If I could get him to hold still, I could easily rip him to shreds.
He didn’t hold still though. He disappeared in a ball of light, then reappeared on the other side of the room. That buzzing sound filled my head again.
“Take it easy, Archer,” Phaedra said. “Krall just wants to have a little fun.” She caught my eye as Krall had his back turned. She was fierce, determined. She wanted me to think she knew what she was doing.
I could barely see straight. Every instinct and alarm bell I had went off. Krall wanted to hurt her. He wanted to fill her with as much foreign magic as he could. She could handle anything they’d stolen from mages. This was different. She had no idea what fae magic would do to her. I wasn’t going to let her find out.
“Come here,” Krall said. “Let’s get serious.”
I shifted. My body covered in sweat, I took a step toward Krall.
“She’s no good to you if you zap her brains,” I said. “She’s human, you idiot.”
“She belongs to us,” Krall said. “And so do you, for that matter. What I choose to do to either one of you isn’t for you to dictate. You have a place here, dog. I’ve seen you in action just like her. They like you out there. You’re a draw. But be very careful not to outlive your usefulness.”
I curled my fists.
“It’s okay, Archer,” Phaedra said in her singsong voice. “It feels good. He’s not hurting me. I need a different magic. The stuff J.C. sells isn’t strong enough for me. This is my shot at something better. It’ll be okay. Right, Krall? You know exactly what you’re doing, don’t you?”
He laughed. “More than you realize. Now come here. Let me give you something you never could have dreamed of.”
He moved in a flash of light once more. He was on the couch beside Phaedra. He had her in his lap, his hands around her neck, pulling her head back toward him. His fingers crackled with lightning.
“No!” I shouted. He was about to shoot light straight into the base of her neck, in the very place I would have marked her.
I charged forward, shifting in an instant.
I wasn’t fast enough. For the rest of my life I would have nightmares about not getting to her in time.
Krall’s light crackled. Phaedra closed her eyes. I watched her chest heave as she inhaled.
The room exploded in fire. A great column of it blasted upward, spreading across the ceiling, then crawled down the walls. It coiled like a snake. Though it seemed to happen in slow motion, I knew it was merely an instant.
Then every golden-red tongue of flame shot straight into Krall’s chest. He went rigid. His eye sockets turned to brilliant orbs of light.
He was frozen. Suspended in time as his own magic warred with Phaedra’s. She wriggled out from under him.
“What the hell was that?” I asked.
“I wasn’t sure that would work. No time to explain,” she said. “Where does J.C. keep the files you’re after?”
“What?” Phaedra’s magic still swirled around the room. It was familiar somehow, and it was deadly. “How did you know that?”
“The files,” she said. “You want to know about your father? Come on. I sensed it in you. What we shared. It’s the only thing that would make sense as to why you’re still here. So let’s get busy.”
She pushed past me and went for J.C.’s desk. She started rifling through the drawers. Krall sat frozen in place on the couch, his face a grotesque mask as Phaedra’s fire poured into his mouth.
“Is he dead?” I asked. “How the hell…”
“No,” she said. “I’m working off a hunch here. Whatever else he’s got going on, that fae’s magic is based in some kind of fire. I thought maybe mine could short-circuit his for a second. I was right. But I don’t know how long that’s going to hold. And I don’t know what he’ll remember when he gets control of himself again. So, let’s find what you need. Then I’ll wrap myself around him again and hope he thinks that was all him.”
I caught her wrist and pulled her to me. “Phaedra,” I said. “That was…”
I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it. Couldn’t bring myself to name it. But her fire. I’d known it from the second I touched her. She was no ordinary fire witch. I had enough of my mother’s DNA inside of me to know the difference.
“Dragonfire,” I whispered.
Phaedra