Chapter 14

My heart skipped a beat. "There are people out there? As in, like, people who work in this area?"

"They're grouped in an alley." He turned to Aaron. "How long will it take to get in the car and drive out of the parking lot?"

Aaron considered it. "Too long. I don't want to be trapped in a vehicle when they attack."

"They're probably watching all the exits. We need to make a new one."

Aaron nodded. "The buildings to the west are a maze. We can run that way and lose them in the alleys."

In agreement, the two mages marched back down the hall, and I rushed after them. We'd been cornered again. Which guild was preparing to ambush us this time? The same Odin's Eye mythics? More Grand Grimoire contractors?

The guys chose a west-facing window. Ezra drew himself up, then waved a hand. His blast of wind blew out the glass, and as it smashed on the ground outside, we leaped over the sill.

Distant calls rang out as our feet hit the pavement—and then we were running. Aaron shot ahead, leading us into the nearest alley. This industrial area was full of interconnecting alleys and back roads for accessing all the rear businesses and commercial lots. If we could lose our pursuers anywhere, it was here.

I ran hard, Ezra right behind me. My gasping breaths were too loud for me to hear if anyone was coming up behind us, but I didn't dare hope we'd left them behind already. Warehouses flashed by on either side. Thirty yards ahead, the alley split in a T-intersection.

As we sprinted toward that first turn, the air grew sickeningly damp—then a wave of water crashed over my ankles, sweeping my feet out from under me.

I slammed down on my ass and skidded on the wet pavement. Defying all laws of fluid dynamics, the water reversed direction and flowed over my legs, encasing them.

With a crackle, the water froze into solid ice.

The guys were down too, but fire blazed off Aaron, melting the ice on his legs, and Ezra wrenched free with his inhuman strength. They leaped up. I didn't have their extra special abilities, and my legs stayed frozen to the ground. Yanking out my paintball gun, I smashed its metal butt against the ice.

The ground trembled, then shattered into zigzagging fissures. As Aaron and Ezra staggered for balance, the crumbling pavement broke the ice holding me down. I scrambled onto my knees as the earth rocked.

Wind erupted, howling down the alley and blasting into the off-balance mages. Aaron dropped to one knee, but Ezra caught himself and whipped his arm out, his buffeting wind countering the assaulting gale.

Orange light blazed—but not from Aaron. Forty feet away, a man glowed with flames. A pyromage. And arranged around him, illuminated by his fire, were five others.

Universally tall, well-built, fit as professional athletes, and decked out in identical gear. I would've laughed at their dorky matching uniforms, except the black garments, each emblazoned with a logo over the heart, didn't make them look silly. Their unifying attire made them all the more terrifying.

They could only be the Pandora Knights, the city's most accomplished bounty hunting guild, populated entirely by mages. Highly skilled, notoriously aggressive, powerful mages.

My frightened stare swept across them. Hydromage, kryomage, terramage, aeromage, pyromage.

The unknown mage on the far left pointed a thin-bladed rapier. Electricity crackled down the steel, then leaped toward us. Aaron thrust Sharpie out, catching the bolt. It sizzled over the blade, then leaped down into the pavement, unable to bypass the insulated hilt.

The Pandora Knights team didn't waste any time on conversation, banter, or threats. Three darted forward and two fell back, one mage in the middle, their movements fluid and practiced. An attack formation.

Aaron held his sword out, placed his hand against the blade, and slid his palm down the steel in a sharp movement.

Fire exploded over the six mages.

The attack would've incapacitated any other team, but not this one. Ice burst from the kryomage, water flooded the hydromage, wind swept over the aeromage. The pyromage extended his hands toward the electramage and terramage, extinguishing the flames on them in a heartbeat—while completely ignoring the fire crawling harmlessly over his own limbs.

"Run," Aaron rasped. "I'll distract them."

I shot to my feet, clutching my useless paintball gun. "But—"

"I'll be right behind you!" He raised his sword, concentration tightening his face. "I need you two out of the way!"

Right. We were flammable. Whirling, I shoved my gun in its holster and grabbed Ezra's arm.

"Aaron—" he began sharply.

"This one is my fight," Aaron shot over his shoulder. "You know what yours is, Ezra!"

Confusion sparked amidst my urgency. Ezra hesitated, his face twisting, then pivoted on his heel and sprinted away. I ran beside him, clutching his hand. Firelight flared behind us. A rush of pounding footsteps, a crackle of electricity—then roaring flames exploded outward, filling the alley.

We reached an intersection and I spun around, staring back at the fire. Waiting for Aaron's silhouette to appear. Waiting for him to dash out of the blaze and run to join us.

Ezra's hand crushed mine.

The fire was withering—and electricity flashed. The earth quaked, pavement cracking with a sound like a gunshot. Wind whooshed across the alley, bending the flames, revealing the silhouettes within the dying inferno.

Six men surrounding a seventh.

"Aaron!" I screamed.

Fire surged, hiding the battle. I lunged, ready to race back—and Ezra caught me around the middle. He pulled me against his chest, his harsh, rasping breath filling my ears.

Frost covered the ground around us. My frightened gasp sent a puff of white into the wintry air.

I twisted to look at him—and saw his glowing left eye, his features contorted with agonized rage. His arms were so tight around me I could scarcely breathe.

"Ezra—" I gasped.

"I'm all right. I'm—" He broke off, jaw clenched, teeth bared. "He's buying us time. We can't waste it."

Buying us time? But no, he was coming too. He'd be right behind us. He—

He'd said that so I wouldn't argue.

Another burst of fire leaped skyward, and in the dancing flames, I glimpsed the eerie shape of the Hanged Man.

Ezra dropped me back onto my feet, grasped my hand, and ran into a connecting alley. The mage battle disappeared behind us, and every step I ran drove a splinter of steel deeper into my heart.

They wouldn't kill Aaron. He was the famous Sinclair heir. No Pandora Knights mage would blacklist themselves by killing him.

They wouldn't kill him. He'd be okay. He'd be okay. He'd be okay.

Ezra pulled me down alley after alley. My lungs screamed and my legs burned. As I started to stumble, my stamina spent, he slowed his steps. Just ahead, the alley opened into a parking lot. For a second, I thought it was the same one where we'd parked our white sedan, but this one was empty except for two flatbed trailers at the far end.

Ezra scanned the lot, then pulled me into a jog, aiming for the street on the opposite side. Ten paces away from the shelter of the alley, he drew up short, pulling me to a stop beside him.

Four men strode into view, blocking the parking lot's exit.

Black uniforms, guild logos on their chests, weapons in hand. More Pandora Knights mages.

Fifty feet away, they spread into a defensive formation, waiting for us to attack—and that was our only option. We couldn't run back the way we'd come or we'd risk fleeing right into the larger group of mages who'd no doubt defeated Aaron and were chasing us down.

For the first time, I considered giving up. I imagined putting my hands in the air and letting them come. Running, fighting, escaping—it was so hard. The fear and panic and pain. I couldn't take it.

But if I gave up, Ezra would die. Which meant I had to keep fighting.

Arctic cold rolled off him, and the ground turned white with frost. He was going to fight. He was going to unleash his demonic magic to save us—but he'd also be condemning us. We couldn't run but couldn't fight. What the hell were we supposed to do?

As despair gripped me, I started shivering—but not because of the cold emanating from Ezra. Something else hung in the air…

A shivering essence of threat.

Dawn had reversed itself. The sky was black as midnight. Shadows crawled along the ground. The Pandora Knights faded to indistinct silhouettes.

In the eerie silence, a sound reached my ears, so out of place it took me a moment to identify it: the slow clop of hooves on pavement.

The measured beat of a walking horse grew louder. Drawing closer.

From out of the swirling darkness, a ghostly equine shimmered slowly into view. Its steel-colored coat darkened to black on its legs, with an inky mane and flowing tail. Muscles rippled over its body, its powerful neck arched. Acid-green eyes glowed, pupilless and otherworldly, and its nostrils flared as it tossed its head.

A rider sat astride its back, clad all in black, his long coat flared across the horse's haunches, a deep hood drawn up. No saddle, no halter, no reins. He guided the powerful creature with a gloved hand on its neck.

Death had come, mounted on his nightmare steed.

The stallion stopped midway between the mages and where Ezra and I stood in silent shock. It lifted a foreleg and slammed it down with a loud clang. Again, the horse struck the pavement, tail swishing and snapping, ears flat against its head. A throaty, aggressive snort rushed from its nose, puffing white in the chill air.

The rider's shadowed hood turned toward the group of mages.

Black flames rippled and danced around the horse's legs, and shapes appeared, stepping out of the darkness. Shaggy obsidian fur. Ridged muzzles and bared teeth. Burning scarlet eyes. Two ebony wolves prowled around the stallion, their snarls rumbling through the silence.

The black rider waited.

Twenty-five feet away from the unearthly specters, the Pandora Knights mythics didn't move. Not even the best-trained mages from the top bounty guild in the city were brave enough to challenge this enemy. Not when the shadows coiled so menacingly. Not when the wolves snarled so hungrily. Not when the ethereal stallion smashed that powerful hoof into the ground again, shattering the asphalt.

With another toss of its head, the horse turned and broke into a quick trot—heading straight for us. I recoiled into Ezra as the towering beast drew level with us, its shoulder higher than the top of my head. The rider twisted toward me, and I looked up into a familiar face.

He extended his gloved hand.

Once before, he'd offered me his hand just like this. Under a gazebo in a night-swathed park, he'd told me to walk away… or to come with him and never return.

I hesitated only for a moment, then grabbed his hand.

Zak hauled me up, and I scrambled onto the horse behind him. Ezra swung onto its back behind me, settling into place more smoothly than I'd expected.

As I clutched Zak's jacket, the beast leaped forward, hooves hammering against the pavement. With the vargs racing beside us, we thundered across the parking lot—then the horse's pounding hooves deadened into silence as white mist engulfed us and we slipped out of human reality.