city of dragons 03 - fire magic by val st crowe Page B

at all of them, and they all fell backwards. I pinned them to the floor, to the walls.
    “Penny, stop it,” said Lachlan.
    More were coming in. I reached out with more magic, still concentrating on keeping the others motionless. I could compel them, of course, but I wasn’t Alastair. I could only do one at a time, and I needed to be able to look into their eyes. Of course, if Lachlan would bite me, then maybe we’d be able to compel them all at once. Maybe we were that powerful too. I didn’t know.
    I pushed the other men down too, blocking the doorway.
    But now the others were starting to twitch, and I redoubled my magic on them.
    Lachlan put his body between me and the men. He started backing up, forcing me back into the hallway. “Listen to me, Penny,” he was saying in a low voice that only I could hear. “It’s a bad idea to fight. It will only add to the things that they charge you with and—”
    “We could run,” I said.
    “To where? For how long?” he said.
    The men were getting up. My magic was faltering, because I was confused.
    “We can’t just let them take us.”
    “Don’t fight them,” he said.
    I pushed all the men back down.
    More came through the door, pushing through the men that I was holding in place with magic. A gun went off.
    A tranquilizer dart hit the wall right next to Lachlan’s head.
    “Don’t tranq her!” Lachlan yelled. “We’re going to come quietly. Give me a minute with her.”
    “Lachlan, I don’t want to be arrested,” I said.
    “Sorry, Flint,” called one of the men. “We’ve got to tranq you both. Can’t risk compulsion. You taught us that.”
    “You can’t tranq her,” Lachlan yelled. “She’s pregnant.” He glanced over his shoulder at me, and his voice lowered again. “Aren’t you?”
    I was so startled that I lost hold on all my magic. “How did you know?”
    “I’m a detective,” he said. “You think I couldn’t figure that out?” He raised his voice. “The darts have never been tested on pregnant women. We’re coming quietly.”
    “But,” I said to his back, “we can’t go to Roxbone.”
    “We’ll get bail,” he said to me. “We’re not a risk. Isolated incident. We’ll be out in days.”
    “Lachlan,” I said, still not convinced.
    A tranquilizer dart sailed through the air and caught him in the chest.
    I shrieked, throwing out magic at all of the men, but I was clumsy and emotional, and—
    Ouch.
    I looked down and there was a dart in my arm. I felt woozy. I stumbled.
    And then blackness swallowed me.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    I woke up cold.
    Freezing cold. An icy feeling that reached into my bones, leaching everything out of me. I recognized the sensation. It was exactly the way I had felt when I’d been wearing the shackles that Anthony Barnes had used on me to suck out my magic. Those—like Roxbone Prison—had been seeded with dragon sacrifice, the strongest kind of magic and the only kind that could be used to neutralize magic.
    I was in a cell. A tiny room with two bunks against one wall and a toilet and sink on the other side.
    There was a woman sitting, fully clothed, on the toilet. She was staring at me.
    I sat up. I was on the bottom bunk. I felt nauseous.
    The woman’s hair was short and curly. She had dark eyes and tattoos on her forearms. She was wearing a blue jumpsuit.
    So was I, I realized. I was very, very nauseous. I reeled from it. God, if I still had morning sickness, that meant that I was still pregnant, right? That meant that the tranquilizer dart hadn’t hurt my baby? My hand went to my stomach.
    “Destiny,” said my cellmate.
    “Excuse me?” I said.
    “I’m Destiny,” she said. “What’s your name?”
    “Penny.” I gagged, stumbling to my feet and pointing at the toilet. I was convinced I was going to vomit right at that exact moment.
    She got to her feet right away and hurried out of my way.
    I went down on my knees, clutching the toilet, and I retched and retched