Midnight Lies (Shifter Island #2) - Raye Wagner Page 0,73
another stream of fire, only to discover … exhaustion. What the hell? Terror bubbled up from my chest, and I looked to Rage as if he could help. ‘My magic won’t work!’
Had Grandpa Geoff said something about this and I’d somehow missed it? Maybe.
‘Don’t worry. I’ve got your back,’ Noble said—in my mind.
What the mage!
How—? I swallowed. How was it possible that I could hear Noble?
Oh. Understanding dawned. Similar to the mental link Rage and I shared, my mate had said he and his brothers had one. Somehow, I now shared that link too, probably through our mate bond. Wow. Only 6.2% freaky … considering.
Noble raised his hand, and with a flick of his wrist, the light flurry of snowflakes drifting in the sky moved en masse toward his uncle like flecks of metal pulled to a magnet. With a hiss of steam, Declan’s fire extinguished.
Rage grinned. “He can’t hold a shield over himself and the house. He needs to pick one.”
Hmm, shield studies must be a second- or third-year thing because I’d only heard of them from my dad, not any of my teachers.
I wanted to do something to help, but I was weak without my magic, and I needed to conserve strength for when Grandpa got back with the spellbreaker herb. Dad—thankfully—seemed to be holding his own. My father thrust both hands out, and two fireballs headed right for Declan’s face.
The king snarled and caught the spheres, and the flames disappeared.
“I can do this all—” Declan’s gloating cut off as my father’s real attack appeared behind the ball of flames, which were just a distraction. My father had launched what looked like a comet, right at Declan.
The comet was headed right for its trajectory, and I held my breath, waiting for it to splash into the king. I was so enthralled by the hot orange glow that I almost missed the icy resistance that came from behind Declan.
What the…?
My eyes widened as a stream of water shot out from the trees and collided with my dad’s fire. A billow of steam hid all of the Midnight wolves from our view.
‘Noble?’ Rage asked, huffing as we ran over the uneven ground and into view.
Where the heck had the water come from?
‘Not me.’ Noble was breathless as we continued to race across the snow-covered field.
Then who? He was the only water mage here except for…
‘Do you think they brought the high mages with them?’ I asked, my gaze cutting to Rage and then bouncing back to his deranged uncle.
We picked up our pace, full-on sprinting toward the precarious standoff between our packs. Declan’s numbers were far greater than ours, so what were they waiting for? Why not attack?
The steam cleared, revealing a red-faced and blistered Declan, cursing. With another flick of his hands, he shot a blaze of fire at my father. “Your magic has never been stronger than mine, Nathan. And it never will be.” He followed with several more shots, each one bigger than the last. “You are nothing.”
I waited for my father to catch the flames, to tell Declan he was wrong—but the stream of fire magic drew closer … the individual swaths merged until an inferno lit the night sky, bearing down on my father.
‘Noble!’ I screamed.
Noble waved his hand, nearly too late.
My dad dove to the side with a snarl as the flames pelted the ground, the force reverberating through my legs. I gasped, fear clenching my throat before snow poured over the fire, covering it with a mound, which promptly dissolved into a puddle.
Climbing back to his feet, my dad growled at the king, building a giant fireball between his hands. “So, this is how you want to play it? I’ll burn you alive like you did my brother and Valor.”
Crap, I needed to find Elaine before he could do that.
The king just grinned, and it made a stone sink in my stomach. Why did he look—?
Aunt Lilith exited the tree line, and I sucked in a fierce breath of bitter betrayal as Lilith strode straight to Declan’s side.
‘Do what you can to slow Midnight Pack from hurting Crescent—but Declan is mine,’ Rage snarled, seemingly to his brothers and me in unison. ‘Honor, stay with Nai—no matter what.’
‘You got it,’ Honor said while the other brothers nodded.
Justice and Noble peeled away, both in human form, striding over to join my father while Declan growled about betrayal.