Dust boiled upward as the dragon hit, the fine grains of dirt flying through my s.h.i.+eld to slice at my face. The Beneath magic kept out the magical, not the physical.

I ran for Colby. He raised his head, fury in his eyes. The anger was not for me, but for Drake, who still held him in thrall. Colby didn't want to attack me, and I didn't want to attack him, but neither of us had a choice.

”Colby!” I cried. ”Turn human.”

Colby had tricked Drake out of his chains once before. If Colby put himself under the sphere of Nash's null influence, Nash's negating field might be able to unbind him. It had worked the last time.

Colby gave me another look of pure rage. He got to his dragon haunches, his wings sliding out smoothly despite the hit they'd taken, and he launched himself into the air.

d.a.m.n. I wouldn't put it past Drake to have added a compulsion spell that kept Colby away from Nash. Drake wouldn't let Colby trick him a second time.

Nash made it under the rock outcropping and scooted as far back under its shelf as possible.

If Colby couldn't squeeze a talon inside there, Nash-and the pot-would be safe.

Colby decided to dive at the rock itself, spitting fire. I countered with my Beneath s.h.i.+eld, and Colby shot for the sky again.

I didn't want to hurt him. I wished Mick had gone after Colby, because I wouldn't have minded pounding Drake a little. I was still p.i.s.sed at him about my hotel.

High above, Mick and Drake tangled. Drake and Mick were matched in size, and both were experienced fighters. Fire streaked through the air, followed by dragon cries of fury and pain.

”This is your spectacular plan, Janet?” Nash yelled at me.

”You have a better one?”

Colby dove at us again, dragon fire bursting around the rocks and charring clumps of vegetation in a wide ring.

He came down for another pa.s.s. I stood up, b.a.l.l.s of Beneath magic dancing in my hands, ready to stop him.

Spikes of light descended from the black of the sky like bolts of golden lightning. Colby shrieked and flapped out of the way. I looked up in amazement as a dozen tubes of light slammed into the ground like railroad spikes, enclosing me and Nash, still under the outcropping, in a golden cage.

Crackling power surged out of the tubes, making the hair on my arms stand up. Colby swooped down to study them, but he kept his flames to himself. Good thinking. No telling what these things would do if we threw more power at them.

Nash peered out at me. ”What the h.e.l.l?”

The fact that the magical lights didn't instantly disperse meant that Emmett had calculated exactly how far from Nash's field of influence he had to place them. Colby was still above us -if Nash moved beyond the rocks to negate the spikes, he'd still be vulnerable to the physical threat of Colby.

More tubes surrounded the pickup with Grandmother and Elena inside, Gabrielle now sitting cross-legged on the top of the cab. Her laughter floated to me. ”Wish I'd thought of that.”

Emmett Smith looked at me, lenses of his spectacles s.h.i.+ning in the residual light of the tubes.

”Sorry, Stormwalker. I need you contained for a while.”

He turned away without waiting for my answer and faced Pericles again.

Pericles was shorter than Emmett and squat of build, but as I'd learned when he'd lifted me over his head, his body was mostly muscle. Moonlight gleamed on his bald spot, and also on his eyes, which had gone white.

I never saw the fight begin. One moment the two mages still a.s.sessed each other, the next, Emmett was enveloped in a dense black cloud. I felt the edges of Pericles's spell twenty yards away, choking death meant to squeeze every ounce of life from its victim.

A glowing shaft like the ones that surrounded us slammed straight through Pericles. Pericles screamed, and the blackness lightened enough for me to see Emmett's gla.s.ses gleaming behind it.

The spike went right through Pericles, leaving a giant, b.l.o.o.d.y hole in the middle of him. But as the spike and darkness dispersed, Pericles's body closed with an audible snap, and the blood vanished.

He gave Emmett a vicious smile. ”That all you've got?”

”I was going easy on you,” Emmett said. ”If you like, I'll let you live. We can meet to fight another day.”

”Screw you. I'm not letting you get your hands on that pot.”

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