“I have no idea. I’ve never heard of anyone losing their magic. Magic is learned, not hereditary. You might forget spells, but to lose everything. I don’t see how it’s possible.”
Wendell frowned and stared down at me. “Well, without magic, I see no use for him. We can turn him over to the Air Force for trespassing charges.”
The black-haired woman, who had moved to the table that held my effects, spoke up. “Let’s don’t be too hasty, Wendell. I’m sure he must know things that we don’t. Perhaps we should prepare him for rendition and interrogation.”
She picked up my grimoire and thumbed through the pages.
Wendell nodded toward her. “Hmm, maybe you’re right; at least for the time being we could–”
I never heard what he could do with me. There was a brief rumble and the wall on my left shattered in a crash of rubble and dust. A klaxon began to scream.
I felt a blast of wind and the air around me cleared as my four interrogators were flung back into the wall.
Silhouetted in the opening was my apprentice. Her crossbow was in her hands and Bruno was standing on her left shoulder. Smoke rose from his mouth.
“What kept you?” I asked.
“Rush hour traffic,” Tess said as she walked across the broken concrete toward me. “How do you keep getting into trouble? It’s as if I can’t turn my back on you.”
“You know how it is when you’re popular,” I said. I held up my hands to display the manacles holding me to the table.
“Well, hell. I guess I should have brought bolt cutters.” Tess looked at the four people pinned to the wall. Her wind had stopped, but from their positions, I gathered that she was using her shield to keep them still. “Which one of them has the keys?”
“Don’t know. We hadn’t gotten that far in our introductions. If I were to guess, I’d say one of the two men. Probably the short asshole.”
Wendell opened his mouth to say something, but Tess did something with her shield and while the other three dropped to the floor, the bureaucrat became stiffly erect, his arms pinned to his side.
“If anyone tries to get off the floor, I’m going to feed you to Maia.”
At the sound of her name, the Hippogryph appeared in the opening.
None of the three made any attempt to rise. The witch, Lowden, looked subdued, but not really frightened. The military type, I hadn’t heard his name, seemed angry, but sensible enough to keep quiet until circumstances changed. The dark-haired woman, Aesa, seemed relaxed, as if this were nothing more than an inconvenience to her.
Tess stood face to face with Wendell and smiled. “Do you have the key to Rafe’s chains?”
Wendell’s face was so red that I was concerned he was about to have a stroke. The man nodded.
“I’m going to let you go now. You will take the keys from your pocket and release Rafe or Maia will get a late breakfast. Do you understand?”
Wendell opened his mouth to say something, but Bruno exhaled a blast of fire that singed the man’s eyebrows and the room was filled with the stink of burning hair. Nodding rapidly, Wendell dug into his jacket pocket and his hand emerged with a small ring of keys. He stumbled across the floor and fumbled at my manacles.
“Allow me,” I said, taking the keys away from him.
I undid both bracelets and stood up as Wendell backed away.
“What do you want me to do with these guys, Boss?” Tess asked as she raised her crossbow.
“They’re not worth killing as long as they never cross our paths again. Let’s go, we have places to be,” I said. I gathered my effects from the other table and picked up my grimoire from where it had fallen to the floor on Tess’s showy entrance. Turning my back on the four, I stepped outside over the remains of the concrete wall.
Beast was waiting and knelt for me as I approached. I climbed on his shoulders as a pair of USAF baby-blue police cars screeched to a halt on the tarmac near us.
“Time to go, Tess.” I wasn’t concerned in the least. While I was pretty much defenseless, Tess had her shield up and was ready for a fight. A fight I wanted to avoid.
As soon as Maia and Tess cleared the building, Tess mounted and we four flew into the air. I heard the same booming sound that had announced my being shot out of the air, but Tess’s shield deflected the rounds. In seconds, we were out of range.
Chapter 22
Therese
We were flying north; still over the wide pine forest of the Eglin test range when I noticed Rafe turning to look at me. I tried to ignore him, but he cleared his throat noisily.
I turned to face him and gave him what I hoped was my sexiest smile. He didn’t react to it.
“And just what happened to you?” he asked.
“When?”
“When I got my ass shot off of Beast. I would have thought you’d pick me up immediately.”
“That was my fault,” Maia said.
“Your fault?” Rafe asked.
“She was just reacting as anyone would when they’re startled,” I said.
“No, I should have depended on Tess to protect us,” Maia argued. “But when I heard the explosions and saw you fall, I panicked. I flew away and then opened a portal back to my home.”
“Oh?” Rafe said. “And how long did it take you two to get back?”
“Not long,” I said.
“Why didn’t you come back immediately?” Rafe asked.
I sighed and started to reply, but Maia beat me to it. “It was my fault again. We came out and my parents saw me. I had to explain where I’d been for the
