A Lost Light (The Bestiary #4)

13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Andy

I t was strange having an outsider in my pocket world. I didn't like it. The wards allowed Bella in, but I could sense this sort of… alertness to the magic around us. This pocket world had been created, and all of the things inside it relocated, using a combination of my own will, my deep magical well, and the magic I borrowed from all of my companions. The place was literally made from little pieces of us. And anyone not in that circle registered as foreign.

I worked fast so we could get away from that low, un-scratchable itch of warning. Bella was Lovell blood and an ally. But she wasn't one of us, and that bothered me more than I had realized. Especially with all of her rebel tendencies. I thought her heart was in the right place. But she was a Lovell. As much as I hated being judged for that particular trait myself, even I had to admit there was a reason the magical world was incredibly wary of our name.

“Okay,” I said as I hurried around the workroom grabbing any spell ingredients I thought might possibly be needed. It wasn't much, honestly. We were going to try out our new magic trick. If that failed, we probably wouldn't have time for spell ingredients or casting. We'd be too busy being dead. “Tell me what's going on and why we suddenly care so much about the SA and their hitlist. Are you sure this person is really innocent? How do you know they aren't secretly a cultist or a fucking O'Leary? They seem to pop up like cockroaches everywhere we go these days.”

Bella ran her finger over the spines of the grimoires on a nearby bookshelf, her expression gone distant. Then she seemed to shake herself out of whatever memory or melancholy the setting had provoked and focused back on me. “His name is River. And he's not a cultist or an O'Leary. He's a librarian. He went to work for the SA when he realized what kind of trouble was brewing with the supremacists. He's a shapeshifter. The cult sees his kind as right up there with centaurs or fauns—animals to be used. He certainly isn't working with them.”

She waved a hand dismissively. “Anyway, our sources say he came across some information that he shouldn't have, and now the SA is going on about how he's a servant of the cultists and simply refuses to tattle on his masters. Poor guy. He couldn't give them information even if he wanted to, since he isn't one of those assholes. But the SA doesn't care . ” She glared, her hands fisted on her hips and righteous fury radiating from every pore.

I shook my head. It wouldn't be the first time that the SA made shit up to make themselves look good. “So what, they think that if they execute this guy for stealing secrets, they'll look like they are one step ahead of the cult and their games? That seems like a really weak reason.”

She huffed. “Since when has the SA's corrupt leadership ever needed a good reason to do anything. The last sensible thing they did was execute our family. It's been downhill ever since then.” She shook her head. “Though this kind of public scene is an escalation for them. I think it's meant to be a warning to the cult, and to the rebels as well—that they aren't afraid to use lethal and public punishment against those that challenge them. They're throwing down the gauntlet. It doesn’t matter that the guy is innocent. They need a scapegoat so they can prove their might to the public, and their ruthlessness to their enemies. They don't really care who their victim is. He is just the most convenient target.”

I rubbed my head. This kind of shit always gave me a headache. “This is all so fucking dumb.”

She nodded. “I agree. Which is why you're going to help stop it. With your overpowered crew and the artifacts, you can do this with far less risk of casualties. If I tried to take the rebels in there, it would be a full out battle, and we’d most likely lose people.” Her hand landed on my shoulder, and her eyes met mine, full of intensity. “You can do this, Andy. It's what you were bred for, you know? To be the strongest of us and overthrow our enemies.” Then she quirked a wry smile, softening those chilling words. “It's just that our ancestors thought you'd be fighting for the other side. Thank fuck you grew up to disappoint them.”

I huffed and stuffed one last pouch of herbs into my back pocket. A mixture that had been blended and spelled to stop bleeding. “If that was supposed to make me feel better, it was a complete failure of a peptalk,” I informed my insane sibling.

Though I silently thanked the goddess that Bella was on the right side of this too. If she was that passionate about supporting the only-witches-should-live faction, we'd be in serious trouble. I could definitely see some of my mother's fanaticism in her. Lucky us it was turned toward good. Or so I liked to believe.

We met the others downstairs in the entryway. Everyone looked rightfully grim. As far as plans went, ours was practically non-existent. Activate the artifact doughnut trick, step through the SA's portal, bulldoze our way to the cells, and grab the prisoner.

Bella and Junaid would be causing a distraction a block away in the hopes of drawing out as many SA agents as they could, so we'd have less SA people to fend off. But really, there was no finesse in this. It was a show of pure strength.

And a great test of our new toy. Couldn't get a better test than throwing the government's top magic users at it and seeing how it held up.

I glanced around the room. I felt like I should say something. Maybe kiss them all one last time because we were probably going to get ourselves imprisoned or killed. But instead I just nodded once, firmly, as if I absolutely believed we were just going to stroll into the SA and take what we wanted, then stroll back out.

Hasumi's turquoise gaze met mine, and they gave me a faint smile. They knew exactly how I felt right now, thanks to their ability to read emotions. I shrugged, then shook my head when a cool, comforting wash of confidence stole over me, grounding me. The water weaver winked.

“Okay,” I said, glancing around at everyone else. “Ready to go fuck some shit up?” Even if I was terrified, there was one good thing to be said for what we were about to do—a whole bunch of people at the SA were about to have a very bad day.

I got nods all around, and Zhong squeezed my shoulder with one big hand. I ripped open an unstable portal for Bella that would spit her out at the meeting place she and Junaid had arranged with a few of the other rebels so they could cause their distraction.

Once she stepped through, I closed that portal and took the artifacts that Dyre and Niamh handed to me. Pulling up my magic, I activated the doughnut spell. Everyone stood inside the circle of amplification. Then I tore open a new portal directly into the SA building.

Normally that would be impossible, thanks to the SA's fierce wards and security measures. But during a previous visit, Jackie had let me glimpse her working the wards on their main portal. And Bella told me our friend on the inside had done some tinkering to the portal since then. With the amplifier activated and the power boost I got from being bonded to all of these powerful beings… it was a piece of cake to crash the SA's own portal and step right on through.

There were a couple of guards and a clerk in the portal room to track who came and went, and to make sure no unauthorized personnel entered or exited the building. One of the guards was actually on the ball. He was a witch, but he moved like he might have some mixed blood, whipping a spell at us before I would have even had time to think about countering.

Unfortunately for him, we were inside our doughnut of destruction. His spell fizzled out in the null zone, and he and his two companions were struck by Dyre's rapidly cast counterspell a second later, knocking them all unconscious.

Well… so far, so good.

My heart was beating so fast and loud I could hardly hear over the noise. I was not cut out for these kinds of life-or-death situations. “Cool,” I breathed into the silence in the room.

The poor guards hadn't even had a chance to sound the alarm. Though I was sure we had probably triggered wards that would alert someone to our presence and send them scurrying our way any second now. “Let's go take a tour of SA headquarters,” I said brightly, ignoring my clenching gut and sweaty palms.

Dyre led the way, since he and I were the ones who had spent the most time here, while we were playing at being SA contractors. I walked behind him, holding my hands above the floating artifacts, maintaining the fusion spell, while the others flanked me. Luckily the area of affect had a good radius, so we had plenty of room to spread out enough to get our entire posse through the door and down the halls.

Sure enough, when we stepped out into the hall, there was a distant ringing, and a little light mounted up near the ceiling was strobing with flashes of red and blue. They knew someone had just blasted through their warded portal. Footsteps pounded down the hallway, and the ominous green glow that grew at the juncture of this hallway and the next said that the SA was about to throw everything they had at us.

“Why the hell did I agree to this again?” I muttered under my breath.

“Because you have a stupidly squishy heart, and you think every single sob story is your personal responsibility,” Aahil answered from my right.

He wasn't wrong. I sighed. “It's been nice knowing you guys.”

Zhong's big hand touched my lower back in support. Hasumi sent us all a wave of bolstering emotions. Niamh just laughed, in that unhinged sort of way that told me she was really looking forward to hunting something, and thought all my worrying was nonsense.

“We'll be fine,” Dyre said, his deep voice cool and even, unruffled as always. “Have a little faith in your monstrous minions, Lovell.”

I snorted. Yeah. The SA probably still thought I was controlling all these powerful creatures like a bunch of puppets for some nefarious purpose. Little did they fucking know. I barely had control of myself on a good day. Good luck to anyone who tried to control these whack jobs.

But all my levity faded as the first burst of high-level magic raced down the hallway. The magic signature said it was a killing spell. And it was headed right for us.

The SA wasn't going to attempt to capture us. They wanted us dead.