Page 112 of Magic Forsaken

One of the humans shot her with a dart gun, but the bear didn’t even seem to notice, only roared again and charged the three humans closest to her.

The shooter tripped into a table, sending silver and crystal flying along with the remains of someone’s dessert. But one ofthe other humans reached beneath the collar of her white shirt, and I watched in horror as she pulled out a large, faceted gem.

Just like the one Elayara used to wear.

There was no knowing how much magic was contained in one of those gems, or even how many kinds. The fae queen’s had seemed limitless in its capabilities. But as the human let loose a blast of water magic at Yolande and missed, I finally recognized that not all of the advantages were on their side.

Blake might have more people than we did, but he’d armed them with powers they didn’t understand. There had been no time to teach them control, and, just as importantly, their source of power was finite.

If we could force them to exhaust their resources, they would have no choice but to retreat.

“Make them miss,” I hissed at Rath, and saw the moment he understood my strategy. With a wild, feral grin, he leaped onto a tabletop, swiped a silver butter knife, and took off.

I could only hope he would be wise enough to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. We would have no way to explain human deaths, and a mass murder by Idrian leaders would be the quickest and ugliest imaginable path to war.

Another roar from Yolande was followed by a crash as a second table went down. The longer this battle continued, the greater the danger that either one of the humans or one of the Idrian delegates would die. I had to stop it. Without killing anyone.

From behind me, I heard an unearthly scream and whipped around, my heart thudding with adrenaline as I prayed desperately that everyone was still alive. That even Blake would hesitate to commit outright murder…

But what I saw did nothing to quell my fears. Callum was being stalked by a creature out of the most fantastical human legends—an enormous golden gryphon that leaped from table totable, tail lashing the air in the thrill of the hunt. But rather than displaying a healthy degree of caution, Callum turned to meet it without a trace of fear, dodging its first leap and hammering a punch into the base of its wing that drew a yowl of pain and a flash of a taloned paw.

Callum evaded the worst of it, but I could see blood on his sleeve where those claws had marked him. How could he possibly defeat such an enemy without shifting? It was many times his size, with wings and talons and a wickedly sharp beak.

If it caught him…

“It doesn’t have to be this way, Raine.” Blake spoke up from behind me, his voice a soothing tenor that rang with gentle disappointment. “I truly don’t want to hurt anyone. I’ve instructed my people to use non-lethal magic whenever possible. But if you insist on reacting with violence, I will have no choice but to cut my losses.”

Cut his losses? He’d already proven he had no qualms about sacrificing his pawns, so I doubted he was talking about his own people. He was talking about the Idrians he intended to kidnap.

“If you refuse to aid me—if you make it too difficult for me to leave in peace—I will not hesitate to kill those in this room to prevent them from attacking my operations in the future.” Somehow, he still sounded utterly calm and reasonable. “The human authorities are already primed to believe that this Symposium might well end in violence, so it will come as no surprise that the Idrian courts attacked one another, resulting in a tragic loss of life.”

Oh, that utter bastard. He’d been the one to alert the human media—planning ahead in order to cover his tracks. The outcome of this battle didn’t matter to him. Whether his people won or lost, he still came out ahead.

Maybe Draven had been right—maybe I wasn’t truly a killer. But Blake Masterson was a monster, and I knew right then and there that I would not shed a single tear over his death.

I heard a choked off scream from Yolande’s side of the room—one of the humans had gotten too close—and I doubted she was in any state to remember that we needednotto kill anyone.

This had to end now. I had to stop Blake, buthow?

Callum couldn’t shift. He might technically fit in this space, but he would trample everyone who was still unable to move, and if he tried to spread his wings or breathe fire, it could easily bring down the entire building.

Rath and Yolande were holding their own, but Rath was hampered by the need to use non-lethal force, and Yolande was a wrecking ball of pure power and rage.

So it was up to me. Up to me and the magic I’d tried so hard to reject.

But which form? I knew the least about my shapeshifting, and I could not imagine any way that a tiny white fox could contribute to this fight. I didn’t know much about my siren powers either, and while they seemed best suited to a non-violent approach, I wasn’t confident enough that they would actually work.

But my fae magic still hummed where it rested somewhere deep in my chest, and the water sang to me of both power and peace.

What if… What if I could somehow use both?

I tugged and felt a surge of adrenaline as my fae magic flowed to my fingertips. Ready and waiting for my command.

Then I shut my eyes and reached out for the wall fountain at the side of the room.

Behind my closed eyes, it overflowed with color, so I took that flow and pulled it towards me. Shaped it and hardened it into a glittering spike of ice that flashed with iridescence as Icoaxed it across the room, fighting to balance the competing demands of juggling two magics at once.

I could still sense the chaos around me, but it was muted, and the moment my eyes opened, my focus narrowed on Blake, who was watching me with the beginnings of mild concern.

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