Page 112 of Magic Claimed
Unfortunately, I never got a chance to plan.
One of the teenage girls rushed forward, as if to place herself between Tairen and her torturers.
I heard a growl and a snap from the wolf. The girl cried out in pain and fell to the ground, and Jeremiah let out a yell of outrage from behind me…
…instantly blowing our cover.
I heard a couple of panicked curses as five of our enemies turned to look our way. The fire user flamed up like a torch, while the wolf grabbed the girl by the arm and started to drag her back towards the others as she screamed and struggled.
I needed my fae magic, or even elemental, yet no matter how hard I tried, it remained just out of reach. But I moved forward anyway, ready to do battle with my bare hands if necessary.
And then stopped dead as one of Blake’s minions pulled a gun from his belt and leveled it directly at my chest.
It was the blond man who’d locked me in my room. The one who’d told me to give up—that sometimes you had to break a few eggs. To him, I was simply another egg to be broken, and while I’d come in expecting magic, in the end, our enemies were human and they still wielded human weapons.
“I suggest no one move,” he said softly. “We’ve already won, so I have no reason to keep this one alive.”
“Then why haven’t you pulled that trigger?” I asked coolly, while my heart hammered in my chest and fear pulsed through me like a second heartbeat. The entire scene seemed frozen in time—Shane behind me, Jeremiah to my left. The girl sobbing on the ground, the wolf crouched nearby. The fire castingflickering shadows, while blood dripped down Tairen’s face and fell soundlessly to the floor.
Any movement could trigger disaster. Even a breath might provoke a fight that would end in tragedy. We were outnumbered, had lost the element of surprise, and only Shane had magic—magic that might be great with phones and door locks, but not so much in a brawl.
I had only one other weapon at my disposal, and I didn’t even know if it would work on humans. I’d tried to use it so rarely, and it wasn’t something I could practice.
But in that moment of desperation, it was the only thing I could think of, so I reached deep, cracked open the walls around my deepest pain, and reached for the power that remained hidden there.
Untouched by the serum that had robbed me of my other abilities, my siren magic rushed from its hiding places and flooded my body from my toes to my fingertips. It buzzed against my teeth, burned on my tongue, and opened my mouth.
“Please stop,” I said, my voice throbbing with power as I shaped that plea and released it into the tension surrounding us. “You don’t want to do this.”
The wolf shifter dropped the girl’s arm and whined. The fire snuffed out. The man with the gun shook his head as if troubled by gnats, and then…
Lifted his weapon again, his lips pinched with fury. “Whatever that was, I suggest you not try it again. Now all of you”—he gestured with the gun—“over into that corner and…”
A crack split the air, and for a panicked instant I thought he’d accidentally pulled the trigger. He did too, and stared at hisweapon before looking back at me… and then crumpling to the ground in a heap as he was hit over the head with the remains of a shattered wooden chair.
Sweet dreams, sweetheart.
Everyone froze in shock for a moment, and a moment was all Tairen-li-Corva needed. Shredded rope dangled from her wrists as she tore into her enemies with precise strikes, delivered with a power and control that any human martial artist would have sold her soul to possess.
The fire user—still reeling from the weight of my siren magic—was leveled by a kick to the chest that probably cracked a dozen ribs, while the wolf was seized by his scruff and tossed twenty feet, where he crashed into the wall, fell to the floor, and didn’t move.
It was a little embarrassing, honestly, but by the time I recovered enough to think about helping, the battle was over. Our enemies lay unmoving on the ground, and the former queen of the dragons was looking around as if disappointed that her foes had all been vanquished.
And in the ensuing silence, I heard an awed whisper from one of the teens.
“Alright… Slay, queen!”
I choked. If only they knew.
Tairen managed to look slightly offended, but then all six kids started clapping, accompanied by a chorus of whistles that took a solid ten seconds to die down.
At which point, Shane glowered at Tairen. “Why didn’t you do that sooner?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t want them to hurt the children, so I required a distraction. Which Raine so thoughtfully provided.”
Apparently, distraction was all I was good for today.
“We need to let Deverin know you’re okay,” I insisted, but she snorted in evident amusement.
