Maggie’s voice continued away from me. “She’s probably killed June by now! You need to do something about this.”

“Your friend is still alive. We can’t work out where she is but the spell is still holding.”

“She’s not the one who needs the stasis spell, you idiot! It’s that bloody girl you should have targeted.”

Her voice, high-pitched now and whiny, continued to bemoan the state of affairs that she’d caused in the first place, drifted further away. I rested my head briefly against the cool wood of the doorframe. Either she was a very good actor or she didn’t know that I was here. It was good to know that I wasn’t heading straight into a dastardly mage trap. I thought for a moment about what she’d said. The ‘he’ whom she’d been demanding pay attention to her was probably the very person I needed to speak to. I chewed on my bottom lip and concentrated on damping down the flames inside me somewhat. Whoever this person was, odds were good that he was present in the building. That was some good news at least.

When I was sure that Maggie May and her mage mate had completely left my immediate vicinity, I gently pulled open the door again and continued pushing forward down the corridor. Occasionally voices drifted in and out from other rooms, but the hallway stayed wizard-free. Before too long, there was another turn, this time twisting back to the right. I took a deep breath. By my calculations, I had to now be towards the end of the large mansion, and where I was putting all my hopes into there being someone with some say into how things around here were run.

I followed the hallway round and then stopped at the corner, peering round. In front of me was a large vestibule area. It looked like something Donald Trump might have commissioned, all shiny marble floors and gleaming sparkly chandeliers. At the far end there were two doors, one on the left and one on the right. The right hand side door, the one that would face out onto the ideal garden view, had a uniformed guard outside it. Bingo.

I spun the handles of the daggers that I was still grasping onto, re-testing their grip and weight for the hundredth time. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but in order to help Mrs Alcoon I would if I needed to. I straightened my shoulders and stepped out onto the marbled floor, at which point a shrieking alarm suddenly sounded. I guess their security system was finally deciding to start working.

Sprinting forward to the guard who was only just halfway out of his chair, I threw my first dagger, catching him in the hand. He howled in pain and then yanked it out, eyes fixing on me. I noted with somewhat of a tremor that his eyeballs were completely white. The effect of no irises and no pupils was more than terrifying. From behind me, the distant sounds of doors slamming and voices shouting rose up. I had scant moments to do this.

Dripping blood from one hand, the guard pointed his other hand at me. I just had time to roll out of the way and avoid being zapped by a stream of icy blue light. Clearly these mages were remarkably unimaginative when it came to fighting techniques because they all did exactly the same thing. I watched his body, registering the faint tensing of his muscles that indicated which way he’d go next, and ducked, then barreled straight towards him, knocking his whole body back into the chair. I snapped out a sharp kick into his stomach, causing him to double over, and then jumped behind him, thumping him hard on his bent head. He collapsed to the floor and lay there unmoving. He wasn’t a shifter and wouldn’t heal with as much ease as they would, so I hadn’t wanted to entirely incapacitate him as I would one of them. Under the circumstances, I was rather proud of my restraint.

Scooping up the fallen dagger, I threw my shoulder against the door forcing it open. I had to reach whoever was inside before more irate mages arrived to join the fray. Inside was a large room surrounded by shelves of books and carpeted with a fine Persian rug. There was a desk towards the large bay window that was scattered with some papers and more books. What really caught my attention, however, was the floating man hovering in the centre of the room. His eyes were closed and he was murmuring something. Little lights flickered around him, and I realised that each one was forming a rune in the air. I had to do something fast. I sheathed one dagger and held onto the other, and then started to flick green flame towards each of the runes. I had absolutely no idea if it would do anything but I was rewarded with a spit and hiss as each time my fire hit a rune, it disappeared with an angry spark. More and more runes were appearing and the centre mage was murmuring faster. I shot out more and more light. Hefting the dagger in my right hand, I considered throwing it, but hurting the one person who I needed to really help me probably wouldn’t aid my cause.

Hearing the clatter of shoes on the marble floor out in the vestibule, I spun round and sprayed fire across the entrance of the office, creating a curtain of flame and effectively blocking it from anyone entering. Faces started to appear, shouting into the room, but I ignored them and focused my attention back onto the hovering mage instead. His voice was getting louder and the air in the room was starting to feel heavy and suffocating.

The air runes were increasing in number and getting brighter. Several started to spin on their axis, getting faster and faster. I fought back, throwing out flames at every one I could see. Each time I did so, another took its place. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the hovering mage’s face getting redder and redder. I kept on firing, trying desperately to hit each one but avoid setting the mage himself alight.

I shouted out, “I just want to talk to you! Please stop this and let’s sit down together and discuss…”

My voice trailed away as the mage himself started to spin in the air. I felt pressure building in my head. I fought to call up my bloodfire, to make it even stronger and even greater. It couldn’t fail me now, not at this point. I waved my dagger in the air and shouted again, “Please!”

A bass sound started to thump in my ears and I could feel myself falling to my knees. It wasn’t going to work, he wasn’t going to listen to me. I pulled my hand away from directing fire at the runes and instead focused on the mage. Just one shot wouldn’t really hurt him, but it might stop him in his tracks, if I concentrated and didn’t overshoot. I flung my hand forward to direct the flame, but nothing happened. I tried again, flicking my fingers forward, willing the fire to appear but there was nothing there. It was as if I’d run completely out of gas. I was starting to choke and bright little dots were dancing across my eyes. I shut them tight and summoned up all the energy I had, trying to muster it into one ball of power and push it through my body.

The thumping in my head was getting worse. I could feel my whole body starting to shake with each thud. I pushed open my eyelids only to see one of the runes floating right in front of my face. My eyes widened, mesmerised by its spinning shapes. Then, suddenly, it exploded and everything went dark.

Chapter Eighteen

When I came to, I was lying prone on a cool hard surface. I struggled to get up but found that I could barely move my limbs. I cracked open my eyes. The hovering mage from before stood in front of me, although now his feet were planted firmly on the ground. I tried to reach round to my arms to pull out my daggers, but even with my weakened fumbles I realised that it was pointless and they had already been taken.

The mage bent down and cocked his head at me. “Do you have any idea how long it has been since someone dared to enter our citadel?”

I coughed and replied weakly, “This is a nice house for sure, and definitely bigger than anywhere else I’ve been to, but isn’t citadel taking things a little far?”

“Who are you?” His eyes were cold, sending imaginary bolts of ice through my veins.

I tried to summon my bloodfire back into action, but the mage just laughed humourlessly.

“Take a look around you. We’ve locked you in a nullifying cage. No magic you try to use against us will work. No magic you try to use for anything, in fact, will work. Now tell me, who are you?”

I looked around. He was right. There was some kind of dull metal encasing me inside a small space. I reached out and touched the bars, receiving a nasty electric shock in return. It occurred to me that I didn’t even have enough space to stand up in. Well, this was going to be fun.

He spoke again. “I am growing tired of this and will say it one more time – who are you?”

“I think the more pertinent question would be why am I here,” I said, licking my lips to try to draw in some moisture.

“You are here because I put you in here,” the mage said disdainfully.

“No, I mean, why did I bother to storm your citadel? I knew I’d get caught. I knew that someone would stop me. But I still came.”

The mage got closer until his nose was almost touching the cage. “I would assume you are looking for some ridiculous revenge for the fact that we came after you in Scotland.”

I laughed. Well, I almost laughed anyway, it came out as more of a creaking wheeze than a girlish giggle. “Revenge? Really? If I was after revenge then I’d do more than this. I wanted – no, make that WANT – to talk to you.”

He rocked back on his heels and folded his arms. “So talk.”

I opened my mouth to speak when a door behind the wizard opened and a figure entered. I realised that it was the guard who I’d put out earlier. He shot me a look of absolute simmering hatred, which managed to extinguish the flicker of guilt that I was feeling. Hey, he was walking, wasn’t he? I noticed that his hand where I’d embedded my silver dagger earlier in was all bandaged up.

“Hey,” I called out, “How are you feeling there, skipper?”

I immediately regretted that remark when the lead mage casually flicked out a stream of light that shot into the cage and pierced my body causing ripples of agonising pain. I moaned aloud, my fists clenching and fingernails curling into my skin at the searing agony. Clearly the cage didn’t nullify magic that was entering it from outside. Note to self: don’t piss off the people who are holding you captive and can do whatever they want to you. I reminded myself that what I needed was for them to pay attention to me so I could get them to release Mrs Alcoon.