Kevin forced worry for the wolves and fear for himself and Lori and Shaine into the back of his mind, and activated his shields, gold and white and sunset-red. The world had narrowed considerably as the sun vanished and the sky darkened; he had the solid presence of the shields in the walls to orient himself against, but otherwise, everything was a grey and black blur. Except the three exhausted demon-wolves—moonsilver and shadow with hints of amethyst or sapphire or garnet, or slightly too-cool heat-images, depending on which sight he used—and Lori who was just raising her familiar summer-green and tawny-gold shields, clearly visible in their light, and the Lucian mage, who at some point had raised his own, crimson and saffron and demon-coloured.
At least he'd be able to see anything created by elven magic, when it came, and it helped to know that the Lucian mage—what was his name again? Patrick?—was probably no better able to see than he and Lori were.
“Will you die happy knowing that your pet wolves are safe?”
Kevin shrugged. “If I have to die, it may as well be for a good cause. They aren't, however, safe from you yet.” Lori moved closer to him, slid her hand into his, warm and steady. Shields shivered where they touched, then melded together into a single whole without difficulty.
“You're smarter than you look. Not that it will help you.”
Kevin smiled. “We'll do our best to make it interesting for you.” May your life be interesting... And it will be. If you only knew what's waiting just inside the walls...
Brigid, Lady, be with us... by Brigid and Lugh, by the Moonwolf and the Horned God, by... oh, Tiamat and Poseidon, maybe... let us get through this!
“Count on it,” Lori muttered. “So. Since we challenged you, that would give you the right to begin.”
The demon-mage gestured, and the stars fell.
It felt like it, anyway: countless tiny silvery lights rained down over them. They slid off the shields, but each left a dark streak in the shimmer, eating at it. One got through, began to burrow into his arm like a live thing; Kevin gritted his teeth, held very still, trying to ignore the increasing pain. It had to be an illusion, his shields would have put up more of a fight against anything directly dangerous. All he had to do was disbelieve it. Another made it through, hit his shoulder, and burrowed in as well, and he heard Lori's breath hiss between her teeth.
*Illusion,* she said.
*I think so.*
*I know so.* Her tone left no room at all for doubt.
This isn't real. It's only illusion. Don't believe it and it'll end and you can get on to the next round.
A sensation that made his stomach twist, of something inside his arm and crawling along the bone, both of them working their way towards his pounding heart.
Please, Brigid, let them be illusion...
Agony shuddered along every nerve... and the pain stopped, the crawling sensations fading away.
Patrick's eyebrows rose. “I was right. You do have an incredible amount of nerve.”
“I've heard that one before.” He had a brief exchange with Lori, too fast for either to bother formulating thoughts into words, and together they wove will and moonlight into a winged serpent of green and gold and white, and sent it at Patrick. It coiled around the other's shields, but could go no further.
Patrick gestured scornfully at it, plainly expecting it to dissipate.
It didn't; it grew.
Patrick paused, re-evaluating, and threw another attack at it. Again the serpent absorbed it.
“A pretty trick,” he commented. He cast something different, Kevin thought it was actually negative energy, probably drawn from his demons, and the winged serpent cancelled out.
Too bad; he was rather pleased with that particular invention, adapted from something Shaine had shown them.
Mage-fights are so civilized. Not like wolf-fights. You take turns and you can even chat in the middle...
I'd give a lot for something as straightforward as a wolf-fight right now!
Moonlight gathered, shaped itself into a massive saffron and crimson dragon, all horns and spikes. The whip-thin tail lashed towards them, slid off their shields, but left a darker streak where it had gouged them. Lori poured energy into fixing it, while Kevin created his phoenix, hovering in the air above him, all the colours of the sun at dawn and noon and dusk. He sent it spiralling higher, had it stoop towards the dragon's eyes, diamond talons extended. Sensory input doubled; he closed his eyes, concentrating purely on what the phoenix could see, rather than trying to analyse two different images.
The dragon turned its head upwards, orienting on the phoenix, and launched itself heavily into the air. The phoenix was less than half its size, but intensely brighter, dancing fast and agile around the dragon.
Lori's green-eyed tawny lioness lunged upwards at the dragon from beneath, claws and fangs of emerald tearing gaping wounds in the dragon's belly, wounds that bled moonlight.
Patrick snarled something Kevin couldn't make out, and the dragon folded its wings; the lioness barely got out from under it before it landed. The ruby talons of the rear feet dug themselves deep into the ground, and the tail slashed at the lioness, even as the gaping jaws snapped at the phoenix. Kevin pulled it back out of reach, losing only a few fiery feathers in the process; the lioness crouched, and leaped over the tail just before it reached her, going straight for the dragon's throat. Through phoenix eyes, he caught a glimpse of himself and Lori, hands still linked, his own eyes closed, but Lori's green eyes were open, watching both ways at once, her expression alert and fiercely focused.
Maybe we should've warned him that Lori's beaten almost every mage in Haven and some from elsewhere at this game. Me included. And we've won as partners before.
Usually, though, it was only a game, a way of refining one's skills and using one's wits and imagination.
The lioness' emerald fangs tore a long gash down the dragon's throat, though she failed to get a grip on it. More moonlight bled away, the dragon's colours beginning to dim.
Kevin sent the phoenix down again, into a dive directly at the dragon's eyes, while it was clawing and lashing and snapping at the lioness. Diamond talons struck, raked across one eye, and it looped up and over the dragon's wide forehead and spiky crest to drive its talons deep into the other eye.
Patrick let out a cry of rage; Kevin wondered briefly who Irina was and why Patrick was cursing her, but getting distracted would be bad. For example, Patrick had just gotten distracted, and the lioness had caught the tail-whip in her teeth and chewed it off.
Phoenix and lioness tore ruthlessly into the dragon, making more and more wounds to bleed light away, but Patrick dissolved it back into nothing.
Lioness and phoenix melted away, as well.
* * *
Hidden by shadows, Shaine ghosted out the gate, intent on the mage-battle in front of him. Kevin and Lori appeared to be doing well, but that would only last for so long.
The thought flitted through his mind that he could stand back and wait, let the demon-mage exhaust himself on the two elvenmages, then Shaine could step in... He banished that idea. In the last few days, despite his best efforts, he'd learned far too much respect for the pair, and not solely in magic. He couldn't do that. Besides, Jess would never forgive him.
Now would be a good time, he decided, and threw darkness over the entire area, singing as softly as he could.
He was unhindered, used to the perpetual night at the bottom of the lake; he used other senses to make his way to the cousins and slip himself between them, holding one hand of each—they'd be better able to protect him from the fire-based attacks to which he had little resistance. Kevin's hand tightened, told him gratitude more clearly than words; Lori, always the calmer of the two, was shaking just a little, and gripped his hand with enough force for discomfort.
The demon-mage was drawing power from elsewhere, calling light, cancelled by the darkness; elves being what they were, Kevin had told him wryly, little except extreme cold was more uncomfortable than absence of light, and not even a demon-mage was going to be able to ignore that. The other mage's light began to brighten the blackness towards grey. Kevin's power surged, and Lori's right behind it, backing Shaine's, and the darkness steadied again.
Slowly, the demon-mage won, even against all three of them, and the blackness dissolved. Shaine let go of the song, not wasting effort on it any further.
The mage did not look impressed. He glared at them, then took a closer look at Shaine and the frown deepened. “You again.”
Shaine gave him a charming smile. “Me again. Just thought maybe I could even up the odds a little.”
“Just as well. You're as much of an annoyance as this other whelp.”
“Oh, come on, now. I'm much more annoying than Kevin.”
The mage flung pure fire at them, and it wrapped itself in a spiral around them, drawing ever tighter; he could feel the scorching heat, and cringed inwardly. The fire reached the boundaries of the glowing shields, and could go no farther. He gathered himself to throw the cold of the depths of the lake at it.
“It's illusion,” Kevin murmured. “Don't counter it. Ignore it.”
“Like you can ignore total darkness?” Shaine retorted, but he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. All he could do was believe Kevin, that the heat couldn't really hurt him, that the grass around them wasn't burning.
“Try,” Lori said softly. “We wouldn't let it touch you even if it were real, I promise.”
* * *
This illusion had to be meant to frighten Shaine; simple fire, even mage-fire, couldn't frighten another elvenmage. At least Shaine trusted them enough to not waste power on it, but the meren's hand was clenched hard around his—it was successfully scaring him, anyway.
The illusion-fire melted away, and Shaine relaxed.
“Do your stuff,” Lori said quietly.
Kevin felt Shaine reach for power, gave it readily, felt the intense concentration as the meren shaped it and began to sing. The same channel that allowed them to share power gave him and Lori access to other things, and to this Shaine had already consented while they were planning: mereni senses being infinitely better suited to a night battle than elven, he borrowed Shaine's, careful not to touch anything else, though he was aware of Lori doing the same.
Merenai certainly have some odd senses... I'm going to have to ask about some of this stuff later. No wonder darkness doesn't bother him, though.
The lake's surface shuddered, and drew itself together into a formless mass, defying natural laws entirely. Shaine asked more strength, and the water-construct's outline flowed and blurred, became four-footed, two reflected stars settling themselves as eyes, moonlight sparkling through it in odd ways as the internal currents shifted so it seemed to glow from within.
A large wolf, the size of Bane, leaped lightly off the lake onto the shore, yawned to bare teeth of sharp shell, and stalked towards Patrick.
This is a half-trained mereni-mage? Wow! Figure out how to deal with that!
A barrier of raw fire didn't stop the water-wolf; it bounded over it, landed on the far side a trifle smaller. A handful of fire flung at it, it simply danced sideways to avoid and closed in on Patrick again.
Kevin glanced sideways at Shaine, found him gazing fixedly at the water-wolf, every muscle visibly taut, the song never faltering. Concentration held the wolf together, then? Still impressive. He fed him more power, careful not to disturb him.
Patrick wove a ring of fire around the water-wolf, made it too high for the wolf to jump, and constricted it.
Shaine swore softly, and the wolf's form collapsed in on itself, leaving only water seeping into the ground in the centre of the ring.
“That took a lot of energy,” Kevin told him quietly.
“Not just for him.”
“What,” Patrick asked tightly, “are you?”
Shaine laughed mockingly. “You figure it out.”
“The children of water and wind are myths!”
“So are wolves that can kill demons.”
Patrick frowned thoughtfully. “There is that.” He shrugged. “Doesn't matter.”
Moonlight warped itself inside-out and into a gate; two people stepped through, and it closed.
“Hold it,” Moira said frostily. “Kevin's blood is ours.”
Karl bared his teeth in a lupine snarl, a distinctly eerie effect in the light of mageshields and moonlight. “And damned good it's going to taste.”
“Who the hell is that?” Shaine hissed.
“Uh, it's kind of a long story...” Kevin said. This doesn't make any sense! Why would Karl and Moira suddenly be out for my hide? I could see maybe Jess', since he beat Rebecca... I don't get it.
“But we're in deep shit.”
“That about covers it,” Lori agreed. “What is she thinking? She might miss Shaine but she has to have known I'm right here and so is he!”
“That assumes Moira thinks,” Kevin muttered. Okay. Um, any two sides could potentially gang up on the third here and afterwards fight it out between themselves. I don't like this!
Patrick surveyed the situation calmly. “You have a claim on him so strong you're willing to interrupt a duel?”
“We have one coven-mate dead and one badly injured, and it's Kevin's fault!”
“It's what?” Kevin heard his own voice hit a high note in sheer astonishment. “Who'd dead and how am I involved?” Oh gods, don't be dead, Becky, please...
“All right,” Patrick said. “For something so heinous, I'm willing to concede—make your attempt. I'll take whatever's left of him.”
“Don't expect there to be much,” Moira said. “Lori, you can leave if you want, and the other one. It's only Kevin we owe.”
“If I believed you wanted to challenge Kevin one-on-one,” Lori said, “that would be one thing. But I know what you've been doing, and that it isn't one-on-one, so not a chance. If you get to have help, so does Kev. I don't suppose we can talk about this? Who's dead? How? And why are you blaming Kevin?”
Kevin made use of the probably very brief opportunity offered, and took a closer look at the pair with mage-sight. What should have been a smooth interlacing of sparkling thin threads binding each member of Whitethorn to each of the others was a chaotic tangle of frayed and weakened strands—and several ragged ends whipping around like agitated living things in their own right, bleeding bright drops of energy. He hadn't even known that was possible. What could have severed them like that?
Sharing power, especially deliberately and repeatedly, created a bond that could never entirely break. Kevin's with Karl remained, and he used that and their mutual one to Rebecca to triangulate on the red wolf-bitch.
The threads linking her to Whitethorn showed no signs of violence, but they were fading. Either that was a failure to renew it for an extended period, several weeks at least, or there was deliberate will involved, dissociating herself from them. Or both. That was actually more of a relief than it should have been, although it opened up a series of new, if less urgent, questions.
The rest of Whitethorn, however... the strand between Karl and Moira remained strong. The threads to one of the other points in the circle were tattered and badly damaged, oozing small amounts of energy, and the threads connecting the last to them and to Rebecca were the ones that had been torn apart and were leaking noticeably.
He couldn't even imagine how much that had to hurt. To say nothing of the emotional level, and whatever trauma had caused it...
Wordlessly, he shared that with Lori, who had a less ready avenue to track the connections, and Shaine, who knew very little about coven-bonds and hadn't yet entirely worked out the sonic equivalent of seeing them.
*Oh gods,* Lori whispered. *I've never even heard of anything like that. That's not just someone dying.*
*If they're the ones playing with demons,* Shaine said, *then you have an answer already.*
“Avryl...” Moira's voice broke in a sob, then spiralled back into rage. “The demon that killed her explained it all, and it was right. All Avryl wanted was more books. Rebecca leaving us and Avryl dying and Duayne maybe dying, all of it, it's all Kevin's fault, and that damned black wolf of his!”
*Okay, grief, trauma, already unstable,* Kevin said. *Demon gives her a way to see Whitethorn as innocent victims instead of responsible for their own situation. Anyone think it's even worth wondering what kind of logic is behind this? Or that it's worth trying to argue it rationally?*
*No and no,* Lori said sadly. *But I have to try once more anyway.* “Moira,” she said gently. “You're hurting, on a lot of levels. Fighting isn't going to accomplish anything at all, except probably more pain. Please, can we...”
“Shut up,” Karl growled. “Enough talking. Too much talking. This ends. Kevin pays. No more messing with us, ever.”
Moira began to chant—and Kevin cringed, he'd heard those words or similar, all consonants, earlier. They couldn't fight a...
Demon, taking on the form of an ethereally lovely humanoid, slender and silvery-shining and feathery-winged, fairly tall and clad in more feathers.
Shaine jumped and cursed, as something small darted around their feet and paused between them. Kevin looked down, saw the white tip of a tail all but luminescent in the shadows, green eyes reflecting the light of his shields back at him.
“Al...” He bit it off. No point giving her name to the demon. “Get back to Sam! This is no place for a cat!”
Alfari gave him a haughty glance, then padded sedately forward to face the demon.
“Wait,” Lori murmured.
The beautiful thing whimpered, shrank back away from Alfari.
“Kill him,” Moira commanded, pointing directly at Kevin.
Unwillingly, the demon started to edge around Alfari.
One of the demon-wolves rumbled a warning, shifting position to track it.
The demon shifted nervously from one foot to the other. “Please, mistress, some other command...”
“Kill them!” Moira repeated.
Sam had insisted that demons were as variable in temperament and values as the residents of this plane, though bound by conditions that allowed them or forced them to act here. This demon, aside from being undoubtedly lesser, felt very different from the other three earlier.
Maybe it was just an innocent bystander hauled into this? Foolish as he might be, he hoped it wouldn't die here like this.
That it wouldn't? It had just been told to kill him! Its innocence was about to become irrelevant!
“Kill him!” Moira insisted, when the demon still hesitated. Miserably, it came forward, trying to watch Alfari and the demon-wolves all at once.
Alfari simply looked at it, and advanced towards it.
The demon retreated in front of her, and she backed it up against the warded wall. There she sat down, the very picture of composure, her tail curled neatly around her feet, staring at the unfortunate demon; the demon pressed against the wall, stayed quite still.
Way to go Alfari!
Moira spat a curse. “It's just a cat! Kill it and get on with it!”
“Can't, mistress...”
Must really have a word with Sam about these special familiars of hers, just as soon as I live through this.
Lori chuckled; he picked up no surprise at all from her. “Just a cat, huh?”
Maybe my coven ignored me? Now would be a good time for them to have... He reached for the bond with them... was answered by Sonja, the one telepath in the group other than him and Lori.
*Are you done with the macho hero junk now?* she asked.
*Yes! I'll apologize for stupidity later, right now I need lots of power before Moira and Karl turn us into spaghetti!*
*Nice going, get Whitethorn in on things. Catch.* Something shifted, he felt Cynthia's presence and that of the other two witches, Sonja and Sam and Flynn, Deanna the one non-human in the circle, and pure power flowed into him, along the contact with Sonja, along the coven-bond...
Now there's a power-base to work from! Everyone but the wolves and those fool healers! He touched Lori, alerting her, so she could tie herself into it, then together they wove Shaine into the meld; Kevin saw/felt the meren start in surprise.
Moira shrugged. “Hiding behind Samantha's cat isn't going to save you, Kevin.”
“People keep saying things like that to me lately. It seems awfully negative. Nobody ever tells me what will save me.”
“Nothing can.”
“Somehow I had a feeling that was what you meant.” Except that I already know what will save me: having the world's greatest friends.
*Flynn says you need a hand,* Sonja added. *Eva's wanted a viable reason to thump Karl for ages, she's on her way.*
A small pale wolf dashed out the gate so close on Sonja's words it was hard to tell which might have acted first.
An alpha who started a fight with a non-alpha outside her pack was considered a bully. Even if that non-alpha repeatedly made disparaging public comments about the alpha's witch, who suffered from extreme emotional highs and lows, though less so since joining his coven. Getting on her nerves over and over was no excuse, even if other wolves might sympathize somewhat.
An alpha stepping in to defend others against an aggressive wolf of any status was another matter altogether.
Karl spun towards Evaline and she met him with her teeth bared. He was larger than her, but Kevin hadn't the slightest doubt who was going to win.
Moira traced a symbol in the air; fire trailed after each gesture, lingering, leaving the entire thing clearly visible. Kevin didn't have long to look; she finished it, and the unfamiliar symbol flared up. From its heart, where the light was most intense, poured what seemed like countless small glowing winged shapes, all streaking directly at him and Shaine and Lori. Instinctively, he channelled extra power into the shields at the front, only to have the whole flock do ninety-degree turns without slowing at all, over them or to either side. Lori flung a ball of green and tawny fire at one, but the ball was absorbed harmlessly.
Kevin let go of Shaine and spun around, praying the connection was steady enough to hold now without physical contact, reinforcing the shields all around them. It was too confusing, facing different directions: he had to stop using Shaine's senses and concentrate entirely on his own.
One of the small flying things hovered just in front of him, wings buzzing hummingbird fast, the body they supported vaguely weasel-like.
“What the bloody hell is that?”
“I have no fucking idea, you do fire, not me,” Shaine said shortly. Everything blurred, to Kevin's sight, even heat-images distorting; it took him a second to realize it was because Shaine had created an extremely dense foggy barrier around the three of them that seemed to slow and weaken their small attackers. It would at least make the shields last longer, but it wouldn't solve the problem.
“I don't know,” Lori said tightly, “but nothing seems to be working on them.” She tried her lioness avatar, snapped at one, but it dove out of reach with improbable agility.
“I'd say it's a technique from the Maridas' book on elementals,” the Lucian mage said with interest.
“Brace yourselves,” Shaine murmured. “With this kind of volume, I don't have much fine control.” He took a deep breath, and began to sing.
Volume? Uh-oh...
He couldn't see it, but he knew the lake was on the opposite side from the walls, and he knew what Shaine was, which he doubted Moira did. He closed his eyes and concentrated on creating a kind of arced telekinetic barrier between them and the lake—Shaine wouldn't mind getting wet, but he'd personally prefer to avoid it just now, and couldn't imagine Lori would be thrilled with the idea. He heard the sudden disturbance, the shift in the pattern of the waves against the shore.
Lori grabbed more power from the link, poured it into the barrier, adding her will to his.
Moira can't see it any more than I can.
For just a heartbeat, the moonlight was blocked by a huge wave looming over them; then it crashed down. Even prepared, Kevin winced from the noise, the sheer uncontrollable force of it, and Shaine fell silent mid-note.
When Shaine says volume, he's not kidding!
At least the barrier held. Mostly. They'd been caught by no worse than spray. Judging by Moira's venomous swearing, she couldn't say the same.
The wave washed away both Shaine's mist wall and the flock of elementals, and did some serious damage to their primary shields. Kevin let go of the telekinetic one, fed the power back into the main ones, felt Lori doing the same—standing here with minimal shields right now was suicide.
“Sorry,” Shaine said; he sounded a bit out of breath. “Had to do overkill to be sure I got anything useful. It's going to be a minute before I can do anything else.”
“'Sokay. Lori, you've got defence for a minute?”
“Mmhmm.”
Well, let's hope Moira doesn't have any demon protections. He pulled power from the whole group as quickly as he dared, gathering it together. “Hey, Moira, catch!”
She looked up, raised her hands to defend against the rainbow serpent that abruptly coiled around her shields. Much the way Patrick had, she hurled a simple fireball at it, intending to disrupt it.
They'd based this one on Shaine's gifts, too, a refined version of Kevin's instinctive retaliation against Patrick in their first meeting; he'd never heard of getting through a mage's shields like this, but it had worked when they'd tested it—although with lower power levels.
The fireball touched the serpent, and in the instant that a channel remained between it and Moira, the serpent grounded itself through it, intense power abruptly flowing in when she was still oriented on power going out.
She didn't even have time to scream; she crumpled to the sodden ground, motionless. Alive, though given her body temperature it wasn't a given that it would continue. She was, at least, out of the picture for the foreseeable future.
With a sigh, Kevin turned to face the other mage, and felt Lori and Shaine regrouping as well.
“Beautifully done,” Patrick complimented them.
“Thank you,” Kevin said tiredly. How much longer could they hold out, even with the circle behind them? “Can we finish this now?”
*Oh, I think so.*
Wait, that wasn't out loud. That was mindspeech.
How was an enemy using mindspeech during a fight, past all Kevin's defences, without the open doorways of direct physical contact or an active two-way coven-bond?
Telepathy was a normal elven ability, so much so there were even a lot of non-mage elven telepaths. The lowest prices were on enhancing what already existed.
And there were feelings rousing that he'd gone to great lengths to disown and bury, feelings he recognized but desperately didn't want to experience again, feelings that made him far too much like what Patrick thought he was. Arrogance, scorn, superiority, aggression...
*Lori!* It came out almost as a shriek. *He's in my...*
*That's enough,* Patrick said, his mind wrapping around Kevin's, spreading in an oily layer that Kevin couldn't get through.
Reality warped, perception twisted; Kevin fought frantically to hold onto what he knew for truth, but the other thoughts slid into his mind unstoppably.
*Get out! This is my skull and you are not welcome in it!*
*Kevin Lioren,* Patrick purred. *From what I see in your memories, you're very good at hurting the people you're close to, aren't you? Physically, emotionally... now I see why your little wolf there chose to come back to the city. But he couldn't get away from you, not completely, not after you'd touched him. What were you saying earlier about not being like me? I think you're much worse.*
“Get out,” Kevin snarled out loud, clawing desperately for any kind of leverage that would get Patrick out of his memories.
They didn't trust me to do it alone, that's why they both insisted on helping. Like I need help from anyone! How dare they doubt me!
They don't! a rapidly weakening part of him wailed. They trust you, they care about you!
They thought I couldn't take one damned Lucian who doesn't even have much power of his own! That or they thought I'd run off and join him. Yeah, as if I need him either!
“Oh, hell,” Lori muttered, and yanked Shaine behind her, breaking the linked shields and reweaving her own.
“See how readily they turn on you?” Patrick pointed out.
Lori doesn't trust me! She never did! Shaine never trusts anyone, he lied to us all...
“Fight him, Kev,” Lori pleaded. “You got past this once, you can do it again.”
“And who made you the judge of what I should be or do?” Kevin growled. He grabbed for power, but felt the link dissolve, melting like ice in summer. Cutting him off, pushing him out, leaving him with only his own power to use.
So what if they could all betray him so easily? He needed nothing but his own gifts.
“Shaine?” Lori said, her voice heavy. “Try not to hurt him too much.”
Kevin pulled together the moonlight, drew power up from within the depths of himself, and condensed it all into his phoenix; the bright bird dove directly at Shaine.
Lori's lioness appeared, and flung itself at the phoenix, foreclaws raking the air only an inch or two from feathers. Kevin had the phoenix circle a couple of times, considering ways to get past Lori, even if he had to do something nasty to get her out of the way. She deserved it anyway, turning on him. Shaine at least had never pretended to be more than a temporary ally.
What was Shaine doing?
The meren's clear voice rose again above the sounds of wind and wave and the savage wolf-fight a short distance away, sliding through a range no human was likely to match, tenor and soprano and higher yet.
The song held winter, ice, bitter cold, and it wrapped around Kevin like a January wind. Instinct screamed at him that he was child of fire and the ice could kill, even as the rage intensified, how dare Shaine do this... He felt weakness wash over him, his legs gave and he dropped heavily to his knees, head bowed, struggling to breathe.
“I can't even think of a name bad enough to call you,” Lori spat, somewhere beyond the ice, but, oddly, it didn't seem to be at him. He felt her touch in his mind, and struggled against her, there was already much too much inside his head, two conflicting sets of thoughts, and he couldn't tell which was real... All around him, ice began to form, not touching, but never more than a hands-breadth from him, shutting him off from everything else. He reached for Deanna, she was always there, but the cold drained too much, he couldn't get outside his own head.
* * *
*I can't reach him right now, it'd take too much concentration, and we can't afford that,* Lori said in Shaine's mind, her voice nearly as cold as the ice he'd just trapped Kevin in. *We're going to have to finish this without him.*
*Any thoughts how?* He tried to keep his thoughts off Kevin, off his own prayers that it wouldn't do the mage any permanent harm. He was certain that much cold had to be very bad for an elvenmage, but he hadn't been able to think of anything else that might work.
*Can you do to him what you just did to Kev?*
*Yes, but since he's using demon-power, it won't hold him for very long.*
*Damn.*
He picked up on a flicker of movement, to one side, and scanned the area without turning his head.
Jess, his silver dagger in one hand, bare feet silent on the grass, limped closer. The effort in every step made Shaine long to run to him and support him, but that would get them both killed. If Jess could get close enough unnoticed...
*Hit him all-out,* he told Lori. *Throw everything you have at him.*
She must've caught the information about Jess from his mind, given how instantly she agreed.
Lori flung at the demon-mage a hail of daggers made all of moonlight; Shaine sang moisture out of the air into a second rain of flying daggers, these ones made all of ice, coming from an angle instead of straight on like Lori's. Trying to deal with that kept the demon-mage occupied briefly, long enough for Shaine to start a different song, while Lori simply fed him her own power and that of the circle in the house.
This song was of confusion and fear and disorientation, the same technique his family had used on Unity, muddling the senses and blurring the mind. It was meant to spread out, pouring across a broad area and affecting everyone within a supernaturally large hearing range. Though it meant he had to sacrifice some of its strength, he focused it as tightly as he could on the demon-mage alone. Still, it inevitably spilled over.
Aindry or Jaisan whimpered, and let out a plaintive puppy-howl.
The demon-mage hesitated, his shields rippling.
Jess stumbled, caught himself before he fell, and kept going. He couldn't be more than six feet away, behind the demon-mage and to one side. Would shields formed partially of demon-power keep out a demon-wolf?
Better safe than sorry. He shifted the song, gradually, made it speak of acceptance and belonging and home, of peace and safety.
The demon-mage's shields wavered and fell, fading away into moonlight.
Evaline, with a couple of dark streaks in her pale fur and one forefoot not taking her full weight, darted directly through the face-off, very close to the demon-mage. She seemed to be in better shape than her opponent, who had to be on his feet still only through pure mad will. The larger wolf ran after her, though in less of a straight line, and his shoulder bumped glancingly against the mage's legs. Automatically, the mage spun in place to track them, raising both hands again.
It only took Jess one side-step to be directly in front of him. With both hands wrapped around the hilt of his dagger, he thrust it upwards through the jaw, through the throat, and judging from the way the mage collapsed bonelessly with total disregard for how he landed, hitting the spinal column where it joined the skull at the back. Shaine wasn't sure the demon-mage had even seen Jesse, between the light levels and the distractions and Evaline's perfect timing.
Jess dropped to his knees, head bowed; where he'd found the strength, Shaine wasn't sure, but it had obviously run out.
Evaline trotted back and nuzzled him, tail waving slowly, and Jess draped an arm over her. “Kev?”
Shaine surveyed the area, but it was over: the larger wolf was moving only a little, small twitches accompanied by soft whining, the female mage was unconscious still, the demon-mage was very definitely dead. There were no demons left to fight at the moment, the one Alfari had cornered had vanished at some point, and the others were dead. Aindry and Jaisan were a couple of largely motionless shadows, but it wouldn't take long for assistance to show up, he was sure.
Lori let go of his hand and ran to Kevin; Shaine headed for Jess instead, helped him to his feet.
“Is Kev okay?” Jess asked.
Evaline whined, nosed Jess briefly, and loped unevenly over to Kevin.
* * *
Kevin's consciousness blurred, the raw cold draining him more than any mage-battle ever could, his metabolism struggling vainly to keep his body temperature at its usual level.
The ice shattered.
Oh gods, now what?
*I'm here, Kev, it's okay.* Lori's arm around him, Lori's wonderfully warm body pressed against his, heat wrapping around him in an intangible blanket. *Brigid, you're cold. C'mon, Kev, tell us you're okay.* A warm, furry body snuggled against his other side with a soft whine. A third body, much smaller, climbed onto his lap and purred.
“Kev?” That was Jess, out loud, coming closer, but he sounded terrible. And worried. “You're still you, right?”
“Still me?” he echoed fuzzily.
“There's no more outside influence, it's all just Kev in there now,” Lori said reassuringly. “I called the others, they'll be out here in no time. Wake up, Kev, you can't sleep now, not until we get you warm.”
“Damn,” Shaine muttered. “Maybe I overdid it. Is he going to get over this?”
Shaine sounding all concerned about Kevin's wellbeing was a sufficiently unusual occurrence to make Kevin blink and focus on the meren. “I'm cold.”
“No shit,” Jess said. “Get up, so we can go inside and get you warm.”
“Inside. Warm. Right.” Something clicked into place, and he gazed at Lori and Shaine in horror. “Oh gods, I attacked...”
“He was messing with your mind somehow,” Lori said firmly. “It was probably easier to trigger old behaviour patterns than to try any kind of direct control. He found a weakness and he used it. That doesn't mean you deliberately betrayed us. Get over it. Get up.”
“Yes, do,” Bane said, leaning down to slide an arm around Kevin and halfway pull him to his feet. “Walk. Inside. Flynn has the kettle on.”
Things got fuzzy, but he knew there were familiar arms around him on both sides helping him to his feet; in the warm brightness of the house, a cup was held for him, and he obediently took a swallow of soup.
“Jess?” he asked.
“They're fine, all three of them,” Deanna said. “Badly exhausted. No injuries to them or Eva that are going to be a major issue. We'll get them cleaned up and fed and Mandisa can look at them tomorrow.”
“Shaine?”
“In better shape than you are. Take another drink.”
“Too bad elves don't jump-start,” Aindry said, with a weak, slightly hysterical giggle, from nearby.
“The other guys?”
“Cynthia's dealing with it,” Sam said.
Bane hugged him, and Kevin gratefully leaned against him, absorbing his warmth through the blanket someone had wrapped around him. “It's all over, phoenix. Now we can all get on with our lives.”
“That sounds awesome. Just as soon as I'm awake enough to do it...”