The chairs in the small stands rocked. People jumped to their feet, hands out, looking at the ground, looking around, probably wondering if it was an earthquake. Elliot had already stood, hands out for balance, staring at me. I couldn’t read his expression, but he knew it was on. He had to.
He’d wanted to test me, to see what I was really made of, and he was about to find out.
I flapped my wings as hard as I could, pushing forward with as much speed as I could muster. The ground gave a mighty heave and the basajaun roared. The standing mages toppled over. The shifters braced or stumbled. Everyone in the stands was thrown onto their sides or forward. Elliot somehow remained standing, still staring at me, seemingly unmoved by the scene around him.
Dirt and rock slid down from the peak in front of me. A dust plume rose into the sky just beyond the stands, and beyond that the ground caved in, crushing the network of tunnels within it. I realized with horror that we’d left all our stuff in our rooms. Hopefully the basajaun had worked out some kind of compromise with the mountain.
The people in the stands staggered, running toward us to escape the collapsing mountain behind them. I swooped down toward Elliot, hands held out in front of me to deliver the first spell, but he disappeared.
I kept going, not believing my eyes, cursing myself for not bringing a revealing spell. Nearly there, I sent a jet of magic at the spot he’d inhabited, then fired off more magic all around it, trying to hit anything still there. The mountain heaved. More areas caved in, probably the second series of tunnels the basajaun had mentioned. Anyone in them was lost to the rubble and rock, a thought that might have made me feel guiltier if an anguished roar hadn’t risen behind me. A moment later, Austin went offline. Unconscious, not dead.
Heart in my throat, I snapped my wings taut and angled, wrapping myself in a tight defense spell so I could safely look back.
Bile rose. Austin was gone.
Elliot forgotten, everything beyond Austin forgotten, I banked fast and dove for Broken Sue, who was slapping at the ground and roaring. As soon as I landed, I changed into my human form so I could talk, not worried about nudity for once.
“What happened?” I demanded amid the deep rumble of the mountain’s shifting. It was quieting now, settling.
Austin’s distance grew. He was being carried away, not toward the collapsed tunnels but in the other direction, still unconscious. I sent a thread of healing in case it had been blunt-force trauma of some kind.
“What happened?” I yelled, fear climbing into my throat. Black rage such as I had never known rose within me, seething, pressing for release.
“Elliot appeared right next to him,” Cyra said, newly changed into her human form and running over. “I saw it. He appeared right next to the alpha, the alpha collapsed, and they both disappeared.”
I swore, remembering when Elliot had made that delivery truck disappear. I still had no idea how he’d done it.
The Ivy House link between Austin and me went dead. My gut churned as I tried, and failed, to bring it back online. Fear ate at me.
But I knew he was still alive, because we had another link, a deeper one, that was alive and well. Our mating bond, newly forged and continually strengthening. His heart pulsed with mine in my chest, strong and sure.
“Shifters, change,” I ordered, a pulse of magic pulling the gargoyles to the ground. I had no idea how I was doing all of this, but I’d figure it out later, once Austin was safe. “Change into your human form. The gargoyles will carry you with us.”
Niamh landed beside me in her nightmare alicorn form, her crystalline horn bloodied and her golden hoofs stamping at the ground. Edgar, returned from chasing the mages, jumped onto her back.
Isabelle, the first to change, turned to Jasper as he touched down. “Give me a lift?”
He hopped, his wings fluttering, and she jogged over. He scooped her up in a princess hold and swiftly rose into the sky.
Kace changed and then shook his head at Mr. Tom, who’d stepped forward. “I’d prefer someone I don’t know. This is going to be awkward.”
“Only if you let it,” Cyra replied.
“Oh, I intend to let it,” Kace muttered as a large male I didn’t know grabbed him by the chest