Blaze of Secrets (Asylums for Magical Threats 1)

The woman sucked in a breath before her body went limp.

Jaxton maneuvered her to the ground and plucked the dart out of her arm. He checked to make sure she was breathing—she was—but he needed to deal with the guards before he could do anything else for her.

He stood up and counted a total of ten guards surrounding them. His men had eight of them in hand, so Jaxton focused on the two blocking the corner that would lead them to the tunnel.

One of the two guards had a strange-looking gun pointed at him. Jaxton reckoned that was what the woman had warned him about. He’d take out the tranquilizer gun first and worry about the second guard later.

He wouldn’t risk a bullet ricocheting off the steel walls, so Jaxton drew out a pair of bolas from one of the pockets on his chest and swung them around a few times before letting them fly. They hit the mark and wrapped around the gun with enough force to knock it to the floor with a clatter.

With the tranquilizer gun out of the way, Jaxton gave a unique whistle that signaled to the others that he was going to engage. After years of working missions together, he trusted his team to cover his back and protect the two rescued AMT prisoners on the ground.

He charged at the two guards blocking the corner. The first guard threw a punch, but Jaxton ducked the swing and danced to the right before punching the man in the soft area of the kidney. The man groaned, and Jaxton took advantage of the opening. He stepped back to the left and smashed his fist into the side of the man’s face.

The man went down with a thud.

When the female guard glanced down at her fallen co-worker, Jaxton rushed toward her.

She noticed the movement and reached for something on her belt, but Jaxton was quicker. He used his weight to topple the woman off balance and they tumbled to the ground, rolling until Jaxton gained the upper hand and pinned the woman’s shoulders to the ground with one arm.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her hand inch toward her belt. Jaxton leaned more of his weight onto the woman’s shoulders, took a hold of her wrist, and squeezed. The guard winced and Jaxton plucked the object that looked like a stun gun from her utility belt and tossed it out of reach.

Marco’s call of attack echoed down the hallway. Jaxton rolled away just in time to see a stream of water encircle the guard’s lower body before freezing around the woman’s legs, trapping her without doing the woman any lasting harm.

Sometimes having friends with elemental magic came in handy.

With his two targets out of the way, Jaxton jumped to his feet to check on the others.

His men were unharmed, as were the woman and his brother, but while all ten of the AMT guards were unconscious on the ground, there were at least two hundred guards inside this particular AMT compound and more could arrive at any minute.

They needed to get the hell out of here.

As if reading his mind, Darius had already tossed Jaxton’s brother over his shoulder, so Jaxton scooped up the unconscious female inmate into his arms and started running.

A quick check assured him that the woman’s heart rate was a little slow, but not dangerous, and that the wound on her arm had clotted thanks to the pressure of the other one against it. After all the trouble he’d gone through to get her out of the AMT, she had better bloody well not die en route. Neena must have plans for her, and what Neena wanted, she got.

He heard some kind of commotion behind them just as they reached the tunnel entrance, where jagged rocks bent and twisted with the steel of the AMT walls. Darius ducked inside the tunnel first, and Jaxton followed suit. Marco and Taka would cover their retreat.

Of course, escaping the tunnel was the easy part; getting off the mountain was going to be tricky. After the amount of energy his men had already used confronting the guards, Jaxton hoped Darius would be able to concentrate long enough for their final trick.

Once they walked out onto the snow-covered mountain ledge, goosebumps rose on the woman’s skin. Jaxton hugged her close against his chest as he moved to stand next to Darius. He glanced down to check; while cold, the woman was still alive.

Marco emerged from the tunnel and stepped to the side just as Taka slowly backed out of the hole, moving the earth as he went until the tunnel was sealed.

Since they were standing on a mountain ledge thousands of feet above sea level, the only way the guards could reach them now was from the sky.

Marco and Taka came over and took positions facing Jaxton and Darius, the four of them making a tight-knit square. Jaxton nodded at Darius to begin.

Darius kept one hand on Garrett’s back, but raised the other to the east—the direction of elemental wind—and soon wind began to swirl around them, increasing in speed with each pass.

Jaxton’s stomach did a little flip. He knew what was coming. But no matter how many times they’d done this before, he would never get used to traveling via elemental wind.

Category Five winds swirled around them, and soon a piece of the rock ledge cracked and the ground jolted under their feet. Yet because of training and practice, the men maintained their balance even as the section of rock was lifted into the air. The woman in his arms shivered, and Jaxton nearly crushed her against his body in an attempt to warm her. The trip across the chasm wouldn’t last long, but he just hoped she’d survive the cold.

Chapter Three

Kiarra blinked a few times and tried to ascertain if she was still dreaming, but when the unfamiliar surroundings stayed constant, she knew that the men in black had managed to escape the AMT.

After fifteen years in prison, she was finally free.