“Pissed off?”Dimas bristled.
“You need… to clear out,” Gerald told me, ignoring him.“All of you.The Black Circle… is here in force.”
“Can’t.One of my boys is in there.”
“Student?”
“Were.”
“Shit.They’re focusing… on Weres—”
“Where?”Caleb demanded.
“Main market… just down there.”Gerald hiked a thumb over his shoulder, back to where the dark mages had come from.“Corralling them… along with anyone else they can find… with any power.”
I felt myself start to panic at the thought of Jace in the hands of the Black Circle, then got a grip.
“Aki, take them out!”I said.“Hurry!”Because Kai hadn’t said a word, nor had his eyes opened, reinforcing how bad this was likely to be.Kai was shorter, slimmer, and much less muscled than his partner, almost delicate-looking.But he was one of the best fighters in the Corps.
This was going to get ugly.
“My partner first,” Gerald said, and Aki rolled his eyes and grabbed them both.“Wait!”Gerald shrugged out of his coat and handed it to me.“You’re going to need this.”
“What?Why?Why would she need that?”Sophie demanded.She had been staring wide-eyed at the crowd carving up the dark mages, but that had gotten her attention.
“I want this back—in one piece,” Gerald told me, before muttering a spell over the coat to transfer ownership temporarily.
“See what I can do,” I said grimly.
“Keep your head down.We’ll send backup,” he promised, before Aki pulled him down to his partner, and all three disappeared.
“Lia?”Caleb said, glancing at our entourage.And yeah.
“Get back to the hotel,” I told the others, while shrugging into the coat, only to have everybody explode at me at once.
“Fuck that!”Noah snarled.
“You’re hurt!”Jason said.
“If you think we’re gonna tell Cyrus we left his mate down here alone—” Lee began.
“I’m awar mage,” I snapped.
“—in the middle ofthis?You trippin’.”
“Yeah!”Sophie said, immediately hopping mad.“Yeah!You tell her!”
“Calm down,” Jen said to her.“She knows we’re not going anywhere.”
“I do?”I cocked an eyebrow.“I was under the impression that I was in charge here.”
“Yes.It was easier to let you think that,” was the serene reply.
“Lia!”Caleb said, because we couldn’t just stand here.
“Goddamnit!Go back to the hotel!”I snapped.Everybody just looked at me, but no way was I letting a bunch of kids—no matter how magical—follow me into a war zone.And even less a bunch of Weres when that was what the dark was after!“Get out of here, or I’m done,” I told them.“You can get another Lupa, and you can get another teacher—”
“What?”
