Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
“Whoopee!” Edgar pumped his fist and accidentally crushed the full beer he’d been about to give Niamh. She sighed.
Within the dome, Sebastian shivered.
Nessa did as well before shaking herself out. “It’s never going to be a bunch to one, though,” she said. “It’ll never be this lopsided of a battle. A mage by himself would never go head to head with her in this sort of way.”
“Well, o’course they wouldn’t.” Niamh waved that thought away. “They’re in a magical dome, for feck’s sake. This is a spectator sport. It’s marketing. We need this territory to know that we have powerful magical people on our side. If those fool mages come calling, we have more than just a bunch of paws to answer the challenge.”
Sebastian lifted his hand before doing a little circle in the air with his finger.
“Oh, crap,” Nessa whispered, leaning forward.
Jessie’s wings crunched in to her sides. Her feet kicked for a moment.
Then she dropped like a stone.
“Oh, sh—” Niamh leaned forward as well.
Emotions rolled through the bond from the Ivy House crew. Cyra dove through the soaring gargoyles toward the magical dome, her fire zigging and zagging in the air around her. Her beak hit first, and an explosion of fire followed. It raced across the surface of the dome and nearly down to the ground. Pressure cracks spiderwebbed the spell, rough and angry. Niamh could feel the heat before it dwindled.
“Crap cones.” Nessa looked more closely at the spell before glancing up. “A few more of those dive bombs, and she’ll crack it wide open.”
“I think that is the point,” Mr. Tom said. “She seems to think Sebastian has turned on us.”
Jessie plummeted toward the ground, nearly there, still frozen. Sebastian didn’t move, watching her fall. Niamh wished the mage were connected to the house so she could get a read on him. From what she could see through the clearing webs of fire, his posture conveyed the confidence of a victor.
“C’mon, girl,” Niamh said. “Don’t wait until after ye’ve bounced.”
A burst of bright purple light exploded around Jessie, and then her wings snapped free again. She pulled out of her dive and headed straight for him, flapping her wings to get more speed.
Sebastian raised his hands, working magic, but she barreled into him before he could get a shot off, ripping him from the ground.
“Holy—” Nessa reached her can back. “I need another, Edgar. Please.”
“Your command is my…order.” Edgar hurried to comply.
“Didn’t quite get that one, Edgar,” Niamh muttered.
“She does know not to kill him, right?” Nessa said with a slightly shaking voice. “She knows that? I believed you earlier. Was that a terrible judgment call on my part?”
“You have to be careful when inciting a gargoyle,” Mr. Tom said before stepping back and readying to shift again. “We are very unpredictable.”
“The good ones are, at any rate.” Edgar handed Nessa another doily-wrapped beer. “Like you used to be, right, Mr. Tom?”
Holding Sebastian suspended by an ankle, Jessie carried him to the top of the dome. He hung upside down without thrashing or even wriggling in her hold. Unlike Zoe, he was perfectly composed in her grasp.
Jessie roared near the top, spun, and let go.
Nessa shook her head as Sebastian flew. “He could’ve gotten a shot off before she threw him.”
“She could’ve pulled his legs off during the journey to the top of the dome,” Edgar countered, pushing in a little too close to Nessa. He unconsciously made it his duty to creep people out. He was very good at it.
She didn’t seem to notice, though, watching Sebastian’s trajectory.
Sebastian hit an invisible impediment in the sky that slowed him to almost stopping. He dropped straight down again until he hit another. And then another, like a series of nets catching him and then releasing, dropping him to safety.
Jessie was after him. She streaked through the dome in swirls of colorful light. Nearly on him, she blasted magic in his direction. It spread out under him in a sea of bright blue and then almost seemed to peel away. He crashed through the failed spell and thunked onto the ground.
The landing wouldn’t have kept a shifter down for more than a moment, but Sebastian rolled onto his side and curled up in pain. The fall must’ve knocked the wind out of him.
“Good show,” Niamh muttered.
“What?” Nessa asked, her whole body tense.
“Mages aren’t as durable as shifters. They hide behind their magic. Jessie just showed everyone here what waited behind the smoke and mirrors. He might as well be non-magical with that sort of fragility. Take away the magic, and you will have no problem killing the enemy.”
Jessie landed a ways away from Sebastian and fired off a spell. He rolled onto his back and erected a shield, catching her spell and tossing it back at her. She waved it away and fired another, and another.