My riding boots thudded against the wooden floorboards as I walked back out of the tavern area and returned to our room. When I crossed the threshold, I found Callan standing in the open doorway to the baggage room, looking down at Lance.
“He’s awake,” Callan said.
Afternoon sunlight fell in through the open window and cast the whole room in a golden glow. After our final act of indulgence early this morning, we had slept for most of the day. And now, all that was left was to finish this mission.
“Good,” I replied as I crossed the room and then stopped next to my pack where it waited right beside the closet. “The horses are ready too.”
Callan grabbed Lance, who was still chained to the metal rod, by the arm and hauled him up. “On your feet.”
I watched the way Callan’s lethal body moved as he strode over to where his own pack rested against the wall by the door. Thoughts about what we had done this morning fluttered through my mind unbidden. I shoved the tangled emotions out. He was a good fuck. That was all there was to it.
The chain rattled faintly as Lance moved inside the baggage room behind me.
That sound helped me snap my mind back to the present. There was a mission to complete. I rubbed my hands and then shook out my tired muscles.
“If we ride hard,” Callan began as he twisted towards me, “we should reach Essington’s mansion by—”
The door banged open right behind him. He tried to whirl towards it, but two strong men had already grabbed one of his arms, while two more took his other in an iron grip. Before he could get a single word out, a fifth brawny man looped his arm around Callan’s throat from behind, locking his head in a tight grip. Three more ran into the room after them. Fire and lightning flickered in their palms.
Callan thrashed against their hold, but between the five of them, they managed to keep him completely immobilized. Rage flashed across his face as he snapped his gaze back to me.
“It’s nothing personal.” I let a victorious smile spread across my lips as I cocked my head. “Well, actually, it is.”
A snarl tore from Callan’s chest. “You vicious little—”
“Thank you so much for helping us,” I said as I swept my gaze over the eight other men in the room while my smile turned much sweeter. “I thought we were done for when this dark mage attacked the ball and abducted us. But you saved us.”
“You told them I’m a dark mage?” Callan growled.
“Of course I did.”
For a while, I just stared back at Callan from across the room. Rage flashed in his eyes and he yanked against the hands keeping him trapped, but they didn’t let up. I flashed him a wide smile that shone with mocking victory.
“Now, boys,” I said to the eight men, “please hold him while I get the handcuffs.”
A laugh bubbled from Callan’s chest.
There was a beat of silence.
Then the other eight men in the room started laughing too.
I sucked in a gasp and jerked back a step as the three people with magic already summoned aimed their crackling lightning and hissing fire at me instead.
My hands flashed forward.
A lightning bolt struck the floor right next to my foot, forcing me to jump sideways towards the wall instead of focusing on slapping my palms together.
“Oh I don’t think so,” Callan warned. The five men who had been holding him had released their grip and pointed magic attacks at me as well. “Keep your arms spread wide, or the next one goes into your chest.”
Glaring at him, I let him see the hate that flashed on my face. But I slowly spread my arms while showing him my empty palms.
He brushed his hands down his rumpled clothes before meeting my gaze again. A mocking sense of superiority clung to his cheekbones as he smirked at me. “Well, don’t you feel stupid now?”
“How?” I pressed out between gritted teeth.
“Do you remember our first day in Eldar? When I locked you in that room?”
“Yeah, I remember that. Vividly.”
“While you were trapped in there, I went back to that place… What was it called?” He snapped his fingers. “The Black Emerald.”
“So?”
“When we were there together, you made an entire room full of people get down on their knees and beg you to spare their lives.” Callan spread his arms to indicate the people in the room. “So I recruited them. I told them they would be able to get revenge on you, which they were more than happy about, and then sent them out here to wait for us.”
“You’ve been planning this since that day?”
“Of course I have.” He cocked his head. “I’ve been trying to kill you for five years. Do you really think I’d let this chance slip by? Though, if it’s any consolation, my original plan was to let you get captured by the heroes in Eldar. But then I decided that I wanted to take a more personal approach so that I could enjoy the victory longer.”
“Fuck you.”
“Yes, you did.”
My gaze darted around the room, calculating the distance to all nine enemies before me. Callan tutted and shook his head.
“You’re severely outnumbered. Not to mention that they already have magic ready to throw, which means that you won’t be able to touch your palms together before their attacks hit you.” Flashing me a lethal smile, he took a step forward. “Now, unless you want to get hit with a mass of lightning strikes that will leave you twitching on the floor for hours, keep your hands away from each other while I lock you in a pair of handcuffs.”
A green cloud exploded into the room before me.
Panic flashed in the magic-wielding men’s eyes as my poisonous mist shot down their throats, and their faces still bore masks of shock as their dead bodies hit the wooden floor in a series of dull thuds. I kept the poison in Callan’s lungs at an intensity where it was impossible for him to raise his arms to summon magic, but just shy of lethal. He had also collapsed to his knees on the floor, and he was dry heaving while trying to keep his eyes locked on me.
“You thought you could double-cross me?” A wicked laugh dripped from my lips. “I recognized the people from The Black Emerald the moment I walked into the tavern this morning. I will applaud you for only recruiting the people who had been sitting at the edges of the room when I made them beg for mercy, but do you really think that I would have survived this long as a dark mage if I didn’t make sure to mark the faces of everyone I humiliated?”
Only choked gasps answered me as Callan’s chest shook with the effects of the poison.
“As soon as I saw them sitting here in the tavern when we arrived, I knew what you were planning to do. There were civilians in the tavern when we got here this morning, but now the only people in this entire inn are the ones you hired from The Black Emerald. And as soon as I unlocked Lance’s chain and we walked out of this room, you were going to use them to take me down.” I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Which was why I had to force your hand. By bringing them in here to capture you, I decided how and where this fight would take place. And since I knew that they would release you and turn on me, I had already rubbed my hands together and summoned my magic before they stormed into the room.” Twisting my hand, I showed him a small green tendril that I had kept hidden behind the back of my hand the whole time. “Just a little sleight of hand.”
Callan’s arms hung uselessly by his sides as he doubled over while his body tried to vomit up the poison. Then he banged his knee on the floor in anger and snapped his gaze up to me again.
“And now, you’re trapped inside my magic. Still alive only because I allow it.” I huffed out a mocking laugh and shook my head at the kneeling force mage. “Did you really think that you could outsmart me?”
A cold hand appeared on my arm.
Every single drop of the glittering green poison cloud evaporated in a flash.
I staggered a step back and whipped my head down to stare at the five black rings that had appeared like tattoos around my forearm.
Shock clanged like giant bells inside my skull.
Callan pushed to his feet. A sharp smile spread across his lips as he locked eyes with me.
“Oh, sweetheart, I already have.”
