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I chuckled at that. Reaching out without thinking, I ruffled her silver hair, disturbing the snowflakes that had settled there. "The baby witch is finally starting to understand."

She huffed at me, and I withdrew my offending appendage. Then I realized that the snake was silently watching us, and I immediately stiffened in embarrassment. Turning away, I cleared my throat and focused on the scene in front of us.

A big portion of the mansion was on fire now, smoke billowing out of a couple of broken windows on the lower level. An eerie sight in the moonlight.

Either they were fighting for their lives, or Robin and Sanka were pissed off. Either way, the emperor would have to find a new place to live if he survived today. I called my magic to my fingertips and shifted my weight from foot to foot, waiting. Preparing.

And as expected, a moment later the magic around us rippled like a heat wave on a summer day.

But what I didn't expect was for the magic shielding us to immediately shatter, bursting around us like a thousand stinging shards of glass.

I held yuki-onna ice magic in my hands, and a fae curse on my tongue. But no target appeared. Sadavir had shielded Ruya with his body, and they straightened now, Ruya clinging to his hand as he scanned the place for threats.

"I still don't sense any danger," she was saying. "Robin and the others seem fine. I…" Then she hit her knees, a sharp, keening wail raising the hairs on the back of my neck. A banshee cry heralding death.

"Go," she managed to sob between cries.

I braced myself to leap into the air, my wings already buzzing, but she surged forward, clumsily gripping my ankle. "No. No. Not you. Not them. Odin, protect her!"

The bird shot off toward the mansion, its glossy black wings glinting. Then Ruya was tugging at me once more. "Down, get down here and make Sadavir leave!"

It all clicked into place at once, realization dawning between one heartbeat and the next. It wasn't Robin whose death Ruya had just seen. It was the snake's.

Targets finally appeared. Men and women of various paranormal races. I kicked up snow into a magically powered tornado of ice and fury, blinding the guards nearest me and Ruya. But Sadavir was standing further away, shoved there by the blast of our breaking shield. He couldn't hear. And the snow probably messed up whatever means he had of using his earth magic to sense movement around him. He didn't seem to notice that a grenade had just landed at his feet.

Pulling hard on my magic, I formed a thick layer of ice over the grenade, knowing it wouldn't do much to muffle the blast. Then I used the wind and snow to push. It created white-out conditions around us, making it so no one could see. But I created a clear tunnel to the portal out of here. And I used the wind and the force of my magic to shove the stupid snake toward it as hard as I could.

The snake went flying in the right direction. I could only hope he'd hit the portal and be ejected from the pocket world, rather than being forcibly slammed into a tree. But I had no way to verify, because just then the grenade detonated in a deafening, blinding flare of heat and shrapnel.

I grabbed the back of Ruya's parka, shifted time and space, and fairy-stepped us away, using up every last bit of my magical reserves.

We landed… somewhere. It was still snowy, though far less than it had been. And the sky was beginning to lighten. An actual squirrel scampered up a nearby tree. So, probably not the pocket world. My feet hit the earth and my knees buckled. The witch stumbled with me, and I wrapped my arms around her instinctively as we fell. One of my wings bent painfully as we rolled across the snow-dusted leaves of the forest floor and pitched up against a boulder.

Then everything went dark.

Chapter 7

Dusek

Ihad a bad feeling about this whole trip from the start. Sure, we planned and prepped, and did all the things we usually did before sneaking off to cause mayhem in the syndicate. But this time felt different. It was all too rushed. Robin seemed… distracted. I was afraid her desperation and our need to please her was going to get us all killed. Or, maimed. Possibly just imprisoned, if we were lucky.

"What do you sense?" Our alpha asked, her golden eyes more dragon than human. She held up a hand tipped with claws to halt our progress as we paused on the front steps of the emperor's gaudy mansion.

I shook my head. "Not much. There are a few people inside. Mostly human or minor magic users." I frowned, sending my awareness out further, searching for souls I could feed from if I released my terror—it was a good way to canvass an area. "There's something odd deeper inside… someone with stronger magic. It seems familiar, but… I have no idea what kind of paranorm it is."

Sanka tilted his head, probably feeling out the weird magic signature as well. I sent a glance Cicely's way. The faun was essentially useless in a fight. He was strong, but largely untrained, and more inclined toward loving than fighting. I had convinced Robin that he needed to be here so he could learn. So he could feel like he had a place in our court. But really, it was so we could work together to calm the dragon down when she inevitably lost control. The fawn met my eyes and winked when the others weren't looking.

I felt some of the tension leaving me. His magic was so subtle, barely detectible as it nudged us all toward calm. But very effective. I had a feeling the pretty golden boy could be dangerous if he ever turned those wiles to evil.

Robin huffed. "He's not here," she growled. "That's why we got in so easily. That's why there's no guards in attendance, and no one is out here attacking us. He's not fucking here! The coward!" She swiped her hand outward in frustration, raking deep furrows in the wooden door before us. Then her aura heated. "I'll make sure he has no fucking home to return to."

And here we go. I thought to myself. Robin contained herself most of the time. But when she let her anger seep through, it was generally just a bit destructive. There was nothing quite like what was the equivalent of a teenage dragon on the cusp of their full power throwing a tantrum.

Robin inhaled deeply and her chest expanded further than her human body should allow. Her eyes glowed and her reddish hair lifted on a hot breeze that only existed around her aura. Then she exhaled, spewing fire at the offending door.

Sucking in a panting breath, she patted her hair back down and pretended to be in control. "Sanka? Make us an entry."

Sanka chuckled. He loved any excuse to destroy things with his magic. Forming a fireball of his own, he drew back and blasted a hole in the front of the mansion, taking out not only the door, but a good portion of the stone wall as well.

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