Magical Midlife Battle （Leveling Up, #8）(115)

You mentioned, Kingsley, that it was our right to use excessive force. To kill. Well, those mages challenged us. We are answering that challenge. With a shifter, it’s a brutal, gruesome fight to the death. Fine. With mages, it’s a magical terror-fest until they tell us what we need to know or one or the other of us dies. Same outcome, different way of going about it.”

Kingsley didn’t comment, probably because it was impeccable logic.

“The problem we’re facing,” Jess continued, “is that their magic is powerful. They had an

invisibility spell that was almost stronger than Sebastian’s potion.”

“What does that mean for us?” Kingsley asked.

“We’ll need to get through those mercenaries quickly,” Austin replied, “and hit the mages before they have time to thin our numbers too much.”

“The good news is, they freak out when a growling shifter comes at them,” Jess said. “The bad news is that they are likely going to leave a lot of space between the mercenaries and themselves for just that reason.”

“At least the weapons seem to be in decent working order,” Austin said just as a knock sounded at the front door.

“Hell- ooo,” came a voice, and he instantly recognized the speaker.

“Oh no,” Mimi said, obviously coming to the same realization.

In a moment, Patty turned the corner into the kitchen. She was wearing red lipstick on a big smile, her blonde curls bouncing.

“Hello, everyone!” She walked a little closer to Jess at the island. “Alpha. Naomi! I haven’t seen you around town. You should come out more often. We have some fantastic social events on the Town Green—that’s what we’re calling the main square. It just gives it a little flare, don’t you think? We have chess and checkers, Scrabble, Uno—it’s a real good time. Austin Steele! Great to see you again.

My gosh, you guys have been so busy! I barely see my little Olly. What do you think about all these garhettes, hmm? They’re ready to really stick it to those mages. We’ll show those gargoyles just how useful we can be, yes we will. About that, how’d it go with the weapons pickup? I know Nessa was a little worried, bless her soul, but you went ahead with it, so I assume you had a plan. And look!

You’re back.”

She stopped talking, and the silence following her words seemed foreign and almost unbearable.

It was weird, the effect she had.

“I was just saying, actually,” Austin started slowly, “that we made the pickup and the weapons seem to be in working order. We can get you all training with them tomorrow.”

“Oh!” Patty clapped. “Fantastic! That is just great. All the gals will be ecstatic to get to work. The knives are fun, but we’d love to try on a little power, if you know what I mean. Now, the other thing I was going to ask about—”

The front door opened again and heavy treads came swiftly toward the kitchen. Nessa appeared a moment later, her eyes tight and her body movements screaming stress. Sebastian emerged behind her in the same state, with Tristan following, his eyes gleaming and his mannerisms solemn.

This meant bad news.

“Hey,” Nessa said, going right for the fridge. “What do we want, dinner or sweets? I’m thinking sweets and a lot of wine. Anyone else?”

“What happened?” Jess asked, grabbing a bottle of wine for her.

“We didn’t get much,” Sebastian said, plopping down onto the cushions. “Momar has developed some kind of magic to make the mages self-destruct if they’re caught. We questioned the lesser mages first, and any magic used on them in an interviewing capacity shorted out their brains. They slumped over, dead. No warning. No lead-up. Just done. Tristan handled the higher-level mage, but even that didn’t last long.”

“Their boss kills his people if they get captured?” Mac asked, aghast.

“It’s probably nicer than the alternative,” Nessa said, pulling out the chocolate torte Austin had made last night. “I’m eating this.”

“What’s the alternative?” Aurora asked.

Nessa laughed sardonically. “If we sent them back, he’d torture them to find out exactly what secrets they spilled and then kill them for having spilled them. Unless they’re valuable magically, and then I’m honestly not sure. He wouldn’t want to waste talent.”

“He doesn’t jeopardize big talent,” Sebastian said, leaning back heavily. “He wouldn’t put them in a situation where they might get captured.”

“This is true,” Nessa replied, getting a plate.

“So?” Jess pushed.

“Tell ’em,” Nessa murmured.

“The head mage confirmed that Momar’s team went dark about a week ago.”

“What does that mean?” Kingsley asked.

“It means,” Nessa said, pulling out a fork, “that they are mobilizing. Everyone has spies, and any spies who are on the team won’t have the ability to relay information.”

“Your team is on the inside?” Austin asked.

“That’s just it,” Nessa replied. “They aren’t. I contacted one with encryption on the way back here. His contacts thought they were in Momar’s inner circle, but they’re still responding to him. He must have tightened up his organization.”