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“I can only do really basic things,” I said. “Shift the magic through myself or connections already in place. To do anything larger or more finely tuned, I’d really need to use my arms and legs, my hands… It’s the patterns and movements that direct the spell.”
Gabriel’s mouth slanted down. “And I guess it’s a little much to hope you could break those restraints without using magic to do it.”
“Yeah.”
“Fuckers.” Damon kicked the wall and spun around, tugging at his leather jacket. “We’re not letting them get away with this.”
My throat tightened. “I wish I couldreallytalk to you. Find out what you’ve seen, what they’ve said to you.” If I’d had the use of my full body, I might have been able to send thoughts back and forth with them… but I didn’t.
I reached out to my sense of the actual guys again. The enforcers hadn’t started up any new attacks since they’d left off Jin. Hard to believe they were actually giving me a chance to rest. But of course rest wouldn’t replenish my magic. Only the loving touch of my consorts could do that, and my imagined versions of them couldn’t produce the effect I needed.
Maybe they were giving me some time to think, to realize how tired I was getting, before they came right at me again. I wasn’t about to break yet—they couldn’t know how brightly my spark had been lit with all four of my lovers—but by tomorrow? My heart sank at the thought.
And at some point I’d have to sleep. I wouldn’t be able to keep protecting the guys if I wasn’t conscious. I clenched my jaw against the urge to yawn.
“If we’re going to do something, we need to do it soon,” I said. “I just don’t know what we can do.”
“Oh, Rose.” Philomena leaned against me, wrapping her hand around mine in its thick mitten encasing. Even through that, I felt a whisper of her touch. Because it was imagined, and no restraint could stop that.
All at once, my body went still except for the thud of my pulse.
Kyler looked up, his tawny curls jostling. “What is it, Rose? Did you think of something?”
“I might…” I tested the idea with my thoughts, having trouble believing I might actually have found the answer. But I couldn’t think of any reason it definitelywouldn’twork. “Dad always said I had a bit of an overactive imagination, and he didn’t know the half of it. I’ve made Philomena practically come to life for years. I can see you here with me now as if you were completely real.”
“You have an artist’s mind,” Jin said, still smiling. “Bringing what’s in your mind into reality.”
“That’s exactly it.” I sat up straighter. “The main part of a spell is mental—focusing on what you want. Figuring out the right words to call it up, where that applies. If I canimaginemyself moving vividly enough… that might be enough to direct the magic even if I’m not physically in motion.”
I had to try. Since I’d woken up here, it was the only option I’d thought of that had the slightest chance of working.
Phil clapped her hands. “Brilliant!”
I looked around at the guys. “I’m going to get you out of this prison if I possibly can. But I think for this I’m going to need every bit of my concentration. So I’ll see you soon, for real.”
They nodded and vanished. Philomena blinked out of the room too. I dragged in a breath, hoping my last words were true.
I might be able to cast a spell—so what spell was I going to cast? I had to get myself out of the room and free the guys from their cells, and then we’d need to escape this building and any protections around it. The latter part was going to be the hardest. As long as there were witching enforcers on hand who could throw their own spells at us, I couldn’t hope we’d make it to the front doors.
Closing my eyes, I reached out with my mind again. Beyond my consorts and the fainter glimmer of Gabriel’s energy, I could pick out the shivers of life of the enforcers and investigators in the building and around it. Here… and here… and over there… I pictured each shiver like a glint in the space around me.
A dozen or so here right now. If I could disable all of them at once, temporarily… A spell like the enforcers had cast on us, to knock us out before they brought us here. I could construct something like that, couldn’t I?
I had to do it fast, before they figured out what I was doing and charged in to stop me. If I could even do it at all in this imaginary way.
I sucked in another breath and willed my thoughts quiet, my body still. Every shred of focus and energy had to go into this spell.
In my mind’s eye, I saw the bindings on my hands, wrists, and ankles fall away. I stood up, careful not to tug on the chains and dispel the illusion. Behind my closed eyelids, I pictured my arms swaying, my legs sweeping in the beginning of a form. For a second, it felt so real a tingling raced through my nerves. My spark leapt with a burst of supernatural flame.
Yes. I could do this. Giddy with the exhilaration, I concentrated on the fine twists and dips of my fingers, gathering more and more magic into the spell, sculpting it into the shape I needed. My spark flared hotter. The magic seared through my entire body, quivering with the need to release.
Just a little more. Just a little sharper.
The little glints of the enforcers in the building twitched. A few of them were coming my way. My pulse skipped a beat. My hold on my imagined limbs wavered.
I had to do it now, before I lost my chance. Squeezing my eyes even more tightly closed, I pictured my arms whirling around me to spin the magic into a whirlwind. The energy rippled through me, stealing my breath.
Then with a real jerk of my waist, I sent it crashing out through the walls toward our captors.
