“Let’s hope.” I pushed away from him lest I lose my nerve. “Showtime.”

My people were waiting in the front, all in human form, all seemingly calm and ready. Austin’s Jeep waited by the curb, the top off.

Ulric reached out and squeezed my arm supportively. “We’ve got this, Miss Jessie.”

I smiled, nodding to Mr. Tom and the others as I passed them.

“No fancy car today?” I asked, turning to Austin.

“Nope.” He stopped by the passenger door, in case I needed a hand in. “They get plain old me today. No bells and whistles.”

“I don’t think they are going to like plain old you. I have a feeling they will rethink their treatment of the bells-and-whistles you.”

“I think you’re right.”

Sebastian and the basajaun climbed in after us, the basajaun completely scrunched in the smallish back seat with his legs half hanging over the side, and Sebastian sitting as far to the right as possible, squished against the roll bar.

“I’m now starting to rethink this driving idea,” Sebastian murmured.

Austin started the Jeep, and my people shed their clothes, Niamh giving me a thumbs-up before changing into her nightmare alicorn form.

“You’ll do great, miss,” Mr. Tom yelled after me as Austin made his way down the street.

I felt Sebastian touch my arm from the back seat. “It’ll be okay. You have a lot of people around you who will make sure nothing happens to you.”

I took a deep breath. “I’m not concerned about me. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

I thought I heard him mutter, “Ironheart,” before he squeezed my arm and pulled back.

The banquet hall was on the outskirts of town. As Austin maneuvered the Jeep down the narrow road, I felt my people on their way, high in the sky. I couldn’t see any shifters, but they’d never required invisibility spells to blend into the woods. The saffron-yellow sunlight was starting to fade by the time we reached the top of the hill, the mountain at our backs and the valley spanning out in front of us. This time, large passenger vans filled the lot instead of limos. It was obvious they weren’t here to square-dance, and judging by the quantity, nearly a dozen, it was equally as clear that they had a great many people.

Nervousness tightened my gut. The sound of the Jeep’s engine vibrated through the silence as Austin slowed down. Sebastian tapped my arm and passed up a vial, the revealing serum. Since we’d already discussed the likelihood that Kinsella would take a sneakier approach this time, hiding the mages’ scents too, Austin also downed one of the vials. Bodies started popping into view.

Austin stopped at the beginning of the long driveway, the expansive lawn off to the left showcasing a picturesque white gazebo nestled into bright pink and blue flowers. The hill dropped away just beneath it, probably a steep slope to the valley below. A lone figure waited within the gazebo wearing a long black robe. He hadn’t taken an invisibility potion, but everyone else around him had—mages clustered around the gazebo, lined up on either side, and loitered around the trees on my side of the car, too, at the base of the mountain.

“What a showboat,” Sebastian said, clearly talking about Kinsella waiting for me in the gazebo.

“I don’t understand why he went to the trouble of dosing them all with invisibility potion, knowing I can just create a revealing serum.” Part of me wanted to sit on my shaking hands. I’d come to realize that the calm leading up to the battle greatly tested my courage. “Or did he think I’d keep it from the shifters?”

Sebastian chuckled low. “He has clearly spent the last two days making or procuring the very best he can get. He probably doesn’t think your revealing spell is powerful enough to show his people. He’s a fool who didn’t pay attention the other night. And no, he surely doesn’t think you gave all the shifters the revealing potion. Or that you could make so much in such a short time. Of course, he also doesn’t know you had help.” Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a vial being passed. “Here, basajaun. So you can see the surprise on their faces when you charge them away from the gazebo.”

“Jess.” Austin turned to me, a bleak look in his eyes. “This mage came to our territory, insulted us, and now plans to attack us on our own ground. That has to be grounds for an excusal from the Mages’ Guild. We have to end this brutally. We have to make a statement. This isn’t the time to show mercy. Make sure mercenaries everywhere use you—us—as a cautionary tale. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I said, sensing the truth in that. People would continue coming if they thought we were weak or lenient. “I just wish we were fighting Elliot Graves so we could end this once and for all.”

“If this goes how I think it’ll go,” Sebastian said, “Domino Kinsella won’t be the only one who hears the message. We ready?”

Austin turned off the engine and swung his legs out the open door. Apparently we’d be walking a ways.

As if hearing my thought, Austin said, “I want them to see what the big, hairy beast in the back is as he is running at them.”

“Yes. That will be a better approach.” The basajaun’s hair bristled, making him look just that much bigger. He crawled out over the back of the car. “Should I go now?”

“No.” Austin stripped off his shirt. “Jess and I will make the first approach. When they attack, we counter.”

“Miss Jessie,” Sebastian said, grabbing my arm. “Remember that shield spell we went over. Use it. Keep it around you at all times. It’ll keep his spells off you.”

I nodded and pulled it around me right then. Austin slipped out of his pants and immediately changed into his polar bear form. He started forward, and I kept pace, walking with my head held high, my body brimming with magic. Time to show Kinsella the goods. Maybe he’d be smart, apologize, and leave.

Fat chance.

Kinsella’s people watched us approach, having created a funnel for us to walk down—a funnel that closed in behind us as we passed them, separating us from the basajaun. My heart beat faster, the pulse joined by Austin’s. Our link was not just from Ivy House now, but from the strengthening bond growing between us. It comforted me. Energized me. Gave me just a bit more courage.

“He isn’t even trying to hide that he’s an animal anymore, hmm?” Kinsella gave Austin a look of pure disgust as we approached.

“Just like you aren’t trying to hide your ridiculous taste in clothing. What is that, a nightshirt?” I stopped just before the gazebo. My people weren’t far away, having stopped at the base of the hill to keep out of sight. I looked around. “No champagne? When I show up to dinner and dancing, I typically expect some sort of libation.”

“I likely won’t get any sort of status boost when I kill you and all your animals, but at least I will let Elliot Graves know that he is nothing. There is some consolation in that.”

“You sure do know how to make a woman feel treasured. Speaking of, where’s your date? Or have you put away the Viagra for the night?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, and I actually found myself laughing.

“Struck a nerve with that one, did I?” I laughed harder.

“I will enjoy killing you,” he spat.

“Actually, you won’t even enjoy trying.”

He threw out his hands, a zip of light speeding through the air at me. I braced myself, but the shield took it easily, the spell like one I’ve used before, but with more bells and whistles.

His spell bounced off, fractured, then enhanced, increasing in power as it sprayed back at him. He screeched and dove out of the back of the gazebo. Two of his people, waiting behind him, threw up their hands as the spell sliced right through them. He’d shot a nasty spell at me, and an even nastier one had been sent back.

Austin stood up on his hind legs and roared, the sound rumbling through the ground and crowding the air. Everyone in the area flinched and then cowered, unable to help themselves. A loud bang came from the banquet door. It flew off its hinges and tumbled onto the walkway. Men and women in black poured out of the door, all dressed the same, holding weapons and moving with lethal economy. Magical mercenaries.

An answering roar rode the tail of Austin’s call, and then the basajaun launched himself into the fray, his long legs and hairy body quickly eating the distance between him and the enemy. He was at the gazebo in no time, his large teeth flashing, his arms swinging, and the enemies’ eyes rounded comically.

“It’s Bigfoot!” someone shouted, the pitch much too high for a man but coming from one all the same. “It’s Bigfoot, save yourselves!”

Kinsella swallowed down a potion as the invisible people around me rushed forward, firing spells at us. Austin lowered and rushed right, out of my protective bubble and not worried about it. He swiped a woman with his great paw, smashing her to the side, before lunging forward and biting through a man’s face.

My belly rolled and I turned away, my defensive spell doing my work for me. Even still, I zipped off a few more spells as the basajaun scooped someone up, bashed their head on the ground, and then threw them over the lip of the hill. He charged someone else, who immediately reduced down into a little ball of person, his arms over his head, shaking. He wasn’t going to try to defend himself, too scared of the giant beast charging him. The basajaun’s laughter at what he perceived a great joke made his incredible violence that much more gruesome.

“Jessie, Kinsella!” Sebastian stood in the center of the driveway, his own shield up and taking fire. He had just enough time to fling up a hand.

Kinsella had slipped out of the melee, coward that he was, and was now sprinting for the banquet hall.

But Austin and I were surrounded, under constant firepower, and their sheer numbers were doing the work for them.

Shifters exploded out of the trees at the base of the mountain. Wolves, big cats, a couple of bears, and one hippopotamus, of all things. Another group charged over the edge of the hill and onto the grass, a great Siberian tiger, Kingsley, leading the charge.