My swirling magic exploded within me. Despite the cuffs, my power shattered the binding and gag spells like a cannonball flying through a glass wall.

My legs splayed out as though a rubber band holding them had snapped. I jolted into action even though my magic and powers swirled back inside me, drained and weakened from that cataclysmic use of power. But my legs could move even if my magic was once again contained.

The cloud of magic that Clinical Dude had woven was now a crackling tornado. Kaillen still fought Tall Sorcerer, alternating between using demon fire, sorcerer magic, and blurred werewolf speed, but the sorcerer was anything but weak. Even though Kaillen was driving him back, coming at him so fast I could barely see, the sorcerer managed to stay on his feet and kept punching spells at the hunter when he could.

But Kaillen dodged, dipped, and swayed. The expression on his face was twisted with such rage and terrifying ferocity that even I wanted to shrink back, but the sorcerer only bared his teeth at the hunter and hissed in exertion.

Rapid-fire spells shot from Kaillen’s fingertips, but each time his magic collided with the sorcerer’s, a bomb of power detonated, as though their magic cancelled the other’s out.

Kaillen was so consumed with the sorcerer that he didn’t see the cloud of magic Clinical Dude was weaving. It was so large now that I knew as soon as it was unleashed, the hunter would be knocked down despite his tremendous power—and then he would be cuffed.

Scrambling to my feet, I tried again to call upon my magic, but the cuffs still suppressed it. And the colossal power I’d managed to temporarily wield to break through the binding and gag spells had depleted me. I couldn’t do it again, not right away.

So I did the only thing I had left.

Bending over, I ran at Clinical Dude full force, head-butting him right in the gut. He’d been so intent on his whirling magic that he hadn’t seen me coming.

My head collided with his stomach so hard that I saw stars. I stumbled back, but so did he, landing flat on his ass. His eyes burned up at me in surprise, the first emotion I’d seen in him, as his cloud of sinister magic evaporated.

I smirked. Head-butting truly was underrated. “Did your magic not discharge as planned?” I taunted. Even though baiting him wasn’t smart, it achieved what I’d set out to do. Clinical Dude’s focus had left the Fire Wolf. Yep. It was now entirely focused on me.

Problem solved, but oh shit on a brick . . .

Clinical Dude stared up at me, a gleam in his eyes burning so deeply that for a moment, I couldn’t move. There was something so terrifyingly detached about him. As if he weren’t human or didn’t have a shred of humanity left within him. It was as though I looked into the eyes of a cold-blooded alien whose only thoughts and actions were kill, harness, control.

But hopefully not in that order. A shudder ran through me, and I backed up.

“Interesting,” he said quietly, as if sitting on the ground after being head-butted was a totally normal afternoon activity, but since he was talking, I guessed that meant he wasn’t an alien. “I do believe you’re the one I’ve been searching for.”

Oh . . . That did not sound good. But then I registered his accent. It was harsher than the American accent, with a tongue-rolling lilt that perhaps heralded from Eastern Europe.

My jaw dropped. Jakub?

But I wasn’t proficient in accents from Eastern European countries, so I didn’t know for sure.

I took another step back as Kaillen and Tall Sorcerer’s battle continued.

A quiver of excitement rippled through Clinical Dude’s terrifying eyes, a second emotion that I could do without seeing.

Jakub-who-may-not-be-Jakub calmly stood, and when I dipped, bending myself forward so I would be ready to head-butt him again, he swirled his fingers.

A gust of magic punched me in the gut, sending me flying back. I landed on the rough pavement, my arms screaming in agony as they scraped across the asphalt since I was still cuffed and couldn’t move them.

An explosion of magic came from nearby, and I whipped my head around to see a ginormous death curse blazing like a meteor toward Tall Sorcerer. Kaillen’s curse tore through Tall Sorcerer’s shield like a rock thrown through tissue paper. It hit the sorcerer square in the chest, a look of shock rippling across his face just before his chest split wide open.

Tall Sorcerer stumbled to the ground, his mouth opening and closing in death throes from the lethal gaping wound. With a crash, his body splayed across the sidewalk. Blood pooled onto the pavement around him as his head lolled, and then ceased moving. His unseeing eyes stared skyward.

The illusion spell that had shielded all of our activity from any surrounding humans vanished. Kaillen whipped a hand through the air, a new illusion spell appearing in a split second just as he rounded on Maybe-Jakub with murder shining in his eyes.

A hiss came from Maybe-Jakub as I gaped like a fish. “I’ll be back for you,” he said to me in that cold, clinical tone.

Um . . . that definitely didn’t sound good.

I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the searing pain of my scraped flesh, and lunged toward Maybe-Jakub, but he dipped into his sedan. I wasn’t sure how I would stop him or open his car door since my hands were still bound, and the cuffs once again had my magic contained, but if Clinical Dude was actually Jakub then we needed to prevent his escape.

His car revved and shot from the curb, colliding with me in the process. I flew back, and landed so hard on the street that I saw stars.

“Tala!” the hunter called.

New scrapes and cuts ripped through my flesh, and the scent of my blood filled the air. I would have hissed in pain, except I couldn’t breathe. That whole wind being knocked out of me thing.

“Tala!” the hunter called again. In a blurred movement, Kaillen was at my side as Jakub drove away. “Where are you hurt?” he asked tersely. A golden glow, so bright it rivaled the sun, shone behind the raging scarlet fire in Kaillen’s eyes.

“Jakub is—” I coughed because the lingering effects of being struck by a car were still making it hard to breathe, but I managed to suck in another breath and say, “Jakub! That might be him!”

Kaillen’s attention swung to the fleeing vehicle.

“Go. Try to catch him!” I coughed again. “This may be our only chance!”

The hunter’s gaze whipped back to me, his eyes skating over my frame, taking in the bound hands, the numerous injuries, my gushing blood, and my labored breathing. A wild look blazed across his face.

“I can’t leave you. You’re still bound and injured. You’re totally vulnerable. I can’t.” He lifted me in his arms and whipped out his yellow crystal at the same moment.

In a split second, his swirling portal was open before us and then we were leaping through it.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 26

In my next blink, I was back in the cabin in his living room. I lolled in Kaillen’s arms, my head dipping. In two steps, he was at the couch, setting me down gently.

“Go!” I yelled, then coughed again. “Catch him!”

Kaillen’s jaw locked. Fire was rolling through his irises so strongly that all of the natural amber in them had disappeared. And that gold rimming his fiery eyes shone as brightly as the sun. The dude definitely didn’t appear stable right now.

“He’s gone, Tala.”

“But you’re a hunter. Find him!”

His nostrils flared, no doubt scenting the blood running from my body along with the electric magic encircling my wrists. My muscles screamed in agony, and I could only imagine the emotional scents I was giving off, but if that was Jakub, we needed to catch him. Now. This could literally be our only chance.