Fatal Circle

“They all have collars,” I said. Links of chain dangled from each.

“It was bad enough the fey stole them from us,” Menessos growled, “but so much worse for such enchanted creatures to be enslaved.”

Fax Torris fell onto the back of a phoenix, her flaming wings making the bird even more regal. With a flick of her hand, the collar twisted—the bird reacted with a cry of pain and its long wings stuttered in their motion. The chain slapped into Fax Torris’s palm, and the bird flew around the others, as if coming to the front of the horde.

“She’s controlling them with those collars.” My eyes searched the beach for Joh

That was when I saw the witches.

Brooms rocketing in from the west, maybe twenty-five in all.

“Do you know if Xerxadrea’s body has been identified yet?”

“What?” Menessos asked sharply.

I pointed to the fast-approaching women, wands at the ready. “Are they coming to our aid or to do more damage?”

The waerewolves noticed the threat of magic zooming in on them. I knew by the uneasy voices calling for Joh

He stopped a dozen yards away, shouting, “Do they know waeres are down here?”

“I don’t know,” I answered.

“What about those creatures? They’re magic, too, aren’t they?”

I nodded.

Menessos called to him, “You know what you must do, Domn Lup.”

Joh

Joh

I reached for Menessos. “Can the Beholders get the collars off those elementals?”

“Good thinking.”

Joh

Long pikes would have been better weapons against them, not that I wanted to see unicorns die.

The witches hovered beside us, in formation. Vilna-Daluca sat at their lead. The four members of the lucusi that I had already met were all with her, and nearly two dozen more. “It doesn’t appear the two of you are alone or that you intend to deliver the vampire as WEC commanded.”

“We tried that,” I said. “Apparently there are plenty of sneaky people who thought that was a bad idea.”

“Riiiight.” Vilna winked.

“Your wands-at-the-ready scared off half the waerewolves,” Menessos added.

“I think we can handle this.”

“Where’s Xerxadrea?” he pressed.

It was a good cover move. I hadn’t thought of it.

Vilna’s features flickered with worry, but she covered instantly. “She’s too old for a fight like this. She sends her blessings.”

The unicorns were nearly to the shore. Fax Torris and her phoenix were coming up fast on the outside. These beautiful creatures had served to guard our circles, in spirit form, for decades. Fighting them was so wrong.

Vilna-Daluca nodded. “Witches!” she called. The hair on the nape of my neck rose as they called on the power of the ley and it answered. The crystal tips of their wands flared to life and settled into a subtle glow. Vilna raised her arm to signal.

“Remove the collars,” I shouted to her.

She paused, considering this, then nodded.

Before she could complete the gesture that would send the witches against the elementals, however, I saw a black wolf race along the beach and leap at the phoenix carrying Fax Torris.

The witches flew past our heads, but I didn’t care what they did now. I could not look away from the wolf.

Fax Torris wrenched the phoenix’s chain and leaned back hard. Her wings fa

While the avian’s claws were not as long and sharp as those of a griffon, they were dangerous nonetheless. They raked across the wolf’s chest. His teeth sank into the phoenix’s neck. The fairy’s wings beat furiously, dragging them farther out over the water. Then the wolf yanked the phoenix’s neck to the side, snapping it. All three fell into the water, disappearing beneath the surface.

“Joh

Menessos shouted, “You must stay! You have to shut the gateway!”

Damn it!

I held my breath, shifting my weight, as the seconds ticked past. I scrutinized the water where they had plummeted. They’d been down too long without surfacing for air. Maybe they’d struggled away from where they went under and I didn’t see them come up.

With the melee raging before and around me, there was too much to see. When I watched something to the left, I missed something happening on the right. My gaze constantly returned to the water, sca

Witches thrust bursts of ley energy from their wands—bolts like glowing bullets of white and magenta. As the bursts struck the unicorns, shrill neighs pierced the air. Two bolts in quick succession struck the collar of the unicorn centermost in the charging front line. The collar fell away. The beast immediately shifted its path to our right, pushing the animals down the line veering that way as well. The second row followed them.

The other half of the front line, however, stayed true to their course.

The Beholders held their ground.

Even as the witches tried desperately to make double strikes on the magic collars, not all of their bolts hit their marks. When they succeeded, the unicorns fell out of attack mode. Those that missed, though, seemed only to enrage the animals and they charged onward more furiously. Beholders were run through, lifted, and tossed to the air. Spiraled horns once flecked with gold came free smeared with blood. Hooves pounded . . . until an iron weapon rammed through a chest and white fur was stained red with blood.

Someone shouted, “Just touch the collars with iron! They fall free!”

In seconds, a handful of the freed unicorns had formed a line before us, rearing and neighing, flailing their hooves as if to ward off the other elementals. Huge dragons slithered ashore roaring and snapping, obliterating Beholders and unicorns—collared and uncollared alike. Griffons and phoenixes engaged the witches in aerial acrobatics. Wands flashed; scintillating specks of flame fell and caught broom thatch.

And over all the noise, I heard a crackling laugh.

Fax Torris stood at water’s edge. She dragged Joh

My heart froze, hard and heavy, a block of ice in my chest. I jerked the dagger from my sleeve. I turned to Menessos. “Call her!”

He shook his head. “Lucrum’s death, the Beholders’ deaths. I haven’t the strength.”

Trembling with rage, I took his chin roughly in my free hand. “Say the fucking words!” I shouted even as I shoved energy at him.

He recoiled from me before I could transfer it, throwing himself backward to the sand. “You must not!”

“Fax must die!”

“You have to shut the gateway! You need your energy to do that!”