…..CHAPTER 32…..
Oliver drew a deep breath, another, and opened his eyes. Oscar waited out of arms-reach, wisely careful not to touch him. In this place and under these circumstances, he might lash out.
But Oscar didn’t know that Oliver had long ago marked his magic to never attack Oscar. Why had he never mentioned that to him? Something he’d done and forgotten about long ago, shortly after he knew he could trust Oscar.
“You know my magic will never attack you, right?”
Oscar shook his head. “No. You can do that?”
“Like some other things, it’s one of those pieces of info I should’ve told you once you adopted me,” he said, voice quiet, keeping it between them.
Oscar smiled wryly. “Understood, Oliver. They’re here. Ready?”
Oliver nodded and stood, stretching stiff muscles, realized someone had put a thick blanket over him to ward the cold. “Ready.”
In the crystal room he found them ready to work. “There you are! Up to no good, I see!” Melinda said with a grin.
Oliver grinned back, held out his fist. She laughed at him with a bump. “As many as I requested, you had to take four cars, didn’t you?” Because their Handlers were in the observation room above, and he’d passed through on the way and saw their worried faces.
Steven smirked. “You guessed it.”
His crew was here. He’d shared magic with every single one of them but Gwen, so he knew them well, knew how they thought and behaved as witches. It was an added layer of personal knowledge that witches in the Bureau had to learn, because just being partners with someone wasn’t enough. Learning each other was just as essential in the work they did. The witches of the FBW&R were close, something the authorities—lawmakers—hadn’t anticipated.
Oliver held out his hands. “Alright, here’s what we’re looking at. It’s a Lattice spell in appearance, but the fucker’s that built this spell were clever. Two witches built it, one Earth witch with Lattice, and one Fire witch with Plasma.”
More than one eyebrow lifted and Steven sighed, closing his eyes. “Inevitably.”
Oliver gave him commiserating smile. Fire was the hardest Element to work. And Plasma—known to the layman as lightning—was the most difficult Aspect to handle within an already tempestuous Element. “I know, buddy. Because Plasma is one of your Aspects, you’ll Beta for me, with Isla as Swing. Ian, you’ll Beta for the Earth part of this working, with Sarah as Swing. Gwen, I want your eyes on the transformation as we undo this spell and be ready to Mirror the shit out of any outward shift, away from us, and preferably into the ground. Val, you’re Omega. Yes, Gwen, I know Omega’s your usual position, but Val doesn’t have Mirror. Melinda, you’re my Watcher. Anything you see that looks off, sing out.”
They nodded understanding. He glanced at Gwen, who looked pale, but determined. She was such a good kid.
Oliver turned. Once again, hands settled on his shoulders, this time Steven and Ian. Sarah put hers on Ian, Isla put hers on Steven. And in the wedge between stood Gwen, her hands settling on top of theirs. It was a literal stretch for her. Good thing he wasn’t that tall. Val put her hands on Gwen’s shoulders, and behind her Melinda placed her wide-spread hands on Sarah and Isla.
“Oh!” Gwen squeaked.
He understood. The instant Melinda settled her hands, the bridge between them all was connected, a circuit of power. This was a perfect set-up, and the balance and energy that ran between them was amazing. There was a rightness to it that would act as counter in its own way, to the wrongness of the spell inside the crystal.
First, Oliver guided Ian’s magic, showing the younger man the scab-like camouflage and telling him what he had to do. Then he explained to Steven what hid behind the Lattice spell, and that Steven was going to have to be ready, and that was the one thing that could ruin this entire endeavor. If Steven didn’t catch that plasma before it got away from him, they could all die.
The whole military base.
But Oliver knew Steven. And Steven was hell on wheels, when it came to magic. Oliver still had no idea how much of Steven’s personality—and Isaac’s, for that matter—had to do with their Fire magic. Or vice versa.
Oliver looked over his shoulder at Steven. “Are you good to catch it?”
Steven grinned. “Plasma is my jam,” he said, tilting head side-to-side to crack his neck, eyes flashing challenge.
For all his attitude and his confidence, Steven wouldn’t say he could if he couldn’t.
Steven was as good as his word.
“Sweet. Alright, listen up. Now that you’ve seen it, it’s time to undo this shit. Are you ready?”
He checked in with each one. Even Gwen was braced and ready. She was sliding right into the FBW&R dynamic, which pleased him for her sake.
“I’m going to grip you all, then, and guide. Alpha holds everyone together and guides. But Stephen and Ian are doing the hard work. I don’t expect the rest of you to have to do much, but the energy you provide will be important. And Val?”
“Yes, Alpha?”
“Keep us anchored no matter what. Understood?”
“Understood.”
“Melinda? If you see even a hint of a shift, call it.”
“Will do.” Her tone was serious and determined. She might joke and play, but in times like this, she was a rock. Gwen wasn’t the only Omega in the Bureau by any means. Melinda had experience in that role, too, though it wasn’t her preferred place in workings. She was the quintessential Swing, a witch capable of plugging any gap inside a working, outside of Alpha.
Oliver sensed their working magics shift even closer together. While in safe circumstances that was a good thing, this was far from safe. The more they clung together, the more difficult it would be to disentangle, possibly even stumbling over each other—magically speaking.
“Loosen up, my friends,” he said firmly.
They all understood except for Gwen. He heard Melinda whispering behind him, and then Gwen’s magic eased. Still holding firm, but not clinging.
Perfect. “Steven, Ian…”
They joined their magic, and Oliver cradled them both, and through them he sensed the others. His own magic united them, and the three of them poised over the spell.
“Jesus,” Ian whispered, shivering enough that Oliver felt it through the hand on his shoulder. “You sure you got this?” Ian’s voice was nervous.
Ian audibly gulped, but nodded firmly. “Yes.”
Steven gave a wild sounding cackle. “You better believe it, bud,” he said.
Oliver could almost hear the smirk in his voice. “Ready?”
“Yes,” they answered.
“Ian, go!”
Ian moved. His magic grasped the scale-like camouflage, but he didn’t pull it away until Steven’s magic, with Oliver guiding it to the place he needed it to be, was there. Ian hadn’t even finished yanking the scab off before Steven was all over the Fire inside the Lattice.
Oliver gasped, shifting all of his power to Steven, felt Isla bolstering Steven, too, while Sarah magically jerked Ian to safety, away from the Plasma that boiled furiously, trying to escape.
Oliver pulled on the power offered from Sarah and Ian, sensed Gwen’s sharp shift as she used her Mirror effect to send the energy back into their spell, aiding and abetting their efforts.
“Shit,” Steven grunted, hands blazing such fierce red that Oliver closed his eyes, drawing on the magic around them further, pouring all his own energy and everything he could get his hands on, into Steven’s reservoir, watching nervously as Steven was depleted fast.
And then it was over. Steven’s magic had undone the Plasma spell, and he’d jerked energy from it, dropping it into the local grid. Oliver opened his eyes, saw every crystal blazing, the sounds of alerts ringing through the room.
Thank god. Despite the alarms, nothing was dangerously overloaded.
Oliver released his fellow witches one-by-one, in reverse order of aligning them. Finally he was alone, staring deep into the crystal. The last task was to fix the flaw caused by the spell, and Lattice took care of that, which wasn’t difficult, but it took time and energy he was quickly lacking. When he let go of the crystal and turned to the rest, the knee holding the most weight gave out. Isla and Ian caught him. Sarah had hold of Steven’s arm, who was pale as paper.
“I’m okay,” he said tiredly, locking his knees. “Just light-headed. That was a shit-ton of energy,” he muttered.
Steven nodded once emphatically, and he looked as tired as Oliver felt, his blue eyes dull.
Moments. From start to finish it had taken perhaps ten minutes. And they were wiped out.
Oscar was waiting at the steps up to the observation room. He had several blankets in his hands. Oliver pointed to Steven, and he tossed one around the Fire witch’s shoulders before doing the same for Oliver.
“You’re like a mother hen,” he muttered.
“Just wait till the rest of us get hold you all,” Oscar promised, voice dark with worry.
Gwen giggled next to him and he smiled down at her, gave her shoulder a gentle pat. “You did good work, Gwen.”
She blushed and smiled, murmured a thank you.
In the observation room, the Handlers each checked over their witches like fussy parents just like Oscar had said, which Oliver found amusing—and the military didn’t. All sixteen of them were firmly and quickly escorted to their cars.
The General waited until Oliver was getting into Oscar’s sedan before speaking. “You’re sure it’s safe?”
“Yes, it’s safe. We removed the danger, and I corrected the structure of the crystal. It’ll be fine now.”
He gave a curt nod, eyes sharp on him. Oliver was too tired to care as he scowled at the man. “What?”
His eyebrows lifted. “You could’ve used the witches here.”
“Actually, no. I couldn’t. It was too dangerous. I needed Steven. And having the witches I’m most familiar with helped. Our magic blends well, and the set-up was excellent symmetry. Your witches aren’t trained for this kind of thing. They’re energy witches. Plain and simple. If I’d tried to use the witches here, the whole base would be slag right now.”
The man’s face froze before turning red. “If it was so dangerous, why the fuck did you do it?” he snarled. “We could’ve gotten it out of here and…”
God, it was like the man hadn’t been listening. He stopped talking as Oliver shook his head. “No. It was set to erupt. Part of the spell—part of the sabotage—was once electricity flowed through it, it engaged. It was invisible until that moment. That’s why it wasn’t found until now, why Tina didn’t know it was there before it was in place. No one saw it because there was nothing there to see. And removing it from this matrix of crystals, taking the energy out of it, even for a second, would’ve set it off. It’s not a bomb precisely, but it would’ve destroyed everything in a large radius.”
The man relaxed slowly, his shoulders coming down from his fury, face settling. For a long moment, he stared back at Oliver’s firm expression, then smiled coolly. “Have a good night, Witch Oliver,” he said mildly.
Unnerved by the rapid flip from fury to polite, Oliver didn’t answer, just nodded and got into the car.
As they drove away, he glanced in the side mirror to see the man watching them leave.
“They’re still watching me, Oscar.”
“I know,” he said. His voice was grim.
“Any thoughts?”
“They were watching that dismantling the whole time. They seemed particularly interested in you and Gwen.”
Oliver leaned his seat back. “I’m pretty tired. I’m gonna rest.”
“Go for it.”
Oliver nodded, already half-asleep.
“Anything else you pick up from that scene? Who did it? Why?”
Oliver shook his head. “No. Two witches, one Earth, one Fire, and they were both powerful, to pull off a stunt like that. The Fire witch was also a master of Plasma.”
“Shit,” Oscar breathed. Fire was the rarest of all Elements. And Plasma was the rarest of the Aspects. A powerful Plasma witch was terrifying. Steven was a red flag witch for that alone. Whoever had done this was just as powerful and talented at Steven, maybe more.
Not a good thing. At least not when it came to sabotaging one of the most important military bases in America.
He could remember the piercing eyes of the General on him. Oliver vaguely wondered why the military had let him go, why they didn’t question him.
“It’s not like they don’t know where to find you to ask.”
“Oh. Said that out loud, huh?”
“Little bit, little brother. Sleep.”
And he did.