Page 60 of Magick and Lead
“Essaphine Torholt, Princess of Maethalia,” a male voice said. I turned to find the man in the wide-brimmed hat who’d been watching us earlier on the street.
I almost opened my mouth to correct him and tell him I was queen, not princess, but I stopped myself.
He opened his suit coat, revealing a pair of silver pistols in chest holders. “Please, come with me, Your Majesty.”
Kitty came through the crowd toward us, with Charlie a few steps behind.
Othura must’ve felt my blood start to boil, because she came into my mind, soothing.Easy, Dear Heart.
“Shut up,” I snapped aloud. “You don’t even know what’s happening.”
“I definitely don’t know what’s happening.” The pilot—Carter—said, thinking I was addressing him.
Charlie broke through the circle of dancers who stood staring at us, and I saw that he had yet another woman on his arm—a young beauty with dark skin and ruby lips.
“Who is this?” I demanded.
“This,” he growled, “is Suzie.The woman I brought you here to meet?”
“Well. It’s hard to keep track with all the women you have in your life,” I said, shooting a fiery look at Kitty, who’d taken a position next to the man in the black hat.
“Time to go, Essa,” Charlie said, and I followed his glance toward the entrance, where two more men in black suits had entered.
Carter pointed at me. “It’s true. You’re her. You’re?—”
Before he could finish, the man in black went for his guns. But Othura’s intuition running through me warned me an instant before, and I swung the fake arm. It cracked into the man’s face, sending him stumbling backwards.
Carter tried to grab me, but Charlie swooped in and blasted a fist into his cheek. Carter reeled but kept his feet and threw a punch back at Charlie, the two of them exchanging ferocious blows. Kitty, meanwhile, had stooped over the man in black and grabbed one of his guns. She pointed it at the ceiling and pulled the trigger. Instantly, screams filled the hall, and the crowd began to surge, scrambling off the dance floor.
Suzie gave a shriek, but she was laughing, too, as if it were all great fun.
Kitty started to bring the gun down, but I stepped in and swept a kick into the side of her knee—something I’d wanted to do since I’d laid eyes on her. I’d crumpled grown men hitting them with half that force, but her slender leg somehow held strong. The blue eyes she turned on me were cold as the void.
“So, you’re Essa,” she said in a low voice. “I’ve read the reports. I know all about you and Charlie. You shouldn’t have come here.”
We faced off, each too stubborn to break eye contact, but I could feel the black-suited men coming toward us through the crowd.
The aces were still battling. Now, Charlie brought an elbow across Carter Blaize’s face, and the taller pilot hit the ground in a heap. Charlie spun to face me, his face a mess of blood and bruises.
“Stand back,” he said. He held up a handful of paper napkins. I felt a tingle of dragon stone power, and suddenly, they burst into flames. He grabbed a liquor bottle off the bar, stuffed the burning napkins into the top, and smashed the bottle on the floor. Burning alcohol spread across the floor between me and Kitty—stopping our pursuers in their tracks, for a moment, at least.
“Come on!” he shouted, placing a hand on my back and another on Suzie’s.
The three of us ran, gunshots ringing out behind us.
28
CHARLIE
We piled out the back door of the club. I ran to the curb, threw a hand up, and whistled for a cab. Luckily, there was one rounding the corner just at that moment. We threw open the door and dove in almost before it had stopped moving.
“Where are you all going in such a hurry?” the driver said.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Suzie beat me to it, rattling off an address. “I live right around the corner,” she explained. “You two are coming home with me, right?”
Her words were rich with subtext. Essa and I exchanged a look.
“Don’t worry. Nobody knows where I live. Not even Kitty.”
