Free My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding by Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jim Butcher, P. N. Elrod, Rachel Caine, Esther M. Friesner, Susan Krinard, Lori Handeland, L. A. Banks

could have looked me in the eye. She'd been storkskinny and frizzyhaired when I met her. The years in between had softened the lines of her and brought out a natural confidence and intelligence that made her an extraordinarily attractive, if not precisely beautiful, woman. She was naked, laid on her back with her arms crossed over her chest in repose, funeralstyle. She took slow breaths. Her skin was discolored from the cold, her lips tinged blue.
    "Georgia?" I called, feeling like a dummy. But I didn't know of any other way to see if she was awake. She didn't stir.
    "What now?" Murphy asked. "You go get her while I cover you?"
    I shook my head. "Can't be as easy as it looks."
    "Why not?"
    "Because it never is." I bowed my head for a moment, pressed my fingertips lightly to my forehead, between my eyebrows, and concentrated on bringing up my Sight.
    One of the things common to all wizards is the Sight. Call it a sixth sense, a third eye, whatever you please, around the world everyone with enough magic has the Sight. It lets you actually see the forces of energy at work in the world around youlife, death, magic, what have you. It isn't always easy to understand what I see, and sometimes it isn't prettyand anything a wizard views with his Sight is there, in Technicolor, never fading. Forever.
    That's why you have to be careful what you choose to Look at. I don't like doing it, ever. You never know what it is you'll See.
    But when it came to finding out what kinds of magic might be between me and Georgia, I didn't have many options. I opened my Sight and Looked out over the water to Georgia.
    The water was shot through with slithery tendrils of greenish lighta spell of some kind, just under its placid surface. If the water moved, the spell would react. I couldn't tell how. The stone Georgia lay upon held a dull, pulsing energy, a sullen violet radiance that wound in slow, hypnotic spirals through the rock. A binding, I was sure, something to keep her from moving. Another spell played over and through Georgia herselfa cloud of deep blue sparkles that lay against her skin, especially around her head. A sleeping spell? I couldn't make out any details from here.
    "Well?" Murphy said.
    I closed my eyes and released my Sight, always a mildly disorienting experience.
    The remnants of my hangover made it worse than usual. I reported my findings to Murphy.
    "Well," she said. "I sure am glad we have a wizard on the case. Otherwise we might be standing here without any idea what to do next."
    I grimaced and stepped to the water's edge. "This is water magic. It's tricky stuff.
    I'll try to take down the alarm spell on the surface of the pool, then swim out and get Geo"
    Without warning, the water erupted into a boiling Froth at my Feet, and a claw, a Freaking pincer as big as a couple of basketballs, shot out of the water and clamped down on my ankle.
    I let out a battle cry. Sure, a lot of people might have mistaken it For a sudden yelp of unmanly Fear, but trust me. It was a battle cry.
    The thing, whatever it was, pulled my leg out From under me, trying to drag me in. I could see slick, wet black shell. I whipped my blasting rod around to point at the thing and snarled, "Fuego!"
    A lance of fire as thick as my thumb lashed from the tip of my blasting rod, which was pointed at the thing's main body. It hit the water and it boiled into steam. It smashed into the shell of the creature with such force that it simply ripped the thing's body from its clawed limb. I brought my shield up, a pale, fragilelooking quarter dome of blue light that coalesced into place before the steam boiled back into my eyes.
    I squirmed away from the water on my butt, shaking wildly at the severed limb that still clutched me.
    The waters surged again, and another slickshelled t hing grabbed at me. And another. And another. Dozens of the creatures were rushing toward our side of the pool, and the pressure wave rushing before them rose a foot off the pool's