A Lost Light (The Bestiary #4)

12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Andy

W ell, that was terrifying. And stupidly arousing.

Dyre and Elijah, who knew? Our necromancer was shaping up to be quite the heartbreaker. But also… Goddess, we really shouldn't be fucking around with this level of magical power.

I knew Bella had this crazy idea of turning us all into the saviors of magic kind and all, but I still wasn't buying it. First of all, everyone thought we were villains. Especially me, with my nasty, tainted Lovell blood. And secondly, I think we had just proven that we were playing with fire—literally and figuratively. I had spent my entire life doing my level best to ignore the scary feeling of yawning depth that lurked in my magical well. And most of the others were all staggeringly powerful in their own right. Toying with an amplifier was batshit crazy.

And yet.

I wasn't about to sit around unprotected and unprepared while the SA and the stupid witch supremacist zealots were running around out here gunning for me and everyone I loved. At the very least, we needed to be prepared. Just in case. Even if I wasn't really convinced about going on the offensive or really taking an active part in Bella's crazy schemes.

Taking a deep, centering breath, I grounded myself in my earth magic and glanced around at my gathered companions. “Alright,” I said, as if we hadn't just witnessed Dyre and Sunny on the verge of wigging out. Or the weird, unsettling way Elijah's magic felt like it could manipulate souls. Nope. Just stay on task, Lovell. “So, now that we know how we all react to the damned artifacts, I suppose we should figure out if the whole doughnut hole thing works.”

A whole lot of eyes watched me like I was absolutely insane. As if they were just now realizing just what level of crazy ran in my veins. “What?” I snapped, hands on hips. They shouldn't really be surprised. I had relocated us and our entire mansion into an unstable handcrafted pocket world. My craziness was hardly news.

“Andy,” Zhong said gently. “Are you sure we should still try this plan of yours after all that?”

I rolled my eyes. “No. Of course I'm not sure. It's a terrible idea. But when have I ever done the smart thing.” Glancing around again, I threw my hands up in frustration. “What do you want to do? Go back to the pocket world and keep hiding? Hope that no one eventually finds us there? They will, sooner or later. You know our clock is ticking. I don't want any part of this fucking war Bella and Junaid are all wrapped up in. But I don't have a lot of faith that the damned universe is going to be content until we're completely fucked. So, I really think we should find the best way to use every tool at our disposal for whenever the shit inevitably hits the fan.”

Aahil crossed his arms over his chest and met my gaze, his golden eyes flaring with fire magic. “She's right. Ever since being freed from the bestiary, life has been one catastrophe after another. Clearly this is the price for tying ourselves to a Lovell. Especially one with such a soft, sappy heart in that voluptuous chest of hers.”

I shook my head. “Thanks,” I said sarcastically. “What a whopping vote of support.”

Aahil smirked at me. “I'm nothing if not supportive of your dangerous tendencies, Lovell. You know this, pet.”

“I agree with the two crazies,” Dyre said, his deep voice flat, but filled with gravity. “Even if we don't particularly care about the fate of the rest of the cursed world and all the idiots in it, the forces at play around us won't simply leave us alone. Better we know how to best defend ourselves, even if we don't join in the warmongering.” He arched a brow at the wary looks directed his way. “I didn't actually raise anyone,” he said waspishly. “We were perfectly in control. It just took Sunny and I a moment to adjust to the increased power.”

Ha.

I was pretty sure that was the closest Dyre had ever come to losing control over Sunny since they had first been forced into their involuntary symbiotic situation. But I also knew he would never admit that. He had probably been terrified. And Dyre and his passenger didn't react well to feeling fear or uncertainty.

Still. He was right. It might have been uncomfortable, and it might have taken a little bit of angelic intervention, but in the end it all worked out. No one was bleeding or dead. Or… undead. Except Elijah. You know what I mean.

There was some groaning, and a few long looks were exchanged, but eventually, everyone admitted that we were right. Better overpowered and over prepared than caught by surprise.

So, we set about working out the kinks in the ultimate plan that I had formulated back at the mansion with a little help from Dyre.

The concept was fairly simple. We would combine the powers of the nullifier and the amplifier to make a sort of… zone of invulnerability. With some spells and wards, and a whole lot of crazy Lovell making-shit-up, we had come up with a way to use both artifacts at once without them cancelling each other out. At least theoretically. We just had to test it.

The result of positioning the artifacts and weaving layers of spells and wards—with the help of all of my magically inclined friends to bolster the effectiveness—was a sort of donut shaped area of effect. The nullifier and amplifier would be temporarily fused together to create a center of amplification surrounded by a ring of nullification. Attuning the amplifier to my aura should allow me—and the people who were bonded to me—to slip magic through the nullified zone while still remaining behind our shield of null. Essentially, any enemies should be rendered magicless, while we still retained the ability to attack with amplified spells.

It would be a circle of death for anyone who picked a fight, moving with us as we went.

In practice, setting up the spells and wards and doing all the finicky weavings was both more simple and more difficult than I had anticipated. It was simple because once everything was in place it just kind of… made sense, to that part of me that was innately Lovell—the part that could see patterns and loved to take things apart and make new, better, crazier things. But it was also difficult, because it all centered around me and my bond to the others. It was our link that made it possible for them to get magic through the nullified zone. And it took a shit-ton of concentration and magical oomph to keep the whole effect going once it was activated.

But we did it.

I could feel a bit of my aura, stretched out and wrapped into the weaving, glimmering through the slowly spinning concentric rings of power and null that surrounded our group.

I whooped when I stood in the middle of the circle, holding my hands over the top and bottom of the floating artifact orbs, and watched Aahil set a patch of grass on fire from inside the nullified zone. We would have to test just how thorough the nullified zone was with some help from someone else, since everyone here was connected to me and the nullifier wouldn't work on them right now. But I could feel it there with my magical senses. I knew that zone of magical nothing was working.

We were all laughing like maniacs and performing little feats of magic from inside our doughnut hole of chaos, when a portal opened up a few feet away.

I immediately tensed up, and everyone went on high alert, sure we had been discovered. But it wasn't the SA or the zealots. Just my sister.

Bella stumbled through the portal, shoved her hair back from her face and gave me a fierce look, the fading remnants of a black eye visible on her fair skin from whatever trouble she'd gotten up to since I last saw her.

“What the fuck is that?” she demanded. She looked down at her hands as she stepped into the nullified zone and lost all of her lovely Lovell magic. Her aura visibly shrank, and she shuddered. “Goddess fucking fuck,” she yelped, leaping backward and out of the dead zone, where her aura slowly equalized again.

Well, I guess that answered the question of whether the nullification was working. Bella was a very strong witch. If it had sapped her, it would work on pretty much everyone else.

I opened my mouth to explain, but she waved me away. “Never mind,” she bit out. “I need you. Come on.”

I carefully started tucking away the massive amounts of energy I was using to power the spells on the artifacts, spooling my magic away for later rather than fully releasing it back to the earth the way I normally would. Bella sounded frantic. Which probably meant I'd need that magic sooner rather than later. “What's going on?” I asked, my head aching as the last of the spells faded.

Dyre took the nullifier from me, and Zhong grabbed the amplifier. They both quickly tucked the artifacts away into their storage cases, shutting off their effects. The lack of eddying magic made me feel slightly unbalanced, and I had to force myself to focus.

Bella paced closer and grabbed my wrist, pulling me toward the portal. “Come on, we'll talk at the mansion while you grab whatever you need.”

I dug my heels in and resisted. I was not going to be literally pulled into her stupid war games. “Bella. I'm not playing soldier today. We've been over this. Whatever it is, I'm sure you and your little group of rebel creatures can handle it.”

She rounded on me and her eyes, so familiar, yet so strange in the sister that I hardly knew, flashed with irritation. “Look. The SA is about to execute an innocent for some trumped up charges they are using to make themselves seem like the heroes. We need to stop them. I don't care what your stance is on anything else, but we need to do this. And you and your people stand the most chance of getting in and out quickly and making a statement.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “I know we don't know each other, Andy. Not really. But I know enough about you to know that you won't just stand by and let the SA commit murder when you can stop it. With your help we can storm the SA headquarters, get the poor guy out, and hopefully send a message that not everyone is going to quietly stand by and watch as the corruption spirals out of control.”

I groaned. But she was right. No matter how I might feel about any of this, I sure as hell wasn't going to be able to sit back on my ass and let the dank assholes at the SA murder someone just to earn them some public support in their weird power struggle with the witch supremacists.

Sighing, I followed my stupid sister through the portal.