“Okay,” Silver sighed. “You need the rest of us shunned mages to get our magic, too, and Wilston is another shunned mage we know is here on Sutiner. But what about after? How are we supposed to find the others without their names?” He made a good point, but my mothers seemed to believe we could search for their souls and that would be enough.
I shrugged, “we don’t know yet, exactly. We know it should work because our souls are connected, and I trust we can figure it out together. If Wilston is your soulmatch, then maybe we can combine all our powers and that’ll be enough for the locket to work.”
Silver nodded, accepting we didn’t have an answer for everything. “Can I think about it?” he asked. “I like it here and have made a life for myself. I have friends who care about me.”
I looked at Niam and we both nodded. We could give him a few days before we needed to move on to Wilston. I had no idea what we would do if he didn’t come with us, but I didn’t want to worry about that at the moment.
“I’m off from my shift,” Silver said, packing his stuff away. “I was removing my makeup when you came in.”
“Oh, um, is it okay if we escort you home? With the attacks we’ve dealt with we don’t want you out there on your own,” Niam said, giving Silver a soft smile.
Silver nodded, “I guess that’ll be okay.”
We followed him out, Snowflake turning invisible before we left the room. We acted like we belonged there, and I guess we sort of did now that we were with Silver. Once we hit the main club area, Silver left us momentarily to hug a few of his coworkers, pecking kisses on their cheeks before he returned to our side. It seemed to be a strip club that had both female and male strippers and Silver seemed friendly with all of them, his emotions showing fondness and safety. I was glad he had that and that it wasn’t just a way for him to get money. No matter how hard that was to believe, I could see it clearly in his emotions.
“Ready to go?” I asked Silver, trying not to rush him.
He nodded and waved to all his friends and blew kisses. “Now, I’m ready,” he grinned, leaving the club with us following behind him. The air outside was a relief. The humidity from the club had left my skin slightly clammy, not that the people inside seemed to mind, too busy ogling the strippers.
It was getting dark outside, meaning we had to find a secure place to sleep for the night. I hoped we would be able to convince Silver to share a motel room with us, but I wasn’t sure how much he would like that idea.
“Where’s your car?” Silver asked once we arrived at the parking lot behind the strip club.
Niam pointed to our van, “that one’s ours.” Silver nodded and moved towards it. I shared a look with Niam. I didn’t think Silver had a car, so how he’d travelled to and from work was a mystery.
“Is there room enough in the front for my fabulous ass?” Silver asked over his shoulder.
I shrugged, “only one way to find out.”
We sat with Silver in the middle, both of us thinking he needed the safest place in the van. “So, where to?” I asked, gesturing to the GPS. I had no idea how far away he lived, but since he wanted to drive there, it didn’t seem to be close.
Silver quickly tapped the screen and the GPS showed us it would take eight minutes. How long would that take on foot? Thirty minutes? I shook my head, it wasn’t my place to worry about him, butwe were connected and since our souls had been friends before, my worry was understandable, I decided.
We drove in silence, and while it wasn’t exactly comfortable, it wasn’t too awkward either. We’d told him everything and now we left him to work through it all, not wanting to seem too pushy. Niam had told me he was very firm on the no-kidnapping rule here, and that I was under no circumstance allowed to kidnap Silver. Right. I knew it wasn’t a good thing I’d done it with Niam, but that was different. Niam wasmine; Silver wasn’t. I wouldn’t kidnap a man I had no claim on anyway. I didn’t want to. Kidnapping was apparently only doing it for me when it was Niam. Hmm, I seemed to keep learning about what had my blood pumping when it came to my bonded.
We came to a stop at a trailer park and Silver sighed, then gestured to the view in front of us. “Welcome to my home,” he said. We left the van and followed him over to his trailer. It was dark here, no street lights or anything. The other trailers seemed either empty or the people living there were asleep. He stopped just outside his front door. “You can come back in the morning and I’ll have an answer ready for you then. But don’t you dare bang on my door before nine, I need my beauty sleep.” He waved his hand down his body, likelyto show what he meant with beauty. He was a handsome man, but I was so besotted with my bonded that he was doing nothing to me.
I opened my mouth to agree with the time, but a hiss from Niam told me we were being attacked. “Snowflake! Leon!” I called. I turned around and took in the scene. Twenty mages were surrounding us. Twenty!
Instantly, we were beside Silver, both of us pushing him back to guard him. I wanted to protect Niam, too, since I’d already failed him once. I wasn’t about to do that again. But this time I also had Silver to protect. A mage without his magic.
I used my wind to target the ten on one side, battling their attempts at attacking. I had fire thrown at me that Niam brushed off with his water magic easily, then the earth tried to swallow usandthe trailer, but my earth magic was stronger, making my fight against it easy. You could cancel another’s magic completely if your own was stronger. I kept hold of the ten I had targeted and they turned red as I pulled the air from their lungs while they struggled against my wind magic, but I knew mine was stronger so I wasn’t too worried. I kept firm control over them while I helped Niam deal with the other ten. His pain magic shot out and affected the ones in the middle, causingthe others to back away slowly, likely sensing something was going on that didn’t just involve elemental magic.
“Oh god,” Silver whispered behind us when Snowflake came into view, sprinting through the carnage and swiping his claws—claws that had freaking fire on them!—at three people at once, killing them instantly. Leon pecked a mage on the nose, taking said nose from the mage and proceeded to prance around showing the nose off like it was a trophy he’d earned.
“Baby,” I whispered. “Pain on the other two.” He nodded quickly and switched his focus to the last two mages we hadn’t attacked with magic, leaving Snowflake to deal with the ones who were trying to stand now that the pain had vanished.
The ten I had strangled were now dead, leaving me to focus on the rest. I didn’t trust my own senses after last time, so I did a quick emotion sweep, seeing if anyone was hiding this time, too. There wasn’t. I sighed with relief. When it was all over, we were panting, exerting ourselves to the furthest we’d ever done before. “Everyone okay?” I asked, my hand finding Niam’s easily as we took stock of our surroundings. The trailer park still seemed empty and if someonehad seen anything, I hoped they were too tired or confused to believe it was real.
“I’m fine,” Niam answered, squeezing my hand with his. Leon was still prancing around with the damn nose like he was waiting for our praises.
“Leon, you did good,” I said, giving in and offering him what he so desperately needed to hear. The nose was then forgotten, dumped on the ground as he moved over to us.
“So, you got an ostrich, too?” Silver asked, reminding me he was here, too.
“He’s my familiar,” I responded, petting Leon’s feathers like he deserved. Snowflake was still glowing, but his claws weren’t on fire anymore.Thank fuck.
“We need to get on the road again,” Niam said, looking over the many dead bodies littering the space in front of the trailer. I nodded, using my magic to bury them under the dirt, glad that there wasn’t any gravel there, just flattened mud.
