The man said nothing as he drew magic around himself. Lots of magic. It reminded Max of Rían, but with far less finesse. A massive ball of swirling flames and smoke formed between his hands before he launched it at Quinn.
Max shoved Quinn to the side, but it didn’t help. As if the spell had been locked onto Quinn, the fireball tracked him and exploded when it reached him, flames raining down and erupting into a containment circle around him.
Quinn yelled and dropped to the ground, where he rolled and writhed as he tried to put out the flames spreading over his clothes.
“Quinn!” Not again. His pack kept getting hurt because of him. Because he’d Sparked and now some assholes thought they had the right to dictate his life.
Fuck that.
Max reached for the flames covering Quinn. They weren’t his, and they fought against his control, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer.Not anymore. Quinn belonged to him, and he wasn’t letting anyone fuck with his pack and family again. He wrapped his will around the magic and snuffed it out, but before he could focus on the circle trapping Quinn, the flames around the house escaped his hold, roaring brighter and hotter.
“Fuck!” He didn’t get a chance to rein them back in before a concussive force slammed into him, throwing him off his feet. He hit the ground with a pained grunt and rolled, coughing to get his lungs functioning again. He really could have used Rían’s amulet right then, but no one had been able to find it even when they’d searched the mage who’d abducted him.
A window exploded from the rampaging, out-of-control fire. He felt the rush of fresh oxygen into the flames. The way they caught on the wood and curtains around the window. If he didn’t call them back, everyone inside would die.
Max crawled to his knees in time to see the mage stalking towards him, a syringe in his hand. Terror got him the rest of the way to his feet, his heart finally getting through the shock and painfully attempting to beat its way out of his chest. Fire erupted around his hand, and he launched it at the man’s face, only for it to be snuffed out with a flick of a hand.
Aradia swooped in with an angry bark, scratching the man’s face before dodging his slap and flitting away.
Before Max could try another attack, the man rushed him. They hit the ground, and Max lashed out with every ounce of panic-driven violence and flames he could summon. His nails scraped flesh, and he valiantly tried to twist his body to get his knees anywhere sensitive, but a hand still closed around his throat, cutting off his air. When the needle came for his neck, he did the only thing he could think to do. He twisted into the grip and sank his teeth into the man’s hand hard enough to taste blood, but the man hardly flinched.
A moment later, a giant wolf leapt out of the circle of flames. With a snarl, Quinn slammed into the mage’s back and ripped him off Max before pinning him to the ground. The needle of the syringe glinted orange as they struggled. Max twisted enough to kick it out of the mage’s hand before he could jab it into Quinn’s side. When Quinn finally got his large, sharp teeth into the back of the man’s neck, he finally stopped struggling, lying still as he panted with exertion.
Max groaned and pushed onto his hands and knees as he sucked in gulps of air. “Fuck. Don’t kill him.” He wanted answers, but now wasn’t the time.
The garage exploded, flames billowing out several feet with the acrid stench and thick smoke of burning gasoline.
Fuck.Fuck. Someone outside of the jamming signal definitely would have heard that.
He could hardly focus on anything beyond the stinging ache in his lungs and intense heat in the air, but Caius and Lukas trusted him to keep the fire under control.
Reaching a hand towards the house, he willed the flames to pull back. They refused, eagerly eating through every surface they could reach. He tried again, but they still wouldn’t listen. A small part of him didn’t want them to listen, having imagined burning this house down since he was a kid, but his pack was still inside, and like fuck would he be responsible for their deaths. Another few minutes and the entire house would be a raging inferno.
With a snarl, Max swayed to his feet and stumbled towards the house. “Myflames,” he hissed, refusing to let the fear overtake him. He could freak out later. He focused on the anger instead, pushing it into insulted outrage. “How dare you not listen to me!” He shoved his hands into the flames, imagined gathering them all into his grip, and yanked as if throwing the fire into the ground.
The heat and flames vanished with an audible whoosh.
Max slumped against the charred brick, counting to twenty before staggering back and turning to check on Quinn. He blinked when he found Quinn back in his human form, sitting naked on top of the mage with a knee jammed into his back and a hand on his neck. He glared at the circle of flames still burning strong and wrenched them into a puff of smoke before snatching up Quinn’s clothes and tossing them over. Then he stood where he could stare down at the mage and resisted the urge to kick his face. “What’s it going to take for the Order to fuck off?”
There was no response.
Quinn tilted his head with a frown. “I think someone is controlling him. He smells like you did when that bastard forced a binding on you.”
Max grimaced and swallowed against the nausea at the reminder. He wouldn’t wish that on anyone, except maybe his father.
“Try to break it.”
“Are you insane?” He didn’t know the first thing about breaking bonds. What if it blew up in their faces, literally?
Quinn ignored him as he adjusted his hold and leaned down, sniffing at the mage before flexing his fingers into claws. With a quick swipe, he ripped away the back of the man’s shirt, revealing a circular tattoo on his shoulder.
Max nearly recoiled from the amount of power in the mark. “No way.”
“Max. Just try, yeah?”
With a hiss, Max dropped to his knees. “If I end up killing him, I’m gonna be really pissed at you.” He eyed the mark and swallowed a soft whimper before hovering his hands over it. The pulse of magic was strong. Far stronger than he felt in his own bond with the three of them. Thanks to what little Rían had managed to teach him, he knew how to find the edges of spells and elements. Finding the boundary of the binding mark was the easy part. Removing it without causing damage to the mage or the core of his magic was the impossible part.
“You can do it,” Quinn said.
