“He was!”
“Well, he isn’t now!”
The temporary ceasefire exploded into scuffling again.
Felicity cracked her knuckles. “Want me to throw them out?”
Tiny golden flowers blossomed around her.
“No,” Maya said quickly. “I’m sure they’re here for a good reason. Corin is busy with other, um, clan business. So it’s probably a good thing these three are here, actually. Better to keep them contained. If there’s a problem in the clan, these three are usually involved.”
“They come another inch inside behaving like that, and I’ll murder all three of them,” Caro deadpanned. She raised her voice. “D’you hear that? That was awarning.You getone.”
Caedan almost made it through the doorframe and was immediately flattened by the other two. Felicity waved her hand and the magical flowers faded. “Wait. What’s that?”
Wispy shadows gathered around the triplets. They were like the shadows that hounded Corin’s steps sometimes, but far weaker. The lightning that crackled at their edges was darker, too. Like the echo of light, rather than a lick of it.
Shit. “That’s the Blackburns’ magic. The duskfire.”
“What does it do?”
“It, um—”
He’d never actuallyshowedher. Showed her his dusky wings, yes; showed her what they could do, no.
“It’s dangerous,” she said slowly.
Braedan’s brothers were wrestling him upside-down. One of his shoes fell off as his feet grappled with the top of the doorframe. Aedan flung a whip of lightning-edged smoke at them both. Braedan kicked out and the smoke-strike diverted, hitting a table and dissipating with a dark puff.
“They can control each other’s magic?” Felicity’s eyebrows shot up. “That must get annoying.”
“It explains why Corin insists on being the one to clean up their messes. If he can take charge of their magic like that it must make it easier. But—Fee, don’t throw them all the way out, but if you can get them away from the doorway?”
Tomás was watching the shadow-fight with wide eyes. His mouth made a silentO. Felicity noticed it at the same moment as Maya and they both tensed.
Then he waved one arm, imitating the Dans flicking shadows at each other, or Felicity controlling her sparkly magic.
Maya sighed with relief.
And one of the triplets shouted in pain.
Caro surged forward. “Hey, you lot! Quit it, or I’ll throw you out!”
“Yeah, quit it,Caedan!”
“You’re the one who started using magic in front of—”
“Like that matters! Everyone’s a shifter here and even if they aren’t, they all know about magic. We don’t need to hide—”
Their voices overlapped until Maya couldn’t tell who was shouting what at whom. Just that they were all shouting at each other.
And their magic was getting away from them.
The wispy shadows billowed into heavy clouds. One rose to the recently repaired window above the door. A cracking sound echoed through the room.
Maya felt lightheaded as the smoke cleared. The window was broken.
Exactly the same way it had broken when Montfort attacked the town.
