I wasn’t alone in this place. I couldn’t see their energy, but someone else was not only in this apartment, but in my bedroom.
I drew in a deep but silent breath and forced my feet on. “Can I ring you back? I need to put these parcels in the kitchen before I drop them and break things.”
He hesitated, perhaps sensing something was off. “Sure.”
I hung up, dumped the bags on the kitchen counter, then triple tapped the earbud, letting Ginny and control know there was a problem. Then I silently but quickly wound a leash spell around my fingers and crept back.
I was five feet away from the bedroom door when a figure barreled out of it, coming straight at me. I jumped back and released the spell, but his reflexes were lightning quick, and he leapt out of the way. I swore and flicked my spell around, aiming it straight at the back of his head.
It didn’t hit him. It hit the second man coming through the door instead.
Fuck.
The first man raised his fist and threw a punch. I dropped, felt the wind of the blow stir the top of my head, and swept a foot around, trying to unbalance him. The blow hit his shin, but he barely even wavered. He just grabbed my shirt, picked me up, and tossed me backward.
I hit the floor hard, slid along the boards a few feet, then collided butt-first against the wall. Felt, rather than saw, the tremor of his approach, and quickly cast another spell, this time a cage one. He laughed and raised a hand, a countermeasure dancing across his fingertips. But before he could unleash it, the door crashed open and a feathered fury flew in. He spun and raised his arms, but he was nowhere near fast enough. Her sharp talons raked his face a heartbeat before my spell hit him.
He roared and threw another punch, undoubtedly trying to knock her from the air, but my spell now encased him, and it captured the blow before it could get anywhere near Ginny.
But my cage wouldn’t contain him for long. I knew the basics, but the counterspell he was already raising told me he was a far stronger witch than me. I scrambled upright, yelled, “Ginny, there’s another one in my bedroom,” then ran back into the kitchen, upended my handbag, and grabbed the nullifying stones. While I didn’t have spell stones of my own—there was little point when I couldn’t raise any truly dangerous magic—these stones had been magically blessed by a number of the Society’s strongest witches. I hadn’t yet met a witch who’d been able to break them.
Hopefully, I never would.
My cage was already pulsing under the stress of his attack. I quickly placed the stones around him, then activated them with the key phrase. Thankfully, the nullifying magic encased him swiftly, which was just as well, because my own cage shattered into hundreds of broken threads a heartbeat later.
He roared in fury but didn’t touch or otherwise try to break the nullifying globe encircling him. Perhaps its magic warned him it would be fruitless.
I took another deep, and somewhat quivering, breath, then continued on to the bedroom. It had been utterly turned upside down; everything was on the floor—the bedding, my clothes, even the goddamn mattress.
The second man lay on the floor amidst all the mess. He wasn’t moving, partially because my leash had pinned his arms to his body, but mostly because Ginny, in bird form, was sitting on his groin, her sharp talons digging past his jeans, into his flesh. The sweat rolling down his pain-filled face suggested she had a good grip on something vital.
I grinned. “That’s the best form of restraint I’ve ever seen.”
The man’s gaze darted to mine. “Call it off, will you?”
I squatted beside him and did my best to ignore the aching complaint of bruised butt muscles. What I needed right now was a long, hot spa bath filled with Epsom salts. Considering we didn’t have a bath in this apartment, let alone any sort of soothing bath stuff, I’d have to settle for the painkillers the docs had given me.
“Considering the mess you’ve made of my damn room,” I replied, “I’m not feeling overly charitable right now. What were you searching for?”
“Don’t fucking say anything,” the man in the other room bellowed.
“It’s not your balls on the line here,” Ginny’s captive snapped back.
“And said ballsareon the line,” I commented, “so please do answer the question.”
He swore. “We were sent here for a spell stone shard.”
“And did you find it?”
“Wouldn’t fucking still be here if we had. Look, tell your pet to ease up with?—”
The rest was lost in a hiss as more sweat broke out across his forehead. Ginny had just tightened her grip.
“That bird is not my pet; she’s a free agent, and I would be politer around her if I were you, especially when she has your family jewels in hand. Who sent you here to find it, and when did they contact you?”
“Luke Marlowe contracted us. He rang us late last night.”
“For fuck’s sake, Gerald, shut up,” the other man shouted. “They’ll kill us if we reveal too much.”
