Page 83 of Wicked Enemy

“Right flank, take out the group on the roof to the right,” I said. “I’ll handle the one on the left. The rest of you, focus on the street.”

“Yes, sir.”

I swept my gaze across the mass of people marching down the street.Fuck. The gang leaders weren’t at the head of the army. They were probably going to get their people to kill off as many of us as possible before they decided to show their faces.

That should have been a good thing. After all, they were the most powerful mages in the entire army. However, this time, I needed them to be at the front because I didn’t want to fight. I wanted to make a deal.

“All of you,” I told my people, my voice pulsing with command. “Your first priority is to stay alive.”

Surprise flickered through the crowd around me.

“Try to kill as many of them as you can,” I continued. “But focus most of your energy on trying not to die. I have a plan, but we need to draw out the gang leaders before I can execute it. And I will be very dissatisfied with you if you dare to die before then.”

“Yes, sir,” they replied as one.

“What’s the plan, sir?” Tyler asked from my left.

Keeping my eyes on the advancing armies, I said nothing.

Tyler dipped his chin and amended it to, “Yes, sir.”

I drew in a deep breath of air that still smelled of rain and early fall.

Then magic exploded across the street.

Trusting my people to block the attacks from the front, I turned my attention to the group advancing across the rooftop on my left. They had almost reached the spot I knew they were aiming for, so I summoned my magic and sent it flowing into the metal building.

Orange flames crashed into a wind shield up ahead, sending waves of warm air washing over me. But I kept my eyes on the people atop the roof. Just a little more.

They formed a line at the edge of the roof, and then slammed their palms together.

I yanked with my magic.

The roof was made of metal, just like every single building on this street, so when I pulled with my magic, the spot they had been standing on vanished.

Even from this distance, I could see the looks of shock and confusion and utter disbelief on their faces as the roof underneath them disappeared and they plummeted towards the ground below.

Cries of panic rang out, and some wind mages on the street threw blasts of air to break their fall. But there were too many of them falling at the same time. Some were saved by the gusts of wind, but the majority of them crashed into the stone ground with sickeningly wet crunching sounds.

I whipped my head towards the group on the right, hoping that I could pull the same trick on them. But just as I had suspected, the moment they had seen what happened to their companions, they had spread out so that they were no longer standing all in one spot. And they had also moved away from the edge of the roof. If I moved the metal now, they would fall right into the building where my domestic staff were hiding, and I couldn’t risk that.

Growling an annoyed curse, I shifted my attention back to the battle ahead instead. At least one of the threats was neutralized. I scanned the mages hurling magic at us from the front lines. Still no sign of the gang leaders.

Well, I supposed we would just have to kill even more of them then.

But with every minute that passed, I saw that thought for the useless bluster it was. My people fought incredibly well, and I was using every advantage I had from being surrounded by metal buildings, but we were severely outnumbered and the battle reflected that.

It was a miracle that only three of my people were dead so far, because attack after attack kept slipping through our defenses. But there was nothing we could do about it. For every person we had shielding us, they had three more shooting attacks.

Sweat ran down my spine as I yanked up walls to block a combined attack of wind and lightning, only to miss the shadows that streaked past beside it. Shinji burned them off with a torrent of orange flames, but a mere second later, another attack shot towards us.

Lights flashed and booms echoed across the city as magic collided.

And with every second, we were losing ground.

It was only a matter of time before we were overrun.

Panic tore through my chest as I frantically searched for the gang leaders. If they didn’t show up soon, it would be too late to make any deals.

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