Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up 4)

The house glowed like a beacon in the shadows ahead, all the lights on. A lone figure waited out front, and I could feel that it was Edgar. Swooping down from above came the nightmare alicorn with wings of inky darkness. I felt Ulric and Jasper on their way.

Those shifters were halfway through the woods now, coming fast. They were cutting through the property at a diagonal, which would dump them out to the left of the house.

It might not be an attack on me, specifically, but they’d clearly planned to crash into Austin’s territory. I knew that wasn’t how things were done around here. They’d snuck over the mountain, aggravating the basajaun in the process, and instead of making amends, they’d continued their preplanned journey with a lot more haste. These fellers were in a no-win situation.

“Put me down.” I tapped Kingsley’s shoulder. A moment later, half sober, I touched down on the sidewalk before Ivy House. “Thank you.”

I ran onto the property, the alcohol in my blood draining quickly now. My mind raced for a strategy.

“Jacinta.”

Sebastian’s voice was magically amplified. A beat-up old VW Beetle rolled down the street, silent as the grave. I couldn’t tell if he was propelling it by magic or if he’d magically cut out the sound. No lights announced its entrance.

“Can you trust him?” Kingsley asked. He stood beside me, loose and ready for battle, power pumping out of him.

“Doesn’t matter either way. Not on Ivy House soil.” I turned to Mr. Tom, coming out of the house, as Niamh touched down. “Get into the air with the other fliers so you can help Ivy House respectfully slow the basajaun down. Treat him with kid gloves. If he kills a few of the shifters, fine, but try to keep him from killing everyone.”

Mr. Tom nodded and immediately started to change. Niamh lifted into the sky again, Ulric and Jasper showing up. I gestured for them to join the others.

“What do you need?” Sebastian jogged over from his car, his shirt and pants rumpled and his hair mostly standing on end.

“I need to make a wall to keep those shifters from getting out.”

“You know how to do that.”

“Yeah. Right, yes I do. I also need to keep the basajaun from gruesomely killing everyone.”

“I sure hope you know how to do that, too, because I’m at a loss. I’ve only heard disturbing things about those creatures.”

“Yeah. Dang. The things you’ve heard are mostly true, I’d bet.” I ran toward the spot where the shifters would intersect, magically draping a wall over the property line.

“They might scatter once they hit the wall. Our best bet is to keep them contained. What if you magically redirect them?” Sebastian said, running beside me. Kingsley followed us, and Edgar puffed into insects, zooming ahead. “Create a mind confusion spell, or maybe an illusion to make them go where you want them.”

“Yeah. Genius. I don’t know how.”

“Okay. I’ll walk you through it. We’ll do it together.”

It wasn’t easy to learn on the run, but with Sebastian teaching me, it was manageable. Kinda. By the time those shifters hit my magical wall—literally slammed into it (oops)—running for all they were worth, a dizzying mind spell picked up from there and directed them back toward the front of the house. I ran to meet them, not good enough to keep the spell turning like Sebastian had suggested.

Which basically put us back where we’d started. Huge gray wolves raced toward us, their growls fierce and saliva dripping from their mouths.

Kingsley yanked me behind him. He quickly started shedding clothes.

“No, no, no!” I shouted, fear gripping me for the first time. “Do not change right now, Kingsley, whatever you do. If the basajaun thinks you’re challenging him, he might lose his mind. Just get out of the way.”

I tried the dizzying spell again as those wolves bore down on us, intent on chewing their way through us if need be. The basajaun wasn’t far behind, swatting at Ulric, who kept diving in front of him and then rolling away, his antics barely slowing the enormous creature. He was pissed and would not be easily distracted.

“Jessie,” Sebastian said, his tone wary. “Jessie…”

“Yeah, yeah.” I worked at the redirection spell, trying to get it to flow.

“I got it.” Sebastian stepped in front of me. Usually he gave a little hand wiggle when he set a spell, nothing more, but this time he moved his body, too, gyrating like a stream through rocks. The spell sparkled into the air in front of us and then pushed out about ten feet.

The wolves hit that, lips pulled back and teeth gnashing, expecting to barrel into us. Instead they curved into a soft turn, running along the front of the yard. I couldn’t tell whether they were confused.

“Trap them and stop that basajaun,” Sebastian shouted, and I had the feeling he was about to be afraid of one more creature. Mages clearly didn’t get out much.