Page 111 of Junk Magic

“I’m not going to do anything,” I said, wondering what the hell was wrong with him.

“Even if some of the kids didn’t make it?” he asked, his voice harsh. “Even if you see one of those dark bastards standing over their bodies?” The hand around my wrist tightened, just sort of bruisingly hard. “Promise me.”

I stared at him, caught off guard. Because, until then, that thought somehow hadn’t occurred to me. And then I tore away, limping down the path as fast as I could.

“Lia!”

I ignored the call, and the cursing that followed it, until somebody grabbed me from behind. “Let it go!” Caleb said, and thereby saving himself from an elbow to the liver.

“Let me go, damn it!” I twisted in his arms before he had a chance to respond, because I knew he was going to ignore that.

But he’d known me a long time, and we used to spar together; still did, whenever either of us was in good enough shape. As a result, my leg was blocked on its way to do a sweep of his, and I found myself in a tussle with a larger and stronger opponent. I should have been dominating this fight, based on the strength I’d been demonstrating all day, but that was not happening.

“Why . . . are you . . . this strong?” I panted, as he backed me into a wall and got an arm at my throat.

“I’m not. You’re just that weak. You’ve mostly bled out, of blood and magic both. I’m taking you back to the Corps—”

“Like hell!”

“You need to see a healer, Lia!”

“So do you!”

“I’m fine.” It was implacable.

“You have a head wound! You’re in more danger than I am, but the little woman has to be coddled, right?” I broke his hold, because he wasn’t in much better shape than me no matter what he said. “I thought we were past that horseshit—”

“We aren’t past it; we never started it! This isn’t about your sex or your abilities. I’m your partner, and you’re not throwing your goddamned life away on a bunch of—”

“A bunch of what?”

I looked up to see Sophie standing there, hands on her hips, glaring at Caleb. Dimas was with her, and fully visible, probably because he was getting low on power, too. And Kimmie was with Aki, so presumably they were all right, but—

“There’s a problem with Jen,” Dimas said breathlessly, before I could ask. “You need to come. You need to come now.”

We went, all of us, pounding down the corridor as fast as we could go, with my damned ankle slowing me down when I wanted to race ahead. The Were father did that instead, transforming and using four legs to outpace us all. And then coming back just before we reached the tunnel’s end, his face telling me how bad it was even before he spoke.

“Clan Council. They’re blaming her.”

I forgot about my ankle and ran.

Chapter Thirty-One

The arena was so bright, with the blaze of what seemed like a thousand torches, that I was blinded for a moment. But Caleb had two vision tats to my one, and his eyes adjusted faster. And he didn’t like what he saw.

“Get away from them!” he yelled. “Get away!”

He took off running and I started after him, tripping and falling because the sands of the arena were littered with debris that I was glad I couldn’t see. But my eyes cleared up halfway across, allowing me a glimpse of what had Caleb so furious: Jen and Chris, still high on their perch atop the rock cut benches, and surrounded by a dwindling number of zombies that were being savaged by a group of Weres.

A large group.

A hand clenched my heart so hard that I thought it might explode. And not just because of the danger. But because Jen didn’t look like a powerful necromancer anymore.

She looked like a frightened kid.

Maybe because she was running on empty after saving all our asses, with her hair in her face and her eyes huge. Chris didn’t appear any better off, with the crackling nimbus of power that had surrounded him gone, leaving just a young man staring death in the face and looking fairly green at the prospect. He nonetheless had Jen slightly behind him in a protective pose, but that was going to do exactly fuck all once their final defenders fell.

I stopped running and grabbed Sophie.

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