In agreement, the two mages marched back down the hall, and I rushed after them. We’d been cornered again. Which guild was preparing to ambush us this time? The same Odin’s Eye mythics? More Grand Grimoire contractors?
The guys chose a west-facing window. Ezra drew himself up, then waved a hand. His blast of wind blew out the glass, and as it smashed on the ground outside, we leaped over the sill.
Distant calls rang out as our feet hit the pavement—and then we were running. Aaron shot ahead, leading us into the nearest alley. This industrial area was full of interconnecting alleys and back roads for accessing all the rear businesses and commercial lots. If we could lose our pursuers anywhere, it was here.
I ran hard, Ezra right behind me. My gasping breaths were too loud for me to hear if anyone was coming up behind us, but I didn’t dare hope we’d left them behind already. Warehouses flashed by on either side. Thirty yards ahead, the alley split in a T-intersection.
As we sprinted toward that first turn, the air grew sickeningly damp—then a wave of water crashed over my ankles, sweeping my feet out from under me.
I slammed down on my ass and skidded on the wet pavement. Defying all laws of fluid dynamics, the water reversed direction and flowed over my legs, encasing them.
With a crackle, the water froze into solid ice.
The guys were down too, but fire blazed off Aaron, melting the ice on his legs, and Ezra wrenched free with his inhuman strength. They leaped up. I didn’t have their extra special abilities, and my legs stayed frozen to the ground. Yanking out my paintball gun, I smashed its metal butt against the ice.
The ground trembled, then shattered into zigzagging fissures. As Aaron and Ezra staggered for balance, the crumbling pavement broke the ice holding me down. I scrambled onto my knees as the earth rocked.
Wind erupted, howling down the alley and blasting into the off-balance mages. Aaron dropped to one knee, but Ezra caught himself and whipped his arm out, his buffeting wind countering the assaulting gale.
Orange light blazed—but not from Aaron. Forty feet away, a man glowed with flames. A pyromage. And arranged around him, illuminated by his fire, were five others.
Universally tall, well-built, fit as professional athletes, and decked out in identical gear. I would’ve laughed at their dorky matching uniforms, except the black garments, each emblazoned with a logo over the heart, didn’t make them look silly. Their unifying attire made them all the more terrifying.
They could only be the Pandora Knights, the city’s most accomplished bounty hunting guild, populated entirely by mages. Highly skilled, notoriously aggressive, powerful mages.
My frightened stare swept across them. Hydromage, kryomage, terramage, aeromage, pyromage.
The unknown mage on the far left pointed a thin-bladed rapier. Electricity crackled down the steel, then leaped toward us. Aaron thrust Sharpie out, catching the bolt. It sizzled over the blade, then leaped down into the pavement, unable to bypass the insulated hilt.
The Pandora Knights team didn’t waste any time on conversation, banter, or threats. Three darted forward and two fell back, one mage in the middle, their movements fluid and practiced. An attack formation.
Aaron held his sword out, placed his hand against the blade, and slid his palm down the steel in a sharp movement.
Fire exploded over the six mages.
The attack would’ve incapacitated any other team, but not this one. Ice burst from the kryomage, water flooded the hydromage, wind swept over the aeromage. The pyromage extended his hands toward the electramage and terramage, extinguishing the flames on them in a heartbeat—while completely ignoring the fire crawling harmlessly over his own limbs.
“Run,” Aaron rasped. “I’ll distract them.”
I shot to my feet, clutching my useless paintball gun. “But—”
“I’ll be right behind you!” He raised his sword, concentration tightening his face. “I need you two out of the way!”
Right. We were flammable. Whirling, I shoved my gun in its holster and grabbed Ezra’s arm.
“Aaron—” he began sharply.
“This one is my fight,” Aaron shot over his shoulder. “You know what yours is, Ezra!”
Confusion sparked amidst my urgency. Ezra hesitated, his face twisting, then pivoted on his heel and sprinted away. I ran beside him, clutching his hand. Firelight flared behind us. A rush of pounding footsteps, a crackle of electricity—then roaring flames exploded outward, filling the alley.
We reached an intersection and I spun around, staring back at the fire. Waiting for Aaron’s silhouette to appear. Waiting for him to dash out of the blaze and run to join us.
Ezra’s hand crushed mine.
The fire was withering—and electricity flashed. The earth quaked, pavement cracking with a sound like a gunshot. Wind whooshed across the alley, bending the flames, revealing the silhouettes within the dying inferno.
Six men surrounding a seventh.
“Aaron!” I screamed.
Fire surged, hiding the battle. I lunged, ready to race back—and Ezra caught me around the middle. He pulled me against his chest, his harsh, rasping breath filling my ears.
Frost covered the ground around us. My frightened gasp sent a puff of white into the wintry air.
I twisted to look at him—and saw his glowing left eye, his features contorted with agonized rage. His arms were so tight around me I could scarcely breathe.
“Ezra—” I gasped.
“I’m all right. I’m—” He broke off, jaw clenched, teeth bared. “He’s buying us time. We can’t waste it.”
Buying us time? But no, he was coming too. He’d be right behind us. He—
He’d said that so I wouldn’t argue.
Another burst of fire leaped skyward, and in the dancing flames, I glimpsed the eerie shape of the Hanged Man.
Ezra dropped me back onto my feet, grasped my hand, and ran into a connecting alley. The mage battle disappeared behind us, and every step I ran drove a splinter of steel deeper into my heart.
They wouldn’t kill Aaron. He was the famous Sinclair heir. No Pandora Knights mage would blacklist themselves by killing him.
They wouldn’t kill him. He’d be okay.
