City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

With the majority of our people attacking the fire from this side, it made sense to work from the other side. There was little wind to speak of and I had to be thankful for small mercies. If we could subdue the outer edges of the fire, our salvage operation might be more successful.

‘I need ten of you!’ I shouted. ‘Ten with good magic!’ I pointed at various people whose powers I knew ran strong. ‘To me!’ Then I turned and sprinted round the warehouse.

Eighty feet to the left there was a bank of terraced houses; once upon a time they had been used solely by the vampires but they now housed all manner of people. I ran for the first one and threw open the door. To the right there was a tiny bathroom. It would do.

I shoved the plug into the sink and turned on the taps. It was more of a trickle than a gush of water but we could only work with what we had. Pushing out magic, inch by inch to ensure I maintained control, I focused on the water.

‘Up,’ I whispered. ‘Go up.’

A thin snake of water obeyed. It wavered upwards, barely a fist in diameter. I carefully coaxed it out, ensuring that it remained unbroken and anchored to the water in the sink. I bound it, wrapping my magic round and round its length, and raised it further, tugging on it and directing it out of the door.

The first person was right behind me and I nudged them into the bathroom. ‘Keep that stream up!’ I yelled. ‘Stay in there and make sure it continues!’

I didn’t check to see whether they were doing as I asked. Instead I focused on the water itself, backing up and taking it with me. The watery snake hovered almost two metres in the air, suspended there through nothing more than magic and my own will power.

‘Here,’ I muttered to the next person. ‘Stay here and keep the water moving.’

A middle-aged woman hurriedly stepped up, raised her hands and flicked her fingers to push the water along. I picked up speed, painfully aware that time was against me. The longer I took, the more the warehouse would burn. And it would burn all our supplies along with it.

It seemed to take an age but I finally reached the other side of the burning warehouse. The water continued with me, an unbroken chain floating through the air. The lack of speed and force would be a problem; this damn fire wouldn’t be doused by a slow trickle.

I glanced at the various magically inclined people helping to encourage the water along, dotted at various points and concentrating on pushing it through the air. ‘We need to speed it up!’ I called. My instruction travelled down the line as each person passed it along to the next.

I gritted my teeth, leaning away from the immense heat. It felt like it was stripping the skin from my cheekbones. Much more of this and there would be nothing left of the building but a mere shell. It was just as well that I had some fellow enchanters to rely on.

It happened quickly. Where the watery line had once been a pathetically slow-moving creation, it sped up. A bulge started at the original house, passing through as if the water truly were some sort of snake that had swallowed its prey. The bulge began to move faster. It also grew larger, like an ever-increasing balloon.

I watched the tension and fixed concentration on the faces of my helpers. We all knew what was at stake.

I braced myself for the bulge’s arrival. I had to get this right or all the effort would be for nothing. It shot past the second-last person, then the last. It was coming for me – and timing would be everything.

I stopped breathing. The now-massive watery bulge whooshed towards me. At the very moment it passed over my head, I flicked my wrists. The bulge arced out, up and over the roof of the warehouse. Then I released it.

Water cascaded down, hissing as soon as it hit the searing hot flames. Between the steam and the smoke, it was nigh on impossible to tell what was happening. From the other side of the building, I heard voices from the vampires, werewolves and humans working on the fire using more conventional methods.

‘More!’ I shouted. ‘Let’s do it again!’

Three times we magically coaxed the water along and three times we allowed it to build up so I could dump the largest amount possible onto the burning building. It was only by the third attempt that I could be sure we’d achieved success. No more flames were visible.

I knew without touching any of the bricks that the building remained dangerously hot. We wouldn’t know for sure how much we’d lost until morning when it had cooled down. At this moment in time, anything we could salvage would be a bonus.

Chapter Twenty-One

‘The chickens are dead.’

I stared. ‘All of them?’

Theo’s expression was dark. He didn’t answer; he simply put his hands in his pockets and looked away. I supposed that was answer enough.

‘The fire wasn’t anywhere near their coops,’ Lizzy said. ‘How could that have happened?’

‘It appears that, while we were busy working on the fire, a few foxes snuck in and tore their way through them.’

I met his eyes. ‘But foxes don’t come into the enclave. They can smell the wolves. They know better than to enter the territory of bigger and scarier predators.’

‘They do indeed.’

I cursed loudly.

Monroe was preternaturally still. ‘Plausible deniability,’ he said quietly. ‘Alora asked why Fabian Barrett would choose to leave for a few days to organise supplies that he could have brought with him the first time around. We have proof that he already knew we were here and surviving. The only reason he left is to maintain plausible deniability. It’s the perfect alibi. If he wasn’t here, then he couldn’t have done this. Except now we know that