their magic, not even if I’m flown overhead. Basically we’re taking knives to a gunfight.”
Jess had turned to look at him, and fear soaked into her expression. “Are you being serious right now or are you playing up that persona? I can’t tell.”
“Note to self: don’t take Jessie on an undercover mission,” Ulric murmured.
Sebastian met her eyes. “I got the schematics of this place, but”—he shook his head in frustration
—“it’s more spread-out than I was envisioning. Much more isolated. Obviously I’ve only seen a portion of the territory, but what I have seen is a nightmare. If they have off-road vehicles, they can likely move faster than our shifters. Maybe our fliers in some places.” He pointed at Nessa without breaking his gaze away from Jessie. “See if you can get any info on their gear. We only know about their magical guns so far. Let’s see if they’re planning anything else.”
“Got it.” She pulled her phone out from her cleavage and started tapping the screen.
“We have the fliers to combat the mages, though,” Jessie said, bracing her hands on her hips.
“With Gerard’s guardians, we should have about as many gargoyles as they have mages. Gargoyles can withstand a degree of magic.”
“Gargoyles can withstand a degree of magic, yes, but they aren’t impenetrable. The higher-powered mages will punch through their tough hides, and they’ll have plenty of time to do it because it’s grassland and dirt out there, only dotted with trees. They’ll throw spell after spell before the gargoyles can reach them. This isn’t like what we faced in the basajaunak lands, Jessie, or in your territory. This is the big leagues. These will be power players with power approaching mine. A few of them working together? Stronger than you. They have the upper hand here, and we haven’t a hope of—”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Jess held up her hands. “Let’s take a breath. Look, mages are cowards and their mercenaries are no match for shifters. We know this. The gargoyles can dodge the magic while still applying pressure to keep those mages running scared. After the shifters handle the mercenaries, we’ll apply pressure to the mages. You and I can strike them down one at a time if we have to. Or create more nasty potions for the gargoyles to throw at them. This is possible. We can do this. We just have to think it through, right? Think it through, Sebastian.”
He took a deep breath, his gaze going inward. “Okay,” he said softly.
“Sebastian, Nessa, Niamh,” Austin said, “we need more information. We need to know exactly what Momar’s group is thinking. We felt the presence of at least one mage in town. We need to grab a couple—”
“We leave the Dick and Jane towns out of our affairs,” Kingsley said, his tone hard. “Our business is none of theirs, and theirs is none of ours. It’s our truce with the Dick world. It’s how our ecosystem continues to work, or don’t you remember?”
“Beggin’ yer pardon, alpha,” Niamh said, “but ye’ve got yer shifters running into town, drinkin’ a bunch and flappin’ their gums to the mages hanging around there. Those mages are tellin’ everything they hear to their bosses. Yer basically injecting yer business into that town, and it’s keepin’ the mages lurking. Yer not exactly practicing what ye preach, if ye get me.”
“It’s cool, though,” Nessa said. “We’re not going to bother the Dicks and Janes. We’re just going to remove some vermin without anyone knowing. They won’t miss them—”
“This is not up for debate,” Kingsley barked, his tone brooking no argument. “We will not hunt those towns for our enemies. We can hunt our lands, but not theirs. Even though my shifters know better than to talk about our business outside of the pack, I’ll keep them from leaving until the attack.
That’ll end any information leaks you assume have happened.”
Austin stared at his brother, his power swelling and his frustration paramount. His brother’s
willful ignorance about the supposed divide between his people and the border towns was incredible. Maybe Dicks and Janes didn’t cross pack lines often, but plenty of shifters did. They had girlfriends and boyfriends in the border towns, hookups and friends, businesses, sometimes even mates they left the pack each night to stay with. It was complete neglect to leave them to the mages.
Austin held his tongue, however. They were in front of their subordinates. He couldn’t challenge Kingsley’s authority in front of everyone.