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Shit's about to get real, my ass, I thought as we crept closer to the big cave, the echoes of magic bouncing around me like a giant ping-pong ball, intensified by the glyphs and runes etched into the stone by ancient hands. "Shit was already real, asshat."
Kai nudged me with a sharp elbow. "Focus, Gesa. Magic users. Make things go boom."
I flipped her off and sent my gaze to Con, who was holding my gun in a white-knuckled grip. "Careful of that thing with all the magic," I warned.
Kai moved closer to our human. "We'll be fine," she whispered. "You just worry about Oisin."
I nodded. Halstad and Hasashi paced silently at my side, damned near glowing with magic. Kai and Con followed behind us. All we had to do was get Oisin, drag his snarky ass back across the woods to the jet and fly home. No biggie. Piece of fucking cake.
I hoped Oisin could walk.
I hoped we could make it back across the woods again.
I hoped Granite and the fucking jet were still waiting for us when we got there, and this wasn't all some sort of sick joke for Derek fucking White's amusement. I wouldn't put it past the demon to just dump us here and leave us stranded.
Warm light flickered at the entrance of the cave, probably from a torch or fire. One of Oisin's father's black-clad, collared mages was standing at the entrance. His hands flared with fire at our approach. An evil grin spread over his face. "Oh good," he said in a growl. "I was wanting a bit of a challenge."
He lobbed the fireballs at our group, but Halstad deflected them with a flick of his wrist. Hisashi kept right on walking forward, his hair and clothes whipping around him in an invisible wind. I kept pace with him. No fucking mage was keeping us from our mate.
It was terrifying, really, how easily Halstad overtook the other mage with his magic, incapacitating the guy, then sucking all the air out of his body, leaving him blue and dead at the cave entrance.
I really needed to learn more about my supposed allies before I just went along with them willy-nilly. Shit. Where the fuck had White gotten his super-mage?
The warm glow of flames flickered along the walls, growing stronger as we made our way inside the cave. A low fire burned in the center of the room, and the stone floor was etched with runes. Five more mages waited inside, the last couple blocking the long slab of a stone altar from me.
Hisashi growled beside me and I echoed his rage. I didn't have to be a canid shifter to smell the sweet scent of Oisin's blood hanging in the air.
The mages tried to cast some sort of net over my pride, but Halstad sensed it and reached up a hand, the skin pulsing with blue-black veins as he grabbed hold of the magic and ripped it out of the air with a grunt of effort. The mages looked a bit dumbfounded. "It can't be," one of them whispered, his creepy black eyes fixated on our mage. "They're just fucking stories."
Halstad smiled at the mage who had spoken. "Didn't mommy ever teach you at least some of things that go bump in the night are real?" He winked his purple eye and power pulsed from him. "Boo."
The mages scattered and renewed their offensive. Each of us squared off with one of the fuckers. The mage I faced thought he was going to fry me with one of those damned lightning balls, but I had news for him. I'd been training for speed. I darted in close and punched him in the face.
Magic users never learned that some people didn't fight by throwing things from a distance.
He staggered backward but managed to zap me with one hand. I hissed as burning energy jolted through my body, about to fry me. A big hand on my shoulder eased the pain, pulling the lightning out of me like extracting poison. Then Halstad was gone again, off pummeling his own opponent with some unseen force. The poor guy looked like he was being hit with invisible fists.
The mage I faced was chanting something, probably about to blow my head off. But a hard kick to the head made him shut the fuck up. He stood, drawing a long, thin blade from his leg sheath as he straightened and rushed me. Dodging the blade, I shifted my hands, swiping him with my talons as he passed by. A long line of blood appeared on my forearm, but it was nothing compared to the gaping wounds that now covered his back. "You know," I said in an easy voice. "You could just run away. I'd let you. I've got other shit to do right now."
He didn't even consider my offer. His black eyes were maniacal. "As if we could disobey our contract, bitch."
I shrugged. Such loyalty was surprising out of a bunch of fucksticks like these guys. "Whatever."
I kept my gaze averted from the altar, where a pale, lifeless form was just visible out of my peripheral vision. I couldn't afford to lose focus now. I had shit to attend to first.
I rushed the mage, taking him down in a tackle and rolling across the hard, jagged floor of the cave, slashing and tearing whatever I could get a hold of, slamming his head into a stalactite, not letting him have time to cast any spells. He did something with his hands that left blistered fingerprints on my face, but I ignored the pain and kept punching until he stopped twitching.
Standing, I wiped blood from my eyes and glanced around, searching out the rest of my pride. Con was holding a mage at gunpoint. I remembered Granite's warning about guns and magic just as the hilt of the gun glowed and Con hissed where his hand was blistering. I was about to shout to my human to drop the gun when he grinned.
I watched in terror as Con clutched the gun harder, wound up, and threw it. The mage's eyes went wide when he realized the human was on to his little trick. But it was too late. The spell was already cast. The enchanted gun had been turned into a grenade. It hit the mage in the belly as it exploded.
I turned my head away. That was not pretty.
Con joined Kai, who was fighting off another mage with her blade. The human didn't even hesitate as he approached the unsuspecting mage from behind. The mage asshole probably thought that explosion was the human going up in smoke, not his comrade.
"Con don't!" I called. But it was too late. My sweet, fragile human leapt onto the mage's back and grabbed his head, giving it a hard, sharp twist.
I gaped as Con and the mage tumbled over, and Kai helped the human to his feet. Oh, for fuck's sake. They'd ruined my sweet, innocent human. He shot me a feral look. "Go get Oisin!"
I darted past Halstad, who was just fucking playing with his opponent. Then I veered around Hisashi, who had gone all silver-eyed and freaky. His opponent was hanging in the air as if someone was holding him up by the throat choking the life out of him. Only no one was there.
Note to self. Do not piss off your pride. Seriously. They'll murder your big 'ol gryphon ass.
I darted around the fox and felt his eerie silver eyes on me, felt him drop his dead mage and follow me to the altar as if he was tethered to me.
"Oh...." The air left my lungs in a rush and the room seemed to go dead silent and dark, my focus narrowed only to this. "Oh Gods, Oisin, sweetheart."
I hit my knees by the slab, afraid to touch him. My beautiful fae. I knew his father was planning to steal his magic but not...this. Oisin was always slender, but now every bone stood out in stark relief, like a holocaust victim. He was naked, pinned to the table with iron spikes through his hands. Runes had been burned into the skin of his chest, arms, and thighs, and they were still red. Even though the mage-bind was severed now, his poor body was so depleted it struggled to heal the damage.
I reached out a hand to stroke his head. They'd shaved him, sheared off his long, glorious red hair and left behind a choppy, uneven stubble, the scalp scabbed in places where whatever tool they'd used had nicked the skin. His long, pointed ears stuck out, making him look alien and vulnerable in his nakedness.
He breathed in shallow little gasps, like a fish on land taking its last desperate breaths.
I felt Hisashi behind me, the cool tendrils of his power reaching around me, coiling, searching for his mate's aura. Swallowing, I stood on shaky legs. Oisin was still alive. For now. I was going to keep it that way, damn it.
I stroked his cheek, not sure if I should wake him for this or not. Better, maybe, to let him think he was still at the hands of his tormentors for this final pain.
I wrapped my hands around the metal spike in his left hand, getting the best grip I could. Then I called on my gryphon strength and pulled. Oisin didn't make a sound as I pulled the iron out of the stone slab—and his flesh—but his breathing got more erratic, hitching, stopping and starting again in a way that made me listen hard and pray for the next breath to come.
I threw the fucking spike away and moved to the other hand to repeat the process. This time he whimpered, and a dry sob escaped him, even though he didn't really seem to be awake.
My heart was lying in jagged pieces in my chest. I moved to Oisin's head and bent to press my forehead to his. "It's me, you little terror. I'm here. I'm sorry I'm late. We're getting you out of here now. Right now."
I didn't want to move him, didn't want to cause him any more pain. But I needed my fae in my arms. I eased an arm under his shoulder as gently as I could, Hisashi helping to sit him up enough for me to find something to cover him with.
I was surprised when a blue-veined hand came into my line of sight, holding out Halstad's long duster.
I took the coat and the mage strode away without a word.
After we got Oisin's frail body covered, Hisashi held the fae up long enough so I could scoop him up in a bridal carry. My snarky little fae never weighed much. I could tote him around with ease on a good day. But now he felt like a bird, all feathers and hallow bones. He was limp for a moment, then his head flopped onto my chest and one damaged hand twitched, trying to grasp my shirt. His whole body shuddered in pain and fear.
I was going to fucking gut Cadoc and eat his intestines.
The others gathered around us. Hisashi bent and pressed a soft kiss to Oisin's forehead. "It's over now, love," he whispered. "We'll make it right. I promise."
Kai touched Oisin's shaved head, the only part of him that didn't look tender and bruised. She murmured something in another language, and I felt her sea-breeze aura brush his, trying to give him some of her innate magic. Con stood by, tears pooling in his soft brown eyes and spilling down his cheeks unnoticed. "We need to go home," he whispered. "White's been training me for this. I can help."
"Fuck!" Halstad's gruff, gravelly voice echoed through the cave. He was the only one not hovering over Oisin. The mage was standing at the entrance to the cave, power crackling over his body again.
Then I heard what he'd heard. Howling.
And it was close, followed by the thundering of hooves. The wild hunt. Led by Oisin's deranged father.
We all moved toward the exit, spilling out into the moonlit night and rushing away from the cave, the literal hounds of hell at our heels.