Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up 4)

“He certainly tried.” Sebastian took a step forward. “There is a difference between stepping back from the magical world…and being pushed aside. I wanted to see about some predictions made by my late sister. My situation these past years was entirely voluntary, and entirely temporary. Soon I will reemerge. Hopefully I will do it with the only female gargoyle in existence, and the most powerful shifter alive. Soon I will take Momar’s nightmares directly to him, and watch him dance.”

Thirty-Four

Silence descended around us. Movement slowed and then stopped, my team looking around for anyone still standing. None of our enemies were—those who hadn’t fallen had fled.

Sucking in deep breaths, I changed back into my human form. “Check our people,” I called out. “Make sure no one is too badly hurt. Call me if someone needs healing.” I looked around the ground for my clothes, trying to stand straight and tall like the nakedness wasn’t bothering me.

Shifters started moving immediately, some changing into human form and others staying furry. Cyra changed into human as well, her clothes magically still on. Totally unfair. She didn’t check on our side, though—she checked on theirs. If she found someone moving around, she fixed the glitch.

“No, no, let them—”

“It has to be done,” Kingsley said, also naked and giving me plenty of space. It shocked me mute, and I stared really hard at his face so I didn’t give in to curiosity and accidentally check if he was blessed with size like his brother. “You have to send a message that you will not tolerate attacks.”

Other shifters changed, Austin being one of them, and he immediately started looking after his people. He glanced my way but didn’t say anything. He was leaving the call up to me.

I bit my lip as Cyra moved on to someone else. She pointed, and Hollace swooped down to blast the man with electricity. They were dividing up the gore for sport, it seemed like. For fun.

My stomach turned. My jaw hurt from clenching my teeth.

Sebastian limped out from around the side of the banquet hall, holding his side. The sight of his wounds tore at me.

“No.” I continued to stare at Kingsley. I saw the spark of violence in his eyes, the evidence that he was not used to having his authority challenged.

But he had no authority here.

“No,” I repeated. I threw bands around Cyra to keep her from cracking a wounded woman’s neck. She struggled, trying to burn through my magic. I wouldn’t allow it. “I can’t do this. We will not continue to assassinate the wounded. That is not what I stand for. They will be given a chance to reform.” I raised my voice and backed it by magic. “If you are still alive, you will remain so. I’ll do everything I can to make sure of that. But if you ever come back here, intending to do me or mine harm, I’ll kill you myself. Is that clear?”

I didn’t wait for them to respond. I assumed they wouldn’t. Nor did I need Kingsley’s curt nod. I would not compromise my own principles because things were done differently in the magical world. My people would have to live with that, or they could leave.

“Jessie, how can I help?” Sebastian asked as he neared me.

“Can you heal?”

“No. Not without a camping stove, pot, and potion ingredients.”

“Then just rest. I’ll handle it.”

A roar ripped through the battlefield, and the basajaun literally drop-kicked someone over the edge of the hill, their body somersaulting through the air before it landed awkwardly and rolled away.

He stuck up his hand, not turning. “Last one, Miss Jessie. He tried to stab me. Vengeance was necessary. It is done.”

I just blinked at him for a second. I didn’t miss Kingsley’s tiny smile before it morphed back into his hard alpha frown. Shaking my head, I got to work.

A few hours later, Austin pulled up to Ivy House and I just sat in the passenger seat, exhausted in a way I hadn’t known I could be. There had been a lot of people to heal. A lot. Each took energy. Some had required a lot of energy.

“I’m pissed Kinsella took off,” I said, not lifting my head off the headrest. “He left all his people to fight and die for him, and he just left? What kind of a coward is that?”

“Mages aren’t usually on the front line,” Sebastian said from the back seat. The basajaun hadn’t come back with us. He’d decided to head back to his mountain through the trees. I suspected he wanted to see if he could track down any escapees and deal with them how he saw fit.

Gargoyles landed on the front grass, the night cloaking them. Cyra and Hollace followed, the night showing off their respective flames and lightning. The police would probably get a few calls of unidentified animals flying through the night sky, but Austin’s inside guy would hopefully handle it. The rest of my people had already landed, Edgar having been carried (it would be an incredibly long flight as a swarm of insects).