Relief crashed over me like a tidal wave. And gratitude. Normally, all I wanted to do was to punch Levi in the face, but at this moment, I could’ve kissed the bastard. Magic crackled through the air and slammed into Quill’s defending forces as Levi and his army rained hell down on them from their position at the edge of the ridge. A sigh escaped my lips. Audrey and Henry would be safe now.
“Fall back!” Chancellor Quill bellowed across the trampled grass. “Everybody, fall back!”
Booms echoed through the air as Levi and his people kept assaulting them while they beat a hasty retreat.
“What was that you said about reading us like an open book?” Audrey suddenly called to Quill while he backed away. “Didn’t see this ambush coming, did you?”
He was too far away for me to see the expression on his face, but I could imagine pretty clearly the annoyance that must be present there. A soft chuckle rolled off my tongue. We most certainly hadn’t set up this ambush knowingly. But Quill didn’t need to know that.
“Henry,” a commanding voice cut through the noise.
Next to me, Henry flinched slightly. It was only a barely perceptible stiffening of his posture, but I could feel it ripple through the air because I knew exactly what had caused it.
While keeping his face blank, Henry turned around to face the King of Metal. I did the same.
A dangerous smile curled Levi’s lips, but all he did was to shoot a pointed look towards the ground.
Henry slowly touched his palms together and called up wind magic. Without a hint of hesitation, Levi stepped right off the tall ledge above and plummeted towards the ground. However, before he could break his legs, Henry used his wind magic to soften the fall and help him land comfortably.
Immediately afterwards, six other wind mages stepped off the ledge as well. They turned around and began helping the rest of their companions down while Levi sauntered up to us.
A smirk played over his lips as he swept his gaze over us. “Damn, what a bloody mess you’ve managed to get yourselves in.”
“Levi,” I said in greeting since I couldn’t very well call him sir in front of other dark mages.
His gray eyes glinted as he held my gaze for a few seconds, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. But thankfully, he didn’t push the matter.
“So, you’re Levi Arden,” Malcolm said while flicking scrutinizing eyes up and down the metal mage’s body.
Levi spread his arms in a cocky gesture. “One and the same.”
“You’re a lot hotter than I thought you’d be,” Sienna announced.
He slid his gaze to her and gave her an assessing once-over before replying, “I’m married.”
“So?” She scrunched up her brows. “I wasn’t trying to flirt with you. I was just acknowledging that you’re objectively very hot. And I should know. I’m a fire mage.”
Confusion flitted across Levi’s face. For a few seconds, he just looked back at her as if he couldn’t figure out if she was being rude or not. I didn’t know whether to chuckle or shake my head at the crazy fire mage. At least she kept things interesting.
“Perhaps we should save the rest of this meet and greet for when we’re back inside the mansion?” Malcolm interjected before Levi could reach a conclusion.
I glanced back towards the hill. Only about ten of Levi’s people remained on the ledge now, waiting for a wind mage to assist them with their descent.
“Yeah,” I agreed, and then turned towards the man next to him. “Grant?”
Harvey Grant looked as if he wanted to say something else, but then his gaze shifted from Levi and towards the direction that Quill and his people had disappeared to. He blew out a sigh.
“Follow me,” he said before turning around and taking off at a run.
Irritation rippled across Malcolm’s features, but he jogged after him regardless. The rest of us did the same.
Quill’s troops had retreated far to the sides, leaving the path back to the mansion clear for now. But we didn’t know how long it would remain like that, so we had to hurry.
I glanced down at Audrey as we ran. Relief washed over me to find her more or less unharmed. My left arm still wasn’t working properly, and it felt as though lightning bolts were ricocheting through it constantly. But Sam could fix that as soon as we stopped moving around so much. I opened my mouth to say something about that to Audrey, but right then she looked up and met my gaze.
Fury burned in her eyes as she glared up at me.
It took me by surprise, so I just blinked at her instead, my mouth slightly open. She snapped her gaze back to the path ahead. I had no idea why she was so angry, and this wasn’t the time or the place to ask, so I just closed my mouth again and kept running.
A thin mist of pale violet magic rose up from Grant and floated back to cover the rest of us as we at last reached the edge of the gardens and disappeared into the vegetation. Levi shot me a sharp look. I shook my head in silent answer to let him know that it was protection rather than an attack.
When we had gotten halfway through the gardens, Grant stopped. We all trailed to a halt as well. I cast a quick glance back at Levi’s people, who had stopped a respectful distance behind us, while Grant slowly turned around to face us. Or rather, to face Levi.
Glowing dark red flowers and fruits hung from the thick branches around us, and the green leaves rustled in the wind as it whirled through the treetops.
Suspicion rose inside me as I looked between Grant and the King of Metal. Fuck. This couldn’t be good.
“Before we go any farther, you are going to swear a blood oath,” Grant said in a tone that left no room for discussion. “A blood oath swearing that you will never reveal any of this mansion’s secrets or use them against me.”
Dread sluiced through my veins like ice.
Across the grass, Levi stared at the emotion mage with a look of utter disbelief on his face. The tension was so palpable that the very air seemed to crackle with it.
Then Levi cocked his head in a move that was pure predator. “What did you just say?”
“You heard me perfectly well.”
“Look, Grant…” I began, and took a step forward, positioning myself between the two of them.
There was no way in hell that Levi would ever swear a blood oath to someone else. That Grant had even dared suggest such a thing would in Levi’s mind be a grave insult. And a challenge to his power.
“I am not interested in what you have to say, Callan,” Grant said. His eyes remained locked on the King of Metal as he repeated, “You and all of your people will swear the blood oath. Or this is as far as you go.”
Levi let out a cold laugh full of disbelief. Then his gray eyes slid to me, and he lifted his broad shoulders in a shrug. “Well then, good luck with your war, Callan.”
He began turning around as if he was going to leave. Panic surged up inside me.
“Wait,” I said before snapping my gaze to the infuriating emotion mage. “Grant, what the hell? We need him.”
“No.” Grant’s eyes were hard as he stared back at me. “You need him. As I have already told you, I am perfectly capable of weathering this war here inside my gardens. So if you want to use my mansion as a base, you will do as I say. My house. My rules.”
At that point, Levi had already turned around and taken a step back towards his people. With a few quick strides, I positioned myself in front of him.
“Get out of the way, Callan.” His whole being was pulsing with the threat of violence. “You know how it ends.”
“We have a deal,” I said instead. Holding his gaze, I remained firmly in his way. “We held up our end of the bargain. This is yours.”
“My end of the bargain did not entail swearing a blood oath to someone,” he growled between his teeth.
“If that’s what it takes for you to help us with this war, then yes, it did.”
“I am one second away from slaughtering you all. Step aside, Callan.”
“What does it matter? The blood oath doesn’t change anything. It won’t limit you in any way. It’s not as if you’re planning to go to Eldar later to attack one random mansion.”
“Now there’s a thought.” A lethal smile spread across Levi’s mouth as he turned back around to face Grant. He swept his gaze over all of us. “This is all there is, isn’t it? All the dark mages left in Eldar. Maybe I should just kill you all right here and conquer Eldar on my own.”
Shadows sprang to life around Malcolm’s shoulders, whipping like black snakes, while dark red flames whooshed down Sienna’s arms. The red light glinted in Levi’s metal shoulder plates as he took a threatening step forward and touched his palms together.
Alarm shot up my spine.
Moving my right hand, I managed to press it against my unresponsive left and summon a force wall. But before I could do anything else, Levi and his whole army flinched.
I snapped my gaze towards them.
It was so faint that it could barely be seen in here, but if I concentrated, I noticed that Grant’s pale violet mist had shifted so that it no longer covered Levi and his people.
Gasps ripped from several dark mages, and fear flooded their faces. Even the King of Metal stumbled a step back and blinked hard as if trying to clear his head. Slapping his palms together, he hurled a sheet of metal straight towards Grant.
I threw my force wall the second he moved, and his attack slammed into mine before it could hit the emotion mage. The boom as our powers collided echoed through the woodlands.
Levi yanked out the sword he kept strapped along his spine instead and advanced on Grant. His chest rose and fell rapidly, as if he was terrified, and his eyes darted back and forth like he was seeing something the rest of us couldn’t. I quickly launched myself between them, blocking Levi’s path to Grant.
“You’re attacking me?” Levi ground out between gritted teeth. “I just saved your asses, and you’re fucking attacking me?”
“I’m not attacking you,” Grant said in a calm voice somewhere behind my back. “I’m simply not protecting you anymore. And if this is what it feels like when I’m no longer offering you the courtesy of shielding you from the effects inside these gardens, imagine what it would feel like if I was actively attacking you.”
“Grant,” I snapped over my shoulder. “Enough.”
Levi was gripping his sword so hard that his knuckles were white, and panic flashed in his eyes as he blinked repeatedly while he also tried to move around me. Behind him, all of his people were in similar states.
Then the faint violet mist shifted back around them again, and they all sucked in a collective breath.
Shaking his head, Levi blinked again while dragging in a deep breath and raising his sword to point at Grant. “You—”
“Levi,” I interrupted. Staying silent, I waited until his furious eyes locked on mine. “I know asking for a blood oath is rude. But we have a deal. That’s all there is to it.”
And the King of Metal never broke a deal.
Rage crackled in his eyes like lightning. But in the end, he forced out a long breath and raked a hand through his black hair. Steel sang into the warm afternoon air as he spun his sword around and rammed it back into its sheath.
“I fucking hate emotion mages,” he ground out.
Grant said nothing. And when I turned around, I found him just watching Levi with a pleasant smile on his lips. I shook my head.
Heaving a deep sigh, I stepped back to my previous position next to Audrey while Levi pulled out a small knife and drew it across his palm. Audrey was staring at him with raised eyebrows as he spoke the words of the blood oath. She didn’t know Levi like I did. Didn’t know that he really was one of those people who always followed through on his deals and promises. So it didn’t surprise me that she was shocked to see him swear a blood oath like this.
Sam drifted over to me and began healing my arm again while Levi gave the order for the rest of his people to swear the blood oath as well.
When all of them were finally done, Sam had finished his work and I had at last regained control over my left arm. Flexing my fingers, I relished in the fact that it no longer felt as though they were being pricked by thousands of needles.
“There,” Levi snapped once the last of his people were finished. “Done.”
Grant gave him a nod. “Thank you.”
Surprise flitted across Levi’s features, as if he had expected Grant to gloat rather than express gratitude. Drawing his eyebrows down, he studied the emotion mage. But before he could say anything else, Malcolm spoke up.
“We need to make a plan for how to proceed.” His intelligent brown eyes moved from face to face. “However, tensions are running high because we were just ambushed by Quill, and we’re angry about that, and now you are angry about Grant’s need for caution. And we are all just… too angry right now. If we all were to sit down right now and discuss next steps, I am fairly certain that several of us would be dead before the day is over. So, I suggest that we get Arden and his people settled, and then we pick this up in the morning. Any objections?”
Silence fell over the woodlands as we all just looked at each other.
“Excellent,” Malcolm said. “In the morning then.”
And with that, he turned around and started towards Grant’s mansion.
I watched as the rest of them began walking as well.
Fucking hell, I couldn’t wait until this war was over. Getting dark mages to cooperate was like trying to herd a flock of vicious cats into a pond against their will.
Dragging a hand through my hair, I shook my head.
If Quill didn’t kill us before this was over, we might just end up killing each other instead.
