Page 104 of Magical Midlife Conclave

Nessa jogged in from the right, out of breath. She put up her hand to stop me.

“That elder is somehow pulling energy from the natural elements around us. It’ll become power. She might be more powerful than you, Jessie. You can always turn back now.”

“She might be more powerful than Jessie,” Edgar said from somewhere on the right, hidden behind the trees, “but she is not more powerful than the Ivy House mistress.”

His head slowly peeked from around a trunk. He had a strange smile. Both his eyes blinked, but at different times, before he—just as slowly—melted back behind the tree.

I put up my hands. “As we’ve seen from the new invisibility spell Momar has, I won’t always be the most powerful person in the room. She said she wouldn’t kill me. I guess I’ll learn how to fly without wings, huh? Tristan better be paying attention.”

I continued on.

“Okay. Then yes, use everything you’ve got, like Edgar said.” Nessa fell in beside me. “You’re on Ivy House soil. You have access to additional attacks and defenses because of the house. Use those.”

I frowned at her. “Oh, is that what he meant?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve gotten very good at understanding him.”

“It’s easy, really. You just have to take nothing at face value and always assume he’s confused.”

“Yes…” I already knew all that. It didn’t help decipher some of his more cryptic messages. Then again, I didn’t teach him random, incorrect slang like Nessa did. “Using Ivy House is probably cheating, though?”

“She’s using the energy of these woods. Energy that June cultivated and tends to constantly. I think that’s how these basajaunak grow more powerful. They cultivate and then draw from their surroundings. These are your woods. If anyone is cheating by using natural resources, it is the Elder.”

That was true.

“Okay.” I took a deep breath.

“Don’t kill her.”

At this point, I would settle for don’t accidentally get killed.

Up ahead, I could see a clearing through the tree line. This was about the middle of Ivy House woods, deep in gnome country. As I walked, I saw more than a few peek out from ferns or bushes, some dodging from trunk to trunk. One stood up slowly, made heavy eye contact with me, and ran a finger across its throat.

My shifter guardians didn’t push through the tree line into the clearing. Instead, they went around, surrounding it.

The Elder waited in the middle, fully visible and relaxed.

I stopped before crossing into her space. Gargoyles flew in a circle above the trees, including Tristan, moving in case they needed to act quickly. A group of spectators hovered above them.

Edgar’s voice drifted out from the trees. “Good luck. May the Gargoyle God watch over you.”

History books would probably wonder at what point a “Gargoyle God” came into creation, and the answer would be an addled vampire who’d taken someone else’s joke way too far.

“Fine.” I sprinted at the clearing. Might as well get it over with.

I’d barely crossed the threshold when I loosed a spell.

The Elder dodged and rushed, so stupidly fast it sent my heart racing. Her arms came out to grab me.

I threw up a wall, full of power and pain. She rammed into it. Fire scorched her hair. Magical sparks flew. The air around us—the woods around us—seemed to bow and contract in a shock wave of power. My spell shattered.

“What the bloody hell?” I said with a harried breath, skittering across the clearing.

She was hot on my heels. I had no time to shift. Stupid not to do so before entering the clearing. Then again, I wouldn’t have time to get into the sky, anyway, not without Tristan’s help. She’d grab me before I left the ground.

I threw a spell over my shoulder, then a harder one. She ran through them, taking the pain. Maybe not feeling the pain, for all the reaction she showed.