Chapter 46

He glanced at her and saw that she was glaring at him, with her hands on her hips. She may look completely harmless, but she was prepared to throw down. I couldn’t decide if that made me like her more or less.

Basil shook his head. “This city…” he mumbled, then turned back to us. “This is Evangeline,” a wave toward the girl. He made some quick introductions that I doubted she’d remember in two minutes and then crossed his arms over his chest and continued to look inconvenienced.

“Evan,” the girl said. “Call me Evan. What did you need help with?”

Wynn stepped forward and started explaining. She began nodding halfway through, like she already knew the spell. The rest of us formed a loose circle around them, so that we could all watch what happened next.

Basil came and stood to my right and Loki stood to my left. Immediately, I felt uncomfortable. I could practically sense Basil eying Loki and Loki returning the favor. There was some kind of tension between them and I was stuck in the middle. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but it wasn’t cool.

As Wynn and Evan started to set things up, the tension got tighter and I started thinking of a way to slyly ease out from between them. They hadn’t said a word and barely glanced at each other, but I couldn’t help feeling like they were about to start fighting over something. From the corners of my eyes, I noticed they were both rigid and muscles were standing out.

Wynn lit a match and I literally could feel the men’s focus shift over to the circle instead of on each other. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. I didn’t want to be caught in the middle of that fight. A werewolf and Loki? Somehow, I had very little doubt on who would end up winning and it wasn’t the wolf.

The smell of burning tobacco hit my nose and I nearly gagged. It wasn’t like a cigarette, but it still wasn’t pleasant. Pretty much anything burning doesn’t smell pleasant unless it’s a candle or firewood. It might be because our noses are so sensitive that we smell each individual thing as it died.

Death never smelled good.

Wynn said something I didn’t pay attention to and Evan nodded her head. They made circles with the pepper and the salt. The pepper got pushed around in a small breeze and tickled my nose. The reason for the salt and pepper was for spells that required affecting other people. Such as breaking someone’s spell. It could hurt that person. The salt and pepper were supposed to represent darkness and light, to keep them balanced and avoid hurting the person doing the spell.

Now, I didn’t care if the person doing the spell got hurt. I’d love it if they died a slow death. However, spell-caster magic is finicky. When the spell could go either way, injuring someone or not, if it’s not balanced probably to prevent that, it could backlash and attack the caster. So I may not care about the target, but I still cared about Wynn and rather he not become a puddle on the street.

Contrary to belief, spells rarely require words. It’s mostly shaping magic to your will. So it was very quiet out in the snow as Wynn closed his eyes and started working while Evan watched.

He brought his hands up and a small dot of light appeared between his palms. The light grew larger and then larger still. Past the size of a baseball and the size of a soft ball. It was white in the center and the edges darkened to gold. With the city so gloomy, it brightened the entire parking lot, chasing all the shadows away.

I noticed Loki’s attention get rather pointed at that moment. I couldn’t sense magic, but he could. Wynn must have been doing something odd. I nudged him with my elbow and as his attention came to me, the tension between him and Basil am ped up again. The wolf was tense on my other side.

Okay…

Best to ignore it.

“What’s going on?” I asked, keeping an eye on Wynn and Basil.

Loki shifted his shoulders, loosening some of his muscles. I tried to think of that as a good thing, but it also meant he’d move easier when he attacked Basil. “He’s tying his mind in with the ball of light.”

“That’s a bad thing, right?” I asked, because it certainly sounded like a bad thing to me.

Loki shrugged. “It can be. If one knows what they’re doing, there’s very little risk involved. Wynn’s very good with magic, so I’m not too worried about it. No matter what, there’s some danger that he’ll lose control and the ball will take off with his mind still attached.”

“So, bad?”

He smirked. “Don’t worry. Jarret, the other spell-caster in my Family, said that I could probably break the spell safely.”

“So…bad?”

Now he smiled. He patted my shoulder and Basil made a sound low in his throat that might have been a growl. Loki chose to ignore it. “Don’t worry, Asire,” he said. “We have enough problems without adding to the pile.” He left his hand on my shoulder for a second more and part of me was pretty certain it was to piss off Basil.

I rolled my eyes. “Fine, then,” I said.

Then had a mini freak out while convincing my stomach to stop rolling. Okay…so Loki was right, Basil had a small thing for me, based on his clear irritation with Loki. However, why, if he wasn’t interested in me as all evidence indicated, was Loki poking the beast? Especially right now? If Wynn lost control, then Loki was the only thing that could help him. Maybe not get into a fight with the man who was essentially the alpha.

Wynn’s eyes had dulled, I noticed. The ball was still balanced in his hands and the very center had changed colors, becoming blue with a white ring around it that turned gold. It was strange looking and oddly beautiful.

He nodded his head, but it was like his head was attached to puppet strings. Loose and weak.

Evan turned to us. “We need some kind of legion signature,” she said. She dug into her boot and produced a dagger the size of my forearm. “Anyone feel like donating?”

What the hell was that little girl doing caring around a dagger that big? When everyone stood in surprise— at the weapon, I was sure —she raised her eyebrows and pointed at me. “What about you?” she asked. “You're some kind of super legion, aren’t you? Like the lemoniest of all legions?”

Billy choked on a laugh and I smiled. Well. Never been called that before and I’ve been called pretty much everything from toots to skank. At least this one amused me.

“Sure,” I said, stepping forward. Technically, according to my Orphaning papers, this could get me killed. But I hadn’t been doing a good job of following the guidelines of those papers this past week and didn’t see any point in starting now. Besides, someone would have to tell the wardens that I broke the rules and no Orphan wanted the wardens showing up in the city.

People died when the wardens appeared.

When I got to Evan, I held my hand out to her, palm up. She straightened her spine and breathed in deeply. She looked older when she lifted the dagger. Not by age, but by experience. Like she’s seen it all at least once and couldn’t be bothered to get upset about it all.

The tip of the blade was sharp and she dragged it along the center of my palm. The cut was about an inch and wasn’t deep at all. It’d be healed before the day was over, nothing but a scratch. She brought my hand over of the ball of light and flipped it over. Two seconds went by before a fat drop of red dipped inside the circle.

The light flashed the exact shade of my blood then returned to Wynn’s colors.

Evan smiled and relaxed. “Thank you,” she said, waving me off. That also amused me. Apparently today I was easily amused.

Instead of willingly inserting myself between Basil and Loki again, I stood on Loki’s other side. It might not have been the smartest move, but when hostilities rose this time, I wasn’t in the way and was in the perfect position to tackle Loki to the ground and hold him for the two seconds it would take before he remembered he was bigger than me.

Loki didn’t help the situation because he smirked and even I saw the satisfaction in his eyes.

Evan moved up to Wynn and slid her right hand against his left. The back of her hand touching his palm. The ball of light bobbled for a second or two, but didn’t collapse or disappear. Barely breathing, she then did the same with her left hand in his right. This time the ball didn’t even bobble. She stepped back, bringing the magic with her. She tilted her hands until one was resting above the ball and one below it and removed the one above. The ball remained in her right.

She brought her hands together under the light and took a deep breath. “Okay people,” she said. “If this works, it won’t take but a minute for him to break the spell, but it’ll be an intense minute for him. He may need to sit the actual fight out. Are all of you ready?”

I looked at Billy and she took the hint, holding her hand out. Her eyes flashed white for a second, with how full of energy she was then they dulled and I knew she was attached to all the signatures in her head, telling her where the legions were. She announced she could sense ours. “Let me set them aside.”

Having met all of them, she could tell their signatures apart from each other and those of people she hadn’t met. When she nodded, Evan widened her stance. She brought her hands over her head and the ball of light moved with them. The yellowish light danced off the snow and took away what little darkness remained, even as night started taking over day.

Evan’s shoulders tightened and Loki tensed, telling me that she was working some magic of her own. The light started to pulse in rhythm with her heart, which was beating the slowest of everyone’s. With each pulse it would flash the red of my blood and then turn back to yellow. Again and again.

The muscles in Evan’s back worked and then a burst of magic filled the air with the scent of trees starting to bloom. The light shot off her hands and straight up into the air. It pulsed red once more and then burst into a thousand points of light that blanketed all over the city. Gooseflesh rose across my arms and neck and Loki became even tenser.

All the legions in the parking lot looked wigged out, feeling the magic without being aware that was what they felt. The scent of trees was taken over by that of apples, of all things. Covering the air, coating the back of my throat.

Loki breathed deep and didn’t look surprised. He was the only one.

Almost simultaneously my, Reggie’s, Henrik’s and Lixa’s phones started going off loudly. It was like a sneeze in the middle of a serious moment. Even with how unintentional it was, everyone kind of blames you for not holding it in for a little longer.

We all went for our phones. I yanked mine out and saw it was one of the other Orphans. I was also getting texts. They all seemed to say the same thing. What the fuck is going on? I wondered how far this spell was spread. Could every legion in the city feel it?

I turned my phone off and stuffed it back into my pocket, noting that the others were doing the same thing.

“Got them!” Billy screamed. “I’ve got Millie. Her signature is strong!”

Wynn, as if he were listening, went limp. He almost hit the ground, but Evan was there to catch him. She leaned his bigger body against hers and then looked around. “It worked?”

“Yes,” Billy said, her voice excited even with her eyes dulled out.

“Get Wynn inside,” Reggie ordered. “Lixa? You and,” she paused looking amongst the rest of us, “Basil stay here with him.” She looked the wolf in the eye. “We’re even for the first attack and the damage done to the shop. The second attack and getting your wolves are still mine.”

Basil nodded his head.

Lixa and Basil took Wynn’s weight away from Evan and the four of them trooped into the gallery after Reggie put in the passcode. She turned back to us and her eyes were dancing with triumph. “Ella, I’m letting you go with us as long as you understand that you need to fight as little as possible.”

Ella’s mouth cranked down, but she nodded her head. “Okay,” she said. “Long as my daughter isn’t in danger, I will stay out of it.”

With that, the rest of us piled into three cars and took off. Billy was in the car with me, Reggie and Henrik. Since the two of them destroyed their cars when escaping from the safe house. Luckily, they both had enough money to get new cars.

Billy gave directions as I drove. Her voice was sure even if her eyes were blank. They darkened to ice blue as we moved, but the entire ride, she kept the strong connection up.

“How long before they notice, do you think?” Henrik asked.

“Don’t know,” Reggie said. “But we’ll get there before they figure it out.” The surety in her voice wasn’t put on this time. She had lost control of her city and she was ready to take it back.

Billy’s brow furrowed as we went on.