Midas flexed his jaw, but they both knew Wren was best equipped to deal with this. “Take the new guy.”
Wren pulled a face and Midas raised a brow. “Fine.”
The message got passed around again and Saint silently swore to himself, but he traded glances with Wren then nodded.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Avery signed. “I’ll give you some cover.”
Wren tilted his head, watching Avery pull a pouch from his trousers. He began sifting through it, getting distracted by a few trinkets that were mixed in with the magic components.
“I was looking for this,” he said brightly, completely forgetting the circumstances as he held it up for Midas to see.
“Avery,” Midas signed slowly.
Avery glanced around at the incredulous, staring faces. “Oh. Right.”
He reached inside his collar and pulled on a thin chain. It came out with a small, teardrop-shaped vial hanging off the end of it. He uncorked it and drew out some silver dust. Immediately every cursebreaker straightened their backs, feeling a cascade of powerful magic begin to build.
Wren watched him work, shivering when he realized he had been looking at an untestable. Above level nine. Above what history books claimed was the most powerful.
Wren had never met his equal, and all that power had been hidden behind dusty warehouse walls, dressed up in argyle socks, spectacled glasses, and awful sweater vests.
Wren met Midas’s gaze, silently asking if he had known all along. Midas gave him a small nod before looking away just as Avery’s power spread outward, a creeping fog being breathed into life by the caster.
It spread from him, quickly enclosing them in a dense cloud.
Wren nodded to Saint and they burst out of the other side of it, Sable and Blu following them.
“Do you have a plan?” Saint panted as Sable streaked ahead to lead the way.
“Not as such,” Wren said, glancing over his shoulder.
Bushes were moving, and a roar soon followed, reverberating in Wren’s chest as thundering steps chased them.
Whatever it was, it was big and no longer being quiet.
“Well that’s just peachy. We have about five seconds before it catches us and picks its teeth with our bones!”
“We need to break whatever curse Kellan put on it.”
“That would require us getting close to it, and it doesn’t seem so friendly.”
“You do this for a living. Surely you’ve seen worse.”
“I like bugs! I specialize in bugs! That thing sounds like a dinosaur!”
Blu let out a warning chirp before Wren could reply, and he shoved Saint to the side just as the creature sprang for them.
It was massive. Coiled muscles and a long, powerful body covered in golden fur that was matted and patchy. Its giant head was half the size of Wren’s body, each of its teeth the size of Wren’s forearm, as magnificent as it was deadly.
Wren recognized its unfamiliar shape as a liger, bred for maximum damage and aggression and Wren didn’t need Blu to tell him it was radiating cursed magic. Its eyes were glowing red,foam dripping from its slavering mouth, and there was a collar around its neck.
Sable jumped onto its back as it turned to face them, getting a swipe in at its side before jumping off and scaling a tree as the liger tried to bite back.
Wren rolled to his feet and hurried to get Saint back up as well. They ran in a different direction, snaking around some trees to try and slow it down.
He heard Sable moving through the trees overhead before he jumped back down to lead them again, Blu keeping an eye on their backs.
“We can’t keep playing kiss chase with this thing. I’m already about to collapse,” Saint wheezed.
