Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (52 page)

45.
MISCALCULATIONS

W
hat
on earth
was Dominic waiting for, Leesa wondered?
From her hiding place among the mountain laurel
s
, she had watched the whole thing. The black waziri had seemed powerful and confident as they first approached Dominic’s avatar.
Then
s
he had seen the look of uncertainty
bloom
upon the
ir
faces as their magic was suddenly
sucked out of them. The uncertainty
had been replaced by expressions
of fear when Dominic appeared
behi
nd them. So why hadn’t he attacked
, destroying them with t
he full force of his magic now that
their powers were weakened
?
She saw no reason he should be hesitating—the black waziri were his sworn enemy. Two quick bolts of yellow-white magic would wipe them from the face of the earth. Whoever the other two were, they could not be nearly as powerful as the black wizards. Dominic could choose to destroy t
hem or not—but destroy the renegade
waziri he must. 

He was farther from her
hid
ing place than the others
, so she had difficulty seeing his face. There was something about his posture, though.
He looked deflated
, as if he had
somehow
lost his advantage.
That must be it, she thought—unexpectedly,
Dominic’s magic had
become
diminished as well.
But how?
He had assured her on their last phone call that he could see t
he magical boundary and
would stay safely behind it. So what had happened?

She remembered the
sudden,
earthquake-like rumblings beneath the ground when she had been with Rave. Had something similar j
ust occurr
ed? Had the fell spirit
s beneath the volkaane village stirred once again,
at the worst possible moment,
temporarily expand
ing the boundary
of their power
and weakening Dominic’s magic?
It wouldn’t have been anything
intentional—Dominic had said whatever
powers
resided deep in the ground
were not fully awake and that the victims of the
ir
magic were as insignificant as insects—but intent did not matter. It might be just an unlucky whim of fate, but
it was
one that would seal Dominic’s doom.
If
his magic had indeed diminished,
he was
at the mercy of his enemies.
Even in their weakened condition, she knew the black waziri pos
sessed the power to kill him
.
There was no way he could stand against
two of them
, let alone their two unknown allies.

Her eyes flicked to the
avatar. The thing was almost an exact copy of Dominic, except for one
important
thing—it did not possess
any of
Dominic’s magic
al
powers. Its sole magic was its very existence, nothing more. The avatar would
be of little
help against the enemy.

Leesa
did
n
o
t know wh
at to do.
Her nascent magic was virtually useless in its present state. Still, she could not let Dominic face his foes alone.
They were all looking toward Dominic now. Perhaps from b
ehind
,
taking them by surprise,
she could do something to help him…but what?

Hidden f
arther back among the trees,
Jenna watched with increasing anxiety as the confrontation unfolded. She had hoped to remain an unseen witness to it all, to do what she usually did—observe and learn. But when Dominic’s magic weakened, she knew the wizard’s da
ngerous plan had failed.
Leesa could do nothing to help him, but Jenna
knew her
friend was going to
try.
If Leesa and Dominic were to be saved, Jenna knew it was up to her.
Well,
up
to her companions, anyhow.

She wished she had never inserted herself into Leesa’s mind, under the guise of reinforcing Leesa’s magic. She had done it almost instinctively, driven by her
insatiable
desire to collect knowledge. The chance to be inside the mind of an apprentice wizard had been too tempting to pass up.
She hadn’t meant any harm, and she hadn’
t
intended to do anything with the things she learned.
That all changed after she listened to Dominic sharing
his r
isky plan with Leesa. Jenna had still hoped she would not have to get involved, but she had begun putting her own plan into motion, just in case.

She turned and looked at the four vampires behind her. Even asking Kristi for help had been dangerous, because it meant revealing to Marcio exactly how he had come to find Kristi in the first place. Jenna hadn’t been sure what his r
eaction would
be
—as
Marcio
had said, meddling in the affairs of vampires was a dangerous game to play.
Fortunately, his gratitude mirrored Kristi’s
,
and
the love the two felt for each other far outweighed the anger he felt at being manipulated. So
he had agreed to help. The other two vampires were an unexpected
bonus—and a
s things looked now, a very fortuitous
one. Jenna had seen
Dara and
Genevieve once before. The
two women
had been with
Marcio
when he turned Kristi. They were here now, Jenna had learned, because the vampires were forbidden to leave the caverns unless there were at least three of them.

Dominic had told Leesa there would be only two wizards, but there were four. Without Dara and Genevieve, Jenna’s plan would have been useless.
She thanked the stars for small favors.

Her plan was a deceptively simple one.
Unlike the wizards’ magic, the vampires’ strength and speed were not diminished.
With surprise on their side, the vampires should be more than a match for the weakened wizards. Until a moment ago, Jenna had still hoped that she and her vampire companions could remain hidden and apart from the fray, but that all changed when Dominic’s magic weakened.

“The time has come,” she whispered to her vampire companions. “You must kill the wizards.”

Marcio shook his head.
Jenna saw regret in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Jenna. We cannot.”

Marcio’
s
refusal shocked her
. “But you agreed,” she said.
“You said you were sure you could
slay
the wizards
if their magic was weakened.”

“I know. But you said
there would be only two of them
. Instead, there are four.”

Jenna
still
didn’t understand. Surely each vampire could kill a weakened wizard.

“So? There are four of you.
One for each wizard
.
”

“Kristi is too new and inexperienced for this
task
,” Marcio said. “I had meant for her merely to watch.” He put his arm around Kristi’s waist. “I will not risk her, which means we are one short.
So unless you can defeat one of the wizards, there’s nothing we can do.
I’m sorry.”

Jenna’s heart sank.
There was no way she could pos
sibly defeat one of the wizards
with her magic so weakened.
All her effort had been for naught.
She tried to think of something she could do, but there was nothing. Dominic was done for. And unless Leesa remained hidden, she would die, too. And Jenna was powerless to stop it.

A moment later,
Leesa stepped out from
her hiding place
.

46.
A DESPERATE GAMBLE

L
ying hidden with her cheek pressed to the ground, L
eesa knew she had to do something. And it had to be quickly
if she was going to save Dominic
. She wracked her brain for an idea.

Her strongest power was telekinesis.
It was the one she had used the longest and the most often, and with the most success.
But in her weakened state, she didn’t think she could move anything large enough to frighten or even concern the wizards. Her eyes flicked about the woods, searching desperately for something she could use. She saw nothing
but
dead leaves,
broken
twigs
and one rusty old beer can
. Sending a few leaves or twigs flying
through the air
might surprise the black waziri, but that was about all. It would certainly not threaten them.
She needed something different, something much more dangerous.

A sudden inspiration struck her. She looked upward, into the sprawling oak under which the wizards stood. Perhaps
she could use gravity to augment
her
diminished
power
, she thought
.
In just a moment
, she found what she was looking for. She crossed her fingers that it would work.

The branch was one of the lower
ones, an offshoot of a giant
limb
that extended from the trunk fifteen or twenty feet above the ground. It wasn’t very thick—
no more than
three inches—
but it wasn’t the
size that interested Leesa
.
What drew her to this particular branch
was the large crack
about four
feet from
where it
grew out from
its larger neighbor.
Now if she could just exert enough mental force to break the branch completely….