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Behind them, Sabrina slammed and locked the doors, putting her back to them with a sly grin.“You should’ve run while you had the chance,” she cooed.“Instead, you slunk back here thinking you’d be safe.How sweet of you to bring my toys right to me.”
Nic eyed her with disgusted pity.“You’ve read all the wrong novels if that’s the best dialogue you can come up with.”When Sabrina opened her mouth, a hiss forming, Nic cut her off with a wave of her hand.“Save it.I advise you to leave.The grownups have business, and this is no place for a child.Go back to school and see if you can learn something.”She actually said it kindly.Sabrina might be horrible, but she was also young, even younger than Alise, and—despite her scheming and tantrums—didn’t truly understand what she dabbled with.
Quite dumbstruck, Sabrina stared back at her.Probably few people had ever been unafraid of the little hellion.Deliberately, Nic turned her back on the teen.
“So, how does this trap work?”Gabriel asked Sergio conversationally.“I’m not familiar with Convocation conniving.What happens next?”
He sounded so cool, even as his magic flickered like sharp silver knives in the air, that Sergio shifted uncomfortably, closing the book he’d been reading and setting it aside.“Now you die,” he declared, sounding even more like a parody of a villain than Sabrina had.“Never fear, however,” he added with a leer at Nic, “your familiar won’t be widowed for long.”
Sergio’s magic lashed out, a whip of intended agony Nic remembered well.She flinched despite her resolve—and it bounced off Gabriel’s shield.Gabriel smiled mirthlessly.“Was that supposed to hurt?”he inquired, drawing his sword.It was the enchanted blade he and Jadren had crafted to defeat the hunters.Gabriel advanced on Sergio, who took a step back, sly gaze flicking behind them.He nodded.
Sabrina launched herself at them, bursting between their linked arms, separating them with a hoot of laughter.Faster than Nic had expected from Sergio, he blasted Gabriel with power, the screech of it almost audible as it hit the shield of moonlight.Sabrina grasped Nic’s arm, sending a jolt of agony into her.Though Nic fought not to show a reaction, the pain screaming along her nerves was too intense, and Sabrina cackled with glee.
“Now what will you do!”Sergio shouted.“Separated from your familiar, you cannot stand against me for long.”
Nic mustered her strength, supplemented by Gabriel’s cooling silver, drawing herself up to glare at Sabrina.“Bad girl,” she gritted out, and slapped her across the face, hard enough to draw blood.Sabrina staggered, putting a hand to her bleeding lip, stared at the blood in confusion, and began to cry.
Whipping around, Nic moved to help Gabriel, but found she wasn’t needed.Gabriel had slowly, mercilessly, backed Sergio against the wall, the point of his sword at the hollow of the Sammael wizard’s throat.Their clashing magic fulminated visibly in the air, Sergio desperately trying to reach Gabriel, who remained impervious.
“You can’t kill me,” Sergio gasped, seeming to finally understand his peril.“The Convocation won’t stand for it.”
“You abducted my wife and familiar,” Gabriel said in a lethally quiet tone.
“It was legal!”Sergio nearly shrieked, trying to worm away, immediately pinned as the point of the sword pressed into his skin, eliciting a trickle of blood.
“I don’t care much for Convocation laws,” Gabriel mused.
“Sergio!”Sabrina cried, starting to climb to her feet.
Nic pinned the girl down with the simple expedient of stepping on her silken skirts.“Sit,” Nic commanded.“Stay.”And earned a simmering glare full of impotent fury.
“Regardless, what the Convocation considers legal is not something that concerns me,” Gabriel continued softly.“I only care about what is right.You’ll die for what you’ve done.”
Sergio’s eyes bugged out.“My father will kill you.”
“He’s welcome to try,” Gabriel replied, and sliced Sergio’s throat.
The motion was so fast, the blade so sharp, that Nic didn’t fully process what had happened until the blood poured out, Sergio’s lifeless body sagging after it like detritus swept over a crimson waterfall.Nic held her breath in shock, Sabrina’s wails a distant sound.Gabriel stood over Sergio’s corpse, bloodied sword in one hand, the tip pointing at an angle to the floor, the dark side of his moon magic dense in the air, the water magic deep as a bottomless ocean.Dangerous, as she’d known long ago.Also hers.
Then, as if sensing her gaze on him, he turned to her.“Are you all right?”he asked, gaze flicking to the now-sobbing heap of young blond wizard at her feet.
“I’m fine.”She managed a smile.Her reaction was her own, and she wouldn’t put it on Gabriel.Besides, for all the apparent barbarity of Gabriel’s actions, it had been a clean death, and far more merciful than Sammael—or truly, most Convocation wizards—would visit on their enemies.
“Let’s take back our arcanium then,” Gabriel said, holding out a hand to her.
She took it, grateful for the steadying contact.“You haven’t cleaned your sword,” she noted.He always immediately cleaned his weapons.
He didn’t bother to glance at it.“I want to meet your father with Sammael’s blood fresh for him to see.”
She nodded, understanding and also terrified of his intentions.“Do you plan to kill him, too?”
Gabriel stilled, searching her face.“What would you have me do?”
Nic pressed her lips together, the emotion rising up, turbulent and unnamable.If her father died, Maman would be free.But… he was still her father.“I don’t want him to die,” she whispered, aware of the plea in her voice.
Nodding, unsurprised, Gabriel released her hand and caressed her cheek.“We’ll find a way, then.”
Finding her eyes had filled with tears, she laid her hand over his, mutual understanding humming between them.Love, respect, and magic.
