her bones. Her skin felt stretched. Her jaw ached from clenching it against the pain.
“Charity.”
Her name sounded distorted, as off and wrong as that loud tune shrieking through the day.
“Charity!”
The urgency in the speaker’s voice pulled her out from under the pounding waves of magic. A different sort of magic washed over her, soothing and cool.
“Come back to me, Charity.”
The fear in those words hit her first. Then the timbre, so familiar.
The soothing magic pulled her out of the fog. She blinked against the glare of the day, the black receding from her field of vision.
Devon stood five feet from her, his expression one of desperate determination. Pain tightened the skin around his eyes and made a vein jump over his clenched jaw.
“It’s over,” he said, his next step toward her costing him obvious effort. “Let’s calm down. Let’s slow it down.”
“It hurts, Devon,” she admitted, the act of forcing her magic down tearing her apart. “It’s hurting you.”
“Don’t worry about me. This is nothing.” His next step came slow, like he was walking through water. “Calm down with me. Let me get to you.”
A horn blared behind them.
Without thinking, Charity spun. A blast of magic so potent it crackled like a lightning bolt exploded next to the oncoming vehicle. The metal dented. The car rocked up on two wheels before slamming back down. The driver’s eyes rounded as she reached for the glove box. Her door opened and a gun came up.
“Andy,” Devon yelled. “Macy.”
“On it.” Andy raced forward.
“Yup.” Macy followed closely behind.
They stood in the line of fire between Charity and the woman who clearly did not plan to take shit, regardless of whether it was magical.
“Come back to me,” Devon said to Charity, forcing another step forward.
Something moved in Charity’s chest, hot and sharp. It felt like her heart was being cut out. Devon winced and dropped his head, as though walking through a gale-force wind of razor blades.
“We can handle this,” he said.
“Ma’am, we’ll pay for it, I promise. If you’d just—” Andy’s pleas were cut short by the woman’s explicit description of what she’d like him to do to his balls.
Charity let the shrieking tune cover it up. She stomped on her magic. Wrestled with it. Forced it down. The effect stole her breath and deadened her legs. Her arms dragged at her shoulders. Her back gave out and bowed. A moment later, she was falling, the blackness coming for her again.
Chapter Five
The pain cut off suddenly, and then Charity fell bonelessly to the ground. Devon barely got there before her head hit the pavement.
“Everyone, load up,” Devon shouted, his heart in his throat. That was the most magic he’d ever felt from her. She clearly couldn’t handle it anymore. There was too much for her to force into submission. It was like being swept up in a tidal wave. “Dale, give that woman Roger’s card. Steve, get on the phone with Roger. We need to get word to Emery. Get him to the portal now.”
“The plan was to leave at daybreak when—”
“I don’t give a shit what the plan was, Dale.” Devon hefted Charity and headed toward the closer van. “She has no time. Get your ass in gear, or find yourself a new pack.”
“Roger assigned—”
Devon swung around and stared him down. “I don’t give a shit about Roger, and I certainly don’t give a shit about you. You heard me. Do as I say, or leave. Get in my way when I am trying to save this warrior fae, and I’ll kill you.”
Dale’s chest swelled, and he took a step Devon’s way, a dickhead to the last. Before he could get the words out of his open mouth, Steve grabbed him by the shirt, bunched it, and threw, all in one movement. Dale’s arms windmilled as he flew through the air for the second time that afternoon.
“I’ve got Roger’s card.” Cole reached into his sweats pocket and turned toward the ranting woman still waving her gun. Little did she know that a gun wouldn’t keep a shifter down for long, not unless it was a shot directly to the brain. Everything else would heal in time.
“You’ve won another one,” Barbara said softly as Devon passed.
He nearly did a double take, but he didn’t have time to dwell on her meaning. Charity’s breathing was shallow and her skin felt too hot. This was one of the bad episodes. One of the times when her body struggled to process her magic.