Corrigan Fire Bloodfire - Helen Harper Page 0,33

for my shifters being picked off one by one, no matter who the culprits were. I paced up and down the room like a caged cat, pausing only when there was a jovial knock at the door, which did nothing to improve my mood. Before I could say or do anything, it opened to reveal a grinning, blond man with messy dreadlocks.

‘Hey! I’m Alex!’ He thrust out a tanned hand in my direction.

I stared at him, confused. He wasn’t a shifter – so who on earth was he?

‘The mage?’ he said.

I continued to stare. I didn’t want to be rude; I simply couldn’t help myself. This could not be the wizard we’d been waiting for. Not only was he far too young, but he appeared to be channelling Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.

‘You are Corrigan, right?’

‘Lord Corrigan,’ Staines growled.

I finally found my voice. ‘You’re Alexander Floride.’

‘Yup!’ He waved his still-outstretched hand. I realised he was still waiting for me to shake it so I reached out, almost withdrawing when I felt the buzz of magic emanating from his skin.

He hopped from toe to toe and beamed. ‘This is just for tracking, right? There’s not likely to be any danger, is there dude?’

The Arch-Mage is pushing his bloody luck, I snarled telepathically to Staines.

He agreed. We may well be doomed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a joke.

***

I stalked out, attempting to look confident. It was clear from the expressions on the faces of the waiting shifters – both Brethren and Cornish alike – that they were having the same reaction to the mage that I had.

I coughed, ensuring all eyes returned to me, then spoke. ‘This is Alexander Floride, a mage from the city. We will travel to the site of John’s death where he’ll scan it for any signs of what might have occurred. We will find out who killed one of our own.’ We’d damn well better, anyway. I could still feel Lola’s pain rippling through my body and weakening my system. I could only hope it vanished soon.

Floride stepped forward. ‘Hi there. So, uh, yeah, I’m gonna hit the site, do some scrying and tell you what’s what. S’all good.’

I gritted my teeth. This guy could not be for real.

‘We need everyone who was present when his body was discovered to be with us so the scrying doesn’t get mixed up,’ Staines said. ‘Get a coat and wait outside.’

At least the small assembly was champing at the bit to finally have some purpose; we were venturing into the vicinity of finding out something about John’s murder, if nothing else. Indeed, it was bare seconds before everyone was outside and ready to go. Instructing Boyne to keep Floride as far away from any of the Cornish shifters as possible, in the vain hope that the less contact they had with him, the more likely they’d be to believe he actually had some real ability, I took the lead down the path. I was trying not to create too much of an air of urgency but I still maintained a brisk speed. The faster we got some answers, the faster I could get myself back to London to deal with the disaster that had happened there. There were some quiet mutterings further behind me to which I was tempted to put a stop. I forced myself to avoid snapping at whoever it was though. No-one needed to see how tense I was actually feeling.

I ducked under a low-hanging branch and began to pick up speed just as there was a sudden rush of flapping wings. I twisted my head as what seemed like hundreds of birds roused from sleep abruptly took off into the air. Then, almost immediately, there was a rumble and the very world trembled under my feet.

‘Earthquake!’ Boran yelled.

I knew instinctively it wasn’t anything like that at all, but whatever caused the ground to shudder was still strong enough to knock me off my feet. I grabbed the nearest branch to cling to as the tremor gained power, but it snapped off in my hand like a flimsy twig and I was sent careering down. Shifters behind me screamed and fear was filling the crisp night air with horrifying rapidity. Instinct flooded several people and they were unable to prevent themselves from shifting, the unexpectedness of the action ripping snarls of pain from their throats. They needed me and I had no idea what to do. All I could think was that I had to prevent the panic from escalating further.

Trying