hard look in the mirror or not.
My guess was not, but I was not a glass half full kind of woman.
Real life wasn’t all that bright and shiny.
“You know the way out,” Julian ordered others, security already making it clear to hit the road. Others were hanging back, but ready to react should they need to.
And I was never more grateful for them being around moments later.
A temp portal didn’t just open, but burst into being there, and Mr. Craftsman appeared from it… And he was pissed off.
He didn’t care who was around, locking gazes with me and launching an attack the moment he wrote the rune.
Julian was suddenly there and pushing me out of the way, swiping the magic away with his own. He handled it, but I could tell it hurt the selfless idiot.
Selfless to help me.
Idiot because I had my barrier up, and it would have handled the attack without hurting him.
“Stay out of this, Julian,” Mr. Craftsman warned.
“No, you’re done, old man,” he sneered.
Mr. Craftsman snorted as he wrote runes on his arm. “Hardly. You think one little girl buying up shares will take me down? Please. It will all be mine, her whole estate and all she has, when I hand her over to the council to be named a witch, and they take her as theirs. Plus, the seat. All she did was make the score bigger.”
“The dragons will stop you,” Julian threw back.
“And yet they haven’t even made a move,” he mocked. “They were never going to protect her. They have too many problems of their own. They simply gave their warning to hold off those weaklings it would scare.” He focused on me then. “Come quietly and I won’t have to hurt him.”
I smiled at him, knowing it was an evil one and included Julian in my barrier. “Fuck. You.”
Steam practically came out of his ears as he launched whatever attack he’d been getting ready. I wasn’t worried, but Julian braced for impact, prepared to try and deflect it.
But someone else stepped in.
Dean White.
She walked right into the path, not even having to use her magic to smack it away like Julian had. Her magic was woven into what I would think of as her aura almost, sort of what I called a barrier, but we could see it. It was sick and almost like the stuff of comic books.
Mr. Craftsman couldn’t even hide his shock. “That’s not possible. You’re just a witch.”
“Yes, well, if you weren’t such a sexist idiot and so soft in the head to believe warlocks were the only ones with real magic, you’d know enough that there are lots of witches who can best you, Craftsman,” she mocked. “You all want her because of what she can give you, but she is not the only one, and there are many of us who will not stand idly blind while another of us is taken and done with as warlocks want.”
“Your betters say—”
“Our corrupt councilmen are not my betters, simply the ones who cheated to get those positions you were going to buy,” she sneered. “Unlike them, I can make tier ten crystals, as you can. Unlike them, I don’t cheat. I also remember that the original council was half witches, and our laws state that there should always be half the seats taken by witches to be a legal council.”
Oh, I hadn’t known that one. Dayummmnnn.
Craftsman ground his jaw and shot her a look of hate when people started whispering about that. “Know your place and get out of my way, White.”
“My place is where I say it is, and I say it’s right here. If you want me to move, try and make me. I know you can’t.”
Oh shit, she was just poking the bear.
And it worked.
He let out a wordless shout and wrote several things on his arm before launching magical attacks on her that made her aura waiver but stand strong. That seemed to incite him even more, and he did more, kept going.
But to what end? I didn’t understand what she was trying to accomplish. Wasn’t it smarter to get him to back down and go away? His council wasn’t going to punish him. I couldn’t see the play here and it was bugging me.
But then I saw her aura not just waiver, but crack.
And so did he.
We both reacted, I was simply faster, launching a barrier at him to keep him wrapped up. His attack bounced off of it and onto himself.
I