The man had dismounted and was standing before the ward, hair and clothing blowing in Evan’s wind, his arm up, his palm open, flat. He placed it on the ward. A single louddongrang, the warning of protection. He pressed, his power creating a prism of hues, iridescent blacks, like oil on ink. The wardgongedagain, deeper, heavier. The wind whipped. The black iridescence of his attack spread, the shape of the hand growing, as if he claimed the ward.
Behind him, the horses moved restively, hooves dancing in distress. The wind blasted across them. Sally fought to keep control and slid to the ground, to hold the reins close to their heads.
I watched ashedge of thornsenergies coalesced at the bottom boundary, where they entered the ground. The red haze of the ward grew thickand bisected the black energies with a sizzle of power, like scarlet lightning. Death’s attack fractured across the dome of energies and fell apart, our ward still strong.
Death jumped back, eyes wide. The wind fell, leaving the world silent and still. Death studied our working. I turned my back on him again and slipped past Big Evan, almost into the house.
Death of Magic shouted, “Sam! My name is Sam! And your children are in danger!”
My belly twisted and the baby kicked. Right on my spine. I nearly fell to my knees, but there was no way I was going to appear weak in front of an enemy. I caught myself on the jamb and turned around slowly. “What threatens my family?” I growled—the tone of a mother when her child is endangered.
Death said, “A demon newly freed from the inner circle of hell has scented you and your bloodline. Your children have gifts too strong to be contained in mere mortal bodies. They will die at the hands of the demon and it will eat the children’s souls. I know this. I am Death of Magic. But I can save them from the demon’s attack. For a price. A small price.”
Death of Magic was either a very bad negotiator or he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Or both. But stupid people could be dangerous. Deadly even.
“Save us for a price? Did you think an earth witch might miss the brimstone on your boots? You set this deception in play to barter for your own needs.” He had said it was his time to rule. He wanted power. I stepped back to the lawn and began to pull the energies of the earth up through the ground. Taking just a fraction of a fraction of life-force from every living thing for a hundred miles.
“Oh shit,” Sally said. “I told you this wasn’t going to work.”
“Molly,” Evan said, a gentle warning in his tone. “Be careful. His name is Death. What if this is what he wants?” Meaning, what if they wanted me to get mad, lose my temper, and pull on death magics.Right.
“I’ve got this,” I whispered, thinking,All life. Only life.But I broke out in a sweat, hot and stinking in the night air, straining to hold on to my earth magics and keep the death magics at bay. But... death magics would destroy this threat so easily.
Sam vaulted into the saddle, watching me across the intervening space.
“Sam?” Sally warned.
“Molly?” Evan asked, in nearly the same tone.
“They need to know we’re not without claws.” I shaped the magic of life into a spear point, a knapped and wicked-sharp weapon. I pulled Evan’s magic behind it, like a shaft, to give it distance and force. And I focused on the being that threatened my children. “Now,” I whispered.
Big Evan dropped the outer ward. In the same instant I threw the gift of life. It shot through the air. Toward Death. The point pierced Death’s chest.
Sam fell off his horse.
Through the hole in the ward, something entered. Something dark and cold and seeking destruction. It saw me. It saw my death magics. It saw my blood. The blood demon spread its claws, a cobra hood expanding around its black light face. It snapped the hood closed, opened its mouth, rocketed at me. Aiming for my belly and the child within.
“Sam!” Sally shouted. “Don’t!”
“Stop,” Sam said from the ground, a hand out.
The demon stopped, hanging in midair, a foot from me. I backed slowly up the stairs, and through the inner ward on the house itself. The magics composed of the life-force of Evan and me, woven together, slid around me and snapped into place.
Evan followed. The magics sealed behind him too, leaving the demon just beyond our door. Evan turned out the inside lights and we fell together, holding each other. I was shaking, sweating a greasy film of fear, sick to my stomach, pressing gently on the baby with both hands. We stood in the dark, Evan’s arms around me, and watched through the windows. I laid my head against my husband. “I messed up,” I whispered, my voice barely a breath of fear. “I just wanted to make him go away. Mess with his pride a little.”
“I agreed with showing a little power. Get him to back off,” he said. “I didn’t sense the blood demon either.”
“Sam?” Sally asked, leaning around the yellow horse. “You okay, Sammy Boy?”
“I’m hurt.”
“What kind of hurt?” Sally asked.
“I’m green.”
“Gre—” Sally interrupted herself as Sam walked around his mount and up to thehedge of thorns. “Shit, Sam.” She pulled a cell phone from her big purse, aimed it, and took a couple of shots of her partner.
“Stop that!” he yelled at her, just as a toddler might to his nanny. To the house, he shouted, “What have you done to me, witch?” He was still pretty, but now he had green scales, like a snake, and brown hair like dried vines. There were leaves unfurling from his hairline, darker than his scales, and daffodils bloomed from one arm and the right side of his head. Earth magics at work, though the working wasn’t designed to last long. “Make it stop!” he shouted to me, panic in his voice. Yeah. A child. Death of Magic was a grown-up child, pampered, spoiled, and not overly bright.
