Sorceress, Interrupted - By A. J. Menden Page 0,67

spell,” Cyrus said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“We’re going back to my place,” I said. “Aprite il portale.”

Before we were safe, the last thing I saw was the members of the Dragon cult throwing open the door and rushing for us.

CHAPTER SVENTEEN

We burst into my bar with a crash. Normally, to access my universe a magic-user would have to know where the door is: down a dark alley in Megolopolis, behind a biker bar named The Watering Hole. Portals to another reality are the ultimate club security, better than scary bouncers or secret passwords, though I have used both of those as backup from time to time. Since I own the place—or to be more specific, found the place and set up its protective magics—I know how to bypass its security. I can open the metaphysical bathroom window, so to speak.

I’d shut the bar down when leaving with Adam, which had turned out to be a good move. Had it really only been hours ago? I’d sent my djinn and the patrons on their merry ways, as I didn’t like the bar running without me. Not that I’m a control freak, exactly—okay, I am—but I also don’t like the idea of people roaming around my house when I’m not at home. I’d never been happier to have that phobia than now.

As I stepped inside, the bar was silent and empty. Shadows were everywhere, and every noise we made seemed to echo louder than the din when the place was crowded with casters. It had always been a bit creepy unoccupied, and I always felt a bit on edge when I was here alone—which was probably why I’d ended up eventually breaking down and bringing it closer to the regular world again.

But, I wasn’t completely alone here. Not now.

“Thanks for the help back there,” I said to Cyrus, panting after the fight and then the run down the stairs and hallway. What? You try doing all of that without getting winded at more than 2,000 years old, especially in a cocktail dress and high-heeled boots!

“No problem,” Cyrus said, sounding just as out of breath.

“We should be okay now,” I announced. “I’ve never seen any of those guys around my place, so I kind of doubt they know where we went.”

“Unless they followed your teleportation signature,” Cyrus said.

That, of course, was when the loud metaphysical bang sounded on my front door. It was a warning of sorts, as cultists then started trying to push into my reality.

Since my wards were what protected this universe, and because I was so magically tied to this place, all damage they did was reflected to me. I cringed at the ensuing white-hot shear of pain. The walls around me shuddered like they were going to collapse; the cultists weren’t at the doorway between realities, which they could have easily accessed and not hurt anything, but were trying to follow me by other means. They were trying to push through the walls, which was extremely painful.

I whirled on Cyrus. “Why would you say that?”

“It’s not like I told them to do it!”

“No, but you practically willed it to happen by saying it!” Too late I remembered the spell they’d cast that turned my arm numb. “They marked me with some sort of tracer spell. Quick, see if you can take it off.”

Since those kind of spells are notoriously hard to take off oneself, I turned my attention to pushing back the cultists’ attempts to get in. I gritted my teeth and spoke quick words in Italian, but another wave of pain hit me. Damn it! If they got through, I would sustain a significant amount of damage; I probably wouldn’t be any help to Cyrus in fighting them back. They could cart me off to wherever they wanted, and I’d be helpless. I spat out the words to a ward. No way was that going to happen.

Cyrus took my arm in his grasp and started tracing symbols on it, all while whispering what seemed an endless stream of numbers. The feeling of his finger running up and down my bare arm was doing strange things to me, making me shiver but also be too warm at the same time. It was seriously distracting me from my fight against the cultists.

I shook my head to clear the spike of lust. Now was not the time for attraction.

A spasm of pain wracked me, and I could see a slight flicker from the other side of the room,