Page 103 of Junk Magic

I stared back at Sebastian, whose tawny fur all but glowed in the spell light. “Give ‘em another target.”

* * *

A moment later, we had found refuge around a corner, which was going to last exactly no time at all. But then, we didn’t need for it to. “Get out,” I told the father.

“Here?” he stared at me. And if a wolf could look taken aback, he managed it.

“There’s a door right there,” I nodded toward a dark opening in the wall, just ahead. It was almost invisible to the naked eye, but there was a warren of slender passageways climbing through the rock behind it. He’d be okay.

Only he wasn’t convinced of that.

“And? They’ll kill us! My boy—”

“Aki will take your son and Kimmie out of here. You can handle two, right?” I asked Aki, who was biting his lip.

“If one is small, yeah. But Sophie sent me here to rescue you. She said—”

“And who are you more afraid of? Sophie, or me?” Considering that I was covered in blood and had just ripped a guys’ heart out, I thought that was an easy question.

But apparently not.

So, I growled at him and he blanched. Then grabbed the cub and Kim and vanished into thin air. Leaving me staring at nothing, which even with a lifetime of magic behind me, was damned impressive.

“What the—what just happened? Where is my son?” the father said, looking around frantically.

“It’s okay. Aki’s a teleporter.” This did not appear to reassure him much, judging by his increasingly frantic pawing. “He’s taken them outside,” I added. “Well away from this. They’ll be okay.”

“And what about me?”

“Hunker down and stay out of sight.”

“And what the hell are you going to do?”

“Save Sebastian’s hide,” I said, and shoved him out.

He went, looking strangely conflicted, which wasn’t my problem. Caleb was. Who had started cursing from the truck bed.

There appeared to be an issue, not with our new propulsion system, which was in place and ready to go, but with the reason we needed it.

“Hurry up!” I encouraged.

“You hurry up!”

“I’m ready to go,” I said, and I was. Whether this would work was a completely different thing, but I didn’t think that now was the time to bring that up.

Not that it was going to matter if Caleb couldn’t support his end.

“What do you think?” he sat back, looking at the monstrosity he’d conjured up. It mostly filled the truck bed, being approximately the same size as Sebastian when Changed. But that was all I could say for it.

“Seriously?” I demanded.

“It’s dark!”

“It’s not that dark.” There wasn’t enough gloom in the world to make that thing look remotely like Sebastian. Or a wolf. Or anything besides an oversized orange blob. “It’s not even the right color.”

“Just go!”

“I’m not going to go! That wouldn’t fool a nearsighted toddler!”

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