Page 78 of The Tribes of Magic
“You found a spell for combining magic in the Paragons’ spellbook?”
“I did. And now we’re going to try it.” I turned to face Kato, holding out both my hands. I felt a rush of supercharged magic when he took them. “Whoa. That’s intense.”
I looked down at the symbols on the ground. They all lit up at once, bright and gold, like the sun was shining through them. Power hit me, raw and wild. The earth began to shake. I planted my feet wider and held on to Kato. Smoke rose from our joined hands.
“Can you sense where the Crows are?!” Everything was shaking so hard, I had to shout so he could hear me.
“I’m getting closer! Closer…”
Earth exploded out of the ground like a violent geyser. The trees were bending in the wind. The sky was growing darker by the second. Lightning crashed down, splitting a tree trunk straight down the middle.
“Now would be a good time, Kato!”
The sky howled. The earth groaned. A tree let out a long, slow creak, like a ship caught in a storm, then it fell, hitting the ground with a resounding boom that sent shockwaves up my legs.
“I can feel it!” I shouted.
That shockwave had done something to me. It had snapped me into step with the tracking spell. I was stepping, stepping, stepping…but my feet weren’t touching the ground. Kato and I were hovering.
There was another flash. A slingshot. A crash. A cry of surprise.
I was tangled up with someone. A pile of someones, actually. One of them kicked me in the ribs.
“Ouch!” I jumped back, freeing myself.
Four mercenaries lay on the ground, trapped beneath a glowing net. Their arms and legs were tucked in like they were afraid to touch it.
Kato’s gaze panned across the Crows. “Nice net, Seven.”
“I don’t even remember casting it.”
“Do you remember getting a fix on their location?”
“Yes.”
“And teleporting us here?”
“Kind of? I wasn’t exactly in control of myself.” I gave him a sheepish smile.
Kato could have used this as an opportunity to lecture me about self-control and discipline, but he gave me a reassuringsmile instead. “It worked out all right in the end. See? There’s your friend, safe and sound.”
I looked where he pointed. Brett sat on the ground, his back pressed against a tree trunk. He looked tired, but his eyes were focused, and his nose had stopped bleeding. A slow smile curled his lips when his eyes fell upon the mercenaries trapped beneath the magic net.
I walked over to Brett and helped him to his feet. “You ok?”
“Yes. Thanks to you.”
Kato had his phone out. He was telling the General he’d caught the Crows. In all the commotion, he’d forgotten to flip up the visor of his helmet to hide his face.
Brett was staring at him. “So that’s the famous White Knight? He looks so…young.”
“All the Knights are young.”
“I know. The oldest ones are my age. Four years ago, I went to the Spirit Tree too, hoping the spirits would pick me. Hoping they would give me magic. But they didn’t. I didn’t get to be a Knight. Too bad. I would have liked to have magic.”
When Brett spoke of magic, there was a weight to his words. A reverence. It made me wonder about something.
“Is that why you talked to me earlier, by the river when I was building a fence? Because I was using magic?”
