“If we let them walk, they’re going to level the city.”
Kami moaned in exasperation. “Why do we always have to make the tough decisions? Just once can’t we be deciding between a chocolate or a powdered doughnut?”
I brandished my axe. “That will never happen. You know I’d go straight for the chocolate one.”
“Fair enough.”
Briar opened her mouth and roared. The ferocious sound made the hair on my arms stand on end. Even Callan paused to identify the source of the monstrous noise. Her magical armor melded with the night and a seven-foot-tall bear stood in its place. A nightmare covered in coarse, black fur. She dropped to all fours and ran toward the approaching monsters with surprising speed.
Stevie sliced through the darkness, a sliver of metal glinting as she ran toward the circle. She was going for the stone. As a water witch, there was a chance she could control it, although I had every confidence the circle was warded.
Stevie reached the circle and blew backward as though flung across the clearing by an invisible giant. She landed on her back and skidded across the ground.
“I think it’s warded,” Kami yelled.
“You think?” Stevie rolled to her feet.
I turned away from the stone. A line of metal monsters pounded the ground as they approached the clearing. Two and three stories tall, they lumbered toward us and flattened everything in their path.
In that moment, Callan demonstrated how he’d earned his nickname. The Lord of Shadows peeled away from the darkness and revealed himself. I’d known he was with us, yet I’d momentarily forgotten. He lurched forward with his fangs on display. He was stealth and steel combined. Hard muscle and metal. I had to admit, he did my sword justice.
Part of me wanted nothing more than to watch him tear the monsters apart. I watched as he lifted the hunk of metal over his head, his muscles bulging, and used his head as a blunt instrument against an attacking tree. Holy hellfire. The way he fought. Precision. Power. The Highland Reckoning had it all.
In the circle, the stone glowed with a pale yellow light. Where was Dashiell?
“London!” Kami screamed. A sound I rarely heard and not one I welcomed.
One of the smaller metal monsters was standing on her torso and crushing her.
Fire. I had access to fire. The monsters weren’t made from Damascus steel. They were cobbled together from regular steel.
I whirled my hands in the air until they sparked with flames. I formed a ball the size of a cantaloupe and launched it at the monster’s leg. It responded by lifting the leg and Kami rolled to the side. Briar Bear attacked the monster from behind. She wrapped her furry arms around the monster and squeezed until the monster fell apart. Pieces of metal dropped to the ground and scattered.
I hurried over to check on Kami.
She pulled herself to a seated position. “I’m okay. I’ll heal.”
Kami would say that if she were neck-deep in lava. Then again, so would I. We were cut from the same cloth of unhealthy independence.
“Can you control Dashiell?” I asked. “Reach for his mind. If you control him, you control the stone and all the monsters.”
My mind control magic was limited to animals and it wasn’t so much control as conversion. I won them over, whereas Kami locked on to a mind and controlled it until she decided to let it go. Then it reverted back to its owner.
Kami’s face strained. “I sense it, but it’s weak. I don’t think he’s close enough.”
I shuddered as I pictured an army of metal monsters marching to take over the city. “We have to stop him.”
Kami’s blue eyes shone with sympathy. “Would it be such a bad thing if a druid used the stone to overthrow the vampires?”
I searched the murky clearing for Callan but couldn’t pinpoint him. “We’d only be trading one master for another.” The colonists didn’t chuck tea into the Boston Harbor so they could be ruled over by the Cossacks. They wanted self-determination and they fought until they got it. One day we’d have to do the same.
But not this day.
Neera ran over, nearly out of breath. “Why is he the only one able to control the elemental magic from the stone? We’re elemental witches and the stone is right there. Shouldn’t we be able to harness some of it?”
Not when it was shielded by a ward of the druid’s creation. Dashiell was smart. He didn’t create the ward to just protect the stone physically. He created it for control. He wanted to prevent other magic users from accessing the stone’s power. It was a failsafe in case we discovered his whereabouts, which we did.
The others couldn’t break the ward of a druid.
But I could.
I had to be careful. If anyone figured out what happened, there would be questions.
Dashiell warded the circle before he’d fully accessed the stone’s power. It shouldn’t be impossible.
All I could do was try.
I spared a glance over my shoulder. Everyone was engaged in battle and there was no sign of Dashiell. Still hiding, you cowardly bastard.
I sprinted toward the circle.
“London, on your left!” Ione yelled.
An arrow whizzed toward me and I ducked. It sailed over my head and nailed its target. The bend of the knee of one of the metal monsters. The leg buckled and down the monster went. She must’ve spelled the arrow.
I kept running.
I reached the circle and stopped before I hit the ward like Stevie. The Elemental Stone sat in the eye of the circle, taunting me. No one was watching me. They were all too busy fighting. There was no time to waste. I used the corner of the axe to prick my finger and let a few drops of blood splatter on the rocks.
I forged a connection to the magic of the ward and pushed. The ward resisted. I pushed harder. I pictured turning a key, a sticky door, and then…