Page 126 of Demon's Bluff

Elyse’s jaw was tight. “I knew someone had followed us.”

“I’ll throw a spell. Cover for you. Get off the boat.” I put a hand on her, jumping in surprise when a flood of ley line energy filled my chi from her.Two good pops.“You can’t make a protection circle over—Elyse!”

She had stood, my fingers slipping from her as she marshaled the lineenergy into a spell and tossed it straight up. The purple sphere arched into the fragile blue of the sky with a hiss, trailing golden sparkles until it burst like a signal flare to leave a golden haze glinting in the sun.

“Stay down!” I yanked her back, wondering why she had wasted a charm to light the area. I didn’t see our attacker, but that golden haze wasn’t doing anything that the sun wasn’t already.

“Give it a second.” Elyse crouched beside me, her eyes alight. “Whoever he is, he’s subtle.”

“Scott?” I guessed, but I didn’t see Slick, and if he had followed the bird here, the crow would be on her shoulder, cawing in delight.

“There,” she said, pointing.

Confused, I followed her pointing finger to the golden haze condensing behind a huge, scraggly bush.Oh…It hadn’t been a light. It had been to suss out the attacker. Kind of like how Vivian had used drifting flower seeds to find an illicit magic user at the farmers’ market.

“It’s attracted to magic use,” Elyse said as she shifted her weight, clearly uncomfortable as she crouched beside me. “He’s got a light touch. It’s not Scott. Scott is a bull in a china shop.”

“Wait.”

But she had stood again, her hair staticky as she swung her arms in a gloriously exuberant motion to pull in energy through Slick. The woman did like to spell.

“Light touch, light touch!” I shouted, reaching for her. It was going to be something big. I could tell. “This is a crime scene!”

She wasn’t listening, and energy darted from her to our unseen attacker with an exuberant“A minoread maius!”

The boom of a counterspell exploded upward, pushing the leaves of the trees, rattling them in the sudden wind. Like a hurricane, they swirled upward, shredding into confetti before drifting downward.

“You are tearing the area up!” I complained as Elyse scrambled from the boat to the landing. “There was no evidence of an attack out here. Knock it off!”

But she ignored me, striding confidently into the parking lot, her auraalmost visible as she pulled on the line, eager to engage. Way too eager. She was going to kill someone.

“I said stop!” I lurched off the boat, and when she formed another spell within her hands, something in me snapped.

“Dictum factum!”I shouted, pissed as my spell hit her. It was a demon spell Al had used on me until I began listening to him. It was basically a babysitter charm that forced the recipient to do what I had said. In this case, to stop.

Elyse choked as her gathered energy fell back into her. Wide-eyed, she turned to me, an angry, hot betrayal in her gaze.

“I’m sorry,” I said as she tried to make a spell and reddened when it failed. “You aren’t listening—”

Her attention flicked over my shoulder…and then fire and ice hit me, crawled down my spine and stole my will. I fell to one knee, breath held as I coolly analyzed the spell and found it to be elven before balling it up and asking the Goddess to take it when I shoved it into the ground.

Teeth clenched at the ache it had left, I got to my feet and promptly lost every thought.

“Quen!”

The black-clad elf stole forward on soft shoes, as dangerous and slippery as the night that birthed him. Green and gold energy wreathed his hands, dripped from them. His expression, though, held only the barest hint of anger. “A step too far, Morgan. This gives me no joy.”

Oh. Shit.Quen was the only person this side of the lines who scared me. Not for his illicit magic but because he had no qualms about using it to defend those he loved. Kind of like me.

“Quen, wait.” I retreated as he came forward, flushing when I remembered joyfully humiliating Trent in front of Cincinnati’s oldest families. Yeah, I’d been an idiot. “I handled it badly. You’re right. But you have to listen—”

His lip twitched. It was the only warning I got as suddenly the very earth I stood on erupted, going soft beneath my feet to swallow me up.

“Teneo!”I exclaimed as I floundered, sending a mass of black coilsabout my feet to writhe through Quen’s spell and give my feet purchase. Awkward and scared, I staggered out of the spells, hand raised for patience. “We need to talk.”

“Voulden,”Quen intoned, and I batted it aside before it knocked me down from the inside out.

“He didn’t want to get married!” I shouted. “He told me himself!”