Hang him!
Why have we let him live?
Sean took in the crowd, horrified. “Stop!” he shouted, though his voice was lost among the rabble.
Claustrophobia clawed at David’s senses, though he knew he could free himself with the right words if he chose. The smell of sweat and leather clogged his nose, and the heat of the bodies surrounding him swelled. He should have just thrown the fight like usual. He’d known what would happen if he was seen as a true threat. These people believed he could coerce their messiah to end his own life. He was lucky they hadn’t attacked before now.
Someone sucker punched him in the stomach, and his lungs spasmed. The emotions surrounding him grew murderous, singeing his skin with their rancor.
Don’t fight back, he told himself.Don’t use your magic. It will only make things worse.
Sean fought to get closer, but people dragged him backward until David lost sight of him completely. In his place, a blue-eyed angel appeared, shoving people out of the way to reach him.
Sharp, near blinding pain shot through his arm as one of the assholes holding him bent it the wrong way. He fought the groan. Seeing this, Anna struggled harder against the mob, and he could see the intent in her eyes, her desire to stop these people with the magic they didn’t know she possessed.
Don’t, he mouthed to her.
But she didn’t stop. Her mouth opened, and David threw his magic toward her, silently overcoming her will. He hadn’t tried anything like this, but his magic had crept out quietly before, long before he knew what it was or the things it could do. Plus, Galadaine had been a master of silent coercion. David knew he could do it if he wanted it enough.
Stop!
The unspoken command hit her hard. She froze among the writhing masses, though her blue eyes and her frantic emotions blazed with fury. With no idea how long the magic would hold her hostage, David surrendered to the inevitable. If these people discovered her secret, they’d treat her exactly the same. They’d hold her down and accuse her of crimes against morality.
They’d hurt her, and then he’d have to kill them all.
So David took a breath and let them have him instead.
“Release me.”
The words were quiet, but they hit their mark. The hands restraining him loosened. The crowd screamed in outrage.
“Stand down,” he said, weaving in thick strands of silk that gagged his closest enemies. One by one, they stepped back. The animosity vanished from their body language but raged in their eyes.
He spun, taking note of every person who still fought to reach him, each voice that demanded he be punished.
“Shut up and get on your knees,” he said, throwing out massive amounts of magic, more than he ever had at any one time. David had never tried to coerce this many people, and the acute drain on his energy made his limbs ache and his eyes grow heavy.
But it worked. The magic sprinkled over them like fairy dust. As one, the crowd knelt, and he stood at the center of a mass of hate. At the periphery, Sean paused, gazing around in confusion. Anna, spared from his coercion, kicked people out of her way to reach him.
Her hands cupped his face. “Are you okay?”
He let loose a wry grin. “I don’t know how long I can hold them.”
Anna grabbed his hand and dragged him toward Sean, not bothering to avoid stepping on fingers and toes in the process. Once they were free of the crowd, Sean fell into step beside David. Autumn and Isobel followed.
“Take the names of every person who grabbed him,” Sean said to Cathaire as they hurried away.
“Aye,” the pixie replied. He met David’s eyes and bowed. “I am sorry.”
“Should have put some coin down,” David said with a grimace. “I’d have gotten something out of it.”
Cathaire chuckled, then faced the kneeling, gagged crowd, dire creases on his brow.
“I’m going to speak to the Council,” Sean said as they turned away, hurrying into the forest. “This is unacceptable.”
David rolled his eyes. “I saw this coming the moment they started calling meDjiante.”
As the adrenaline wore off, pricks of pain woke throughout David’s body. Aching ribs. Throbbing elbow. A sharp twinge in one knee that caused him to limp.
