Bound by Magic Chapter 12

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CHAPTER 12

Theo

THEO BIT HIS TONGUE SO HARD he could taste the coppery tang of his blood. Keeping his composure in front of the council was the hardest thing he’d done in quite some time, which proved more difficult as they berated him.

“For the last time, neither she nor her vampire were ever in any real danger.” Theo crossed the room for a second round of pacing. “I was merely testing their bond.”

“Well, Eros was on that mat and said you set the vampire ablaze.” Beatrice’s wrinkled lips downturned into an accusing frown. “The council has decided to treat her no differently than one of our own, and dousing her bonded pair in flames hardly qualifies.”

Theo paused enough to roll his eyes before he resumed his pacing. This would be so much easier if he didn’t have a council of nitwits crawling up his ass over something so trivial.

“Pellan, could you please explain for the third time that I caused the vampire no harm. The flames were merely a rouse to jumpstart her magic.”

“You violated his person, Theo. And you nearly got yourself killed.” Pellan leaned against the council’s circular gathering table with a deep scowl on his face.

That was an oversight. It’d been a long time since he’d matched with a vampire. He’d underestimated his strength and speed and how her defensive magic would respond. It wouldn’t happen again.

“Hardly.” He waved his hand. “We now know that we can divert her magic successfully and you’ve also seen how strong their bond has grown in such a short amount of time. So, you’re welcome.”

“It also proved that with little provocation, it was overextended.”

“Weren’t you the one that said you could amplify her magic? I’ve merely given you the direction to go in. Go after the vampire, the rest will follow.”

Pellan’s jaw clenched, and anger flitted from his eyes to his cheekbones. “I will not discuss this with you again. If you show up while she’s training again, I’ll have you detained.”

Theo looked around the room. Was everyone living in la-la land? Their halls had been breached. It was merely by the strength of their protection magic that the wolves hadn’t breached the lower halls.

There wasn’t any time for this pretense.

Theo’s thoughts paused as a knock came at the door. The entire council hushed and started discussing other less sensitive topics, like the upcoming competition for the inlay that was never going to be done since their halls were going to be breached in days, and the competition was scheduled for next week.

“You may enter.” Pellan sat in his chair at the head of the table and motioned him to do the same.

“Pellan.” Hela bowed deeply when she entered the room and faced the head of the council.

“Have you completed her scans?”

“I have, sir. But, um… We’ve received some abnormal results in regards to her magical signatures.”

Theo’s stomach bottomed out. Kayla had become the epicenter of his carefully laid plan.

“How so?” Theo met Hela’s silver eyes with unease as she recounted her findings. Yet the more she talked, the lighter he felt, and it had become abundantly clear that the foremages had given them this gift in their greatest hour of need.

“And her general health assessment? How was that?” Pellan asked while Theo tried to contain his smile.

“They’re all normal. Essentially, she’s a healthy young mage, except she has two distinct magical signatures.”

“How do her signatures interact with each other?” Theo stepped forward, fighting for neutrality.

“From what I’ve seen, sometimes they cooperate, and in other instances, they are adversarial. Ultimately, without further testing, I won’t know which will prevail. But, sir, she has expressed interest in getting rid of one of them.”

This gift was getting better and better.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Carissa asked from the farthest end of the table, looking around the room.

“It’s even more dangerous if she’s left without treatment,” Theo said to his sister. The fact that Kayla had survived childhood was a miracle in itself.

“She understands the risks.” Hela handed Pellan a paper from her clipboard.

“I don’t know if any of us truly understand the risks.” Pellan grabbed her results and read them over. “So, she is a fire mage as I expected, but she also has the additional signature of electricity. Well, that explains why she’s been able to withstand it. Fire mages are very powerful and electricity is compatible with it.”

“And rare.” Theo crossed his arms, appearing deep in thought. Pellan’s plan was looking less and less like a reality. Fire mages had a certain kind of volatility that most mages didn’t. Their magic definitely didn’t like to be handled by others.

“Anything else, Hela?” Pellan asked.

“No, sir. I just worry for what to do with the girl.”

“We will discuss it. It may be that her signatures can be controlled with time and practice.”

Theo scoffed as he listened to Pellan speak as if they had all the time in the world. The shifters had already broken through the first of their defenses and would likely be through the second by midnight tonight if they didn’t do something to fortify the barriers.

“Thank you, Hela. We will let you know where we stand once we’ve adjourned.”

Hela put her clipboard down and bowed again before vacating the room. Once she was out of earshot, Pellan turned back to the table.

“There is more to this mage than meets the eye.”

“She is a gift from the foremages. Don’t you see? They are lighting our path.” Theo turned to the group with a gloating smirk. “I say we separate her magical signatures. Think of the good we can do with it.”

Theo’s smile died when the faces around their gathering table turned stoic.

“Theo, that’s much too dangerous,” Wester chided from across the table, giving him a withering look.

He took an impatient breath. “Do I need to remind everyone as to what’s happening on the ground floor?”

“Of course not!” Beatrice banged her jeweled cane on the table. “But you are keen to throw this girl’s life around as if it has no meaning. We’ve never done this procedure before. We all know it in theory, but none of it in practice. It’s reckless to take the risk.”

“Bea’s right. If we get it wrong, the results will be catastrophic.” Pellan, again, sided against him. Some days, he wondered why he was even on the council if his every suggestion was vetoed by a group too afraid to take the necessary risks to secure their safety.

“The results will be catastrophic either way,” Theo protested.

“We continue as planned.”

“Do you hear yourself?” His jaw nearly hit the floor. “Breach is imminent, and we have a mage with two magical signatures at our disposal. This is the best path to protecting ourselves.”

“I understand your concerns, but—”

A sudden, urgent knock came at the door. Again, the council quieted as Pellan turned to it. With a motion of his hands, the doors opened.

The head of their community forces team stepped in. Eros, a stocky mage who stood shoulder to shoulder with Pellan, rushed into the room. Immediately the lights dimmed as he summoned the door closed and bowed. Eros glanced at the face of every mage circling the table with a stricken look.

“Sorry to interrupt.”

Theo stepped forward, soaking up the mage’s worry. “What is it?”

Eros, whose voice was generally a steady tenor, cracked as he spoke. “The wolves have broken through the third ward.”

“What?” Theo’s stomach dropped. By his calculations, they shouldn’t have gotten through the second barrier until midnight. The third, in the next day or two.

“Yes, less than five minutes ago, a shifter was caught on the first floor below ground.”

Theo sucked in a breath. The room hushed for only a second before a bed of whispers ricocheted off the stone walls.

The wolves were moving too fast. Faster than possible for a non-mage. Theo thought of Donovan’s warning. He’d said a rogue vampire with the power of a mage was after him and his daughter. Yet, none of his reconnaissance picked up mage energy surrounding their compound.

“Was anyone with him?” Theo asked.

“He was alone. We’re still trying to ascertain how he made it so far. We think they’ve managed to get a hole in our barriers.”

All five of them?

Wester stood abruptly. “Take me to it. I’ll lend my magic to fortify the sector.”

“We will all go,” Pellan said. Immediately, the remaining members rose to heed the call.

“Have we evacuated the next two floors?” Theo asked Eros, watching the council scramble.

“I have a small team dispatched, but I didn’t want to rouse suspicion.”

Theo nodded, fighting a groan of annoyance. If the council had taken his advice and alerted the community the moment they’d realized their halls were being breached, they could have been on their guard.

“Wise, given the circumstance. But we need to work faster.” Theo watched the council head for the door, but caught a flash of his sister’s auburn hair. As the youngest of them, she was also the least experienced when it came to magical warfare. If anything were to happen… Theo hated to think of his little sister coming to harm. He’d promised their mother to always look after her. “Carissa, help Eros with evacuations.”

“What?” She looked at the stocky mage, then back at him. “We need to secure the upper floors.”

“Theo’s right.” Pellan nodded his agreement. “You would be better served preparing for evacuations. The community will take it well if it comes from you. Tell them we’re experiencing a gas leak and moving them as a precaution. Take them to the 10^th quadrant for now. New beds will be reassigned later in the evening.”

Carissa’s freckled nose wrinkled as she looked between him and the head of the council. Theo knew that look. She hated being left out, but it was what was best.

“When you’re finished, we’ll need your help,” Theo appealed to her vanity. It worked. His sister seemed to take it with a nod and headed to the door. Eros followed her out.

The room emptied, and in the moment of silence, Theo and the head of the council shared a look. It was the first time in a long time he’d seen Pellan’s eyes flash with fear. Having a single wolf enter their compound defenses scared him. As it should. That was the gravity of what Theo had been attempting to convey.

Shifters and mages used to share a common natural enemy with the vampires. For centuries, vampires persecuted both of their kinds in an attempt to rule. With the Blood Oath nearing its end, vampires were itching to gain control again. With the wolves no longer neutral and actively working against them, their chances of victory if it came to a war were slim.

Their best option had always been to fortify their halls, creating a safe harbor from all supernaturals aiming to destroy them. It was more crucial than ever that they used what was already at their advantage. From the look in Pellan’s eyes, he finally understood it.

“Say the word and it’ll be done,” Theo said.

Pain replaced his fear as Pellan thought of the inevitable.

“She’s not ready yet, Theo. We’ll patch up the barrier. It’ll buy us more time.”

“Patch? We need a more permanent solution.”

“As I’ve said, she’s not ready. Kayla won’t have the strength.”

“We don’t need her strength; we need her magic. You’ve seen what happened in that cathedral. She has plenty of it.”

“I also saw her pass out today from overexertion of her magic. She’s a strong mage, but without the proper training, she won’t be able to weather it.”

Again, Pellan argued for her life, but Theo didn’t understand why. They’d only known this girl for days. She was unknown to them before she, her father, and her vampire brought trouble to their doors. Why was he fighting so hard to save her?

“Circumstances have changed. We cannot answer an active invasion by sitting on our hands and doing nothing.” Theo scoffed.

“We have enough strength to fortify our stronghold.”

“Barely. A shifter was able to get through our protection wards and our barriers. It’ll take too much of our power to hold it up. It’ll leave us defenseless from another attack.”

“I understand how our wards work, Theo. My decision has been made.”

Theo kicked his shoe into the stone in frustration. “Why do I feel like I’m the only one trying to save this community?”

Pellan’s eyes narrowed as he twisted on his heel to face him. The oldest mage he’d ever known stared at him with the eyes of an ancient. Angry and unyielding.

“Never make that insinuation again. We’ve been friends for a long time, but I won’t tolerate your disrespect. What you’re planning to do will destroy us all. Your plan is as reckless as it is dangerous. If you attempt to dissolve her unstable magical signatures and they rebound, it will kill many more mages than the wolves gathering on the ground floor. I won’t risk the lives of our best mages for a foolish plan. If you thought with more than your blind ambition, you’d see that.”

Rage boiled Theo’s blood to ash. “If you thought with more than just your passive reverie, you’d see we only have one option left. If we can patch this breach, we won’t have the strength to fortify our halls again. We’ve already expended enough of it holding that girl together.”

Footsteps raced in their direction, breaking through their argument. Pellan straightened and turned as they rounded the corner. A messenger from his fifth squadron knelt before them.

“Hailey, what is it?” Theo asked the woman as she approached, trying to control the adrenaline that kicked at his nerves. Seeing the security detail off their regular routine made a cold shiver slither down his spine. He tabled the feeling as Hailey rose to her feet.

“Sirs, a shifter has been found wandering the south halls.”

“Impossible,” Pellan gasped beside him.

It should have been impossible for a breach in the south halls. There wasn’t an entrance or exit there for anyone to get through. Plus, whoever it was would’ve had to pass a flurry of mages to be found there.

“Have they been captured?” Theo asked.

“Yes, she has.”

“How did she get down there?”

“We don’t know yet, sir. We have her detained. Braddock is questioning her now.”

“Good. Tell Braddock I’m on my way and to get what he can out of her.”

“Sir.” The messenger nodded with a bow and scurried down the hall to deliver his message.

Theo turned to Pellan, whose gaze lingered on the spot where the mage disappeared. “How did a shifter get so far past our barriers without notice?”

“I don’t know,” Theo replied. “But I plan to find out, then run a sweep and look for any weakness in our defense.”

“Do that.”

Heavy air anchored around their necks as they parted. What he’d originally thought would’ve taken a week, maybe even two with any shine from the foremages, had taken mere hours.

Their enemies were surrounding them, backing them into a corner, and Pellan refused to fight.

Well, he wasn’t going to give up without one.

As soon as Pellan was no longer in range, Theo used his magic to send a message to Eros, telling the head of the security forces unit to abandon evacuations and meet him in the bunker. Theo then pivoted to the under basement—to where Kayla and her vampire were.

The council may have refused to realize their fortune, but he didn’t. Kayla wandered into their halls with an extra signature she wanted to get rid of. Using it was their only chance of survival. And if she happened to succumb in the process, they could use the broken bond magic to do the same. It was a win-win. Her showing up at their doors when she did was a clear sign from the foremages themselves to use her for their advantage.

How could they not see this?

It didn’t matter. He didn’t need the council’s permission to do what was necessary. They’d thank him when they’ve realized what he’d done for them. For their entire community.