I swore under my breath.
Jim didn’t. Jim just began to leverage himself out of the window. “Come on.”
“You may be magical, but there’s no way I can climb that distance.”
“Who said anything about climbing?”
That same grin was still plastered over Jim’s face, and I was struck by the fact that if this were any other situation, we could probably be friends. I liked a guy who could laugh in the face of total, absurd danger.
This wasn’t any other situation, though, and smiling wouldn’t see us safely to the ground.
Jim muttered at me to hurry up, and despite common sense, I started to climb over the window ledge.
“Okay, hold on,” Jim commanded as he reached forward and secured one lanky arm around my middle. It was completely different from being held by Max. Expectant, powerful tingles didn’t race through me and leap into my heart. Nope, just fear.
“Hold on,” he said once more. Then Jim jumped. He did not, however, pitch into freefall. He kept the tip of the crowbar angled against the side of the mansion. Somehow, it stuck into the brick. As we dropped, the crowbar remained in the brick, controlling our descent as sparks and brick shards flew everywhere.
I squeezed my eyes shut, clenched my teeth, and used my all to scream.
Several seconds later, it didn’t matter. We reached the lawn below.
Jim jerked away from me, swung the crowbar at his side, and let out a heck of a long whistle. “I don’t get to do that every day at the library. Now come on.” He ticked his head to the side.
I pushed off to follow him through the large, sprawling grounds of the mansion.
Though I wasn’t used to Bane City – considering I hadn’t had an opportunity for sightseeing – I still knew enough about the horizon line to appreciate I had no idea where we were. As crazy as it sounded, it almost looked as if we were in a bubble. Though there were buildings at the edge of the mansion’s compound, the perspective wasn’t exactly right. The buildings seemed bowed in slightly, as if they’d all been replaced by leaning Towers of Pisa. “What’s going on?”
“This mansion is occupying other space.”
“Other space?”
“Basically, another realm. It is pocketed between folds of reality. All we have to do is break the bubble, and we will make it back to the city.”
Or, at least, that was the theory. Because, at that moment, I heard the loudest blast I’d ever heard. The sound screeched around me, slammed into me, buckled my knees, and sent me sprawling onto the grass.
Though Jim was also affected, he managed to keep on his feet. “Shit,” he swore. He reached towards me.
I couldn’t move.
I heard another bellow shake through the grounds, and this time I recognized the magic-laced voice. It was the Lonely King. “Come back here,” he screamed. As his voice echoed out, it powered towards me, slicing into me once more. There could now be no doubt whatsoever that his magic had something to do with his voice.
Jim had just enough time to stagger back, bring the crowbar up, and use it as some kind of defense against the Lonely King’s word magic.
I wasn’t so lucky. Magic slammed into my back, pinning me to the ground.
Jim lurched towards me.
“No, get out of here. Get out of here,” I spat.
He ignored me.
I heard the Lonely King. He sounded like a stampeding elephant.
Jim shoved a hand out, trying to pick me up.
I used the last of my energy to jerk my head up to stare at him with wide open, desperate eyes. “No, get out of here. Raise the alarm. Call the coven. Find Max. Buy us time. Give me time.”
Jim staggered backward, obviously seeing reason.
It was just in time, because the Lonely King screamed once more, and the force of his magic blasted into me, pinning me against the grass with the force of an anchor. “Get out of here, go,” I used the last of my breath to scream at Jim.
I watched him turn and run away.
I didn’t take my eyes off him until he reached the edge of the grounds and used the crowbar to break through the bubble.
Then the lonely King was upon me.
I didn’t even have time to wince. I felt a hand lance down and clamp over the back of my neck. Magic ate into me. It honestly felt as if it blasted through my veins like tiny bombs.
There was nothing I could do as unconsciousness took hold.
Chapter 10
I awoke.
This time it wasn’t slow. I felt like a spring snapping back into position.
I was hooked over the Lonely King’s shoulder as he walked me through some kind of compound. The storm raged above us, thrashing down with such power, the ground around us was flooding.
The force of the water wasn’t strong enough to stop the Lonely King as he reached a large set of imposing doors that led into a rundown factory.
Rather than reach a hand out and open the doors, he spread his fingers, opened his mouth wide, and sent a massive charge of bright golden yellow magic slamming into the metal. The doors exploded inward, shards of metal spinning out in every direction. One section of door sailed into an electrical substation box and ripped it apart, sparks spewing everywhere.
The Lonely King carried me forward.
Though my mind was bleary, I was aware of enough to note the broken factory around me.
Whole sections of the roof were missing, letting in the streaming rain and wind, puddles pooling over the cracked concrete floor.
But none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was
