Read Online Twenty-Sided Sorceress 3 - Pack of Lies by Annie Bellett - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Annie Bellett
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damage and we were sitting around a table full of people I cared about.
Not exactly an advantage.
“Yes,” he said, his mask back in place. “Max showed me earlier. It is very nice. This is a very nice place.”
I gathered my power, letting it spread through me, ready to blast him or shield my friends. “We should go outside,” I said to him in Japanese.
“I am fine where I am,” he responded in the same as he leaned back, scooting his chair out a small ways. He draped one hand casually over the back of Junebug’s chair next to him. “How did you recognize me?”
“You were too invisible,” I said. I wanted to zort him right out of his chair, blast him away and end the threat, but I didn’t know what magic he had, what it might do. There were too many people.
“Jade,” Levi said.
I didn’t dare look at him and risk the man in front of him making a move. “This man is the killer,” I said instead, switching to Nez Perce.
I had engaged in long discussions on the dying out of the Sahaptian language with Ezee, so I knew he at least would understand. And Junebug had been an academic, studying Northwestern Native cultures before she fell in love with a wolverine-shifter mechanic and took up pottery.
Levi, Ezee, and Junebug all tensed. Beside me, Max stood up.
“Anyone want more ice in their water?” he said, too brightly.
Mr. Kami’s right hand slipped beneath the table. I took the risk and threw pure force straight at him, driving into him with my will, wanting to crush him like a bug. As he flew backward and flipped out of his chair, magic flared to life, burning sigils appearing in the air around him and turning aside the brunt of my blast.
On the periphery of my vision I saw my friends all leave their chairs, moving with the graceful speed only shifters can achieve. Ezee and Levi shifted, a huge coyote and wolverine materializing. They sprang at the assassin, snarling.
“No,” I called out as I struggled to my feet, shoving my chair away.
Glittering kunai filled the air as the assassin leapt onto the table. I threw shields up around my friends. Fire started to swirl around the killer’s body, sigils spinning faster and faster. Heat blasted over me and I pushed more power into my shields. The table began to burn.
I had to get him out of the house or he would just burn it down around us. I slammed more force into him as my friends attacked. The assassin jumped away, moving out of the dining room and into the front entry.
I grabbed the pitcher of water off the table as I followed and threw it in his direction, turning the water into a thin spear of ice. Magic raged through me, my blood singing with it, but I felt the edge of fatigue as well. Keeping his fire contained, my friends shielded, and throwing magic at him was taking a quick toll on me.
I gritted my teeth as the front door flew open and he dashed through it, the ice spear melting away before it hit him. He threw more kunai at me, the small dark blades glancing off my shields.
Bits of paper tied to the loop at the ends fluttered as the knives bounced and fell. I threw magic tendrils at them, mage-handing them back out the door as quickly as I could. Explosions rocked the house and I stumbled, smoke and heat filling my nose. A furry body raced past me.
I made it through the smoking ruins of the front entry, rage rising inside me. The assassin was running for his car. He spun as I sprang down the steps, and he fired a pistol at me. The shots hit my shields like punches from giant fists, the force shoving me backward, off my feet.
A fox, her body a streak of red in my smoke-blurred vision, leapt straight through his wreath of flames and latched onto his arm.
Harper.
I rolled to my feet and ran at the assassin. He threw Harper aside as though she were a puppy, not a hundred-pound fox. His lips moved and he thrust his arms out. His shirt curled and burned, the pieces lifting and turning into their own slips of dark paper, sigils
Not exactly an advantage.
“Yes,” he said, his mask back in place. “Max showed me earlier. It is very nice. This is a very nice place.”
I gathered my power, letting it spread through me, ready to blast him or shield my friends. “We should go outside,” I said to him in Japanese.
“I am fine where I am,” he responded in the same as he leaned back, scooting his chair out a small ways. He draped one hand casually over the back of Junebug’s chair next to him. “How did you recognize me?”
“You were too invisible,” I said. I wanted to zort him right out of his chair, blast him away and end the threat, but I didn’t know what magic he had, what it might do. There were too many people.
“Jade,” Levi said.
I didn’t dare look at him and risk the man in front of him making a move. “This man is the killer,” I said instead, switching to Nez Perce.
I had engaged in long discussions on the dying out of the Sahaptian language with Ezee, so I knew he at least would understand. And Junebug had been an academic, studying Northwestern Native cultures before she fell in love with a wolverine-shifter mechanic and took up pottery.
Levi, Ezee, and Junebug all tensed. Beside me, Max stood up.
“Anyone want more ice in their water?” he said, too brightly.
Mr. Kami’s right hand slipped beneath the table. I took the risk and threw pure force straight at him, driving into him with my will, wanting to crush him like a bug. As he flew backward and flipped out of his chair, magic flared to life, burning sigils appearing in the air around him and turning aside the brunt of my blast.
On the periphery of my vision I saw my friends all leave their chairs, moving with the graceful speed only shifters can achieve. Ezee and Levi shifted, a huge coyote and wolverine materializing. They sprang at the assassin, snarling.
“No,” I called out as I struggled to my feet, shoving my chair away.
Glittering kunai filled the air as the assassin leapt onto the table. I threw shields up around my friends. Fire started to swirl around the killer’s body, sigils spinning faster and faster. Heat blasted over me and I pushed more power into my shields. The table began to burn.
I had to get him out of the house or he would just burn it down around us. I slammed more force into him as my friends attacked. The assassin jumped away, moving out of the dining room and into the front entry.
I grabbed the pitcher of water off the table as I followed and threw it in his direction, turning the water into a thin spear of ice. Magic raged through me, my blood singing with it, but I felt the edge of fatigue as well. Keeping his fire contained, my friends shielded, and throwing magic at him was taking a quick toll on me.
I gritted my teeth as the front door flew open and he dashed through it, the ice spear melting away before it hit him. He threw more kunai at me, the small dark blades glancing off my shields.
Bits of paper tied to the loop at the ends fluttered as the knives bounced and fell. I threw magic tendrils at them, mage-handing them back out the door as quickly as I could. Explosions rocked the house and I stumbled, smoke and heat filling my nose. A furry body raced past me.
I made it through the smoking ruins of the front entry, rage rising inside me. The assassin was running for his car. He spun as I sprang down the steps, and he fired a pistol at me. The shots hit my shields like punches from giant fists, the force shoving me backward, off my feet.
A fox, her body a streak of red in my smoke-blurred vision, leapt straight through his wreath of flames and latched onto his arm.
Harper.
I rolled to my feet and ran at the assassin. He threw Harper aside as though she were a puppy, not a hundred-pound fox. His lips moved and he thrust his arms out. His shirt curled and burned, the pieces lifting and turning into their own slips of dark paper, sigils
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