Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up 4)

He thought about touching her arm to reassure her it was fine—that he could change tables—but Niamh’s movement at the edge of his vision caught his notice. She was looking directly at him and shaking her head. Don’t interfere.

“If you disrespect him like that again,” Jess said in a deathly quiet voice, “I will kill you where you sit, do you understand me?”

Kinsella’s eyebrows lowered and a spark of anger lit his eyes. Cunning took its place.

“Oh, now I see,” he said, leaning back and placing his other hand on the table. Austin felt a hand press down on his shoulder and squeeze twice, reassuringly. Sebastian. Like Niamh, he was telling Austin to stay put, to leave this to Jess. “You like to bed filthy, dimwitted animals.”

A jet of red zipped from Kinsella’s fingers, and Austin couldn’t stop himself from jumping up and reaching for Jess. Only he didn’t get his butt far off the seat before a hard rush of magic slammed him back down. A comforting feeling came through the link with Jess. She was the one who’d held him in place.

The red jet of magic hit the air right in front of her chest and dissolved. She shoved out her hands, and tables skidded across the floor, chairs toppling over. Some were empty—belonging to the invisible people, Austin felt sure—and others contained Kinsella’s associates, who were then shoved against the far wall. They cried out as they were magically pinned.

Jess’s people still sat calmly in their places, untouched.

Kinsella’s eyes widened. He shook in his place, trying to get up and unable to move.

“I did warn you,” Jess said with a little smile. “Apparently I shouldn’t kill you, though. Something to do with the Mages’ Guild? I didn’t even know there was such a thing before you sent the invite. Doesn’t matter. I don’t need to kill you to make an example of you.”

Kinsella screamed before his feet were ripped out from under him. They saw the sky as his body was dragged off his chair and hoisted up into the middle of the room.

“Austin did force the phoenix to submit.” Jess clasped her hands in her lap. “He owns this restaurant and bought the jewels I’m wearing. And no, I didn’t know what that ward was out front. My associate had to tell me. He then told Austin he could break it by walking through it. Which Austin did. No problem. You don’t even have half the power my boyfriend has.” She put her hand on Austin’s arm. “My boyfriend, the animal, in case that wasn’t clear. I turn into a gargoyle, did anyone tell you that? I’m an animal, too, I suppose. And you are a clown.” She stood. “Oh, and my associate has been here the whole time. I’m sure you took a revealing potion, but you couldn’t reveal my invisibility potion, could you? Your people are disguised very poorly.”

Her chair moved backward, seemingly by itself, before it pulled to the side and out of the way.

Kinsella’s eyes widened further. Apparently the invisibility potion he couldn’t detect was more surprising to him than anything else that had happened.

“Sorry you had to come all this way.” She took a step back, and the invisible hold she’d had on Austin released, allowing him to stand. She took his hand. “But it’s pretty clear we can’t be friends.” She turned to go, but stopped. “Oh, and I saw your fear when you looked at Austin Steele earlier. The only reason he didn’t tear you apart was out of respect for me. Next time, he can do as he pleases. Trust me, you’d rather deal with me.”

As she turned, Kinsella fell from the sky, landing on the chair and crashing to the ground.

“That sounded like it hurt,” she said, holding Austin’s hand on the way out. Her people stood and followed without a word.

Outside, Kingsley lifted his eyebrows.

“Make sure they leave without destroying anything,” Austin told him.

“Sebastian—stop laughing—you stay too.” Jess looked behind her. “Make sure none of ours get hurt.”

“What about us?” Niamh called as Austin pulled the door open for Jess.

“We should go.” Cyra pushed her glasses farther up her nose with her pointer finger. “That man’s ego was very fragile. Jessie made him feel small—rightly so—and he will seek revenge. He seemed clueless. It would be best to surprise him with our—all of our—talents.”

“She has a valid point,” Austin said. Then he waited for Jess’s response, making sure Cyra saw that Jess had the final word in this crew. If there’d been a question on leadership, he’d just helped Cyra answer it.

“They have a lot of people, though,” she said, and concern bled through the link. “They have a lot of mages and who knows what else. Kingsley’s people are outnumbered.”

Austin huffed out a laugh. “But not even close to outmatched. We have a lot of shifters in the woods. He’ll be fine.”