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The giant pink seahorse was still rising from the water, something wet and bedraggled clinging to its neck.Gabriel marshalled his magic, reaching for the lake water, ready to drown both creatures in a deadly wave.
“Iliana!”Han shouted, flinging himself from his mount and racing to the water’s edge.Gabriel cursed, urging Vale after him, Nic and Alise following suit.
Iliana leapt from the creature’s neck and into the water, wading to Han until her lissome form disappeared in his embrace.The seahorse bobbed placidly, looking brightly interested.
“Where in the dark arts did that thing come from?”Gabriel demanded, as if anyone could answer.
“I think that’s our swamp monster,” Nic replied slowly.She pointed to the surface of the water, where an array of tentacles gently waved, treading water to keep the creature afloat.
“Her name is Nathi,” Iliana declared happily, wiping her hair, dark red with water, from her face.“She appreciates the fish you sent her,” she added to Nic, who looked as bemused as he felt.“We’re both very happy to see you well and back home where you belong.”
“Andhowdid you get her out of the pit in the workshop?”Gabriel asked, feeling very slow but nearly unable to assimilate any of this.
“It turns out the pit is connected to the lake,” Iliana answered in a matter-of-fact tone.“The Sammael siblings and Lord Elal locked us all in the workshop—everyone is fine, by the way—and sealed the door with a new Iblis lock that only they can open, but then Nathi here showed me there was a way out.We just waited until she felt you arrive—she’s very fond of you, Lord Phel—to come out to you.”
Indeed, the seahorse batted the absurdly long lashes fringing her lavender eyes, looking quite flirtatious.“Fond… of me?”he echoed.
“Well, as the prime wizard of House Phel,” Iliana explained.“The communication isn’t perfect.I mainly get her emotions.She feels very loving toward you, Lord Phel.”
“I’m soul sisters with a giant candy-pink seahorse,” Nic murmured.
“Anyway,” Iliana said, giving Han a last kiss, then going to Alise, who dismounted.“I assume you need my magic to get around Lord Elal’s guardians.The invaders are all in the manse somewhere,” she added, “doing villainous things, no doubt.”
“Did Sabrina hurt you?”Han demanded.
Iliana shook her head.“Asa hid me from her in the workshop.Then they decided to lock everyone in there, and it was so crowded, it was easy for me to hide.The Sammaels are waiting for you all to arrive, thinking that you’ll stumble into some sort of surprise trap.But Nathi and I outwitted them!”she crowed in delighted triumph.Several of Nathi’s deep-purple tentacles lifted from the water, waving in celebration.Iliana sobered, scanning the group.“Shouldn’t Wizard Jadren and Selly be with you, too?”
“Long story,” Gabriel answered.“What about Lord Elal?”
“He was going on about locating the arcanium, apparently.”She blanched, giving Nic and Alise an apologetic glance.“You knew he was involved, yes?I’m so sorry.”
“We knew,” Nic confirmed, then looked to him.“So, we ride up to the house, dispatch the Sammael siblings, then kick my father out of the arcanium?”
“And be done in time for formal dinner,” he replied, bowing in the saddle.If only it would be so easy, and yet he felt a kind of giddiness rather than apprehension.It could be the utter absurdity of their current circumstances, but he found he wasn’t worried about the outcome.He and Nic could do this.In truth, the prospect of finally being able to unleash their magic on deserving targets came as a relief.“Alise, let us know when the way is clear, and Nic and I will handle the rest.”
“You sure you want to approach the manse directly?”Nic asked, but her eyes were shining with similar fervor.
“It’s our house,” he confirmed, drawing the moon and water magic close, the massive charge feeling like pressurized lightning, ready to wreak havoc.“They should be afraid of us.”
Nic had neverbeen prouder of, or more entranced by, her wizard.She could swear he glowed with silvery light, even in the bright sunshine, as they circumnavigated the lake.Vale and Salve paced each other at a gentle gallop.She felt like the avenging hero come to save the day, something akin to her early fantasies of the sort of wizard she’d be—and something she’d never expected to be as a mere familiar.
But shewassomething more than that, wasn’t she?The magic cycling back and forth between her and Gabriel, growing, amplifying, felt as much hers as his.As if hearing the thought, Gabriel grinned over at her.Together, they were greater than either of them alone.
They rode right up to the steps that rose to the wide front porch, the manse eerily still.So far as traps went, it wasn’t a subtle one.But then, the Sammaels had never been known for their guile.They tended to blast and bluster, getting their way through cruelty.Gabriel leapt down and, even at this extremity, took the time to help her down.Together, her hand tucked through his arm, they ascended the steps, Gabriel’s moon magic shimmering in a protective shell around them that she sensed more than saw, her own magic woven into it, also.
Silence reined, as if the manse itself held its breath, the ancient architecture humming in the back of her mind.Like their connection to the arcanium, but larger, more diffuse.Whatever had changed and grown between Gabriel and her, it seemed they’d be a long time exploring the parameters.For the moment, she imagined the Phel ancestors had gathered, ghostlike and shimmering, with long-ago magic, invested in the proceedings.
Gabriel nodded toward the library, and she acknowledged, fighting down the irritation and sense of violation at the thought that slimy Sergio had ensconced himself there.Gabriel flung open the doors so they banged hard against the flanking walls.
Sergio, lounging in one of their armchairs, facing the doors and clearly expecting Gabriel’s arrival, still jumped slightly, a hint of nerves crossing his face before he managed to assume his indolent pose again.“Why, if it isn’t the absent landlord,” he crooned, “come to deliver my property to me.”
Nic rolled her eyes at the obviously rehearsed line.“I belong to no one,” she replied, “least of all you.”
Sergio laughed.“We’ll see about that.Elal’s spies said you somehow ripped off the roof, but I didn’t believe it.How did you get inside House Sammael?”he demanded of Gabriel.
Gabriel smiled thinly.“I’m more powerful than you can imagine.”
“Or stupider, as you’ve walked right into my trap.Sabrina!”
