AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She knew. She knew even though I’d hurt her that I’d been doing this for her all along.
She whipped out her arm so fast I wasn’t prepared. The guard wasn’t either. A spell slammed into the woman’s head from the side, and her grip loosened. One of the other guards leapt in to grab me, but Ky was already lunging at her with a stick he brandished like a club. I didn’t have time to wonder what he figured he’d accomplish with that. I hurled myself forward.
A magical grip caught my legs. Another spell smacked against the first. I stumbled as the strands of magic wrestled with each other.
“That’s enough!” one of the Assembly witches shouted, just as Rose made a slicing motion with her hand.
The pressure around my ankles shattered. I staggered toward her, and Jin tugged me into their midst between him and Rose.
My throat was still throbbing, but I had to use this moment of freedom, however short it might be.
I spun toward the Assembly officials. “I lied to you before. Frankford is the one who’s the real threat. You need to see what’s down the cliff.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rose
The other Assembly members looked bewildered, but Frankford’s face twisted into a mask of anger. “You,” he snarled. His gaze jerked from Gabriel to me, his eyes blazing. He smacked one hand against his chest and thrust both upward in a stiff mockery of a witching form. Three guttural syllables I didn’t understand burst from his lips, and then, “I forsake the oath I took.”
The air shivered between us. I had only a split-second to register what that declaration might mean, that he’d somehow been able to make it on his own without my agreement to dissolve the oath, when he was thrusting his arms toward me, sending a bolt of searing energy straight at my heart.
My hands leapt up to cast a shielding spell, but I couldn’t have spun it out fast enough. I would have died if Gabriel hadn’t realized what was happening. Even as Frankford sputtered out his words, my consort was reaching for me. The heat of that spear of magic singed my skin, and I was stumbling out of the way at my consort’s yank as he threw himself in front of me.
Gabriel buckled an instant later, a pained breath hissing through his teeth. His side was blackened and seeping blood where Frankford’s spell had hit him. Frankford growled and lifted his arms again—and Investigator Ruiz charged up to him, snatching his wrists and hauling them behind his back.
I dropped to the ground as Gabriel sank to his knees. My fingers fluttered over his wound, summoning the energy to seal it, to dull the pain, anything I could do. From the raggedness of his breath, I wasn’t sure it hadn’t hurt internal organs I didn’t have the slightest idea how to start mending.
“He needs a medic,” I shouted to anyone who’d listen, clutching my consort’s shoulder. “Fast! Please.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Gabriel mumbled. He managed to raise his head. Pain had tensed his features, but his gaze found mine and held it. “I’m so sorry, Rose. I love you. I always loved you. I always will.”
My eyes welled up. Around me, the meeting I’d set up had erupted into chaos. Voices clashed and hands waved. Kyler knelt next to me. He’d torn off his shirt and pressed it to the wound on Gabriel’s side.
“What do you need me to do?” he said. “Who should I call?”
I didn’t know who the nearest medic was. There were a couple names I knew from Portland, but they wouldn’t come at some unsparked man’s request. I didn’t even know if they’d come at mine.
“Let mego,” Frankford was snapping at Ruiz.
She glared at him. “I witnessed an unauthorized use of hostile magic against an unprepared victim. This is my job.”
“How did you even do that?” Gwen Remington broke in. Her gaze twitched between us. This was the first time I’d ever seen a witching man cast magic of his own, so I’d bet it was a first for her too.
Not magic of his own. Magic he’d borrowed from those demons. My heart skipped a beat. He’d broken the oath. I could say anything I wanted about him now.
“He’s made a deal with the things in the cave down the cliff,” I said. “Him and a bunch of the other families—my father and the Almeidas and—I have a whole list of them, I have their records. They summoned monsters and they force them to give over power. They trick witches into unbalanced consortings and then force them to control the things.”
Frankford let out a scoffing laugh. “Listen to her. She’s completely delusional. An unprepared victim? I was defending my property and myself from this witch who’s determined to tear me down. I have a right to do that.”
“How many people haveyoutorn down?” Damon retorted from where he was standing over me, his enchanted stick still gripped in his fist. “I’ve seen the files. I saw the creature down there. You’re as much a monster as it is.”
Frankford rolled his eyes toward the other Assembly officials. “And this is who she brings into her side. Unsparked men she’s dallying with. Impressionable young witches who don’t have the experience to know better. Jilted wives out for vengeance.” He nodded to Thalia.
Whatever spell he’d cast on her wasn’t broken. Her lips curled back as she tried to find words she could speak. “He’s lying,” she said. “He’s had a lot of practice at it, so he does it well. You can’t listen to him.”
“Oh, and they should listen to you? The Justice Division will definitely hear about this. High ranking Assembly members tramping around one of their colleagues’ homes searching for monsters on the word of a known degenerate? How long do you think your careers will last after this gets out?”
“If there’s nothing to see, what does it matter to you if we look?” Remington asked. The question would have reassured me if her stance hadn’t been so hesitant. She wanted him to convince her there was nothing to see. It’d be easier for her to believe I was a lunatic than that he was the head of some crazy conspiracy. Of course it would be. That was why his faction had been able to operate for so long.
