Mentored in Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

“That dragon is amazing,” Penny said, her hair windswept. She blinked at me, starstruck, then pointed at her head. “She was speaking to me. In my head!”

“Yes, yes, good, good. Come on.” I pointed at the huge wall. “We need to get through this, or you will die and that dragon will be riderless again.”

Emery pushed toward the wall, looking up to the top and then out to the sides. He leaned in, scanning the magic in front of him. “It’s a stroke of genius.”

“No, it’s the work of a master,” I said, running magic over it to see if I felt anything more.

Penny released the spell that usually unraveled my magic—the same one that had likely taken down the fog. The crisp layer over the wall shone and then fizzled, burning away, exposing another finely wrought layer underneath.

“He knows our magic,” I whispered. “He clearly built this to withstand it. His yin to your yang. He obviously knows best how to thwart me.” My eyes scanned, my magic washing across it, pulling and tweaking and digging, trying to find access. Every time I did, though, I was met with another layer of intricately woven air and fire magic, in a different style. Holy crap.

I started laughing. I couldn’t help it.

“He taught me a lot, but he certainly didn’t teach me how to do this. That bastard. Those illusions in the castle were nothing. Child’s play. Training wheels.”

Cahal strode over, his dragon standing with the others.

“What’s the story? We don’t have a lot of time,” he said, stopping beside me.

I explained the issue.

His brow furrowed, and he looked over his shoulder at those black dots, growing bigger as the moments twisted by. “I don’t think he meant them as training wheels. His last heir had trouble with tearing down his illusions. It took the last heir a long time to learn how to put them up. But I agree, this is…highly advanced. I can actually feel the power thrumming from it.”

“We can do this,” Emery said, nodding as he looked it over. “We can do this. Between Reagan and Penny and me, we’re powerful enough, and we have all of the necessary elements. We can get through this.”

“It was never a question of if, it is a question of whether we have enough time.” I ran my fingers through my hair.

“We can get through this in enough time.” Penny pushed at the tattered sleeves of her shirt. “I am getting out of this place, do you hear me? I am getting out and”—she jabbed Emery’s chest, making him flinch—“you are getting out and”—she stepped forward and jabbed her finger into my arm—“you are getting out and”—she jabbed the air at Darius and Cahal—“you two are getting out. We’re all getting out, and I am taking my dragon with me. She can’t leave without magical aid. I have magical aid, apparently, though I don’t know what that means. So she’s coming. Try to argue with me. Go ahead.”

We all stared at her—her wider-than-normal eyes, her tense shoulders, her balled fists.

She nodded. “That’s what I thought. C’mon, pyramid, let’s get to work.”

Penny has been on the edge of breaking since she was forced to leave you behind, Darius thought.

“Yes, I can see that,” I murmured.

“That rat is talking about me, isn’t he?” Penny snorted. “I don’t even care.”

She pushed Emery at me and then stepped up to my other side, facing the wall.

I took a deep breath and focused. Yes, we could do this. He’d obviously put a lot of time and effort into this wall. He’d correctly interpreted what Penny had done with the fog and put up this blockade to prevent it from happening again. I was sure he’d put some safeguards for me in there, too. He was incredibly intelligent and clever.

The magic was too layered and thick, too intricate a combination of Glaciem and Incendium for me to simply rip it down the way I had with the castle illusions. I’d have to weasel through it and create weaknesses throughout, and then Penny and Emery could apply their magic and break it off in pieces. Only then, once it was as full of holes as Swiss cheese, could I tear it down in one magical rip. It was the fastest strategy for getting through it. It had to be.

After I’d explained my strategy, Penny and Emery both nodded, determination on their faces. Their magic rose, and with it, electricity ran through us, tingling the ends of my hair and shocking down my back.

“We have the godly magic in common,” Penny murmured as we worked, sweat quickly prickling my brow. “That’s why it feels like this when we connect, don’t you think?”

A large, familiar hand closed around my shoulder. Cahal, his magic zipping through us.

“Yes, that has to be it,” Penny said, answering herself.