“So… Mr. Arden will actually come?” Sam said, his eyebrows raised, once Callan had finished speaking. The expression on his face made him look both shocked and impressed. “And with a bunch of his people too?”
Callan nodded. “Yeah.”
“Wow. I have to admit, I didn’t really think you’d be able to pull that off.”
Malcolm hummed in agreement. “Me neither.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I muttered.
Paige slapped my arm with the back of her hand. “I never doubted you for a second.”
I chuckled and flashed her a small smile.
“So, we have a metal mage who can destroy the Blade of Equilibrium,” Grant picked up. Waving a hand, he motioned towards the windows. “But we still have that army out there to deal with too.”
“Yes!” Sienna interrupted. She stopped her pacing only long enough to stab a hand towards the dark garden outside. “So let’s go out there and attack them now. Callan and Audrey are back, which means that our battle strength has almost doubled. So let’s take the fight to them!”
Exasperation flickered in Malcolm’s brown eyes as he slid his gaze to the fire mage. “Not before we make a plan.”
“I am sick and tired of making plans! We’ve been sitting around in here for weeks now.” Raising her arms, she raked both hands through her long red hair. “It’s making me crazy!”
“As opposed to the usual mental stability that you’re so famous for, you mean?”
Grant cleared his throat before Sienna could hurl a fireball at the shadow mage. Light from the candles throughout the room glinted in his blue eyes as he turned his head and looked from face to face as if to make sure that no one was about to start a fight in his library. When we all just looked back at him in silence, he nodded.
“Alright.” He shifted his gaze between me and Callan. “So, when is Levi Arden coming?”
We exchanged a glance.
“Soon, hopefully,” I said.
“He had to finish killing some people in Malgrave first,” Callan supplied.
Henry snorted. “That does sound like Levi.”
By the windows, Sienna threw out her arms in an exasperated gesture. “So we’re just going to hide here until he comes?”
“We are not hiding,” Malcolm retorted at the same time as Grant said, “Yes.”
I massaged my brows. How in all hell had they managed weeks of this without slaughtering each other?
“Grant,” Callan said before they could start fighting again. “Quill’s army uses the Great Current. They can all access fire magic. What’s to stop them from just burning your entire gardens down?”
A wicked grin slid home on Grant’s mouth. “Oh, they’ve tried. But if it was that easy to get through, I wouldn’t have survived this long, now would I?”
Sienna stabbed her hand at him. “If we don’t do something soon, I’m going to burn them down myself!”
“You already tried that, remember? It didn’t work.”
“You thought that was a proper attempt? Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet. Why don’t we—”
“Enough,” I snapped. “Fucking hell, this day has been infuriating enough as it is without your incessant bickering. Malcolm is right, we need to make a plan before we attack. But so is Sienna. We should attack.” Drawing my eyebrows down, I scowled at the three arguing dark mages. “If only so that the three of you can take out all of your frustrations on the real enemy instead of each other.”
Sienna’s citrine eyes lit up like firebolts at the promise of battle. In his armchair, Malcolm just heaved a sigh and waved a hand in agreement. Grant gave me a nod.
The leather armchair to my left creaked faintly as Sam shifted his weight while holding up a hand. We all turned towards him.
“Uhm, not to bring down the mood or anything,” he began while shifting his gaze from face to face. “But I’m not a battle mage.” His blond hair fell down slightly across his forehead as he nodded towards our couch. “And neither is Paige. Which leaves the six of you. I mean, I know you’re good. But six people… against an army?”
“We’re not going to be fighting an army,” I said. “How about this?”
Eyebrows rose and sly smiles spread across several faces as I explained what I had in mind. From the couch opposite me, Callan flashed me an approving grin.
“I like it!” Sienna said, and rubbed her hands together.
Grant drew a hand over his jaw. “I… approve too. And I have several more tunnels that we can use, so we won’t need to go through the gardens.”
“Perfect,” I said.
“I approve too,” Paige added. “On one condition.”
Turning, I frowned at my friend. “You’re not even a part of this attack plan.”
“I still have a condition.”
A surprised chuckle escaped my throat. “Alright. Let’s hear it then.”
“Get me one of the constables’ uniforms.”
This time, all seven of us frowned at her.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because we need eyes inside that camp. And I…” Touching her palms together, she called up a ball of fire before extinguishing it and then summoning water, followed by lightning. “Can pass as one of them. You cannot.”
“Absolutely not.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Get me a uniform, or I’ll go out there and get one myself. Your choice.”
Forcing out a breath, I gave her a flat look. “How had I forgotten just how stubborn you can be?”
While rolling her eyes, she snorted and slapped my arm with the back of her hand. “Like you’re one to talk.”
“It is actually an excellent idea,” Malcolm said before I could retort.
I drew a hand through my hair while giving Paige a sideways look. Her blue eyes glittered in the light from the candles. Or with mischief. With her, it was sometimes hard to tell. I heaved a sigh.
“Fine.”
“Then get one for me too,” Henry said. His gray eyes were serious as he met Paige’s gaze from across the low table. “You’re not going out there alone.”
“Uhm, yes, I am.” She gave her head a few quick shakes. “Because I won’t draw attention. You will.”
Still holding her gaze, Henry summoned wind and then water. “I’m not a dark mage either.”
“No, but you’re like eight feet tall!”
He crossed his muscular arms over his broad chest and muttered, “I’m actually only seven foot one.”
“Fantastic, then that means you don’t tower over people everywhere you go.” She shot him a flat look. “Oh wait, you do.”
“It’s still risky—” I began, but Paige cut me off.
“Look, I get that you all feel like you should be protecting me or whatever because I’m not a super powerful dark mage or something, but let me remind you that while you…” There was a stubborn set to her mouth as she locked eyes with each and every one of us. “…have been living openly out here in the hills, I have been working as a forger. I have been breaking the law inside the city of Eldar for six years without getting caught.” Crossing her arms, she threw herself back against the leather backrest and glared at us. “I know how to remain unnoticed.”
Ringing silence followed her proclamation.
Guilt swirled up inside me. I saw it mirrored in Henry’s eyes too.
She was right. She wasn’t some normal civilian who needed to be protected while the rest of us schemed and fought. She was Paige. The Paige.
“You’re right.” Clearing my throat, I gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. We’ll get you a uniform.”
“Good.” She tried to keep her face an imperious mask, but a grin tugged at her lips and her eyes sparkled with amusement. “Don’t make me lecture you again.”
I chuckled and then blew out a breath before turning towards the others.
“Alright, so who’s up for some guerilla warfare?”
Leaves rustled faintly in the warm night wind as we left Grant’s massive garden behind and snuck towards the wagons across the grass. Apparently, that paranoid emotion mage had several escape tunnels built into his mansion. The one we had just come through emptied out in a spot close to where Quill’s army kept the wagons with some of their food supplies. Which was our target for the night.
Malcolm’s shadows twisted around us as we moved in formation towards our targets. In the darkness, and with that added layer of magical protection, we were all but invisible. Grant was walking at the front, mostly just because we trusted him to keep his head on straight more than we trusted Sienna, who we had placed in the middle so that she couldn’t suddenly decide to go rogue. And Malcolm brought up the rear so that he could cover us all with his shadows, while Callan and I occupied the flanks.
Since this was a stealth operation against a specific target, only the people who had skills that were necessary for its success had been allowed to come, which meant that we had left Paige, Henry, and Sam back at the mansion. Both to minimize the danger to them and also the risk of us being spotted.
A shape suddenly became visible on my side. I touched my palms together and shot a thin whip of poison straight towards it. Malcolm shifted his shadows aside to let it pass, and a second later, it slammed into the guard’s face and shoved its way down her throat. She only managed to suck in one startled breath before she collapsed to the ground.
From somewhere on my right, another thud sounded, informing me that Callan had also assassinated an unwitting guard. While Malcolm kept us all covered, our job was to take out anyone who stood in our way.
My heart pattered in my chest as I swept my gaze back and forth across the grass on the left. My magic was lethal, but it was also green and glittering, which meant that it was much easier to see in the dark than Callan’s force magic. But as long as I attacked while the person was looking in another direction, we would be fine.
Three more guards died on my side as we closed the distance to the target. One of them had been half a second away from getting a warning shout out of his mouth, but thankfully, my magic had hit him just in time.
Shadows continued swirling around us, covering us from view, as we stopped next to one of the wagons. Grant touched his hands together and moved up to the baskets and crates that were stacked on top of it. Shimmering magic of a pale violet color fluttered down like a blanket above it.
Still in the middle of the shadow bubble, Sienna jumped from foot to foot as if she couldn’t contain her excitement. Which was probably the case. It looked like she wanted to yell at Grant to hurry up, but she fortunately kept her mouth shut while Grant did the same thing with the next wagon.
“Now?” she whispered once Grant was done.
“Wait,” I answered while hurrying over to one of the constables that I had killed when we approached. While bending down, I flicked an impatient look at Grant. “A little help?”
With the two of us working simultaneously, we managed to quickly strip the dead constable of her uniform. I draped it over my shoulder while Callan grabbed the now half-naked corpse and dragged it over to the third wagon. After dusting off his hands, he returned to his position on the right flank.
“Now,” I said to Sienna.
Before I had even finished getting the word out of my mouth, she leaped out of Malcolm’s shadow shield and slapped her palms together. A second later, dark red flames tore across the grass like an inferno.
I jerked back slightly at the sheer force of it. Damn, I was glad that Sienna was on our side.
The roaring fire washed over the third wagon, and the fourth and fifth ones behind it too, setting everything aflame. I glanced down at the constable that I had murdered. Her corpse was now only a blackened husk, which hid the fact that her uniform had been stolen.
“Woohoo!” Sienna called as she torched the wagons.
Red flames licked the air and reached towards the dark blue heavens while heat washed over us. That, along with Sienna’s mad cry, made shouts of alarm echo through the camp.
“Time to go,” I said.
But Sienna only continued pouring flames over the three wagons as if they hadn’t already been reduced to crackling firewood. Grant darted up to her and yanked her backwards while screams rose from the previously sleeping soldiers and boots pounded against the ground as they sprinted towards us.
At last, Sienna stopped resisting and whirled around to face us.
A wide grin split her face. And that, along with the fire that blazed behind her, made her look like some kind of lunatic demon from hell. I didn’t know whether to laugh or shake my head. But we were out of time, so I did neither and instead followed the others as they took off at a run.
With Malcolm’s shadows hiding us from view, we sprinted back to the hidden tunnel and left the roaring inferno behind.
