Magical Midlife Dating (Leveling Up 2)

I glanced out the doorway, half expecting to see a mage waiting outside, hands out, magic at the ready. The dark barrier waited, though, glimmering and seemingly solid. It looked like a wall. If a mage stood on the other side, waiting to get the drop on us, we wouldn’t know until we walked right into them.

“What a stupid setup,” I said, my adrenaline spiking. “Why would they wait in here blind?”

Niamh chittered. Why? Who knew, since I didn’t understand a word of it.

Down the tunnel the other way, its size and shape uniform, I ended at the shadowy opening to the large cave with the viewing area at the top. The barrier up there was still in place, transparent and glimmering.

Maybe these mages could only create two types of variable: viewable or not.

But why make the other one viewable? So it could kill anyone who came to rescue me?

Thankfully, they’d underestimated Austin.

The cage lay where we’d left it, the door off and on its side. The chain dangled above. No one waited among the spikes. The mages weren’t here.

I breathed a sigh of relief. That was bad news, probably, drawing all this out, but the relief was real.

“Let’s head out,” I said, turning around and weaving through the gargoyles. “They’re not here. At least we know where here is, though. Maybe Austin can pick up the scent from here.” I walked back to the trick door slowly, not really wanting to leave the protection of the stone walls. There was only one way in, and we were walking toward it. Maybe they weren’t lying in wait beyond it, but they could come back while we were exiting.

At the door, I checked to make sure everyone was set, turned off the lantern, and stepped outside, ready just in case.

Dead space greeted us—even the basajaun had taken off. The flowers were still there, though, in their protective little cocoon. He hadn’t been kidding—he did not plan to take the basajaun candy from strangers. How odd. What could I have possibly done to flowers? Drugged them? Then what? The creature was too big for me to drag back to Edgar. And when he woke up, I’d probably have a dead Edgar on my hands.

Austin attempted to cross the threshold, but I was in the way, and he bumped me from behind. I moved as Niamh skittered through on all fours.

Something felt wrong. The wind in the leaves and pine needles were still present, but the birdsong had cut off. No animals skittered under the brush. It was almost like they’d sensed a predator.

But they’d all been active when we were here last. Maybe the basajaun’s presence had put them at ease. Now that he’d taken off…

Movement in front of me caught my eye as Austin crossed the threshold. I looked up as a woman in a dark dress stepped through the trees with her hands up, flares of light erupting from her fingertips. Two more stepped out from the sides.

They’d been waiting for us after all. The basajaun waiting outside had given me a false sense of security, like he would watch our backs. How could I have been so stupid?31Austin lurched forward, now knocking me to the side and trying to get in front of me. He planned to take the magical hit. From mages this good, it could be instantly fatal.

Terror bled through me. My own protection instinct, born of motherhood, flared to life—like Austin, I completely forgot my sense of self-preservation the moment someone I cared about was in danger.

But I also had more magic than Austin.

Drawing from the training Damarion had given me, I ballooned magic around us even as I kicked Austin out of the way, my magic greatly enhancing the strength of the blow.

He flew to the side, hitting the wall next to the flowers. The zip of light from the mage smashed against the balloon of magic I’d created, and then flowed along the periphery, lighting the arch of it up.

The gargoyles stepped out of the cave entrance, Damarion first, and he quickly realized what was happening. His wings snapped out, one hitting the rock wall, nearly spearing Austin, and the other pushing out through the trees, the span striking me as incredible regardless of how many times I’d seen it.

The mage on my right got a shot off. It slapped my bubble and spread along it, just as the first had done. This one, though, sputtered and fizzed, shooting sparks.

My magic dissolved under the pressure, leaving us open to their attack.

Niamh bolted toward them and leapt from the ground onto the face of the mage in front of me. That mage shrieked, magic erupting from her fingertips as she reached for Niamh, now clawing and tearing and biting at her face.

The magic zinged toward me. Before I could react, Damarion grabbed me and turned his back, his wing whipping around me for more shelter.