Dreamwalker (Stormwalker #5) - Allyson James Page 0,90

with the slow, jerky movement of the undead. However, he spoke in the same smooth tone he always used.

“I’m almost finished here, Janet,” he said. “You can thank me when I’m done.”

“Thank you for what?” I pounded at the transparent wall. My fists sank into softness and did no damage. “Leave her alone!”

“You’ve always said she was out of control,” Emmett replied. “Now she’ll be completely harmless. Your sister thought she could best me, do you know that? Promised she’d help me get the mirror, but really she intended to kill me. She tried, anyway. All by herself. But I know how to fight Beneath-magic creatures.” He sped up the stream of light out of Gabrielle, and she shrieked again in agony and misery. “I’ve learned. Fighting you two this summer was most instructive.”

I beat at the wall, unable to get to her. Emmett, who built up his own power by siphoning off others, continued to suck Gabrielle’s ultra-strong Beneath magic into him.

He might kill Gabrielle when he was finished. Doomed to only watch, I couldn’t stop him. But even if he let her live, what would become of Gabrielle? Mick, when his dragon-ness was taken away, had snarled at me that Emmett had not given him life but living death.

Emmett, when he was done here, would have Beneath magic as well as all the earth magic he’d stolen for decades. Beneath magic was tough for the human-born to handle, but I had no doubt Emmett had been preparing to take it into himself for years.

He’d stolen magic from demons, witches, the evil and the good, the supernatural and the ordinary. He’d made it clear he’d go after the magic of the mirror, of Cassandra, and now of Gabrielle.

The only magic he hadn’t tried to steal was mine.

I was a mess of Beneath magic and storm magic rolled into one. My own mother, a goddess, feared me. Coyote, a god, watched me carefully, as did the Hopi gods who’d once imprisoned me.

As I stood there, I realized in shock that Emmett Smith’s ultimate goal wasn’t, in fact, my magic mirror. Oh, he wanted it, all right, but only as a tool to reach his next step. He wanted Gabrielle’s magic for the same reason.

Armed with all his power, Beneath magic, and a magic mirror, he could then turn toward the target he’d always been aiming for.

Me.

“You son of a bitch!” I yelled at him.

Emmett didn’t respond. He kept on draining Gabrielle dry, his body glowing like an arc light while Gabrielle wept. A glint in his hand looked remarkably like a piece of magic mirror—the shard she’d stolen, and now Emmett had taken from her.

I wasn’t certain how real this was. Had the mirror made me dream to show me what Emmett had been up to? Or was this Emmett remembering what he’d done, while he was trapped inside the mirror?

Didn’t matter—I had to kill him. I had to do it now. I had always imagined that the next mage Emmett would fight to retain his title of Ununculous would be Cassandra. She was the only witch I could think of who might best him.

I realized in this moment, that the mage who had to challenge the Ununculous was me.

Janet Begay. The baby my father had protectively folded in his arms while he defied his mother for the first time in his life.

Crap, I thought in sinking dismay. This is going to hurt.

***

I couldn’t fight Emmett without a storm. If he used Gabrielle’s Beneath magic against mine, dream or no dream, he might beat me.

Gabrielle’s Beneath magic was stronger than mine, and she had far more control. I had no doubt that Emmett would be able to handle it just fine. I’d only be able to fight him with the mix of my Stormwalker and Beneath magics, which I’d just about learned to blend without killing myself.

Too bad there wasn’t a storm in sight.

The night was clear, stars gleaming out now that the sun was down, their only competition the brilliance of the moon. While it had been snowy in the mountains, any clouds had vanished to let the air become crisp and bone cold.

On the other hand, in the reality where I lay slumped in Mick’s arms in the bathroom, a storm had been brewing. September could see wild thunderstorms, cooling temperatures letting the tempests build stronger, filling with wind until they let loose.

I could feel that storm, just as I could feel the coolness of my bathroom, not