Page 32 of Ravenous Prophecy
Enchanters used all sorts of rare and bizarre ingredients to imbue normal objects with great power, allowing evennonmagical folk to trigger spectacular effects. Looking back on mystical traditions and what little I knew of the art, reagents could include precious metals, powdered gemstones, or the dried petals of extinct flowers.
Williams had demanded the use of a reagent so magically significant because of its very brutality. The blood of innocents. Sometimes, or perhaps too often, the arcane and the profane went together too well.
“He’s telling the truth,” I said, hating the idea of leaving the showroom without slugging Kane in the mouth. “He doesn’t know what he’s done. Let’s go.”
“Not yet, Gallows,” Julian growled. “Have you suddenly forgotten how to finish your work? He knows where the trail leads. Chain of production, man. Someone has to pick up where he left off.”
Kane backed away, his hammer held firmly in one hand, though he didn’t seem very keen to use it. “I swear, I don’t know what this is about. My assistants come in to help me pack the helmets in crates. That’s it. Then we set them on pallets until Mr. Williams’s people come by to pick them up.”
Elaine glanced around, staring at the windows embedded in the high ceiling. Bradley frowned, following her gaze. She pressed a finger against her lips, then clenched the fingers of her other hand, gathering a surge of magic into her fist.
“Mr. Williams’s people,” she whispered. “They’re here.”
CHAPTER 12
BRADLEY
Elaine let loosea stream of pure power, one of her less finessed spells, one that was more like shooting a flare into an oncoming crowd. Unfortunately for all of us, it had the exact same effect as a flare.
It went off brilliantly, illuminating the men who were perched on various beams like birds. A few still crept in through the massive windows near the ceiling that I assumed were for exhaust. I gasped sharply. By my sight, there were at least twenty men.
Twenty against five. I wasn’t sure why I’d assumed that any of this would be fair, why I’d thought… well.
When Elaine’s magic faded, the afterglow in my eyes blinded me, the regular light of the room—forge, electric lights—dim in comparison.
“What are they—” I had planned to finish the sentencedoing up there? But before I could, they were on us. As my eyes adjusted, all I could do was feel. Something slammed into me, and at first I resisted, trying to scrabble with it, butthen I recognized the scent, my eyes finally clearing. “Griffin.”
Around us, the men attacked in sweeping motions, their weapons ranging from swords to machine guns.
“Stay here,” he said, putting me behind one of the horrendous metal sculptures. Then he was back into the melee. I shouldn't have been surprised that he thought I was like a child who needed to be tucked away. After all, my single experience with combat was trying not to hurt anyone too badly at the oracles’ camp.
The men had circled Julian, their automatic weapons looking even more lethal when compared to his sheathed sword. Julian nodded his head at his first opponent.
“Drop the weapon,” the other man said.
“You took the words right out of my mouth,” Julian replied. “Drop ’em, walk away, and we don’t need to have any more conflict, you and I.”
Williams’s man didn’t take the suggestion. Raising his gun to his shoulder, he snarled, “Drop the sword.”
There was a brilliant flash, almost as bright as Elaine’s flare, and then the man was left holding half a gun, the rest on the floor. Julian had sliced it in half, right up to the man’s grip. For a second, his eyes went wide, but then he looked around. “Fire!”
Standing in a circle, the other men hesitated, glancing between one another, some of them no doubt measuring the realization that shooting into the circle meant shooting toward each other. That was the only hesitation Julian needed. With another brilliant flash of light, a slash of his sword, each of the men was left gawking at the half of theweapons they still held, then down at the presumably expensive parts left in fragments on the floor.
For a moment, I was sure that was the end of it. We won. Julian would simply destroy everyone’s weapons and then…
And then Elaine released fire, the spell that hit hard and didn’t take prisoners, and I knew that we weren’t even nearly at the end of this. Elaine was a controlled magic user, a delicate touch with magic, someone who only used just enough force, anartist.
“No!” she screamed, and I didn’t care what I was running into, I pushed myself away from my hiding place and threw myself into the battle. Dodging around Julian and his sword, now facing off against the guards who were wielding their destroyed weapons as clubs, I caught a glimpse of Griffin, his fists swinging, his motions poetry as he danced through a crowd of men all better armed and better protected than him.
Three men stood clumped together, swearing, heads jerking back and forth. “Where is she?”
“There!” One raised his weapon, but then his face slammed to the side, an invisible punch throwing him off balance.
He went down, taking his partner with him, and I didn’t see what happened to the third. Brigette could do what she wanted with him as far as I cared.
Elaine stood just beyond the men currently caught at the mercy of a librarian who didn’t like them talking in the stacks. Her hands clenched at her sides, swirls of magic trailing over her arms and up to her elbows, and shescreamed again, so loud that I raised my hands to my ears before I caught sight of her eyes.
Red. Red and covered in lenses, and I whispered, “No.”
