Officer Lee and his partner had listened to Patrick’s order and stayed in position. The two men were still alive. Officer Lee tried to flag them down for an explanation, but Nadine shook her head as she pelted past.
“We’re leaving!” she yelled. “Donotfollow us.”
When they reached the SUV, Nadine hauled open the side door, and Jono carefully climbed into the far back seat with Patrick in his arms. He let Sage and Marek have the two middle seats while Emma claimed the front passenger seat.
“There’s a field med-kit in the trunk,” Nadine said to Jono before closing the car door. She hurried to the driver’s side and got in, smacking her hand against the roof of the vehicle. Violet light flashed through the framework of the SUV.
Jono ignored everyone else in the car in favor of Patrick. He reached behind the back seat to the tiny trunk space and hauled over a gray rugged case with a red cross marked on it. He opened it and dug out an emergency foil blanket folded up inside a small plastic bag. Jono shoved it between his hip and the seat before he began stripping Patrick out of his soaked clothes. Patrick was cold in a way that Jono didn’t like. Getting him warm would require body heat, and Jono had plenty to spare.
He got Patrick stripped down to his underwear, long, pale legs stretched over Jono’s. His breath against Jono’s neck was cool in a way it shouldn’t be. Jono yanked off his own shirt and gathered Patrick close before tearing open the bag containing the emergency foil blanket. He shook it out over Patrick and tucked it around the both of them. He kept Patrick’s dagger within easy reach. In the time he’d known Patrick, Jono had never seen the mage without it.
Jono wasn’t paying anyone else any attention, too busy trying to rub warmth back into Patrick’s arms under the blanket, when the SUV was hit.
The crackling boom of the explosion poured hellfire around the shape of the vehicle as Nadine fought to keep control. Jono braced himself and Patrick to keep them both from falling off the back seat.
“What the fuck?” he snarled.
The brakes squealed as they rocked to a hard halt, hellfire dripping off the SUV as Nadine’s shield held strong against the attack.
“Shit,” Nadine said with feeling.
Jono held Patrick tighter, squinting through the windshield at the person who had appeared a little ways down the street in front of the SUV. The man looked to be about his age, tall and well-built, with black concentric circles tattooed into the palms of his hands that were thrust their way. Blond hair was shaved close to his skull, revealing more rune tattoos inked into his skin there. The hate in his brown eyes made Jono’s mouth curl.
“Who the fuck is that?” he demanded.
“Zachary Myers,” Nadine said.
The name meant nothing to Jono, but he didn’t like the stress he could hear in Nadine’s voice. “Is this Zachary bloke going to be a problem?”
“Yeah.”
“Can’t you fight him?” Emma asked.
Nadine tightened her fingers around the steering wheel. “Maybe, but I don’t have a strong affinity for offensive magic. Patrick would have a better shot.”
“He’sunconscious,” Jono reminded her angrily. “He’s already saved our arses once today, so maybe now it’s your turn.”
Nadine opened her mouth to argue, but before she got a word out, something slammed into where the mage stood and exploded with all the fury of a sun going nova. Jono squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face away, bright spots burning across his vision. The violet glare of Nadine’s shield expanded outward from the frame of the SUV, rippling against the concussive force from the explosion.
“I definitely should’ve brought the grenade launcher,” Nadine said, sounding wistful.
Jono’s vision repaired itself in a few seconds. Blinking his eyes open, all he saw was a crater in the middle of the street where the magic user had stood, wispy fog twisting through the smoke.
“What was that?” Emma demanded.
“Military grade strike.”
“Is he dead?” Marek asked, knuckling one eye.
Nadine shook her head and drew the shield back into the SUV again. “If only. That fucker doesn’t die easily.”
“Then where is he?”
Jono could see Nadine’s eyes darting back and forth in the rearview mirror. “If there’s no body, then it could have been an illusion. Either way, I should’ve known Ethan would have left a rearguard. That’s my mistake. I’m sorry.”
She conjured up a mageglobe, the violet sphere flickering above the steering wheel. Jono wasn’t sure what spell she cast, but while he couldn’t see it, he could sense her magic. Nadine’s was cleaner than Patrick’s by far; stronger, too.
“Anything?” Emma asked in a tense voice.
