Magic Rises

in a wide arc. Curran moved forward. Hugh tossed the sword to his left hand, so fast it was as if he had two swords and one had disappeared, and slashed at Curran’s side. Curran lunged forward, but Hugh danced away. Damn it.
    The short woman grabbed my hair. I stabbed her in the foot, sliced the bend of her knee, waited half a second for her to crash down, and slit her throat.
    The two remaining Iron Dogs stopped. I crouched by the body, keeping my weight on my left knee.
    “What the fuck,” Hugh snarled. “Look at her, she’s half-dead. She isn’t even on her last leg. She can’t fucking stand and she’s cutting you down like you’re children. Bring her to me alive. Now, or I’ll kill you myself.”
    The two Iron Dogs advanced: a dark-skinned man, lean and hard, and a bigger, stockier blond in his early thirties.
    Hugh struck forward, thrusting to the upper chest. Curran dodged left. Hugh flipped his sword and slashed at Curran’s neck. Curran thrust forward, fast, aiming for Hugh’s left side with his huge claws. Hugh clamped his arm and stabbed Curran in the stomach. The blade sank in almost to the hilt. Hugh let go and leaped out of range.
    The blond was close enough. I shot up from my half-crouch. I couldn’t feel my leg, but it obeyed. I slashed across the blond’s chest, knocked aside his desperate thrust, and smashed my forehead into his face. He stumbled. I elbowed the other Iron Dog in the throat, stabbed him in the neck, spun about, and made a hole in the blond’s liver.
    Curran was on his knees. His head sagged. Hugh was walking toward him.
    I ran. My leg folded under me and I crashed.
    “Wait your turn.” Hugh raised his sword.
    Curran surged from his knees and grabbed Hugh, jerking him off his feet and pinning his arms to his body. Hugh smashed his head into Curran’s muzzle. Curran snarled, flipped Hugh into the air as if he weighed nothing, and slammed him over the stone parapet, back down. Hugh’s spine popped like a firecracker. He screamed. Curran heaved him up and hurled him into the flames.
    Magic punched me, a bright blue explosion shooting into the night from the spot where Hugh plunged down. Curran looked down, rocked back on his feet, and fell.
    I dragged myself to him and cradled his head in my arms.
    The werelion shuddered and turned human. Gray eyes looked at me. “Hey there, ass kicker.”
    “Hello, Your Furriness.”
    I kissed his bloody lips. He kissed me back.
    “The bastard teleported,” Curran grimaced. “Can you believe that?”
    “Screw him. He’s weak.”
    “I broke his back.”
    “I heard.”
    “He’ll feel it in the morning.”
    I laughed. It came out a little bloody.
    “Did our people get out?” Curran asked.
    “Most of them.”
    “You have to go now,” he said.
    “No.”
    “Yes. Both of my legs are broken and you can’t carry me.”
    I brushed the soot from his face. “How the hell did you manage that?”
    “He used magic. The bones fused wrong. It hurts a bit.”
    It probably hurt like hell.
    “Kate,” he said. “You’ll burn to death. Leave me and try to make it down into the yard before this place collapses.”
    “In a minute I’m going to get up and drag you to the edge of the tower. Then we’re going to jump over the wall.”
    “It’s fifty feet down,” he said. “That’s called suicide.”
    “Or death on our terms.”
    “Leave me, God damn it.”
    “No. It’s my turn to save us. We’re going to jump.” I coughed. The smoke was eating my lungs. I was so tired. “I’m just going to rest half a minute. My arm hurts a little.”
    I lay next to him.
    “Will you marry me?” Curran asked.
    “You’re asking me now?”
    “Seems like a good time,” he said.
    He deserved an honest answer. “If I marry you, then you’ll be my husband.”
    “Yes, that’s how it works.”
    Smartass. “I would be dragging you down with me.”
    “I thought we covered that.”
    “When the time comes, I can’t say, ‘Don’t fight him. He’s just someone who doesn’t matter.’ We would be married.”
    “Do you expect that I would hide behind that?” he asked. “Is that how little you think of me?”
    “No. I know you wouldn’t. I know it doesn’t matter to you, because you love me. It’s just something I tell myself when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall asleep.”
    The heat was closer. We really had to get off this tower.
    “Is the offer still open?” I asked.
    He nodded.
    “It’s a yes. I would