Scattered Magic (The Sidhe (Urban Fantasy Series) Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

from one wrist. A chain draped from it and attached to a ring hammered into the stone wall. A thick area rug blanketed most of the floor on that side, and it smoldered with smoky flame.
    Between Jhaer and Aoife, a Sidhe fire wielder flung out a graceful arm. Fire spread across the room in lines of flame that spread in a spider-web pattern. The Sidhe was a Seelie Jhaer didn’t know, with a wicked laugh and a lethal gleam in his eyes. “Burn, baby!” He screamed, “Charbroiled Unseelie!”
    The trapdoor angled up, and a Redcap poked his foul face through the opening. Too many oversized and blood-stained teeth gaped in his maul. Jhaer vaulted over the table, using the as-yet unburnt corner to propel himself. He stomped on the trapdoor with all his weight, slamming it shut on the Redcap. As he did so, he drove his magic downward into the stairwell. All of the mortar ran like fresh mud, and the stones collapsed. The steps literally melted beneath the Redcaps, their bodies smashed to the floor with a satisfying crash.
    Jhaer moved once more, dodging the series of fireballs whipped at him. The wall holding the chain in place yielded to his magic and dropped the ring.
    Aoife, clever enough to flee the flames weaving along the floor, rushed out onto the balcony. She looked out and down, then back. Trapped. The silver of her shackle chained her magic.
    “Oh, the Unseelie knows how to dance!” the fire wielder laughed, sounding a touch more than crazy. His sweaty auburn hair stuck to his face in wild spikes. “Dodge this!” A wall of flame swept toward Jhaer with a broiling heat.
    Jhaer didn’t dodge the flame.
    He teleported past it.
    And reappeared on the balcony beside Aoife. He hooked her waist with his arm and flung her with him off the edge. As they freefell, Jhaer brought the tower down with the roar of a landslide, collapsing it in on itself. Every stone dislodged from the others and pummeled downward with deadly force, crushing anyone still inside the tower.
    Before they hit the ground, the soil beneath them roiled and softened. It caught Jhaer and Aoife and then rebounded more than a foot below the surface before bouncing them back up, unharmed. Aoife tumbled away from him, struggling with her shackle, shaken and unsteady as she fought to her feet.
    “Let me help you with that,” Jhaer cupped her wrist, turning the iron cuff over to see the lock on it and then looking up into her brilliant blue eyes. A beat passed. His eyes narrowed at her. Hers widened with fear.
    The blow came from behind, knocking Jhaer down with an explosion of stars that blurred his vision. He rolled away, catching a glimpse of the fire Sidhe as he brandished the branch for another blow. Jhaer dodge the branch, diving out of reach.
    “You aren’t the only one who can teleport, you know.” Blood covered the side of his face, so apparently the teleporting hadn’t spared him the full impact of the tower’s collapse. The knock upside the head must have rattled the Seelie’s brains or he’d have come after Jhaer with magic instead. As Jhaer scrambled to his feet, the ground below the fire Sidhe liquefied into the consistency of quicksand. The struggle didn’t last long. The concussion interfering with his fire must have blocked the teleporting, for Jhaer didn’t feel the body vanish from the grip of the earth that consumed it. The firebrand just stopped struggling.
    Aoife was already gone, her discarded chain a twisted coil on the ground like a dead snake. She could run, but each footfall against the earth gave her away. Hands formed out of the soil and reached up for her. She slipped out of the first few, but soon one latched around an ankle. Then another snagged her other foot. The ground twisted tightly over her lower legs until it snared her from the knee down.
    She struggled uselessly, clawing and digging at the ground, as Jhaer approached her. “Iron shackles. Not silver.”
    The dignity of Aoife’s usual expression vanished,