line energy into me, spilling into my chi and overflowing to spindle in my head.
“Ta na shay, voulden!” Landon exclaimed, his expression ugly as he gestured.
Face white, Zack pushed back, a fisted hand motioning to make a field before him.
“Look out!” I shouted as Landon’s spell misfired. The bulk of the energy went into the overhead light, and with a sharp crack, it burst. I ducked, invoking a bubble as the shards went everywhere. Trent, too, had gotten a circle up in time, and Zack had made one even before Landon had finished.
“You okay?” I said, then followed Zack’s wide eyes to Landon. One of the shards had hit him and his face was bleeding.
“Is that what you meant to do?” Zack said boldly, and with a gesture and a soft word, his own glow of light replaced the busted lamp.
Landon stared at it. “How . . . ?” His gaze went to Trent. “Your magic works. . . .”
“Have a seat, Landon.” Trent let his circle drop. “I could use your help in getting the elven community to accept the new constraints on our species’ magic.”
I felt the Order retreat as Landon slowly sank down. He touched his face when he realized he was bleeding, and I watched him use a napkin to dab it up, wanting it.
“You got our magic to work,” Landon said, voice wispy.
Trent leaned back, his fingers steepled. “Zack and I, yes,” he said, his confidence almost palpable. “He’s an exceptional student. I’d like to extend an invitation for him to work with me. Say, for a semester? Whereupon at the conclusion we can revisit his tutelage.”
Zack brightened. Clearly this was news to him, but Landon’s awareness sharpened.
“You think to add to your family by stealing mine?” he said, and I began to push the salt into radiating lines. “How very old-school, Trent, but your pathetic attempts to add to your lineage while you cleave to a barren woman will only show your shortcomings that much clearer.”
I looked up, feeling as if I’d been socked in the gut. Trent’s fist went white-knuckled.
“Yes,” Landon said, goading. “A barren, worthless woman who will drag you down. Rachel, has Trent told you that his Sa’han status will be restored if he marries Ellasbeth? He’d have a voice again. A thousand voices. I wouldn’t stand a chance. But he won’t because he’s a fool.”
I swallowed hard, finding it hard to breathe. It wasn’t anything I didn’t already know, but it was hard to hear it so openly.
“Zack, let’s go,” Landon said, and my chin lifted. I’d heard worse in third grade.
“Touch me, and I’ll show you what else I learned,” Zack growled.
“Now!” Landon barked, and from the ceiling, Jenks rattled his wings.
I’d had enough, and with a quick motion, I snatched Landon’s bloody napkin. “You don’t look good, Landon,” I said, and Landon’s face went ashen. “Open your soul and say ahhh. . . .”
“Give that back,” he said, reaching, and Trent grabbed his arm. Landon’s men pushed forward.
“Rhombus!” I exclaimed, and they slammed into the outside of my large imagined circle. It wouldn’t stand against a determined assault, but I only had to stop them for thirty seconds.
“Ta na shay,” I said, strengthening my hold on the line, and Landon pushed back in his chair, horrified at what I might do—a demon using elven magic. Hear me, you crazy bitch of a demon. I need your help. “Ta na shay!” I exclaimed as I smeared his blood on the table’s candle and lit it with a stray thought. “Obscurum per obscuris. Wee-keh Wehr-sah,” I said triumphantly, my words spilling over themselves as his security ran their fingers over my circle, shouting as they looked for a way in. Head high, I found Landon’s eyes and snapped my fingers. “Ta na shay.”
“Dude!” Zack exclaimed as the pentagon opened and twisted with a soft hiss, the flame from the smeared candle flickering into existence at all ten points. Landon’s eyes were fixed on the glowing glyph in horrified fascination. Trent’s sound of dismay and Jenks’s muffled “Holy shit” drew my eyes down, and I stared. All but three of Landon’s flames were black.
Lips parted, I met Trent’s shocked eyes. Behind him, the Order was taking note, but not one moved forward to stop me. Perhaps they were interested as well.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, meaning it, and then I jerked as something alien and wrong seemed to slip into me. Fumbling, I tried to push it away, physically shoving myself