Free Realm Walker by Kathleen Collins

as skilled at getting himself out of it.
    The summoning circle was complete, whole, except for a foot-long gap where the Master’s symbol stood. She tapped next to the opening with her foot. “Whoever wanted this demon called up is the one that broke the circle. He never planned on the other witches living. Or it’s possible he’s not even a practitioner, that he hired them to do the work. We need to get James over here to look at this.”
    James, Thomas’s brother-in-law, was also an inkmage and the leader of the Gathering. The Gathering was the mage equivalent of the vampire Council, only much larger and more structured. The mages made the mafia look like amateurs. It was also what they called themselves as a whole. Mages were much more into the whole solidarity and unity thing than the vampires were. Community was very important to the mages, but Juliana had never been able to decide if she wanted to be a part of it or not. Hence, the reason she was still untrained despite James’s many offers to teach her.
    “Look at this,” a voice said from the side of the room, drawing her attention. One of the agents—human from the looks of his signature—pointed at something on the far side of the room. A book with dark pages, a large tome of some sort, lay open on top of a box. Its pages fluttered in the breezeless room. Just the sight of it enraptured her, enthralled her. Too late, she noticed it had the same effect on the agent. He reached a gloved hand forward.
    “Don’t touch—” The words were sucked from her throat along with the air from her lungs as one finger touched the page and power swamped the room in a wave. Colors blazed across her vision. Pain exploded behind her eyes. Wincing, she shut her gift down. Even without it, the room was lit in a putrid green light.
    Arcs of power shot from the page and wrapped around the arm of the agent like lightning bolt snakes. A wind swept through the room howling as it went and bringing with it the smell of ozone and rain. It made it impossible to hear anything less than a scream. “Get everyone out,” she yelled at Jeremiah and moved toward the human.
    “What are you doing?” Jeremiah shouted back, only to scream, “No!” as she threw herself at the other agent.
    The power released its hold as contact was lost but the trap had already been sprung and the spell continued to rage around them. A crack of thunder boomed in the room making her ears ring. Cold rain began to fall from nowhere, the brutal wind turning each drop into a blade slicing into her skin. Jeremiah hurried over and she pushed the shell-shocked man into his arms. “Get him out of here.”
    Jeremiah shook his head. “Not without you.”
    Adrenaline and a giddy feeling of expectation pumped through her veins, helping her ignore the pain in her arm. This was the part of the job that she loved, that she was good at. She grinned at him. “I’ll be along in a moment, Dad. Go.” When he hesitated, she added, “That’s an order.”
    The muscle in his jaw twitched, but he nodded once and did as instructed. Turning back to the book, Juliana squinted against the force of the wind and the rain. Another peal of thunder rolled through the room and an involuntary cringe had her hunching over in response. This was screwed up. And it was obliterating her evidence.
    If she closed the book, there was a possibility the spell would terminate. Maybe. But closing the book without touching it, that would be the real trick. She studied it, deciding on her next move. Large bolts of lightning shot from the page to the ceiling with an electrical hiss. She was out of time. Hopefully no one was directly above this room.
    If the summoning spell came from the book, then at least part of its magic was dark fae. Dark fae magic wouldn’t kill her. She hoped. “Screw it.” She dived for the book. Her hands wrapped around the edge of the covers as she tried to force it closed. It resisted with every ounce of its power.