Brilliant satisfaction pulsed through my body as I watched Sienna lower her bloodied hand again. This insane scheme had actually worked. Not only was Henry back by my side, but we had also gotten Sienna, Grant, and Malcolm to swear a blood oath. With that in place, I would never have to worry about anyone trying to stab me in the back.
My gaze slid down to the dark mage next to me.
Well, she might.
“So…” Grant began while raising his eyebrows at us. “Our magic?”
Snapping my fingers, I motioned for Henry and Tristan to bring Lance back over. Morning sunlight fell across the Binder’s face as Henry steered him to Grant and then unlocked his handcuffs. Since Lance no longer needed to pretend that he was a guard, he had let the stoic mask fall from his features. Now, he just looked weary. As if all the fight had gone out of him.
“Unbind their magic,” I ordered when Henry had removed the manacles fully.
Lance’s blue eyes darted to Audrey.
“Do it,” she said.
After waiting another few seconds, as if to make sure that she wasn’t going to change her mind, Lance touched his palms together. A faint golden glow coated his hands. Reaching out, he placed his hand on Grant’s forearm. Relief flooded the dark mage’s eyes as the five black rings around his arm disappeared. I stole a glance at Audrey while the Binder moved on to Malcolm. She nodded, giving him permission again.
That was dangerous.
Since it was Audrey’s magic he feared, she would always have more control over him than I would. It had always been a risk, of course. Relying on Audrey for crucial parts of this plan. I knew that she might try to hit me and Henry with her surprise attack too, so I had been ready to block it. But she had made her move earlier than we had decided, and I hadn’t been fast enough.
She was skilled. And intelligent. And utterly ruthless. And hell damn it if I wasn’t impressed by that. It made me wonder even more why she hadn’t gone through with it and bound my magic too.
“I still can’t believe you actually dyed his hair,” Sienna said, snapping me out of my musings.
“I still can’t believe that that wasn’t part of your calculations,” Audrey replied with a sharp smile. “Especially you, Sienna. We already leveraged the fact that you didn’t know exactly what Lance looked like when you came to make a deal.”
She huffed. “Yeah, well, I was only brought into this alliance last minute. So the plans had already been made.”
“Still—”
“Enough,” Malcolm muttered. His intelligent eyes shifted between me and Audrey. “Are the two of you going to make any more power plays? Try to become emperor and empress of dark mages or something equally absurd?”
“Now there’s an idea,” Audrey replied, and flashed him a sly smile.
“Just answer the question.”
We exchanged a glance.
Then Audrey let out an amused breath and shrugged. “If you stick to the blood oath you just made, I see no reason to keep fighting each other.”
“Same,” I said.
“Excellent.” Malcolm shot us a pointed look. “Then can we return to the plan we had before the two of you decided to double-cross us all?”
I shrugged. “Fair enough.”
“Good. So, we have the Binder. And if today’s events are any indication, he obeys your orders.”
“Yes,” Audrey answered.
Malcolm nodded in acknowledgement before squinting at her. “But you said that the heroes are on their way out into the hills right now?”
“Yeah, I overheard some people who were repairing the Valdan road when they—”
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!”
We all snapped our gazes to the new voice that echoed through the massive reception room. I blinked in surprise at the sight that met me when I whirled around. Sam Foster came running towards us like a bat out of hell.
His blond locks bounced on top of his head as he skidded to a halt in front of us. “There’s…” Trailing off, he flicked his gaze between the five of us and Lance, Henry, and Tristan. “Wait… Am I interrupting something?”
“Sam,” Malcolm snapped. “Focus. Why did you sprint into my home yelling ‘oh shit’?”
“Oh, right.” He slapped his forehead and then swung around to stab a hand towards the corridor. “There’s an army of constables coming this way.”
Panic flashed across Malcolm’s features. “An army?”
“Well, maybe not an army. But a… squad?”
“How big is a squad?”
“I don’t know! I didn’t stop to count them.” He flapped his arms. “But they looked angry and determined and they will be here in a few minutes.”
Malcolm’s gaze shot to me and Audrey. “Did you lead them here?”
“Why the hell would we do that? We’re still here.” I threw out an arm to gesture towards the Binder. “And so is Lance.”
“Good point.” Tilting his head back, he raked his fingers through his hair in an uncharacteristically frazzled move before he shifted his gaze back to Sam. “How many?”
“I told you,” he began, and shrugged helplessly. “I didn’t count them.”
“Guess.”
“Twenty? Thirty?”
“Alright.”
“Trying to scare you by saying that they would be coming here first was just a shot in the dark.” Audrey chuckled. “But apparently, I was right.”
Malcolm stabbed his finger in her direction. “Not helping.”
“Where are your guards?” Sam asked. His gray eyes were worried as he gestured around him. “I saw almost no one when I ran through.”
Narrowing his eyes, Malcolm shifted his gaze to the poison mage again. “Yes, Audrey, where are my guards?”
She flicked her hair behind her shoulder. “If they were stupid enough to get killed that easily, I would argue that I did you a favor.”
“Can we stop arguing?” Sienna snapped. “I want to burn something down.”
“I agree,” Grant added as he swept his gaze over the rest of us. “About the arguing, I mean. Not the burning things down part. So, what’s the plan?”
Malcolm drew a hand over his jaw. “If you didn’t lead them here… then that means that they don’t know that there are six of us here right now. They’re coming in believing that they will face only me.”
Sienna grinned. “Then let’s go out and give them a surprise.”
Since I didn’t have anything to add, I just nodded. Turning to Henry, I was just about to tell him to watch Lance when I noticed the expression on the Binder’s face.
Gone was the weary hopelessness. Now that he had heard that his friends were coming to save him, his eyes had lit up with blazing light.
A hint of worry blew through me. I recognized that look. It was hope.
“Henry. Tristan,” I snapped. “Keep Lance in here. Knock him out if you have to.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Well, then,” Audrey began as she flashed a wicked smile in Malcolm’s direction. “Shall we go take care of your problem for you?”
“It’s all of our problem,” he ground out while stalking towards the corridor that would take us to the front door. “Let’s go. I have some anger I need to work off anyway.”
The six of us strode through the black hallway together. Flexing my fingers, I rolled my shoulders back and then cracked my neck. I was itching for a fight too. This whole business with Audrey still made me feel like there was an explosion trapped inside my chest. I might have gotten both Henry and the blood oaths, but I was still no closer to getting rid of my feelings for that vicious little poisoner. And killing a bunch of people might help relieve part of the frustration crackling through my body.
Bright morning sunlight painted the thick green grass with streaks of yellow when we at last stepped out through Malcolm’s front door. No constables were visible yet, but based on Sam’s observations, it was only a matter of time before they came marching over the hill.
“Let’s fan out,” I said. “Sam—”
“I know. I know.” He raised his hands in surrender. “I’ll stay here in the doorway. But I need to actually be able to see you to know when you need help.”
“In the doorway,” I repeated.
“Yes.”
While Sam remained hovering by the threshold, the rest of us moved down the steps and took up position in a semicircle a good distance from the mansion. The guards who had survived Audrey’s massacre the other day were running across the grass around us, getting into position as well.
The sound of thumping feet came from the other side of the small hill in front of us.
I glanced down our line. Twenty or thirty constables? Between the five of us, and the guards, we should be able to handle that easily.
The first row crested the slope.
My hands drifted closer together.
Another row.
Then another.
And another.
My eyes widened. This wasn’t twenty. Or even thirty. There had to be at least fifty of them.
“Remind me to have someone teach Sam how to count,” Grant said from the other side of our line.
We all muttered agreement.
“It’s just ten each,” Audrey said. Glittering green magic snaked down her arms as she touched her hands together. “It’s not that bad.”
“It’s ten constables each,” Grant pointed out. “No amateurs here.”
Sienna stretched out her arms. “I’m with Audrey. It’s really not that bad. And besides, it’s been a while since I went all out.”
“You mean to tell me that you didn’t go all out when you attacked my mansion?” Grant said as he shot her an incredulous look.
Before she could reply, Malcolm stabbed a hand at her. “Don’t damage any of my property.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
She clicked her tongue. “Fine.”
Shouts came from the constables ahead.
“Here they come.”
They broke into a sprint.
Battle cries echoed across the rolling grasslands as the squad of constables hurtled towards us. Since their magic was weaker than ours, they would need to get close quickly in order to actually attack us.
I threw a force wall at them.
Shadows and fire and poison, and whatever the hell it was that Grant did, sped across the grass as well. Panic flashed across the constables’ faces, but orders rang out and they split up while diving aside. Not all of them made it, though.
While men and women screamed on the ground, others rolled to their feet and continued sprinting. They were closing in. Fast.
Calling up a large force arc, I hurled it at their chests.
The half-translucent arc spun through the air.
And slammed right into Malcolm’s shadows.
I jerked back in surprise as the collision sent both of our attacks wide. Next to me, Audrey let out a vicious curse as Sienna’s fire magic burned her poison out of the air.
Irritation flashed through me, and I summoned another force wall instead. Right after I had thrown it, I noticed the pale violet mist that had been sneaking up on the constables from the side. My wall hit Grant’s attack a second later, ruining the moment of surprise.
“What are you doing?” Sienna snapped at the same time as Malcolm growled, “Watch it.”
The constables washed across the grass like a tidal wave.
And all we did was get in each other’s way.
My stomach lurched as I realized that the heroes were going to reach us before we could kill even half of them.
“Spread out,” I called.
We were used to fighting each other. Not fighting together. If we kept this up, we would get in each other’s way more than we would help.
Audrey and I ran towards the right while Sienna and Grant hurried towards the left, leaving Malcolm with more space in the middle. Fire and shadows roared over the grass while poison and emotion magic snapped through the morning air, but I could no longer spare them any attention because the wave of constables crashed into us.
I hurled a force arc at the enemies on my left and then slapped my hands together to summon a force blade. Screams echoed across the landscape as the arc cleaved through a woman’s chest, and blood sprayed into the air. Whirling around, I rammed my vibrating blade into another guy’s stomach. He sucked in a strangled gasp as I yanked it out, leaving a large hole behind.
A thud rang out as he toppled to the ground, but it was quickly drowned out by the crackling of lightning. Leaping to the side, I narrowly evaded the white bolt that would have zapped into my chest. I let the force blade fade and instead called up another wall as two dark-haired men shot a simultaneous blast of wind at me.
It whirled across the ground, making the grass tremble in fear, before slamming into my shield and exploding out around me. Dropping the wall, I summoned a wide arc and threw it at them. The one on the left managed to push it aside with another gust of wind. The other one lost his head.
Fire roared behind me. I dove to the side while slamming up another force wall. Yellow flames crashed into it. Heat washed over me as I leaped to my feet while embers whirled through the air.
I spun around as water sloshed behind my back. Smacking my palms together, I shot another wall in the direction that the sound had come from. It crashed into a woman with long brown hair and sent her flying back into two of her comrades. The fact that their magic actually made noise was an incredible advantage.
Calling up another massive arc, I made sure that none of the other dark mages were nearby and then threw it at the row of constables to my left. It spun through the air and seared through their bodies. Blood splattered the green grass and deafening screams were abruptly cut off.
I swept my gaze over the area. We were winning. The heroes were fighting desperately, but they hadn’t expected to face five of us at the same time, so we were cutting them down fairly easily with our attacks.
Fear suddenly curled around my spine. Where was Audrey?
Before I could look for her, fire crackled on my right. Snapping my gaze to it, I shot a force wall at the guy who had thrown it. Flames exploded through the air as the wall blocked his attack. I hurled a vibrating lance at him before he could recover.
The back of my neck prickled.
I whipped around.
Panic flashed through my chest as a knife sped straight for my unprotected throat.
