The man’s eyes widened with the appropriate fear for someone who had two guns pointed at their face. Painstakingly, he faced the hunters with his hands raised, taking a slight step to put himself in front of Ben.
“Hey, how about we talk about this with a little civility?” the man said.
I flitted close to Jon’s side, my heart still slamming in my chest as our gazes caught—his expression a mixture of exasperation and concern.
His hard stare lingered, darkening as he spotted the vine marks that had dug into my clothes, leaving scratches through the delicate fabric.
“You hurt her,” Jon growled, starting forward with a merciless glare.
The strange human looked terrified for all of two seconds before something crafty slipped in behind those wild eyes. He moved quicker than I gave him credit for, diving for an arced silver cage on the shelf behind him. Ben flew into the air, getting out of the path as the human slammed the front of the cage with his shoulder and broke the weathered lock. The door flew open, and the thing that had been sitting in the shadows thudded onto the floor.
I saw with horror what had been slithering and rattling inside.
A massive white serpent opened its jaws, revealing curved fangs and a forked tongue. Its tail rattled in warning. Snakes had been a common pest near Elysia, usually black garden varieties that could be corralled away from our home with spellwork. This one pulsed with otherworldly energy, and I doubted it would answer to even the most seasoned animal affinity. It looked hungry andpissed.
Jon staggered back as the leathery wings—yes, fucking wings—on its scaled back spread wide. The beast was easily five feet long and as thick as his forearm.
“What the hell is—”
The serpent took flight, fangs bared as it dove for Jon. I howled his name, steepling my fingers to cast a spell. A hard line of frost shot from my palms and slammed into the serpent’s side. The blow was just enough to throw it off course from Jon’s neck. The snake latched onto his left shoulder instead, its body coiling around his upper arm while its wings flared for balance.
“Shit!” Jon pried at the tail, but its body coiled tighter, eliciting a pained shout from him.
Even with a decade of experience in hunting nightmares, he seemed hapless in handling this one. It wasn’t constricting his dominant arm, but he couldn’t land a shot on his target without the risk of hitting himself, too.
Gritting his teeth, Jon slammed himself into the wall behind him, stunning the creature into relinquishing its grip. This was my chance. I veered closer, sending another burst of frost at it, forcing it to the floor.
I glanced over my shoulder at the sound of thudding boots. Cliff charged after the strange human, who continued to back away through the wide shelves, hurling another two boxes and a small trunk to slow Cliff’s path. Surely he would have drawn a weapon by now if he had one.
Jon launched himself onto the snake before it could return to the air. He took hold with both hands, stretching it onto the ground and leaning away from the furious wing flaps.
“Wait, don’t kill it!” I shouted, cutting my flight downward and positioning my hands for another spell.
“Hurry!” Jon said through gritted teeth.
My first two spells missed, crystallizing patches of ice on the marble floor. The snake’s wriggling form was difficult to aim at while Jon was trying to balance restraint without crushing it. But finally, my spellwork landed, replacing Jon’s hands with thick, icy cuffs around the beast’s body.
The snake lashed around as much as it could, hissing and rattling. Fangs snapped toward Jon’s heels in vain as he stepped past it and assessed the chaos that had taken over the small room.
Other cages clattered madly. Multi-colored dormice spilled from one of the fallen boxes and scattered across the floor to hide against the walls. A sheet had come down from another enclosure, revealing a pair of panicked weasels that blinked in and out of visibility, light bending at their every movement. Leathery wings and familiar screeches came from a locked glass case and made me shiver at the memory of ahools at the outpost.
But it wasn’t an animal or monster that struck next.
As Cliff shoved aside fallen luggage to pursue the stranger, a bolt of fabric unfurled in the air and caught him around the neck. His shout was cut short as the scarf tightened mercilessly. The man took the opportunity to double back and dodge past him, making a break for the wrecked door.
“Cliff!” Jon shouted, but he faltered, eyes trailing the stranger. He could stop him or save Cliff; there was only time for one.
Cursing, he sank to his knees and tried to claw the fabric away as Cliff’s breathing sputtered into pained, shallow gasps.
I started toward them, only for a hand to close around my wrist. Ben wheeled me around, his gaze frantic.
“Please, you have to believe me. If you come with us, they’ll never find you,” he insisted, oblivious that his words would not have the intended effect.
I strained against him, emboldened by his exhaustion. He was stronger than he looked, but with all the magic he had expelled already, perhaps he couldn’t summon glamour again.
Something shifted in his desperate look, a chilling sort of resignation. “I’m really sorry about this.”
A sickening tug at my core made me gasp. My magic was beingpulled. It gave me nearly the same sensation as iron, but insteadof ousting my power, this reprehensible ability meant to siphon it. Soon, Ben’s exhaustion wouldn’t matter—he’d use my own strength to fuel his magic and knock me out.
