Bacchus turned and marched toward Raven, throwing a spell at Elsie that thickened the air around her. She might as well have been walking through a ball of yarn. She saw the glimmering rune ahead of her, but reaching it was like trying to breathe honey.
Bacchus grabbed Master Raven by the lapels and shoved him onto the floor. Master Raven’s clothing stiffened around him, making him look more like a nutcracker than a man. Pinning one of his hands down, Bacchus made the wood mold up around it and harden into a shackle.
Elsie, lungs struggling to breathe, reached the rune and untied it. The return of normal gravity had her collapsing to the floor, gasping for air.
“Now that I have your attention,” said a sweet voice. Elsie whirled around to see Merton near the center paddock door, dressed in simple violet, her gray hair pulled back into a thin twist. The smile on her face faltered. “We have a spellbreaker on the loose, Master Kelsey.”
She pointed not at Elsie, but at Irene, who had again freed herself and was crawling toward Ogden. Standing, Bacchus motioned his right forward, and a burst of wind swept across the barn, picking Irene up off her feet and slamming her into the alley doors.
“Stop!” Elsie cried, running for her friend, but a rune sparked to life near her knees, thickening the air once more. This time, however, it was only the air around her legs.
“Ogden!” Elsie screamed.
Ogden shook his head. His face was red and perspiring from his struggle against Bacchus’s spell. “I can’t get to her! She has the same thing Phillips had . . .” The air tingled as a rational spell swam to Merton. “No, not the same. Different—”
“You’re so noisy on your own, Cuthbert,” Merton said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. Her gaze moved to Master Raven. “After all these years, this is how we meet? I was hoping it would be on friendlier terms.”
Master Raven spat in Merton’s direction.
She was unfazed, her eyes shifting to Elsie. “I still want to have a real chat, my dear. Just you and I.”
Incredulous, Elsie didn’t know what to say. She bent over and untied the spell holding her in place.
“I’ll let him go if you come with me.”
She froze. Merton didn’t mean Master Raven.
Elsie’s gaze moved to Bacchus, who stood guard over the American, waiting for his next command. He was straight and unmoving, yet in his eyes Elsie saw despair. Resistance.
Blinking to clear her vision, Elsie whispered, “Where is it? The spell?”
“Really?” Merton complained, but she was looking past Elsie. “You can’t stay down?”
Elsie turned to see Irene freeing Ogden from his binds.
“It really is pointless to keep you alive.” She waved a hand, and Bacchus raised his.
“Bacchus, no!” Elsie ran toward him. The air crackled as lightning shot from his fingertips.
Elsie intercepted it, feeling a jolt up her arm as she dis-spelled the blast just as she had with Nash at Seven Oaks.
“Impressive!” Merton cheered. “You’re such a wonderful asset, Elsie. Surely we can work things out. I’ll move on without you if I must, but—”
Elsie didn’t hear what else the psychotic woman had to say, because Bacchus sent out another blast, this one sailing past Elsie and slamming into the alley door. Which, Elsie noted, also had floor growth up and over it, preventing escape. Ogden dodged the blow and sprinted toward Merton.
Bacchus ran to intercept him. The men collided. Bacchus was larger, but Ogden was dense and strong in his own right. Bacchus’s left hand came up to Ogden’s windpipe and squeezed.
“Stop!” Elsie darted forward and grabbed Bacchus’s arm, trying to wrench it back. She succeeded, but Bacchus’s hand leapt at her like a viper, a rune of speed glittering into existence before Elsie’s eyes. His fingers grabbed her bodice and threw her with alarming force. Her dress tore, and she hit the floorboards hard on her shoulder, hissing through her teeth as pain radiated across her collarbone. Bruised, but not broken.
Bacchus shoved Ogden back, and a rune twisted around his feet, fusing him to the floor. Whipping around, Bacchus sent another wind spell over Elsie’s head to where Irene was trying to reach Raven. Raven still had one free hand, and the barn sang with his spells.
Merton laughed. “Your curses won’t work on me, old man.”
“Merton, stop this!” Elsie pushed herself onto her knees. “You want to talk, let’s talk!”
Merton smiled. “Later, dear. When we’re not so distracted.”
Raven shifted his attention to Bacchus, and a spell hummed over Elsie’s head, striking him. He faltered, suddenly clumsy. Elsie took the opportunity to rush to Ogden and free him.
A sensation like a cool breath washed over Elsie’s skin as Ogden joined the assault, sending a rational spell into Bacchus’s mind. Bacchus grabbed his head and roared. Lightning started streaking from him in every direction, a bolt nearly hitting Raven. The walls of the barn began to groan and shift as though caught in a storm—but Bacchus couldn’t cast two spells at once. That had to be Merton employing a physical spell. If she’d brought a large enough arsenal of opus spells, they were going to lose.
Elsie scrambled to Raven and freed one of his feet before lightning hit the back of her thigh. She screamed and jerked away, putting out the small flames erupting on her skirt. It burned terribly. Irene flew to her side, limping, helping with Raven. One of Bacchus’s fists found a home in Ogden’s face, breaking the rational spellmaker’s hold on him.
Raven, free, ran to the alley doors behind them. Bacchus’s attention shot to him, and the entire barn began to shake with another earthquake.
All the while Merton watched them, tapping a folded opus page against her shoulder, as though she had all the time in the world to see Bacchus destroy them. Why didn’t she just use the spell and end it? She’d have Ogden’s and Bacchus’s opuses to add to her collection. She’d lock Elsie up, kill Irene, torture Raven for more information—
It was so strange, the way she nonchalantly stood there as violence erupted around her. Merton never partook in the violence. She’d run from the dinner at Seven Oaks when Nash attacked. She’d hired and controlled lackeys to kill, kidnap, and steal on her behalf—and always kept far away in the aftermath. The two times she’d risked revealing herself to Elsie, in jail and in Philips’s cellar, she’d done so as an astral projection.
Squinting, Elsie studied Merton.
I can’t get to her! She has the same thing Phillips had, Ogden had said. No, not the same. Different . . .
How could two guard spells against rational invasion be different?
Why had Merton cast only one opus spell, and on the barn walls, no less?
A spell that could be cast from outside?
Elsie gasped. Merton didn’t have a protection spell against Ogden. And Master Raven’s curses would work against her.
That was, if Merton were really here.
This was an astral projection. It had to be. But it was so crisp, so pristine . . . Merton had to be very close to make it this realistic.
Elsie pulled the spiritual aspector up and shoved him in Irene’s direction. “Get Raven out!”
Irene grabbed Master Raven’s arm and bolted for the back alley door.
Bacchus whirled on them, still clumsy from his spiritual curse. Lightning flashed from his hands—
Elsie didn’t stop to see where it landed. She rushed for the nearest paddock door and dived through its window, her skirts getting caught twice. Something bit into her knee as she struggled to free the material. She landed, swallowing a cry as she hurt her bruised shoulder. Dust flew into her mouth, and wild grass stabbed her eye. She found her footing and stood, a chill running down her torso as night air seeped through the tear in her dress, showing off a handful of chemise underneath.