I rolled my eyes. “Uh huh, sure.” The thing was, I knew he actually would, and I’d still end up flat on my back or with my face in the dirt.
“No magic,” he said.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the rules.”
“And yet, you still like to break them all the time,” Nik said from the sidelines of the training area we’d set up on coven land a few years back.
I flipped him off, too. Asshat.
Nik laughed and said, “Go.”
Toby swung a punch at me that I blocked with my forearm—luckily my bracer caught most of the impact because even with him holding back, he was hella strong. He swung his other hand toward me, so I deflected that punch, and the next one before using his momentum against him. Ducking, I side-stepped him and elbowed him in the ribs, but Toby was on me again immediately. He attacked, and I went on the defensive until he somehow flipped me around with one arm around my chest, keeping my arms still, and the other on my throat, gripping my jaw, proving he could legit break my neck if he wanted. Ugh.
“Dead,” Toby said before releasing me.
I sighed and brushed myself off before waving him away. “Yeah, you win, vamp. Obviously.”
He rolled his eyes at me, but offered a small smile. It was kinda amazing how comfortable he was with us all now compared to a few years ago when we’d first met him. He used to be so shy, and I guess he still was around new people, but here with his family, he seemed to be thriving.
Thayer walked over, put his hand on Toby’s back, and leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek. Toby’s answering smile was so bright and full of love, I had to look away because something in my gut twisted, and for unknown reasons Grim’s face flashed in my head again. But I tamped that shit down immediately and thought about the twisting sensation instead. I was honest enough to realize it was a burning jealousy that seemed to be happening more and more around my family. Everywhere I looked, there were happy couples—or throuples—and while I was beyond happy for each and every one of them, I was also a little sad for myself.
Which made me feel like shit because I should be celebrating their happiness, not feeling sorry for myself because of it.
You’re allowed to be sad, Jorah’s voice suddenly filled my head, and only my head, keeping it from Thayer.
My eyes widened, and I shot a glance at Thay and Toby to make sure Thayer hadn’t heard my selfish thoughts.
Jorah walked over and bumped me with his shoulder, whispering, “You hid it, but I saw your face. No one else is paying attention, but… you’re allowed to have feelings about that, Bas. It’s totally normal.”
I eyed him. “Do you?”
He shrugged. “Sometimes, yeah.” To my knowledge, Jorah had never had a boyfriend or girlfriend. I was sure he’d messed around before—or at least I assumed he had, although I could be wrong about that—but he’d never dated anyone, so his admission was a little shocking.
“You have?”
He nodded. “Yeah, of course. I hope I find my viramore one day.” A sad expression overtook his face, and it made me frown at him.
“Me too.” I pulled him into a hug. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Wanna run some exercises?”
“Only if you mean the magical kind and not that actual running kind.” I fake shuddered.
He chuckled. “Like you’ve ever cared about running.”
“It’s not my favorite thing in the world.”
“You literally went running with me almost every day when we lived in Faela.”
I lifted a shoulder and admitted, “That’s because there wasn’t anything else to do, and you like running.”
He stared at me for several beats, then asked, “Are you telling me you only ran because I wanted to?”
“Uh, yeah?” I had no idea why that sounded like a question.
A soft expression flitted over him before he gave me a quick hug and walked away.
Shaking my head at that strange exchange, I turned to find Nik and Talon watching me, so I said, “We’re gonna do some magic shit.”
Talon rolled his eyes, and Nik snorted and said, “Eloquent, as always.”
I grinned at him, then searched out my other brother, calling over, “Come on, Thay. Let’s practice our aim.” I didn’t need to explain further than that for him to know exactly what I meant.
He shot me a grin and ran over to join Jorah and me at the edges of the training area. Nik and Talon pulled their magic together to make floating targets all around the yard—their illusion magic was flipping awesome.
I said telepathically to my brothers, Start on the outside in front of Jorah and make our way to the middle.
Sounds good, Thay said.
Ready? Jorah asked with a nod. After we nodded back, he said, Go.
Together, we called upon the Power of Three, and I felt the electric-like magic filling my veins and connecting to my brothers. It was almost like being filled with electricity, except instead of hurting, it made me feel powerful and strong, and the link with my brothers seemed to expand so we were more like one strong magical entity instead of three separate people. The magic was intoxicating, but it also made me feel a little destructive. The power was wild, so it wanted to be free, but if we let the energy control us instead of the other way around, it could destroy anything and everything in its path.
So taking a deep breath, I held myself together and raised my arms as my fingers sparked. A storm began brewing over the top of our training area, our magic pulling together and flowing from each of us. The Power of Three magic mixed with my shadow magic, Thayer’s light magic, and Jorah’s earth magic, making it even more powerful. When our hands were raised, without needing words and only feeling each other’s intentions, we struck a lightning bolt down on the first target. Then we hit the next, and the next, and the next, until all the targets were incinerated.
When I gazed over the wreckage at Jorah and Thayer, I couldn’t help but smile. They looked crazy with their hair sticking up from the electricity, their eyes flashing with tiny lightning bolts, and sparks rushing over their skin. To be honest, they looked badass, and I knew I did, too. Not to be cocky or anything.
Okay, I was totally cocky when it came to our magic, but that was because I had a reason to. The Power of the Three was probably the most powerful magic in all the realms, and my brothers and I were lucky to have access to it.
That whole thing about ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ was true as hell here. Because if my brothers and I ever decided to let the magic control us instead of the other way around, our entire realm would be screwed.
There was a reason we had to take the magic on in order to save Brinnswick and everyone in it. And there was no way we would ever let something like the Berserker War happen again.
With that in mind, I called over to Nik and Talon, “Let’s go again.”
They smiled at me, and somehow, I read that as them being proud.
Thank the Mother, they couldn’t tell I was only half concentrating since my mind kept wandering back to that hunter and how I could help him. Damn you, Hiro Grimsby.
Chapter Eight
Hiro
As I watched the jinn suck the soul out of a fellow human, I knew I was in deep shit. There was no saving that guy. The jinn already had him in its thrall, and I had no way of severing that connection. I knew jinns were terrifying creatures when you pissed one off, but seeing it take advantage of a human that didn’t know better and knowing I could do nothing to stop it, put its strength in perspective. I’d already shot at the jinn with arrows and bullets and everything else I could think of, but nothing was getting past its shield, not even my special dagger that was made for shields. The jinn’s magic was too different from the witch magic that the dagger had been made for. Without magic, I was as helpless against that jinn as that poor human soul it was consuming.