Chapter 47
Maverick
“They’re at the Mage Council headquarters,” Olaf told us as Rasmus opened a hidden doorway down in the cellar.
Racks of swords, axes, and other weapons lined the walls. Most were antique, but all could cause serious damage to a mage, which was all that mattered.
Zane picked up a double-ended axe, the sort of weapon a Viking would have taken into battle. He swung it around, shaving a few hairs from my arm.
“This one’s fun. I might keep it.”
“I used that on Ramona Du Boix,” Rasmus told us. His sister grinned.
“The bitch deserved it.”
The three kitsunes sat in a row, teeth bared, tails quivering. I heard the pig scuttling on the floor above, oinking. We’d leave him here when we went after our mate. It was safer.
I waited for the others to select their weapons of choice, and then we headed back upstairs. My bear was lethal enough on his own.
“I can teleport us,” Zane said, but I shook my head.
“We should split up into pairs and arrive separately so we don’t attract attention.”
“I can fly there.” Olaf huffed out a plume of thick smoke and rolled his shoulders. He was still naked. Nobody seemed to care, although I caught Rasmus’s sister ogling him a few times.
“If a dragon shows up, the humans will lose their minds,” I pointed out with an eye roll. Not to mention everyone else, Tiberius included.
“It would be a good distraction, though,” Zane said. “Olaf can burn shit down while we grab Raven.” He smirked. “I suppose we better rescue Alaric’s ass too.”
“Let’s leave him behind,” I muttered.
“We need him. If he dies, she might die.” As much as I hated to admit it, Rasmus was right.
“We have to go now!” Kai’s yell came as a surprise. The merman rarely raised his voice in a group, content to take a back seat mostly. We all turned to stare at him as he stormed over to the door. He’d lost all color, turning from blue to pale gray. “Time is running out!”
He was right. We needed to move.
“Ready to kill some mages?” Zane bounced up and down on his toes. “And anyone else who gets in our way.”
Nula sat on the floor, her skinny arms wrapped around her legs. Tears stained her cheeks, but her sadness left me unmoved. While I believed her when she claimed to have no idea what Adam had planned, I didn’t give a shit if his imminent death upset her.
“We split into three groups.” As the most experienced one of us, I was taking the lead on this. “I’ll go with Kai. Rasmus, you partner with Zane. Olaf, stay with Florica. The kitsunes can get us through the wards, yes?”
Olaf nodded, happy to let me take point. “Kenji will go with you,” he said. “Kento with me, and Kasumi with Rasmus and Zane.”
“High-five, little K-dude,” the incubus said, attempting to fist bump the dark gray kitsune. Kasumi gave Zane his best kitsune sneer and coughed up a hairball at his feet. “Aww, that’s sweet of you,” Zane beamed. “A gift!”
I turned to tell Nula to stay here, where it was safer, but she’d gone. Oh well, not my problem. The storm mage could deal with her when we returned later.
“Olaf, you can land on the roof and attack from above. Kai and I will take the front, and Rasmus and Zane will hit the rear.”
Kenji sprang into my arms as I grabbed Kai’s wrist. A second later, we landed in the street opposite the Mage Council headquarters, right in the middle of a bunch of humans wearing lanyards and carrying cameras. Kenji vanished again, presumably to find Raven.
A fat human male in a shiny suit fell to the floor, scrabbling to get away from me, while a woman screamed in fright at the sight of Kai’s trident.
“Oh my lord, the freaks are attacking us!”
Above, thunder boomed before lightning split the sky in two. The storm mage was here—apocalyptic storms were his calling card.
Kai shoved the scattering humans aside and sprinted toward the shiny glass doors at the entrance. An earth-shattering roar high above distracted the crowd in front of the building, and they soon began screaming in panic.
Olaf must have arrived. The mage guards all stared up at the roof, wide-eyed.
“Is that a fucking dragon?”
“Move,” I growled, my shoulders bunched. My bear wanted us to shift, but it would be too difficult to move through the building as a bear. Shifting was a last resort.
More guards dressed in tactical gear appeared. They spread out in formation as the crowd dispersed from the plaza. Olaf must be putting on quite the show from the volley of roars rattling the windows.
“You are both under arrest,” a mage sneered. “Come peacefully and nobody will get hurt.”
“Not fucking happening,” I snorted. Kenji materialized and leaped onto my shoulder. I reached for Kai, and we blinked away, landing in a corridor lined with photographs of Tiberius Vane alongside various smiling dignitaries.
The acrid scent of burning flesh drifted out of a room on our left.
Kai looked sick but followed me as we headed that way. Upon rounding a corner, we saw two mages standing guard outside a set of carved double doors.
“Are we waiting for the others?” Kai mouthed, but before I could reply, pain ripped through my chest.
I doubled over as something inside me snapped, and for a moment, all I could see was darkness. Kenji disappeared as Kai stumbled against the wall, panting from the same pain that was slicing through me like knives dipped in basilisk venom.
“Alaric…” he gasped, clutching his chest. “He’s…”
“Dead.”