Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,130

on the streets. I had no idea what time of day it was in Edis, or even if they had days and nights. It felt like afternoon to me, for some strange reason, despite the pitch-dark sky. Maybe my body was still on topside time, where it might well have been mid-afternoon.

I pictured Malcolm waiting beside the doorway, worrying about us. I still sensed his reassuring cool blue-green trace in my mind. He could probably sense me too, so he knew I was still alive. It wasn’t much, but given where we were and what we might be up against, it was worth a lot.

Ronan led us through a narrow alley into a street lined with what might have been homes. We’d gone only about a hundred feet when our attackers came out of nowhere.

Three of them attacked Ronan with grunts and roars: one of the troll-woodpile creatures and two smaller but stockier creatures with silver fur and very sharp teeth. All carried weapons ranging from a sword to nasty-looking daggers. One of the silver creatures also had a mace that dripped something from the tips of its spikes. I was willing to bet it was poison. Triple shit.

Before I could form blood magic blades or my whip, I heard Ronan’s voice in my head: Do not use your magic. Let us handle this. It was a command.

With the order came a definite nudge to obey, but one I could resist. Either Ronan didn’t have as strong of an ability as Lucy, or he hadn’t wanted to actually force me to do something against my will.

What, if anything, Ronan said to Lucy I didn’t know, but she shoved me into a doorway alcove, barked “Stay here,” and drew her sword.

Ronan and Daisy fought with the troll-woodpile and the silver creature with the mace as the other attacker circled, looking for an opportunity to use his blades. I wanted to run into the fray to fight at Daisy’s side, but I had to trust her to take care of herself. If I stepped out now, I’d expose myself and put us in greater danger by attracting more attention than we already had.

With the benefit of the masking and Look Away spells, Lucy was almost but not quite invisible. She used that to her advantage. She crossed the distance between my hiding place and the fight and took the head off the second silver creature before it knew it was under attack. In the moments it took for its body to hit the pavement, she was already moving toward the other silver creature with the mace, her sword dripping black blood.

The street was empty except for us. Where were the black-clad giants who’d broken up the fight in the market? Never a cop around when you needed one.

To my horror, the troll sent Daisy flying with a powerful kick and charged straight at Lucy as the mace-wielding creature went after Ronan. The troll must have been able to see or sense Lucy despite the spells. Daisy hit the side of a building and yelped.

I spooled blood magic. Ronan’s head whipped around, his angry storm-cloud-gray gaze finding me in my alcove. He must have sensed the rise of magic. Do not, he snapped in my mind.

I shoved him out of my head with a furious curse. I was sick and tired of people talking in my head without my permission and trying to force me to do things against my will.

The creature growled something at Ronan and swung the heavy mace with surprising speed. Ronan barely avoided the weapon. One of its spikes tore a hole in his robe. Lucy clashed swords with the troll, who was bigger and slower but many times stronger. The force of his blade striking hers sent her stumbling back. The troll bellowed.

Somewhere out there, Mariela was making her way to Edis to find the Furies. She might already be in the city. We didn’t have time for street brawling, and injuries sustained now might affect our ability to fight later if it came to that.

I spun my blood magic into round blades in both hands and spooled dark magic. Glyphs ignited on the blades, and the edges of my vision turned red.

Damn it, Alice! Ronan roared in my head.

I threw my blood magic blades at the troll and the mace-wielding creature. The blades buried themselves deep in the troll’s back and the other creature’s side. Both snarled and turned to see who or what had attacked. And