Free Minutes to Midnight by Phaedra Weldon

to reveal my enemy. I knew I'd
hit something. I hoped it wasn't one of Shi-han's students.
    Or Shi-han.
    That would be bad.
    Sticking around would be bad, too, so I
scrambled to my feet, experienced a nasty bout of dizziness, and
started down the hall away from the main matt to the back room. A
gunshot preceded something whizzing by my ear, giving my mop of
hair a nice trim before it struck the drywall of the hall. My blast
hadn't hurt them much if they could still shoot that close—or I'd
missed. I had a list of spells I rotated through, so once I reached
the end of that, I'd panic. Right now, I just hoped Mike had heard
the gunshot and was on his way.
    The words and mathematics of another spell
came as the book stirred in my chest. I turned and held out my
hands. A large pentagram appeared between me and an approaching
shadow. It glowed bright white, a neon "back off" sign hanging in
the air.
    " Batiltu ."
    A feminine voice cried out as the shadow
disappeared and in its place stood a woman in a black gi. She had a
gun in her hand, a large one. Not as large as Mike's Desert Eagles,
but still big. She stood frozen in mid-run, suspended in a cloud of
twinkling light. Her face was a mask of rage and her eyes darted
around in their sockets. She looked panicked.
    I heard Mike's footsteps down the hall
before I saw him. He stopped behind the frozen woman, his own eyes
wide. "What the hell?"
    "She attacked me and then shot at me."
    "So you froze her?"
    "Yeah…" I didn't know how long she'd stay
frozen, so I stepped forward and pulled the gun from her hand, then
reached around her elbow to give it to Mike.
    Her hand moved fast, and she had hold of my
forearm before Mike could get to the gun. But the rest of her
didn't move, so I figured she could only free that much of herself.
Which, unfortunately, was enough.
    Mike took the gun from my hand and pressed
the barrel to her head. "I suggest you let him go before I make a
nice splatter pattern on that wall."
    She didn't let go. Not at first. And her
grip hurt. When she did release me, I stumbled back and held onto
my bruising arm. Feeling returned to my fingers and I wiggled
them.
    "That's good. Now, let's start with who the
fuck you are and why you went after my friend?" Mike said.
    I didn't think she'd answer at first, and I
felt her pushing at the spell holding her so I released enough of
it so she could speak, pretty much the same way I'd released Darius
that morning in front of The Night Pub.
    I wasn't real sure how the magic worked most
of the time. There were kinetic spells as well as what I called
weaving spells. The kinetics were short bursts of energy with
purpose, like the one I'd used earlier in the day. One and done.
Like fire. The one I was using on her now was a weaving one, which
meant I was still putting energy into it as the spell wove around
her physical form and kept her in position.
    Which, translated, meant I was getting tired
because doing that depleted my own reserves. And the more she
pushed, the more energy was used to keep her still. So I leaned
against the wall and watched her. "Look, you can answer or we can
just leave you here until the spell dissipates. Either way, until
it does, you're vulnerable."
    She was looking at me. Dark brown eyes that,
as I watched, went black. The pupil expanded out toward the iris
and then filled the white. I'd only seen that happen with one type
of Dark creature.
    A Revenant.
    When she spoke, I heard the duel tone as the
First Born inside of her spoke through the voice of its host. "You
really think you can continue feeding energy into this spell,
little Djin? Sooner or later—sooner, I'd guess, from the dark
circles under your eyes—you'll tire and when you do, I will finish
you."
    There were several things wrong with that
sentence, but I focused on the reference to a Djin, and the fact
she thought I was one. Mike pushed the gun harder against her
temple, actually making her tilt her head to the side. "Lady, I
think you