Dashiell disappeared and the magic smashed into the pyre instead, sending the flames even higher. The druid was wrapping himself in a blanket of air again and hiding from view the way he’d done on the rooftop.
I spun around and concentrated to see whether I could identify him by the intensity of the magic, but my detector was being thrown off by the stone.
“Where is he?” Callan demanded, swiveling left to right.
“Hiding, like a coward,” Kami said.
I observed Briar as she untethered Herman and smacked his bottom to send him to safety. I hoped someone survived this to drive him home. Hell, I hoped I survived so he had a home to go to. If not, he’d end up in someone’s stew.
I couldn’t die.
Briar stilled. “What’s that sound?”
Kami strained to listen. “I don’t hear it.”
“You will.”
My veins turned to ice as I heard it. This time I knew what it reminded me of—the bending of metal. Instinctively I glanced at the horizon.
A creak and a groan reverberated. This time the sound was so loud that it shook the ground. Kami’s eyes widened as she felt the shockwaves.
The ground trembled again and my heart skipped a beat.
“A horde of dragons?” Briar whispered.
“No.”
Her brow furrowed. “Then why do you look like you need to change your underpants?”
“Because this is going to be worse.” Much worse.
“Maybe you should reconsider that army,” Kami told Callan.
A flash of metal appeared on the horizon. This metal wasn’t melting.
It was walking.
Towering limbs—limbs made of towers rather than simply being tall—pounded the ground. At first I thought Dashiell had created metal monsters from Damascus steel, but it seemed he hadn’t had time to master that particular skill. He was pulling metal from nearby buildings and reassembling them as monsters to do his bidding.
“If we knock them down, they’re going to do damage,” Kami said.
“If we let them walk, they’re going to level the city.”
Kami moaned in exasperation. “Why do we always have to make the tough decisions? Just once can’t we be deciding between a chocolate or a powdered doughnut?”
I brandished my axe. “That will never happen. You know I’d go straight for the chocolate one.”
“Fair enough.”
Briar opened her mouth and roared. The ferocious sound made the hair on my arms stand on end. Even Callan paused to identify the source of the monstrous noise. Her magical armor melded with the night and a seven-foot-tall bear stood in its place. A nightmare covered in coarse, black fur. She dropped to all fours and ran toward the approaching monsters with surprising speed.
Stevie sliced through the darkness, a sliver of metal glinting as she ran toward the circle. She was going for the stone. As a water witch, there was a chance she could control it, although I had every confidence the circle was warded.
Stevie reached the circle and blew backward as though flung across the clearing by an invisible giant. She landed on her back and skidded across the ground.
“I think it’s warded,” Kami yelled.
“You think?” Stevie rolled to her feet.
I turned away from the stone. A line of metal monsters pounded the ground as they approached the clearing. Two and three stories tall, they lumbered toward us and flattened everything in their path.
In that moment, Callan demonstrated how he’d earned his nickname. The Lord of Shadows peeled away from the darkness and revealed himself. I’d known he was with us, yet I’d momentarily forgotten. He lurched forward with his fangs on display. He was stealth and steel combined. Hard muscle and metal. I had to admit, he did my sword justice.
Part of me wanted nothing more than to watch him tear the monsters apart. I watched as he lifted the hunk of metal over his head, his muscles bulging, and used his head as a blunt instrument against an attacking tree. Holy hellfire. The way he fought. Precision. Power. The Highland Reckoning had it all.
In the circle, the stone glowed with a pale yellow light. Where was Dashiell?
“London!” Kami screamed. A sound I rarely heard and not one I welcomed.
One of the smaller metal monsters was standing on her torso and crushing her.
Fire. I had access to fire. The monsters weren’t made from Damascus steel. They were cobbled together from regular steel.
I whirled my hands in the air until they sparked with flames. I formed a ball the size of a cantaloupe and launched it at the monster’s leg. It responded by lifting the leg and Kami rolled to the side. Briar Bear attacked the monster from behind. She wrapped her furry arms around the monster and squeezed until the monster fell apart. Pieces of metal dropped to the ground and scattered.
I hurried over to check on Kami.
She pulled herself to a seated position. “I’m okay. I’ll heal.”
Kami would say that if she were neck-deep in lava. Then again, so would I. We were cut from the same cloth of unhealthy independence.
“Can you control Dashiell?” I asked. “Reach for his mind. If you control him, you control the stone and all the monsters.”
My mind control magic was limited to animals and it wasn’t so much control as conversion. I won them over, whereas Kami locked on to a mind and controlled it until she decided to let it go. Then it reverted back to its owner.
Kami’s face strained. “I sense it, but it’s weak. I don’t think he’s close enough.”
I shuddered as I pictured an army of metal monsters marching to take over the city. “We have to stop him.”
Kami’s blue eyes shone with sympathy. “Would it be such a bad thing if a druid used the stone to overthrow the vampires?”
I searched the murky clearing for Callan but couldn’t pinpoint him. “We’d only be trading one master for another.” The colonists didn’t chuck tea into the Boston Harbor so they could be ruled over by the Cossacks. They wanted self-determination and they fought until they got it. One day we’d have to do the same.
But not this day.
Neera ran over, nearly out of breath. “Why is he the only one able to control the elemental magic from the stone? We’re elemental witches and the stone is right there. Shouldn’t we be able to harness some of it?”
Not when it was shielded by a ward of the druid’s creation. Dashiell was smart. He didn’t create the ward to just protect the stone physically. He created it for control. He wanted to prevent other magic users from accessing the stone’s power. It was a failsafe in case we discovered his whereabouts, which we did.
The others couldn’t break the ward of a druid.
But I could.
I had to be careful. If anyone figured out what happened, there would be questions.
Dashiell warded the circle before he’d fully accessed the stone’s power. It shouldn’t be impossible.
All I could do was try.
I spared a glance over my shoulder. Everyone was engaged in battle and there was no sign of Dashiell. Still hiding, you cowardly bastard.
I sprinted toward the circle.
“London, on your left!” Ione yelled.
An arrow whizzed toward me and I ducked. It sailed over my head and nailed its target. The bend of the knee of one of the metal monsters. The leg buckled and down the monster went. She must’ve spelled the arrow.