“They’ll have invisibility potions, and given what Nessa described, it’ll be damn hard to see them in the dark. Watch for the break in the line. Watch for jets of magic. Home in on them that way.”
“Okay. Got it.”
He grabbed my upper arms, fully in control of himself now. “We need to take out those mages.
Don’t worry about anything else. Our job is destroying that spell.” He squeezed. “Hurry!”
“Jess.” Austin ran up to me, handing off potions to one of the gargoyles. “What’s the matter?”
“Your job is still the same.”
He didn’t waste time asking questions. He kissed me hard and then turned around and started barking orders.
I didn’t wait to see how fluid his teams were. I pushed into the sky, Nathanial with me. He’d taken the same potion—the concoction that would both render us invisible and allow us to see other invisible people. Their potions, unless they were made by a mage as powerful and talented as Sebastian, wouldn’t be able to do both.
Then again, they’d constructed temporary ley lines, something I’d never even heard of. They were good.
Nathanial grabbed me and put on a burst of speed, getting us high. He’d been there for my conversation with Sebastian and knew what was at stake. Most importantly, we’d worked together for long enough that he almost had a sixth sense when it came to me.
Sebastian rose with Trace and pointed in the opposite direction as me. Divide and conquer.
We flew out over the town. Garhettes jogged or walked briskly through the light cast by the street lamps below us, heading for their posts on the outskirts of town. Shifters raced past them, heading to their positions, ready to synchronize their attacks. They just needed to pinpoint the enemy.
That line glowed, the circle imperfect. Then again, it would have taken an alien with impeccable crop-dusting abilities to pull off a perfect circle. I wondered if that would matter. I bet it probably would, although that could be wishful thinking.
We flew closer through the darkness, nearly pitch black out here. No moon. I had a feeling that was by design. It would help their mages, no question, but it would screw their cavalry. The shifters wouldn’t be as affected by the darkness as human eyes. If Sebastian and I managed to do our job, we’d have the upper hand.
Nearer the blue line, I squinted as though that might help me see through the darkness. It didn’t.
We angled downward, needing to get closer. And then a softly glimmering yellow sheen filled the air in front of me.
Oh God, so fast?
How had they even gotten out here without being noticed? Our people should’ve heard engines.
We had people in the towns. We should’ve seen car lights, and they wouldn’t have been able to get out here without them.
Dread filled my middle, a painful weight. Momar had tricks. What the hell was in store for us?
Closer to the sheen, I could make out the first shapes on the other side. They stood shoulder to shoulder, their bodies still, no waving extremities working intense magic. They were apparently waiting to see if the trap would work before they ran to confront the enemy. That, or they were waiting for the enemy to come to them.
Request granted.
My peal of magic shot out. Attack!
A laser blast of a gun seared the darkness, zipping behind us as we traveled parallel to the blue line. We needed to find the mages, who would be set up on regular points around this circle. It was too hard to see from this far out, though. My eyes played tricks in the darkness, making me think I was seeing the ghostly forms of the soldiers but not quite sure. Pockets of black were interrupted with gray, the yellow sheen strengthening in hue and brightness. They were pulling off the impossible, and they were doing it faster than we could’ve ever imagined.
My heart sped up as we went, veering closer to the blue line to see the shapes as I watched them for movement. I needed to see mages working.
A blast zipped toward us, then again. Dread pierced me. They could see us, at least a hazy interpretation of us. Another blast, this one from right above. We wouldn’t have stealth on our side.
The blue line started to throb now, faint but noticeable. I didn’t know what that meant, though.
Maybe they were depleting the ley line of its magic. That would be ideal, since they were only at the yellow stage of the spell.
We veered closer, trying to see, risking their guns. The blasts came fast, scraping across my bottom, but more of them missing than hitting. I’d hold back on using magic until I had a real target. A mage target. The darkness was helping us as much as them, maybe more so because our potion was just a bit stronger, but any closer and they’d roast us. There were just so many of them.