“Maya,” I tried again. “You go, and I’ll get Nash to safety. Drake, will you take her?”
“No,” Mick countermanded me, the general in him emerging. “We’ll need Drake here. You—” He pointed at Nash. “Take Maya out. Arrest her if you need to. But go.”
Nash didn’t like being given orders. “I’ll arrest all of you. In fact, why don’t we take a walk?” He pulled out his cell phone with the hand not holding the gun and flipped it open.
A white light cut it out of his hands and sent it flying. “Why don’t we all stay here instead?” Amy said.
Drake clapped a fireball into his hands and sent it straight at Amy. No warning, no preliminary.
A white wall of magic halted the fireball then batted it away. The fire landed in the desert beyond the house, bursting weeds into flame.
Amy laughed. “That was fun.”
Drake sent another fireball, and another, each one swatted aside. I gathered what magic I could, ready to help him, but Mick closed strong fingers over mine.
“We do it together,” he said. “Like I showed you.”
His dragon might be gone, but I felt his latent power tingle through my blood, touching my own, which he’d instructed me how to tap without endangering myself. He’d taught me so much, my man of fire.
I nodded, letting him know I understood. We tightened our clasped hands, and Mick closed his eyes, dredging up all the magics that were still a part of him.
His aura pulled at mine, twining with it, building our power into a whole greater than the sum of its parts. This is what he’d been teaching me all this time, that the two of us together were far stronger than we’d ever be apart.
Mick opened his eyes, which were the blue of deep waters, and looked straight at me. I smiled, feeling the joy of him.
We turned as one, hands joined, and sent everything we had at the white wall in front of Amy.
The wall shimmered and crumpled, and Amy let out a shout of alarm. Drake’s next fireball caught Amy and engulfed her in flames. Nash, without a word, turned around and shot Drake.
Drake wasn’t there, having hit the dirt as soon as he’d seen Nash pivot. The bullet sailed past him and struck Maya, who’d jumped forward, as though trying to stop Nash.
She gave a soft grunt of pain and fell. Drake, horrified, sprang up and ran to her. Red blossomed on Maya’s white coveralls in a point just above her heart.
Nash stared, blinking, all color on his face draining. I saw the shock in his gray eyes, the sudden acknowledgement that he loved Maya above all else, and the fact that he might have just killed her. He stood frozen, the gun at the end of his outstretched hand.
I broke away and ran to Maya, Mick with me. Dragons could heal—though I wasn’t sure if Drake could help if Maya was too badly hurt.
Nash came unfrozen. The sound of his anguish tore through the morning as he spun, cocking the gun to fire at Amy.
The bullet was knocked out of the air by a shaft of light so brilliant, my eyes screwed up. When I could see again, Amy was laughing.
But she hadn’t been the one to produce the stab of Beneath magic. Another young woman, this one Native American, came around the corner of the house. She puffed on her cocked finger, as though blowing smoke from a gun, and grinned at us all.
“Now, now,” Gabrielle said. “No one needs to move. What a cozy, family reunion .”
Chapter Nineteen
Nash quickly upended his gun, even though the most dangerous person in the little tableau had just walked into it. Part of Gabrielle’s menace was that she appeared to be innocent and harmless.
“Gabrielle?” I asked warily.
Her brows snapped together. “How do you know my name?” she demanded, which confirmed my worst fears.
This was Gabrielle of the past, before she and I had called a truce, before Grandmother had sat her down and taught her a few things. Gabrielle before I’d met her had been just this side of crazy, had caused the death of her father and stepmother, and gone on a rampage. I wasn’t certain whether she’d met our mutual mother at this point or not, but it hardly mattered at the moment.
“You know who I am,” I countered.
“I do.” Gabrielle looked me over. “And I know you’re not needed, Janet Begay.” She sent a shaft of Beneath magic at me, designed to kill.
Mick jerked me out of the way, but not fast enough. He took a shot of Gabrielle’s power in his shoulder, which started to burn him alive. He dove to the grass, desperately trying to crush out the white-hot flame.
Gabrielle shot again, but this time, Drake was ready with fire, hurling it at her without hesitation. Gabrielle’s magic broke but an instant later was back, supported by another blast from Amy.