Page 94 of Runaway Magic
“It’s nice to see you guys,” Sterling grabbed Adelle’s arm and turned her back the way she’d come, “But for now, it’s time to run!”
Fourteen stood his ground and blocked the way. “Where. Is. Cym?” He gripped the poleaxe so tightly he heard the leather of his glove creak.
“Safe in the forest. Now go!”
Fourteen complied.
As one, the team raced back the way they came, quickly catching up with the fleeing witches in front of them. Fourteen was fairly certain he saw the building ripple around him as he ran.
“Not that I don’t love a good run, but might I inquire—?” Jack attempted.
“No!”
They reached the front door only to come up against a bottleneck as several witches tried to force their way through one small door.
“This wouldn’t have happened at the old house,” Sterling said with a touch of hysteria, shifting his weight anxiously from foot to foot. “Hester couldn’t have spent a few more dollars on a set of double doors?”
The walls rippled again, and this time, Fourteen felt something in his body ripple too.
Yanking a slender, prepubescent boy out of the doorway to make enough room for an old man and a rotund woman to fit through, Jack asked, “Sterling, what did you…? Oh no. Seriously? Tell me you didn’t.” He chucked the young boy through the opening as soon as it was clear.
“The entire upper floor was full of monsters, and I was out of magic!” Sterling shouted as he dove through the door.
Fourteen was at his heels rather than bringing up the rear. This wasn’t his mission and these weren’t his clients. Fourteen was under no obligation to get anyone here to safety.
Fourteen turned at the bottom of the steps to see Jack toss Adelle out the door and jump after her. The entire house blinked out of existence seconds after Jack’s feet left the concrete. The only thing left was a hole where the foundation used to be.
“What the hell?” Fourteen thought he was past being surprised by the magical world, but apparently not.
“Astin had us trapped in a room upstairs… He… he wasn’t Astin anymore!” Sterling shuddered and hugged himself. “Alex cut a hole in the floor—he has a carpentry gift—and we ended up in the infirmary. They were going to catch us. Astin was already coming through the hole we made. There were so many of them,and they had something horrible with them.” Sterling choked as he tried not to cry.
Adelle put her arms around the boy and crooned, “It’s okay, you saved everyone, it’s okay.”
“There was a crate full of crystal boxes that hadn’t been unpacked.”
Jack’s face was grave as he nodded as if in confirmation to himself.
“So, I threw it to the ground and smashed everything inside and ran. I was hoping for a distraction…” Sterling buried his face in his arms and shivered. Adelle tightened her arms around him and stroked his hair.
Jack whistled. “That would do it. That much magic blending together and refracting off the crystal… My guess is the buildup of all that undirected power took everything it was touching back to the Source.”
“Can we get them back?” Sterling asked, sounding much younger than his sixteen years.
Jack’s kind face creased in sadness. “I’ll check when we get out of this, but…”
Adelle kicked him.
“There’s certainly a chance of it.” Jack finished lamely.
“My condolences on you killing half of your family, kid. Can we find Cym now?” Fourteen snapped. His patience was a thing of the past.
The look Adelle threw him was pure anger, and Fourteen didn’t give a single shit. Maybe he would have been more concerned if he’d seen orange magic flare up inside her, but her anger wasn’t a threat, merely an emotion.
Fourteen wasn’t an expert on those, but he knew enough to know that they were only a danger if the wielder allowed it.
Instead of backing down, Fourteen allowed the cold inside him to show through his eyes. The fewer Blaikes he had todeal with, the better. Hadn’t he just proved that in the alley? If something inside him writhed at the thought, he chose to ignore it.
Adelle met his gaze head on, and her anger vanished. A mask of calm settled over her face, and Fourteen wondered if she had a similar cold place inside her to help control her emotions like he did.
