Page 8 of Crimson Skies

Monks shouted in alarm and rushed over to the window where the mage had dropped from sight, no doubt seeking his battered and bloodied body on the sunlit flagstones six stories below. Confusion clouded their faces.

Yuan wasn’t where they’d thought he’d be.

Julia knew better. She unfurled her wings, leapt out of the building through the adjacent window, and shot up into the sky. It took but seconds to scan the labyrinth of pathways across the monastery grounds and find her target.

“He’s headed for the pilgrimage corridor west of the complex!” the angel barked into her mouthpiece.

Yuan was already a thousand feet away and accelerating when she dove and gave chase, the magic he’d used to cushion his fall aiding his escape. He disappeared around the corner of a whitewashed building. A row of colorful prayer wheels covered in ancient scriptures came into view once Julia rounded the edifice. Her eyes widened.

She spread her wings and rocked to a halt in mid-air as she raised a wall of earth.

It deflected the explosive spell bombs flying toward her.

Julia retracted her magic in time to see Yuan glower at her and whirl around, his staff in hand as he resumed his escape. She clenched her jaw and went after him.

This little rat is starting to get on my nerves!

Movement atop the perimeter wall caught her eye.

Adrianne and Bailey dropped down a short distance in front of Yuan, magic dancing over the rune-covered daggers in their hands.

“Stop!” the sorceress yelled.

The mage uttered an unmonklike curse. Cracks snaked across the ground as he unleashed his earth magic. Adrianne and Bailey stumbled. The wizard snatched at the monk’s robe as he shot past them.

Yuan jerked in his hold for an instant before cutting loose with a spell bomb. Bailey scowled as he blocked the attack with defensive magic, the mage’s power shoving him back several feet.

It was all the time Adrianne needed to drop low and sweep Yuan’s legs out from under him.

The mage fell onto his front and cracked his chin on a flagstone. It took a couple of seconds for him to recover. By then Julia was on the ground and they’d surrounded him.

“You fuckers!” Yuan growled. He spat out blood from where he’d bitten his lip and pushed up on his knees. “Who sent you?” He glowered at them. “Was it Ting Yu Peng?!”

Julia lowered her brows. “Do we look like we work for the Chinese mafia?”

“You sure act like it,” Yuan retorted.

He looked pointedly at the trail of devastation in their wake.

“Dude, you realize you’re responsible for most of that, right?” Bailey said dully.

Yuan wiped his mouth and sat on his bottom, a belligerent look on his face. “If you don’t work for the Triad, then who the hell are you and what the fuck do you want with me?”

Adrianne squinted. “How did you even infiltrate this monastery with that foul mouth?”

Yuan gave her a dirty smirk. “I’m a chameleon. I could take on the role of the goddamn Pope if I wanted to.”

Julia eyed the mage guardedly. Yuan wasn’t lying. At the age of twenty-six, he’d already made Interpol and the FBI’s lists of most wanted criminals. Once one of the Hong Kong Triad’s most successful operatives, he’d been on the run from them for going on three years, after a deal he’d negotiated with a major Russian crime syndicate had gone bad.

Except it hadn’t. Yuan had pulled the wool over his masters’ eyes and swindled his gang and the Russians out of a billion dollars.

The only reason he was still alive was because he was a powerful mage.

“So, are you going to tell me why I’m sitting on my butt in the freezing snow?” Yuan asked petulantly.

He glanced at the monks who’d started to gather at either end of the pilgrim walk, guilt dancing in his eyes.

Julia pursed her lips.Guess he isn’t the total jerk he’s making himself out to be. Atropos did say he donated most of the wealth he stole.

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