Izzy stopped and peeked around the corner of the pallet we were hiding behind, then held up four fingers. Which meant one of the magic users was missing. Shit.
I scanned our surroundings, not seeing anyone, then slowly moved back to the far edge of the pallet so I could check out the other side of the warehouse. When I peeked around, I could only see the human woman, tied up like a hog, lying in the middle of a witch’s circle. She was bleeding and whimpering, but I was pretty sure she wasn’t about to bleed to death at the moment. Her injuries were pretty minor. I could see her struggling against her bindings, but for now, she was stuck there. At least she was out of the way.
Making my way back to Isiah, I shook my head to tell him there weren’t any witches there. With a nod, he gave me a few hand motions to explain what he wanted to do, and once I silently agreed, he counted with his fingers. He got to three, and I popped up above the pallet while he popped out the side, both of us blasting the magic users with our magic. My magic came out as burning fire. Literally, I had flames coming from my hands. Isiah’s was more mellow, but just as deadly. His magic was earth-based, green in color, smelling like lilac on a spring day, but when it hit you, the power—the storm—of Mother Nature could take you down harder than my fire. Together, we were unstoppable. Or at least, I liked to pretend we were. It made it easier to swallow when Izzy ran into danger.
A loud growl tore from one of the enemy warlocks, and the boxes on the pallet we were using blasted open. The energy sent me flying back a few steps, so I dove to the ground. My crazy-ass soul-pledged didn’t duck. The idiot yelled out a spell and sent vines flying at our enemies. Another spell came flying at him and hit him in the chest.
Izzy grunted as he flew backward into the wall.
“Iz!” I yelled as I quickly pulled on my magic to form a wall of sorts in front of him.
My magic wouldn’t burn me, so putting my arms over my head to block incoming blasts, I rushed behind the wall of my magic to Isiah’s side. He was panting, and there was blood pooling on his chest. I yanked his shirt up, put my hand over top of his wound, and pushed my magic out to heal him. Izzy grunted and gritted his teeth as his skin knitted back together. Luckily, it was mostly a flesh wound, not too deep. Since we shared a soul bond, my magic didn’t hurt him, either, but healing a wound was always painful, no matter who did the healing.
“Fuck. I can’t believe that bastard got me.”
“I can,” I muttered.
Izzy shot me a glare before pushing my hands off him and jumping to his feet. Before I could stop him, he ran out of my magic shield and back into the fray. Although, he was sorta using another pallet for cover, he didn’t seem too worried about protecting himself—he was determined to give me a heart attack, it would seem. His blasts of magic were flying everywhere, and our enemies were throwing even more magical blasts at him. He was going to get himself killed.
“Fucking hell.” I jumped to my feet and ran after him.
Izzy had managed to take out one of the witches already, so I focused on the warlock that had injured Izzy. I threw blast after blast at him. Being an enforcer for the Conclave meant I did this kind of shit all the time, so Iz and I had more stamina than most magic users. Which I used to my advantage and kept throwing more and more magic at the guy. After a few minutes, I could tell he was tiring, so I took that as my cue to dial it up.
I collected more magic into my blast and sent it at him, and this time, the asshole caught fire. With another push of power, I sent him barreling into the witch beside him. She didn’t catch fire, but she did stumble and fall to her knees.
Isiah finished off his other victim, and when he saw the witch go down, he took off running toward her—like a fucking idiot. What the hell is he thinking today? As soon as his body was clear of the pallet, the witch sent her ice magic to Isiah’s legs, making him freeze in place. Izzy threw a huge earth-ball blast at her, but she dodged it. I sent my fire magic to Izzy’s legs to unfreeze him, and the idiot ran after her again instead of taking cover.
It was like he was trying to get himself killed. For fuck’s sake.
I ran after him, but he was several feet in front of me, and the witch was on the other side of him. I couldn’t hit her with him in the way.
The witch got three good blasts on Izzy, missing him with the first two shots, but hitting his shoulder with the last. He grunted out his pain, then managed to use his lilac-smelling magic to wrap the witch in a vine so tight, she could barely breathe, let alone shoot us with magic.
Isiah stopped, breathing heavily, and I almost ran into him but stopped just shy of knocking him down. When I saw his fingers twitching, I said, “Don’t, Iz. You stopped her.”
“She deserves to die,” he said, panting.
“I agree, but that isn’t for us to decide.”
He didn’t respond.
Gently, I placed my hand between his shoulder blades and whispered, “This isn’t her, Iz. Don’t punish this woman for another’s crimes.”
His jaw ticked. “She was going to sacrifice that woman.”
“I know, but we stopped her.”
“Do you know what they sacrifice after a human?”
“Yes.” Of course, I knew what the dark magic sacrificial ceremonies included. It was knowledge I wish I’d never had to find out, and definitely glad I’d never seen in person. Iz wasn’t that lucky.
“They would’ve moved on to a magic user next.”
I stepped in front of Izzy, moving my hand to his shoulder and cutting off his view of the evil witch. “We stopped them before it came to that. We saved that human.”
He was looking over my shoulder, but then he finally met my eyes. Anyone else probably would’ve only seen the burning anger in his eyes, but I could see the hurt and fear underneath.
Before either of us could say another word, the warehouse’s doors burst open and twelve more enforcers walked in. Our backup had arrived, just in time for cleanup—surprise, surprise.
I turned to the team leader, quickly explained the situation, and after I was sure they had it under control, I refocused on Isiah. He hadn’t moved a muscle the entire time I’d talked. When he finally noticed he had my full attention again, he lost some of the tension in his shoulders.
Izzy stared at me, still breathing hard, searched me over for injuries and asked, “Were you hit?”
I shook my head and grabbed the back of his neck. “I’m fine. Are you okay, Izzy? You scared the shit out of me.”
He got that ridiculous grin over his face, the one he wore when he was out kicking ass and looking cocky as hell. “You know I’m hard to kill, babe.”
My stomach did a somersault from his stupid words and from the babe. He didn’t call me that very often anymore, but every time he did, it filled me with regret and hope and cold and warmth and… I didn’t know what else. “Don’t be an idiot, Isiah. You could’ve been killed.”
“But I wasn’t.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “And what do you think would’ve happened to me if you were?”
The cocky grin fell off his face, and his voice softened. “I’m sorry I worried you.”
“How about be sorry for being a dumbass.”
“Usually I’m the one giving you this lecture, so maybe you should come off your high horse.” That was true enough, but he was supposed to be the brains of this operation, not me.