After a tense moment, Purcell turned and walked away. “Bring her.”
Cyn picked her up again and followed Purcell down a short hallway where the offices were. Purcell opened the door to the second room, allowing Cyn to carry her in.
In a wooden cabinet lined with black velvet sat a reactor roughly two feet long and six inches wide. Energy pulsed all around it, as thick in the air as her pulse was in her blood. Purcell took her hand and pressed it against the smooth surface. Its energy charged through her so intensely that she gasped.
He pulled it back. “Now, go back to the main area.”
Ruby slid to her feet, not having to pretend to adjust to the power rocketing through her. She and Cyn exchanged a nod and Catalyzed.
Purcell used his magick to throw Cyn against the wall, shouting, “Carew! Balston, get in here!” Purcell turned to her, his eyes as wild as the aurora borealis. He held out his hand, and she ducked as a fireball shot over her.
She didn’t see the second one that followed right behind the first. It hit her squarely in the stomach with a fiery heat and hurled her to the floor. Cyn blew out a dark cloud that surrounded Purcell, though he was using magick to dispel it.
Ruby grabbed the reactor and raced to the door as the two guards rushed in. She barreled into one, knocking him to the side. Cyn fought the other man, fangs against orbs.
Like a football player, she tucked the reactor against her chest with her chin and ran. That was the part of the plan she didn’t like, leaving Cyn behind.
Because of Brom’s vision.
So she would take it away, hide it, and come back to fight with him. Except the back door opened and Magda stepped inside, turned away as she argued with someone behind her. “You have no right to be here yet.”
The man was saying, “I need to know where—”
She suddenly spun around to face Ruby. “I thought I sensed a Dragon.” Her gaze narrowed in on the reactor. “Oh, no you don’t.” She Catalyzed, and the man behind her ran inside. It was Fernandez, who, unlike Magda, wasn’t surprised to see Ruby. Because he’d no doubt followed them here.
Magda pointed at the reactor in Ruby’s grip. “She’s trying to steal the device that will save us! Help me stop her.”
Oh, hell. Of course he would. Fernandez Catalyzed, too, a black-and-blue Dragon like Cyn. Ruby couldn’t fight and hold the reactor at the same time. It slipped from her grasp. Fernandez went for it as Magda charged at her. Ruby tried to dodge, but like an oncoming car in a game of chicken, Magda changed angles and rammed her.
Ruby shattered the hostess stand when she landed on it. Before she could get to her feet, Magda pounded on her. Fangs glistened as they came at her. Ruby deflected, feeling them scratch across her scales with the ear-shattering screech of nails on a chalkboard. Ruby braced against the floor and shoved Magda off of her. She rolled, coming up on her feet, ready to attack again.
Where was Cyn? She could hear thumps down the hall.
Focus. Fearing for Cyn’s safety would not help her.
Magda advanced on Ruby, whipping her tail equipped with that fatal stinger. “You killed my husband.”
Ruby sent a stream of spikes at her, trying to sever the deadly tail. “You killed my parents,” Ruby said, her voice a snarl. “My uncle. And now I’m going to kill you.”
Magda laughed. “You’re a babe. Without your big, bad Obsidian Dragon, you’re helpless.” She pointed the black tip of her tail at Ruby, sending a shower of small flares at her. Three hit her, penetrating her scales and sending what felt like electrical shocks pulsing through her. The muscles in her right leg seized, cramping like the worst charley horse ever.
“The. Hell. I. Am.” Ruby stretched her leg, trying to regain control of it. Magda lunged forward, and Ruby surrounded her with a firestorm the same way she’d done with the demon.
Magda screamed and shook off the flames. Before the last of them were out, Ruby sent fiery spikes at her face. Even temporarily blinded, Magda shot more of those damned darts, hitting Ruby’s shoulders. Pain radiated down her arms and paralyzed her hands.
Purcell burst out of the hallway. “Where’s the reactor?” he screamed.
Magda blindly pointed at the doorway as she kept her focus on Ruby. “That Guard Captain grabbed it when she dropped it.”
“Who, Fernandez? He was here?”
Was, but not anymore. He was gone. And so was the reactor.
Magda screeched, “He must have taken it!”
Purcell raised his hand and began to create an orb. A green one, like the kind that killed Mon. Cyn dove out, knocking Purcell to the ground. The orb disappeared. God, Cyn was bleeding, the red of it streaking down his chest. A huge bubble orb surrounded Purcell as Cyn lunged forward to attack. Cyn bounced back from it, then inhaled and encompassed it in black smoke. Like a living thing, it squeezed the bubble.
Magda took advantage of Ruby’s distraction and knocked her to the ground, landing hard on top of her. Magda lifted her tail, like a scorpion, and readied to lance her with it. Ruby could only reach Magda’s arm, but she bit hard just as the tail was coming down. Magda screamed as scales broke and bones snapped. The tip still jabbed into Ruby’s thigh, sending shocks through her entire lower half. A series of seizures overtook her body, smashing over her like wave after wave. Magda crept closer with a cruel smile to deliver the final blow. And damn it, Ruby couldn’t move as her body convulsed.
Cyn threw himself between Ruby and Magda, lashing out at her with his talons. Using the element of surprise, he knocked Magda down and lunged toward her throat. A green bolt of lightning hit him in the neck, tearing through the scales and into muscle. It threw him back with a grunt of pain. He sent an arrow of black smoke hurtling back at Purcell. It speared his shoulder, making him stumble back.
The bolt raced back around again, aiming for Cyn. Oh, God, it was those horrible moments at Mon’s all over again. Cyn dodged the bolt and sprinted away from her, probably so she wouldn’t get hit accidentally. He left a trail of blood on the floor.
Please let him be all right.
The wound looked severe, but it was already beginning to heal itself.
She saw no sign of the other two men, so she assumed they must be dead. From the corner of her vision, she saw Magda about to strike. Ruby whirled around and shot spikes of fire at her eyes. Several hit the vulnerable area Cyn had told her about, tearing away strips of skin. Magda roared, whipping her tail ominously as she circled Ruby. Hell, the aftershocks of the last attack still sparked through her.
Ruby could only see Cyn and Purcell from her peripheral vision as she faced Magda. The bubble around Purcell kept Cyn from doing much damage to him. He could hardly do much anyway as he fended off the damned star orb that was intent on impaling him. Killing Purcell was the only way to defeat it. And Ruby couldn’t help with Magda deviling her, even with her destroyed arm. Now she needed to disable her tail.
Every time Ruby checked on Cyn, Magda took advantage and tried to attack. So this is where emotions weakened. Cyn kept pounding it in that Ruby use her logic instead of letting emotion drive her.
But wait. Ruby could use Magda’s emotions against her. “Too bad you didn’t have a man who would give you everything you wanted. Oh, how you must have hated when my father was the one who figured out the solution for portable Deus Vis.”
Golden flames burst in Magda’s eyes. “Shut up.”
“I remember how sad you were when you kept miscarrying. I can imagine how hard it was when my mother got pregnant so easily. Did she rub that in your face, too, or did you just see her happiness that way?”