Magical Midlife Dating (Leveling Up 2)

Given the house’s constant blasts of panic and pleading, it couldn’t feel her either.

Austin swallowed a lump in his throat, feeling that dark brutality he struggled to contain stirring within him. Rising. If those mages had killed her…

“What’s the status?” he asked Ulric, his voice rough with unshed violence.

“She’s alive.” His tone was flat, and frustration and guilt swam in his gaze. He blamed himself for Jacinta getting taken.

Good. That meant he cared. It meant he’d do whatever it took to get her back.

Austin didn’t outwardly show his relief. But something loosened inside him. As long as she was alive, there was hope.

“Where is she?” he asked, a prompt to get the show on the road.

“In there”—Ulric gestured to the cave—“but they didn’t bring her in this way. I lost them in the trees at the base of the mountain, so I flew higher to see if I could get a glimpse of them from a higher vantage point. I saw someone working their way through the trees. It must’ve been one of the mages. They were gone by the time I got down here, but I was able to find this entrance. We’ll still need to find the other one.”

Given Austin didn’t smell this other person, it meant they’d magically masked their scent. Ulric was right—it had to be one of the mages.

“Why do we still need to find the other?” he asked, ducking into a small tunnel that his animal form would never be able to fit through.

“You’ll see.”

At the other end, the cave opened up significantly, about fifteen feet high and thirty feet wide. The dozen or so gargoyles mostly stood off to the sides, crammed together to leave as much space as possible for the three from Ivy House and Damarion, who waited in front of a shimmering magical curtain.

The mage had apparently come to erect a magical barrier.

As he approached the invisible wall, Austin got his first look at what they were facing.

Jess stood in the middle of a rusty cage suspended in midair, gently swinging over a sea of spikes.

“What’s the status?” he asked this crew, ignoring the blistering, churning need to grab Damarion and toss him at those spikes.

Damarion stiffened, probably having the same thought, but their issues could wait.

“We’re having a rather bad day, Austin Steele, thanks for asking,” Edgar said, staring in at Jess. He cradled one badly burned hand to his chest, the skin blackened and blistered and peeling away.

“Edgar tested out the barrier,” Niamh said, looking up at the ceiling, then down to the ground. He doubted it had given her any new insights. “Ye can see what it did to him. Vampire skin is more fragile than the flesh of a gargoyle, but wings are a different matter entirely. We can’t fly through this thing, and without wings, no one is getting anywhere but dead.”

“I offered to try anyway,” Mr. Tom said, his chest puffed up.

“Who would clean the house if you died?” Edgar asked. “I don’t like spiders.”

“Have you seen the mages?” Austin peered into the shadows layering the room. Not even a flicker of movement caught his eye. “Is she being monitored somehow?”

“Through the years, I’ve heard rumors of a basajaun in these parts, the keeper of the invisible prison.” Niamh shook her head. “I never passed any remarks on the story. The storyteller was always a drunk muppet. But…”

“I’ve run across the basajaun that lives on this mountain.” Austin walked along the barrier, cutting in front of the others, to see if it completely attached to the rock along the sides. If not, there was a chance he could peel it back in his animal form, which had a degree of magical resistance. “I traveled through these parts without realizing it was his mountain, and he was all set to challenge me for it. I deferred and left it at that. I had no idea about the prison. No one mentioned those rumors to me, or I would’ve checked it out.”

“How’d these mages know about it?” Damarion asked.

“Good question,” Niamh responded.

“Going up against that basajaun would be a helluva fight.” Austin crossed to the other side, and Damarion shifted in unease as he passed. “It would be a hairy situation.”

“No pun intended,” Ulric murmured.

“Not to mention the mages, who have some real skill,” Austin said. “I could take the basajaun, but you all would have to handle the mages. I couldn’t handle both.”

“Except where are they all?” Niamh asked, putting out her hands. “They must have left Jessie here for safekeeping while they went to do…something, but they’ll be back, sure they will, and we still don’t know how they cut Jessie off from us.”

Austin cracked his neck and then hovered a hand next to the barrier. It gave off no pulse or charge. He could feel no magic at all. Very fine work, indeed. Mages of this caliber would only work for a hefty sum or an important boss.