Page 94 of Junk Magic

“You’re a goddamned war mage—”

“And you haven’t seen what they are! They were coming for you one way or the other! I’m just the driver. Now get on the fucking truck!”

And he threw me inside.

I hit the back seat, on top of Kimmie who was somehow still asleep, despite Armageddon going on all around us. I tried desperately to locate anyone I knew—the kids, Sebastian, even Caleb, who had disappeared. Because, instead of launching himself into the driver’s seat as I’d expected, he was throwing down with two dark mages a little way off.

I sent a javelin spell at one of them, knocking him off his feet, and my partner promptly turned his buddy into a fiery torch. Caleb’s mage fled, screaming and burning, and mine decided on the better part of valor and followed him, clutching his stomach and streaming blood. But that wasn’t going to be enough, not even for us to get the kids out of here, because the moment of surprise was gone and we were seriously outnumbered.

Or . . . maybe not.

I’d just sent a lasso spell to bind two mages who’d been targeting us, slamming them together and causing them to hit the dirt, when I felt the ground shake. It was hard enough to rock the truck slightly and wasn’t merely the one jolt, as if a major spell had detonated nearby. It was many minor ones, and they just kept coming.

Because the whole arena was shivering. Enough sand was rippling across the great space or sliding off of mountains of the dead that the hiss of it cut through the sounds of battle, leaving more people than me staring around in confusion. And then in worry, because it looked like the beginning of an earthquake, only I didn’t think so.

The fortress was as steady as ever, as solid as the rock that had formed it thousands of years ago. No little pebbles were cascading off anything, and no cracks were forming in the massive walls. Just the floor was shaking, and then shuddering, and then something thrust upward out of a nearby pile of sand, something that looked a lot like—

“Zombies!” Somebody yelled, in a magically enhanced voice that echoed around the huge space.

And I finally spotted Jen, the mousy young woman who wouldn’t say boo to a goose, but would say “come forth” to a bunch of really fucked up reinforcements. She was across the arena, high on one of the upper tiers of seats, with her arms outstretched and her eyes glowing neon green as she summoned her troops.

And she was summoning a lot.

Bloody arms reached up from the sand and grabbed mages by the ankles, before jerking them down. Headless bodies got up and started stalking others, driving them back even when the mages got over their shock and launched fire bombs at them, which helped not at all. Because if there’s anything worse than being chased by a headless monster, it’s being chased by a fiery, headless monster. Along with ripped up Were corpses, with trailing guts and blood-soaked fur, who had remembered that they still had teeth and claws and hundreds of pounds of weight to throw around.

And then Jen raised her arms upward in a sudden, savage motion, and the whole arena exploded with the reanimated dead.

I gazed about, not understanding anything. A necromancer might be able to manage two or three zombie servants at once, although at great cost. But this? Who the hell could do this? It would take dozens of necros, all working together . . .

Or one with an extra battery pack, I realized, finally noticing that Jen wasn’t alone. Our resident crabapple was behind her, with his hand on her shoulder and his blond hair an electric afro around his head. Jen was providing the talent, but Chris was fueling it.

I stared at them.

Had anything been in those goddamned reports?

And then Caleb ran back over, with his coat smoking. “We got a problem.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

I spread out my arms, indicating the chaos all around us. “Which one?”

“That one!” Caleb pointed across the battlefield, to where a group of mages had kept their eyes on the prize.

Sebastian and his people were still alive, thanks to a wavering shield wall twelve feet high and what looked to be several feet thick that somebody had thrown up in front of them, and which was absorbing spell fire like nothing I’d ever seen. And still didn’t see unless a spell hit it, exploding like fireworks under water, because the barrier was almost transparent. I also didn’t see who was casting it, but where a certain person was concerned, that was becoming fairly normal.

Caleb took the wheel and burnt rubber, grinding down the hill of mangled bodies and then tear-assing across the sand, while I searched for a certain elusive student of mine. A spell hit us broadside, rocking the vehicle hard enough to push it onto two wheels for a second, while another tore overhead, just missing setting my hair on fire. But we also broadsided two mages on the way over, and sent a bunch more running and—

“Dimas!” I yelled, pointing.

“What?” Caleb glanced at me. “Where?”

“To the far right of the shield. Hurry—it’s starting to fail!”

Caleb swerved that way, spewing sand behind us, and a watery looking, still half invisible Dimas fell to his knees as we skidded alongside.

“Can’t hold,” he gasped, after letting me through the faltering protection. His olive skin was pale and sweat was running in rivulets down his cheeks. “It’s . . . going down.”

I tried to respond, but I couldn’t hear myself think. Not with Caleb going HAM on the other side of the barrier, throwing what looked like his entire arsenal into the fight. And since he usually clanked when he walked, that was saying something.

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