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It went pretty much as poorly as I'd expected. His eyes were glassy green, and magic roled off his body like an angry tide.
I knew he wasn't angry at me, not realy. He was afraid.
Afraid that I'd be injured, or that I'd sacrifice myself to save Malory. I couldn't eliminate his fear, and I couldn't prevent the violence that would likely come to pass, but maybe I could remind him that he'd prepared me for it.
"You know, you're the one who trained me to stand Sentinel.
To be a warrior. At some point, you have to trust that I was paying attention." My tone was lighthearted, and it was precisely the wrong course.
He grabbed my arm - hard. And in his eyes was a sudden storm of fear and anger. "You wil not sacrifice yourself because of her."
I could al but see his temper rise. Was this about Malory?
The overflow of her magic?
My arm ached beneath his fingers. "I don't have any intention of doing that," I assured him, wiggling my arm to free myself. But he wouldn't budge. His fingers tightened.
"Distract her if you must, but let them bring her down. This isn't your fight. It's hers, and she has enough to answer for without adding your name to the rols."
"I'l be careful," I promised. "Now relax and let go of my arm. You're hurting me."
His eyes widened, and he froze, then puled his hand back and stared at me, horror in his eyes. "My God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
I rubbed my arm absently.
He looked at me and opened his mouth to speak, but it was too late for more words.
"The eagle has landed," caled out one of the gnomes.
It was like something from The Wizard of Oz. Out of the swirling clouds dropped a giant glowing orb as large as a compact car. It rotated and split open in a flash of light, and just like a good witch, Malory stepped into the Midwest.
But there were no coiffed curls or magic wand or glittering gown in this story. In fact, I barely recognized her. She looked awful, and an awful lot like an addict in the throes of a bad craving. I'm not sure what the Order had done or what she'd been through since she left, but she seemed to look even worse than she had the last time I'd seen her. Thinner and sadder. Her hair, once blue, had lost its color and luster. It now hung blond and limp at her shoulders. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her cheeks looked gaunt.
But her appearance didn't faze the gnomes. It took only a second for them to launch their attack. As the cows scattered to the other side of the pasture, they revealed long wooden bows and began showering Malory with a spray of feathered arrows.
I winced on her behalf but shouldn't have wasted the effort.
She might not have looked her best, but the girl had undeniable skils. She threw out a voley of magical sparks that incinerated the arrows on contact. The air glowed like the Fourth of July...if it had commemorated a battle against a self-interested witch.
I glanced behind us. Where was Paige? Al things considered, this was realy her fight. She should have been out there by now, fighting back with the magic that we didn't have.
Another unit of gnomes stepped forward, springing a net of vines hidden in the dirt beneath Malory's feet. She was puled up and into its grasp, but she quickly recovered and blasted the net into a thousand tiny wicks. The net colapsed and dropped her to the ground again with a thump.
She looked pissed.
I had been surprised by Malory's appearance, but that emotion paled in comparison to the shock I felt at what she did next. Without any warning to the gnomes, and without any apparent hint of remorse, she threw out an orb of magic that whipped the gnomes back like rag dols. They hit the ground, obviously unconscious, if not worse.
And she didn't stop with one. She threw orb after orb until she'd cleared a twenty-foot circle around her.
It was time to go for broke. I looked at Ethan, who nodded.
With swords in our hands, we stepped out of the trees and prepared to do battle.
"Malory Carmichael!" I caled out. "Stop this right now!"
She roled her eyes with the arrogance of a self-absorbed, sadistic teenager. "Walk away, Merit, or bring me the Maleficium and we can al leave together like one big happy family. I know you don't want anyone to get hurt."
She was right, but it wasn't as if giving her the book would actualy save lives. She'd already thrown aside a dozen gnomes like they were nothing more than scattered leaves.
On the other hand, if she wanted me to bring the Maleficium to her, maybe she wasn't entirely sure where it was. We could work with that. I staled, giving the gnomes time to regroup a bit.
"We've talked about this before," I said. "Releasing evil isn't going to fix you. You've put supernaturals and humans in danger, wreaked havoc across Chicago, and you're AWOL from the Order. Give this up so we can al go back to our lives."
"You know I can't do that," she said, and that's when I could see it - the regret in her eyes. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she was doing it anyway. Doing it despite the damage she'd caused and would keep causing.
"This book won't help anything," I pleaded with her. "It wil only make things worse."
"Realy? It helped you. You got Ethan back."
She was simultaneously right and wrong. "I'm glad he's back, but you didn't do that for me, and you didn't do it for him. You used him to get what you want - and you used me to get his ashes out of the House. If he thought destroying the city was the cost of bringing him back, even he wouldn't have paid that price."
"Don't be dramatic."
"I shouldn't be dramatic? I'm not the one who landed in Nebraska to steal something that doesn't belong to her."
"Do you have any idea what I'm going through? What I'm feeling right now? It hurts, Merit! Physicaly. Mentaly.
Emotionaly. The only thing that wil make it better is balancing the magic in the world."
I could see the pain etched into her face. And as she faced her pain, Ethan screamed out and fel to his knees, clutching his head.
They were connected. Tied together, somehow, as a result of her magic, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. My heart skipped a beat, watching him there in pain and knowing I was helpless to intervene. But I could be brave and face her down, and so I stepped forward.
"This ends now, Malory." I stepped forward, katana at the ready. "You'l get the Maleficium over my dead body."
She looked back at Ethan, and I thought for a second I'd finaly gotten through to her, that she was actualy considering the consequences and implications of her actions.
But I was doubly wrong. She hadn't been looking at Ethan... she'd been looking at Keith, the gnome of the horrendous plaid pants.
