“No! We can’t leave—we have to fight!”
“Daggett, this is not the time to prove you’re a soddinghero.”
“No,no, they know where my parents live and”—her throat felt too small; she had to choke the rest out—“and they’ve threatened to kill them.”
He gaped at her.
“We can’t let any of them get out,” she whispered, knowing full well what that meant. What she and Hartgrave would have to do.
He nodded, expression steel hard, and raised his hands again. The illusory rubble vanished. The room snapped back to its original intact state. Crawford and Shaw dismantled their shields, leapt to their feet and collided with air—Hartgrave had obviously cast a replacement to hold them at bay.
A similar spell trapped Kincaid where he stood, the real stone pinballing around the interior, pummeling him. It split into two chunks, then four. Enough to keep him off-balance, preventing effective spellcasting, buthis layer of magical armor protected him from real harm—and it was just a matter of time before he broke free.
Same for the women. As soon as all three wizards could attack at once, it would be over.
Emily stepped closer to Hartgrave, pulse pounding. “I have to nullify their armor. It’s the only way.”
“Don’t get anywhere near them,” he said through gritted teeth. “It’s too dangerous. I’ve got this.”
There was no way he could beat them alone. Not even with Bernie and Willi helping—she suspected they already were, hidden wherever Hartgrave had been.
Kincaid caught one of the stone fragments and reduced it to gravel in the space of a second.
“Ihaveto do this,” she said. “Now. With or without your help.”
“All right,” Hartgrave ground out. “All right. Crawford first when I give the signal. At all costs, stay away from Kincaid until we get that gun.”
She tried to catch her breath—the air seemed wholly insufficient for lungs paralyzed by fear—and heard him mutter,“Versuch ihm die Waffe abzunehmen.” He still wore his small cell-phone earpiece. More evidence that Willi, at least, was in the room.
“Now,” Hartgrave said.
Crawford and Shaw burst through the magic holding them.Bothof them—she couldn’t handle both at once. But the next moment, a spell Shaw fired at Hartgrave ricocheted back, prompting a string of curses. He’d trapped her again.
Emily lurched toward Crawford, legs wobbling, hands shaking, seconds away from a confrontation. Then the wizard shimmered and disappeared.
Emily had three heartbeats’ worth of gut-clenching fear that Crawford had somehow teleported out of the room and straight onto her parents’ farm. But only three heartbeats, because Crawford reemerged directly behind her, hooked a sleeved arm around her throat and dragged up so sharply her feet left the floor. She gagged and struggled, once again unable to get enough air.
“It’s over, Alex,” Crawford shouted at Hartgrave, who couldn’t intervene without leaving either Shaw or Kincaid unguarded. “Don’t make me do something you’ll regret.”
“Gwen, you know this is wrong,” he yelled back.“Everythingabout him is wrong.”
Crawford pressed harder. Emily, desperate for oxygen, toed off her shoes and tried to work her left sock off with her other foot.
“Gwen—”
“You betrayed us,” the wizard said. “You betrayedme.”
Emily got the sock past her heel and rammed bare skin into Crawford’s shin. Perhaps it was more surprise than pain, since the anti-magic had only an instant to bite at the wizard’s protective armor, but Crawford’s choking grip loosened. With an almighty wrench, Emily hit the floor, spun around and grabbed at the woman’s jaw with both hands.
Minor irritation, like bug bites, for a second or two. Then pain, sharp and hot and dreadful.
Crawford jerked violently to try to free herself, screaming with hardly a pause for breath. Emily screamed too because ohshitit hurt.
She thought of her parents and held on. Breaking through Crawford’s protection wasn’t enough—she had to keep the wizard from immediately recasting it. She had to hold on until Hartgrave could intervene.
The agony stopped as suddenly as someone flipping a switch. Except she hadn’t let go. And Crawford still screamed.
Emily backed away, hands shaking, everything shaking, and bumped into Hartgrave. He looked as shocked as she felt.
