Page 10 of Wicked Enemy

Lightning zapped through the air. On instinct, I jerked sideways right before a white bolt could hit me in the back. It cracked into the house in front of me, sending chips of white stone flying and leaving a blackened mark in its wake. I risked a glance over my shoulder as I swung myself down the next side street.

All five white boots behind me were touching their palms together and getting ready to shoot another attack at me. Why the hell did they have to be so fast?

At least the quick glance had revealed one thing. Eve was not with them. I wasn’t sure whether I was relieved or disappointed by that.

A combined attack of wind and water magic whooshed down the road. Without breaking stride, I slapped my palms together and raised a metal wall behind me.

The sound of shattering glass split the night as their attacks crashed into my shield and blew out every window on the street as the magic instead was redirected towards the buildings on each side. Shouts rang out from my pursuers, but they kept running.

If only I could lure them into an ambush that I could finish quickly. But for that I would need…

I trailed off as my gaze landed on a tall building up ahead.

The watchtower.

Of course.

With a grin on my face, I changed direction and darted down another street that would take me towards the old watchtower by the shore. It had been built centuries ago when Malgrave’s north and south side had been at war with each other. Since there was no need for the north to keep watch on the south shoreline anymore, it had been abandoned for decades now. There was nothing in it. No supplies or anything worth stealing. But there was one important thing about it. It was built almost entirely of metal.

By the time I at last reached the tall structure, the white boots had almost caught up with me. I yanked the door open and darted straight towards the stairwell.

“He’s going into the building!” a man called. “Send up a flare for reinforcements.”

Crap. Annoyance crackled through me as I leaped up the first four steps. I had been hoping that they would follow me first, before signaling their reinforcements. Now I would have even less time.

Footsteps pounded against the steps behind me when I reached the large circular room above. I sprinted over to the other wall and whirled around so that I was facing the opening to the stairs. Whipping my head from side to side, I took stock of what resources I had to work with. Since I only had seconds before they would make it up the stairs, I decided on a plan quickly. I would’ve preferred to trap them in one quick attack, but since there were five of them, I would never be able to time it right.

One second later, a mass of water shot towards me from the entrance to the stairwell. Touching my palms together, I called up a wall of metal from the floor right before it could hit me. Splashing noises echoed through the room as it struck, sending water spraying sideways instead. I immediately dropped the wall and then touched my hands together again.

Three people had made it into the room. Two of them were sprinting towards me side by side. Sending my magic into the metal floor, I pulled the material aside and opened up a hole right below their feet.

Their eyes widened and screams ripped from their throats as they began to plummet downwards. But the final two white boots had now made it up the stairs, and all three who were not currently falling through the floor began hurling attacks at me, so I had to stop widening the hole and instead raise another wall to block.

Lightning crackled through the air and crashed into my metal shield with a boom that reverberated through the air. Dropping the wall again, I brushed my palms together and sent my magic into the metal ceiling instead. Spike shot downwards.

Yells of alarm rang out, and overlapping shields immediately rose above them to block my attack. The two people I had tried to send through the floor had managed to grab the edge when I was forced to stop widening the hole, and both of them were halfway back up onto the floor now.

I touched my hands together and got ready to open another hole below the others as well when a sixth person appeared at the top of the stairs.

My heart stalled in my chest as Eve leaped out of the stairwell and skidded to a halt next to her colleagues.

Chapter6

Indecision tore through my soul as I sprinted up the steps. Frank had already sent up the flare to signal Captain Smith and our reinforcements by the time I had reached the door, which meant this place would be swarming with constables in less than ten minutes.

I should have been relieved by that, because it meant that my colleagues wouldn’t be slaughtered. But it also meant that Levi would be captured.

Pain seared through my heart. It had only been a few days since I betrayed my oath as a constable by letting Levi escape that warehouse. And my feelings towards that damn dark mage still hadn’t changed. I didn’t want him to get captured. He had been so terrified that he had thrown up and almost passed out when he had to stay inside a small lift for less than a minute. I couldn’t even imagine what being locked up in a cell would be like for him. He would lose his mind. And I didn’t want to subject him to that torture.

But at the same time, I couldn’t get Chief Anderson’s words out of my head. Levi was going to come for revenge. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind about that. And when he did, people would inevitably get hurt. Both my fellow constables and also innocent civilians who just happened to get caught in the crossfire. Levi was dangerous on the best of days. But now, when he was also feeling hurt and betrayed yet again, he was downright lethal.

My boots thudded against the steps as I darted the final distance up to the opening.

Magic crackled and flashed above where my colleagues were no doubt fighting.

Guilt sliced through my insides. They were fighting for their lives against a ruthless dark mage, and here I was, trying to decide whether I was yet again going tohelphim.

While leaping up the final steps, I steeled myself and blocked out all of my inconvenient feelings as I made a decision. I had to bring Levi in. Before he hurt someone.