Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,52

Tala was willing to bet the pulses of negative energy were coming from inside that. She closed her eyes, trying to follow the source of those waves.

“So, hey,” Ken said. “You’re really gonna want to put that sword down on the ground and, you know, not touch it at all.”

“Shut up,” said one of the agents. He was holding Ken’s dark sword and tilting it from side to side, smiling and looking down at the blade.

“So ICE now works with the Snow Queen,” Lola Urduja said softly. “Or, to be more precise, ICE works for the Snow Queen. She’s succeeded in infiltrating your government. What did she offer? Untold spelltech to harness? The chance to become a powerful army in your own right, to deliver the same devastating abuses to your citizens the way she had done to her own kingdom?”

“Just because you’re an old woman doesn’t mean I’m not going to take action against you if you don’t shut that goddamn mouth up,” Appleton snapped.

But Lola Urduja was persistent. “You know what’s going to happen when word of this gets out, don’t you? Diyos ko, what a scandal. That this country now conspires with a known enemy of the state, a dictator that the United Nations has disavowed in every way.”

One of the agents arched an eyebrow. “Was that a threat I heard? I think that was definitely a threat, wouldn’t you say, Brian?”

“Where they’re all going, I doubt anyone’s going to hear them make threats,” another agent responded, smirking.

“They’ll die soon enough,” the agent still holding Ken’s sword murmured, running his hands along the hilt.

“Shut her up,” Appleton said calmly.

“I’ll do more than that,” The other agent was already moving toward Lola Urduja, hefting the wakizashi. His eyes had come alive with some terrible malice.

“What are you doing?” Another agent approached, then leaped back with a curse when the man pivoted to slash unexpectedly at him, cutting his arm. “What the hell, Wilson?”

“I don’t need any of you!” Wilson proclaimed, swinging the sword at his colleagues, who were attempting to wrest the blade away. He was laughing, a horrible, high-pitched sound. “All I need is this blade! I can kill you all, and they’ll make me king for it! I’ll start with you, Appleton! Fuck you for making me do this without overtime pay!”

That was all the distraction Lola Urduja needed. The snap of a fan was the only warning the agent holding her got before he caught it right in the midsection. As he stumbled and fell to his knees, Lola Urduja spun, whipping the fan out in a wide arc and catching Wilson right in the face, forcing him to drop the weapon.

The sudden gale that tore through the area knocked everyone off their feet. The agents were soon lying flat on the ground, but the other titos and titas were already on their feet, disposing of their own bonds. Lola Urduja, however, remained where she was. She was clutching her stomach, gasping quietly for breath. Blood dripped down her nose.

“She won’t be able to do that again,” Zoe muttered tersely. “West, protect her.” The boy was already rushing to the old woman’s side.

Tala’s father had sprung to his feet at the same instant, flinging the other agents off his back and rushing toward her mother. Ken and Loki had both jumped Wilson, the former reclaiming both his swords. But Zoe’s eyes were trained on the ice maiden, her whip singing through the air.

The girl creature smiled; icicles shot up from the ground before her, blocking the attack. Whatever spell blocks the agents had in place were not muting her magic. “You will not win, my dear,” she taunted. “Quite the struggle to summon so much as a whiff of lightning, isn’t it?”

“Go to hell.” But the strain was already showing on Zoe’s face even as another streak of light slammed against the ice barrier.

Ken hefted his swords, swore, then went on the offensive, hacking at the ice maiden. The creature was quick, ducking to avoid his slashes. The light from within his blade was sputtering, like a candle about to flicker out.

“I know this segen,” the creature purred. “You call it the Yawarakai-te—the sword that will cut no living thing—a useless weapon. But your other sword, the Juuchi Yosamu—that is the better prize. I have seen your ancestors die by their own hands, overcome in their madness by that magnificent blade. You choose the weakest of the Inoue clan’s artillery over its most powerful. Is