Krogher chuckled. “It amuses me that you think you can bargain with me.”
“Well, it was worth a shot,” she said.
She took aim and fired six shots at Eli.
And all hell broke loose.
Eli blocked the bullets with another one of those electric barriers. Then the room filled with magic, hot as acid. Eli adjusted the controller in his hand. Davy gave a strangled yell.
No bullets on us this time. They’d tried that, and it hadn’t worked.
This time it was fire.
Terric and I ran. For Eli. We could save Davy by killing Eli. We could get the hell out of here when Eli was dead.
The man above us was using magic to call up the very real fire that burned over the metal walls and stone floor. Fire made by magic.
“How?” I said, or maybe thought, as Terric and I carved Cancel spells, absorbed and diverted the fire, the heat, the magic, like we had choreographed this dance and knew every move.
“Eli,” Terric replied, or maybe thought. “And them.”
I ducked a fireball roaring toward my head, glanced up. There were five people standing at equal distance across the catwalk. These were not men in business suits. These were regular people, all of them in sweatpants and loose shirts—hospital issue.
All of them staring blankly, hands pushed palm out, thumbs crossed.
Holy fuck. The last guy I’d seen stand like that had blown up a building. As a matter of fact, he was up there too, assuming the position.
“What the hell are they?” Dessa yelled. “Breakers?”
“No,” I yelled back. “They’re using magic. Stay back.”
Dessa apparently did not know what those words meant.
She pushed her way through the fire, running for Eli.
“God. Damn. It. Woman!”
I drew in the magic, a god-awful lot of it, twisted it, felt Terric’s hand behind mine supporting the weight and chaos of it as we heaved it back at the people standing on the catwalk.
“Very good, Shamus,” Eli somehow said so close to me I thought he was next to my ear. “But not good enough.”
Davy moaned again, a gut-wrenching sound.
Time slowed.
This wasn’t a trick of my mind or adrenaline that made it seem like time was slowed.
All the world around Terric and me
But not Eli. And not Terric and me.
“You lift one finger, take one step, and all bets are off,” Eli said hurriedly. I noted he was sweating. Whatever he had done with the controller, with Davy, took a toll on him too.
“Krogher has Brandy bound. Trapped. I cannot touch her without killing her. Save her and I will give Davy a quick death. Refuse and his death will be long and agonizing.”
Brandy had to be close enough he could draw on her to break magic. But I didn’t see her or feel her heartbeat.
Just because the world was slowed didn’t mean it was at a standstill. Dessa was pulling another gun on Eli. The people upstairs had recovered from the backlash I’d thrown at them. At this speed, I could see that it was Krogher who controlled them, and he did so with some kind of device in his palm.
Probably something Eli had invented. The people were like individual generators of magic. Like matching bombs just waiting for Krogher to tap their power.
Strong as Soul Complements.
Maybe stronger.
Weapons.
“Fuck you, Eli,” I said. “You got no card in this game.”
I reached out for the spells he was supporting to protect himself and drank the magic out of them.
Davy screamed.
“Shame!” Terric said. “Don’t. He’s tied to Davy. You’re killing him too.”
I glanced over at Davy. Terric was right. Davy was weakly thrashing, the magic burning into him, blood streaming out of the glyphs and pouring down his body.
I broke my connection to Eli’s magic. “As you see,” Eli said, “I do have a card to play, Shame. The last card.”
He pressed a button and ribbons of razor-sharp magic shot out from the thing in his hand, aiming straight for Dessa’s heart.
Chapter 29
Time was not slow anymore. It was suddenly,
Dessa yelled as the magic slammed into her, throwing her across the floor.
Terric and I lifted our guns. Terric aimed at Eli’s head. I aimed at that damn thing in his hands.
We unloaded the clips.
He had a choice of which part of himself to Shield. Chose his head. The controller fell to the floor.
And the blank-eyed monstrosities from above hit us with another spell.
Impact.
It blasted through the room like a sonic wave. Threw me off my feet. An entire ocean of magic pounded and roared through the room.
Crushing us.
I couldn’t breathe. Tasted blood.
Tumbled, hit my back, shoulder, head, into something metal, felt my spine crack. Felt Terric’s pain too: arm, shoulder, neck. Could not tell where he was, or hell, where I was.
Ran out of air.
Drowning. Drowning in magic.
“Dessa!” I yelled. I didn’t hear her. Couldn’t see her.
Then Terric was there, standing above me. A goddamn angel with alien eyes. He did something with Life magic that made my ears ring with an ungodly chorus of sound. My head spiked with pain.
And then I could breathe, I could think. I stood. A little woozy, but kept my feet. It felt like they’d aimed the entire ocean of magic at me.
“They did,” he said in that flat, creepy tone that was not Terric, not human, and somehow louder than my own voice.
“Where’s Dessa?” I yelled.
“They’re taking Davy. Using him.” He might have just pushed the brunt of that Impact off us, but there was no Terric in those eyes. Just raw magic.
I stuck my hand on Terric’s chest, drew off the Life magic burning through him until he stopped glowing and some sanity came back into his eyes.
Situation: the room was filled with a snarling maelstrom of magic that burned across the ceiling, walls, floor, picking up metal, debris, and glass and spinning it through the room like a caged tornado.
The people above us, including Krogher, were gone. That wasn’t good.
The air cracked again and three holes in space materialized on the far side of the room. Gates.
Eli turned and limped toward one, holding his arm against his side and breathing hard. I hoped to hell one or a dozen of our bullets had hit him.
The second hole in space appeared right next to Davy. Men in black suits and black sunglasses stepped out
