Page 90 of Wicked Enemy

Wind.

It sounded like a massive gust of wind whirling towards us.

Alarm shot through me, and on instinct, I called up a water shield right before the wind blast slammed into us. Frank had been a second too late, and was picked up by the force and flung several yards backwards before he crashed into another pair who had been coming up behind us.

I braced my weight on the stones below me as the wind smacked into my water shield. It disintegrated from the force, but it had been enough to keep me on my feet. I whipped my head from side to side, finding almost our entire squad desperately trying to get back on their feet.

Lightning crackled through the air, followed by a rush of fire.

Stunned disbelief rang inside my skull. And for a moment, I couldn’t process what I was seeing. Then Captain Wright’s harsh voice cut through the noise of magic.

“Dark mages!” he bellowed. “Force close combat! Now!”

Snapped out of my stupor, I took off towards the building that the attacks were coming from. Magic flashed through the air. I yanked up another water shield as yet another wind blast barreled down the street. Lightning zapped past my shoulder, almost striking Frank who had finally gotten back to his feet. A yelp of surprise ripped from his throat as he leaped aside, but I just kept sprinting.

On my right, Jamila was racing towards the building as well while summoning water to shove the fireballs aside. They were too powerful to put out completely, which meant that Captain Wright had been right. Magic this powerful couldn’t be produced by the Great Current, which meant that these weren’t normal people. They were dark mages.

Shouts of alarm rang out as another section was shoved backwards by a torrent of wind.

Confusion whirled inside me. What the hell was going on? Levi had told me, he hadpromisedme, that he wouldn’t try to kill my colleagues. That this wasn’t a trap. So then why the hell were we being attacked by dark mages?

Leaping forward, I avoided another blast of magic, and rolled forward before finally reaching the door. The rest of my colleagues were still too far behind, but I couldn’t wait for them. Yanking open the door, I darted into the building while anger coursed through my veins.

If Levi had betrayed me, if he had taken this opportunity to slaughter Malgrave’s constable force so that he could make the parliament cede the south side to him, then I was going to fucking kill the bastard myself.

Had it all been a lie to get me to trust him? To get me to bring the others here and right into a fucking trap? Was this payback? Payback for how I had betrayed him earlier?

Rage roared through my soul, but it was mixed with a cold numbness that threatened to swallow me whole.

What a cruel trick it would be if it turned out that Levi had in fact betrayed me. That he had told me that he loved me…Lovedme, for Current’s sake! Only for it to be a part of his ruse to get me to trust him and do what he wanted.

I could almost feel my heart cracking at just the thought of it.

Was this how Levi had felt when I was holding a sword to his throat and he finally realized that I was a constable? No, he couldn’t have felt what I was feeling right now. Because I hadn’t told him that Iloved himright before betraying him.

Fuck, was Levi really this cruel? Had he really played the long game to get his revenge as savagely as possible today?

If he had, I was going to fucking kill him and—

My heart lurched into my throat as someone grabbed me from behind and yanked me sideways into a room. I tried to scream, but the hand in front of my mouth muffled it. And even if I had been able to yell for help, my colleagues were still too far away to save me.

Then the door to the room was slammed shut behind me.

Chapter39

The entire room smelled like blood and lingering ozone from the lightning strikes. I stared down at the three corpses before my feet and the red puddles that were quickly spreading across the dusty wooden floorboards.

“How does it feel?” Christian White said, and I could hear the fucking smirk in his voice.

My heart was still pounding, but I kept all traces of emotion firmly off my features as I dragged my gaze up to the worldwalker’s face. “Telling you about my feelings wasn’t part of the deal.”

The smirk on his face widened, and his ice blue eyes glittered in the sunlight falling in through the windows. “That bad, huh?”

“You demanded blood.” Without breaking eye contact, I stabbed a hand towards the slaughter on the ground between us. “Now you have it. And now, it’s time for you to hold up your end of the bargain.” A lethal edge bled into my voice as I added, “Or are you going to back out again?”

“You really are a sore loser.”

“You have a healer, you have the blood sacrifices you demanded, and now you will leave my city and the rest of my people alone.”