‘Stop the smaller flames!’ I shouted to Channing while I tackled the larger one.
I pushed as much air at it as I could, but it wasn’t enough. Instead of blowing it out, I’d given it more oxygen to grow.
A wall of heat surged towards the ogres, roaring and hungry.
Robbie, Maktel and Hanlon formed a line of shields. They looked like Roman soldiers locking their shields in a line. They crouched behind their protection and met the flames head-on.
They didn’t flinch, even as the flames curled around the sides of their shields.
Robbie roared, the sound vibrating in my bones, as the flames licked at his skin, his hair, his clothes.
My throat closed in sheer fear for him. God, this was the worst part of loving someone. I’d never felt such fear for another.
‘Robbie!’ I screamed as another fireball surged towards him. I combatted it as best I could, sending a ball of air towards it. Strong enough, that time, to snuff it out.
The king of the ogres didn’t look back at me. He couldn’t. He was in the thick of it, in the brutal crush of bodies and magic and bullets.
The Domini had brought an army.
Terrifying though the ogres were, they were still outnumbered, and more mercenaries poured in from the tree line. They’d held back, waiting for my backup to engage, and then they’d fallen in to crush us. To crush me.
More fire elementals strode out.
Another couple of dryads.
They moved with chilling coordination. They’d trained for this. They’d planned it.
When had I last recharged? I felt drained. I was running on empty and itching. I didn’t have much more to give.
I dropped the air shield around me to focus my remaining energies on snuffing out the fire whipping towards my ogres.
I used the IR to rip a branch off a tree, and then I thrust the sharp sheared-off edge towards the neck of the nearest fire elemental. The branch thrust through his vulnerable skin and he died in a dramatic spray of blood. I turned to the other fire elemental.
Loki shrieked in my head, frantic and sharp.Behind you!
I spun.
For a heartbeat, I saw what Loki saw.
Channing was down on the ground behind me. Dead or unconscious, I didn’t know.
My eyes were so fixed on him that I didn’t immediately register the man moving next to him, lunging at me with a cloth in his hand.
I expected my air shield to rebound him before belatedly realising I’d dropped it. I started to raise it again, but it was too late. The cloth was around my nose and throat. I held my breath and refused to breathe in.
Only then did I recognise my attacker. It was Reed’s gloved fingers clamped around the cloth.
He’d been in on the plan to kill us this whole time. He’d led the ogres and me straight into the kill box. I’d known it was a trap but I’d thought it was to kidnap me, not kill me, and I’d thought the ogres in the car behind me would be more than a match for a few untrained criminals. Yet it wasn’t the mob we were fighting, but the Domini. Reed was in cahoots with them. Goddamn. Maybe JingowasDomini too.
Reed’s gaze locked on mine. There was amusement there. Satisfaction. Like he’d just arrived at the theatre to watch the best part of the show.
‘Inspector,’ he greeted calmly. ‘You’re coming with me. Take a deep breath and I’ll take you somewhere safe. If you stay, the Domini will kill you.’
I struggled, fighting back. I thrust the Domini blade towards my attacker.
‘Don’t be like that,’ he tutted, moving his body away from my flailing attack, his hands still clamped around my head and mouth. ‘I’m saving you.’
Lungs burning, I gasped in a breath, and a sickly sweetness assailed my nostrils. Not chloroform, no chemical element. Fuck! It was a potion. A knockout potion. And it had already touched my skin.
