you’d asked nicely instead of trying to kidnap me, I’d have gone with you to the vacation spot,” I said as I tossed a dagger at him.
He murmured something and spat spells out of his mouth. It was creepy and gross but effective. My dagger plunged to the ground a few feet from him.
“You’re a nasty mage,” I said.
He insisted on non-verbal engagement, but the net he’d woven with dark spells thickened around me.
I called for my Flame of Rainbows, but only a purple fire whooshed out, tracing along my blade.
I wondered why not all twelve flames had come out, as they were more powerful together, but then my magic had never been stable and predictable. I was too busy right now to seek an answer to satisfy my curiosity.
With my flaming dagger, I slashed at the barrier trapping me. As my blade pierced it, a few of the spells dissolved.
The mage widened his eyes in surprise.
Two mutant beasts lunged at me, their claws extending to grab me. I kicked a mutant while driving my blade backward and cleaving the claws of another mutant that gripped my arm with bruising strength.
The mutilated beast howled in pain and rage.
Yelena and Nat slammed into the rank of the beasts to try to get to me, yelling like maniacs. Fear rolled off them, yet they wouldn’t leave me.
I’d gotten into a street fight in Crack when I was seven. I’d started hunting at the same age. My friends had only parried in the training room a few times.
Yet they wouldn’t run from a fight when I was involved.
Shouting battle cries, they were advancing on adrenaline. Nat slashed his bladed hands at a monster, and Yelena tossed powerful icy current into another.
Nat’s blade cut into the middle of his target, but another beast pierced his shoulder with its claws and tossed him at the twisted trunk of an Angel Oak.
Fury burned through me.
“You’ll not hurt my friends!” I bellowed and fought toward Nat and Yelena.
A beast grew into a giant in an instant, his yellow eyes glowing eerily. This bunch was full of fucking mutants, more beasts than men, unlike regular shifters.
The giant carelessly slashed his long, sharp claws down toward my scalp.
“Fred, I need the girl alive,” the mage shouted in a human tongue in irritation.
The giant turned the direction of his claws toward my shoulders as the mage tossed spells toward the back of my skull.
I dodged, and the corners of my eyes caught a flurry of movement.
Two teams of Dominion soldiers sprang toward us from the opposite directions; one team was led by Cameron and Marie, and the other belonged to Héctor’s house.
None of them would reach the giant and me in time.
But I wasn’t some paper flower. I’d earned a reputation for a reason.
I dropped on my knees, skidding forward like a flash. When I came out from between the giant’s huge legs, I’d sliced him up from his crotch with my flaming dagger.
It wasn’t a pretty sight, but then I never pretended to be nice.
I threw my dagger, still dripping the giant’s green blood, at a mutant who thrust his claws toward Yelena’s chest. My dagger embedded into his throat.
The Dominions broke through the field and fired arrows at the mutants around me. Cameron tossed his lightning bolts at the mage, but the enemy’s shield held. Marie was fond of modern weapons, so she kept firing her gun at the beasts from a safe distance.
A flash of light and shadows burst around me, then a pair of massive, obsidian wings formed a shield around my body.
Héctor grabbed the mage by the throat with his gloved hand and lifted him into the air.
“You dare to harm my lamb?” he roared in rage, death light glinting in his eyes.
“Watch out, Héctor, he’s got nasty spells!” I warned.
But the spells the mage tossed at the Demigod of Death bounced off his armor.
“Very cool,” I cheered.
I needed to learn a thing or two from my Héctor on defense. Zak had said that Héctor was the best among them at shielding.
Within a minute, all the mutants were down as the other demigods arrived at the scene. Zak formed a second shield around me, and Axel stalked toward the portal to investigate it, his teeth bared, his spear raised.
The demigods were more than outraged that the mage and his monsters had dared to try to take me in broad daylight.
My gaze searched for my friends, and relief washed over me as I found they were