Inked

mage,” I said, gasping in surprise and pain.
    Grayshadow paused, his face twisted in anger. He looked like he thought I should be dead. And I probably would have been, if I hadn’t been storing up my magic for most of the day. But that reserve was mostly expended now, along with my remaining strength. My legs felt like jelly and I had to fold my arms to keep them from shaking.
    He threw another volley at me, combining the brute force of wild magic with the speed of a Were. It was a deadly combination. The best I could do was to deflect it and send it crashing into the railing, melting a section larger than my body. Grayshadow scowled, watching metal drip down the side of the channel, while I struggled not to let my shields collapse completely.
    “Wild magic is difficult to control,” I told him, trying not to wheeze. My whole body was clamoring for rest, for oblivion, but I couldn’t afford to look like it. “You’ve obviously been doing some studying.”
    “Do not presume to think you know me, human.”
    “Laurentia of Lobizon was my mother,” I reminded him.
    “You are human .”
    Great. The only one who agreed with me was the bad guy.
    “Pot, kettle. If you didn’t have some human blood yourself, you wouldn’t be a mage. Somewhere back in the family tree—”
    “You know nothing about me!”
    “I know you murder your own kind.”
    Rage paled his eyes to silver. “Better that than have them remain enslaved to the humans!”
    “As opposed to what? Enslaved to the Fey?” It had been a stab in the dark, just something to keep him talking instead of tearing out Cyrus’s throat. But I saw when it hit home. “That’s how you developed your talents, isn’t it? There are almost no Weres born with magical ability, and certainly none as strong as you.”
    “Because your people made the substance that would free us illegal! Your only advantage over us is your monopoly on magic. Break that, and Weres will rule instead of serve!”
    I didn’t try to point out that Weres in no way served the magical community, much less the Corps to whom they were much more likely to give orders than to take them. Because you don’t argue with a madman. And unless I was very much mistaken, that’s what I was dealing with here. His voice was husky with feverish vehemence, his eyes were bloodshot and his hands shook.
    “What substance?” Cyrus demanded, shifting Grayshadow’s attention back to where I least wanted it to be.
    “Fey wine,” I said, scowling at him. “It brings out all sorts of latent talents.”
    “It also drives people mad,” Cyrus pointed out, glaring right back. He must have guessed how close to bottoming out I was, or maybe he was picking up on my thoughts as I’d done his. Damn it, Lia! Get out of here!
    The words rang in my head as loudly as if he’d spoken them. How the hell did you do that? I demanded, but got only a scowl in return.
    “The weak-minded, perhaps,” Grayshadow was saying, with the arrogance of all addicts. “It will weed out the feeble among us, enhance the power of the strong and make us invincible!”
    “And subject you to the whims of your suppliers,” I pointed out again, trying to calculate how long it would take Jamie and Caleb to find us. Too long , echoed in my mind. I wasn’t sure if it was my thought or Cyrus’s, but either way, it was likely correct.
    “The Fey are weak. They fight amongst themselves too much to be anything else.”
    “And we don’t?” Cyrus demanded, pulling those flat, silver eyes back to him.
    “Once Sebastian and his human sympathies no longer divide us, that will cease to be a problem.”
    “Good plan,” I said. “Unfortunately, there will be a dozen war mages here in a couple minutes to drag you off to face charges ranging from kidnapping to murder.”
    It was a lie, because I doubted Jamie and Caleb had the bars underground to call for backup, even if they’d managed to avoid getting their phones drowned. But there was no way for Grayshadow to know that. And if he got spooked enough, maybe he’d decide that a discredited war mage and an outcast who nobody would believe weren’t worth the trouble.
    “I answer to wolf law,” Grayshadow told me haughtily, before glancing around like he expected my backup to come crawling out of a drainage ditch. Which, okay, fair enough.
    “Wolf law takes a dim view of those who kill Clan.”
    “This one is vargulf ,” Grayshadow said, glancing scornfully at Cyrus. “No one cares