Of course they were fiercer than Le Poing Fermé. Otherwise, Ruelle Thibodaux and his cronies would’ve marched through the Basilica di Magia’s front doors themselves. Instead, they’d blackmailed me into doing it. They hadn’t wanted to risk making an open move against the Council. However, manipulating a young woman, albeit a powerful one, must have seemed more manageable. Plus, Le Poing Fermé could claim my throne and me as spoils for the victor.
But oh, how Le Poing Fermé had underestimated me. It wasn’t their first time, either, but it would be their last.
Grandfather, have you ever heard that old wives’ tale about mixing two fire ant colonies together?
The one that says they fight each other to the death, and both colonies are destroyed? he asked.
What if, instead of ant colonies, it’s two Magical cabals?
Your machinations would make Hannah Schulze proud, my dear.
I grinned. Perhaps during my time with her, a bit of her, um, talent rubbed off on me.
***
The Magicians and sailors aboard the Council’s ship must have worked ferociously to keep us in their sights, but we maintained our lead. Our pursuers appeared as little more than a pinprick of shadow on the horizon when we finally reached Inselgrau in the early evening, slightly ahead of schedule. The dark silhouette of her coastline loomed before us, and I gasped a breath of awe and reverence.
Home.
Until I saw those familiar shores, I hadn’t quite allowed myself to believe I’d ever make it back.
Don’t relax yet, Grandfather said. The hardest part is yet to come.
We raced onward, following the shoreline, heading north while the sun slowly descended.
“I can’t hold out much longer,” I said, letting Jackie think I’d burned most of powers away in my efforts to hurry us to Inselgrau. Although my body sagged with exhaustion, the Velox’s crew had remained faithful, keeping my wellspring relatively full. There was still plenty of fight left in me, but Jackie didn’t need to know that. “I’ve got to take a break.”
He signaled to Clarice. She nodded and banged on the boiler’s exhaust pipes. I eased my hold on the winds while, down in the hold, Leo and Mariana started shoveling coal into the boiler. The paddlewheel churned, beating against the water in time with the rhythm of my anxious heartbeat.
Soon after, the sun extinguished itself in the Antellic Ocean. Night bled through the sky like an ink drop on a wet page, and the thickening darkness camouflaged the Council’s ship. Jackie swiped his hand through the air, executing a spell similar to the one Brigette had used to peer through the darkness the night we stormed the Basilica di Magia.
“Can you see them?” Clarice asked.
“They’ll be gaining on us now that we’ve slowed,” Jackie said.
“Ambrose says another hour, at least, until we reach your rendezvous point. Think we can outrun them?”
Jackie tensed. “Looks like they aren’t going to give us that option.”
I followed his gaze and spotted a blazing fireball, like a shooting star, zooming through the sky. It arched over the water, a fiery arrow following a parabolic arc that would likely end somewhere near our ship, if not directly in the middle of it. He raised his chin and swiped his hand in a broad arc, as if wiping fog from a large window.
The air thickened. The edges of my peripheral vision sparkled. The hairs on my arms rose. “What’s happening?”
He offered no answer. Instead, he gritted his teeth as his gaze narrowed, locked on the comet hurtling toward us. Moments before impact, it exploded like an egg thrown against a window. Fire spewed across Jackie’s invisible shield. His barrier shivered, dim waves of pearlescent light rippling outward, dispersing the firebomb’s energy into the atmosphere.
The night fell still, dark, and silent again.
“What in the Shadowlands was that?” Clarice demanded.
“A test,” Jackie said. “Perhaps a warning.”
Three more glowing comets—this time green, violet, and gold—soared from the Council’s ship, flying fast enough to leave trailing streaks of light.
“That’s no warning,” I said.
Jackie braced himself for impact. Out of curiosity, I reached for the sky and shoved two giant copses of clouds toward each other. They crashed together, discharging a brutal crack of thunder and a ragged lightning bolt. I grabbed the bolt and hurled it in the comets’ paths.
With a horrendous screech, the lightning collided against the green and violet orbs, spraying drops of molten light over the water, raising plumes of sizzling steam.
“Well, wasn’t that interesting?” I said as the third, golden orb crashed into Jackie’s shield and melted away.
“Interesting indeed,” he said. “You didn’t know that would happen?”
I clamped my mouth shut, not willing to admit what I did and didn’t know about my own abilities. Before he could press me for an answer, another volley of lights screamed toward us. A terrible shadow chased the orbs, growing taller and wider as it raced toward us like a speeding mountain.
Clarice yelped. “Is that a—”
“A wave!” I shouted as sudden and violent surges rocked our ship. “Everyone hold tight.”
I whipped up a torrent of winds, a battering ram of angry air. The wave and winds met like two bulls butting heads, forming an instant and monstrous waterspout that swallowed the Magicians’ orbs. Turbulence rocked the Velox, throwing us all to the deck.
The ship’s timbers groaned. Rain pelted us. The sails whipped and snapped.
I pushed myself up, fighting to recover my balance. Jackie stumbled to his feet as I latched onto the cyclone with my thoughts and tore at its bindings. It flew apart in a blast of wind and water and disappeared.
“You might be exhausted, Evie, but they’ll catch us if you don’t do something.”
I squinted at him. “Sure, expect me to bleed out all my energy so I’ll be too weak to defend myself when we get to Fallstaff.”
“That wasn’t what I—”
“Stop lying, Jackie,” I said in a bored tone. “If you don’t want the Council to catch us, maybe you should do something about it.”
His face screwed into a sour expression. Before I could react, he threw his arms around me and shouted a harsh word. The world spun like a top. Then, as if losing momentum, it slowed and stopped. I swayed drunkenly, clutching my head. When my vision stabilized, I blinked. Other than catching a nasty case of vertigo, nothing appeared to have changed. We remained on the Velox’s deck. Jackie gave me a dumfounded look.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“We should’ve been transported to shore, at the rendezvous point.”
“I thought you didn’t want to waste your Magical energy on such things.”
“It wouldn’t take much, now that we’re so close.”
“Then what happened?” I tried for an innocent expression, but I’d always been a terrible liar. I suspected Brigette’s charm had worked to prevent Jackie from using his Magic on me.
He narrowed his eyes, his expression full of suspicion. “Perhaps you could tell me.”
“How should I know?”
