Nothing quite matched the feeling of blasting a door open with magic.

Power rippled through Sedgewick's fingers all the way down to the tip of his staff. The whoosh of his blast hit the door in a satisfying crack that sent its remains flying inward. "THIS IS THE MAGIC MINISTRY!" he shouted. "I know someone's bloody well up there and you have about ten seconds to come out before I start ripping this building apart piece by piece!"

Sedgewick smirked. He twirled his staff in his hands and nearly sauntered into the old building until a thought pricked the back of his skull. He pulled himself up short. Mydel smacked into his back and Sandrina cursed the younger mage under her breath.

"Isn't it a little late for a stealth entrance?" Mydel asked.

Sedgewick could hear the eye roll in Sandrina's voice. "Master Alverdyne knows what he's doing. If you paid attention—"

"Would you consider us incompetent, Mage Mydel?" he asked, eyes still scanning the room.

"Of—of course not, Master Alverdyne."

"If I'd asked before we left, what would say would be the best place to look for the Carrows?"

"Here? At the docks? It's where Master Sandrina first spotted them," Mydel answered cautiously as if the question was going to spring closed like a trap.

"Precisely. So why did it take us so long to check here?"

Mydel rubbed his temple in pain. "I don't know, sir."

"Neither do I," Sedgewick whispered under his breath. A harsh thump sounded from the second floor. Sedgewick still didn't step in. Rushing into a situation and underestimated it had nearly cost him his magic last time. He wasn't making that error again. Sedgewick reached forward with his staff instead.

The moment the staff passed the doorway, a bright shot of red magic laced with black hit the floor below it. It dealt no damage to the floor and left only the electric scent of magic behind. Not a simple essence flare meant to harm. I knew it, he thought smugly. "If you would like to do the honors, Sandrina?"

Sandrina smiled for the first time since they'd left the palace. She twisted the ring on her staff and the blade at the bottom snapped out. She removed the straight blade and replaced it with a hooked blade held at the belt underneath her cloak. Then in a quick, fluid motion, she swung her staff into the room, hooked the rune disc with the blade, and flung it into the air outside.

Sedgewick cast a shallow ward under the disc before the damage Sandrina had done caused it to burst into a flash of light and essantium shavings. "Right then. Keep your eyes open for any more."

Then he stepped into the room.

The air smelled of dust and magic residue. They crept in slowly, staffs raised to throw up a ward at the last second. A staircase on Sedgewick's left led upstairs and a door stood behind a counter in front of them. An old inn for ship hands, perhaps? Sedgewick skimmed his finger along the top of a half-rotten table. Very little dust. Someone had used it recently.

The sound of a blast carried from behind the door before sputtering out. Sedgewick and Sandrina exchanged a glance before vaulting over the counter and rushing through the door with staffs raised.

"Make a move and I'll—" Sedgewick cut himself off as they came face-to-face with Daydrel Elyssgrow and Delia Morrowbryn.

Daydrel blinked in confusion like he was coming out of a daze. Delia clutched her head and grimaced. The two stood in the doorway of an old back room probably used for storage and supplies.

"Do you want me to blast them?" Sandrina whispered. "At least a little?"

The fog in Daydrel's eyes cleared. He and Delia slipped into the same defensive position that he'd seen Feyla use. "Mages. You're here a little early."

"Healers," Sedgewick answered in turn. "This is ministry business. I suggest you leave before this becomes particularly unpleasant."

Sandrina tensed behind him, waiting for the slightest cue to turn this little chat into a confrontation. Mydel clenched and unclenched the staff in his hands, looking toward Sedgewick for guidance.

Sedgewick sighed inwardly. Despite his outward threat, things would be simpler if they left. Having to disarm the rune disc at the door had sucked up enough time as it was. "We don't have time to—"

He stopped himself, his attention arrested by the sun's final rays glinting off a gray piece of essantium above the door. Another rune disc, one that had run out of magic.

The realization hit him with the strength that the other disc hadn't. "Sandrina! Grab that." He pointed at the disc above the door.

Sandrina did as he requested. She delicately removed the disc from the door, her long fingers just as gentle as her snatching of the first disc had been rough.

Delia craned her neck around to look at what he was pointing at. Daydrel refused to be distracted. "Don't think you can just barrel over us and—"

"Did that disc trigger when you arrived here?" Sedgewick asked Delia. "Or a moment ago when I blasted the door in?"

"We didn't hear a blast. Stop trying to distract me." Daydrel pushed him aside. "My team got here first, even if you did arrive early. That wizard is mine."

"Shut up and let the woman answer," Sedgewick snapped before ignoring Daydrel and turning back to Delia. "I know you don't like me but this is important. What time did you get here? I literally blew a door off its hinges and exploded a rune disc. Surely you heard something."

"We just got here! It was maybe an hour before...sunset." Delia stopped. Every head snapped toward the open door where the sun was just now finishing its dip below the horizon.

"That doesn't make any sense," Daydrel said, finally slowing.

Sandrina passed the rune disc to Sedgewick. He illuminated the darkening room with an essence flare and held up the disc to the light. Swearing under his breath, he tucked the disc in his coat. "Some sort of mind manipulation spell. There's no telling how long its been making you stand there. Bloody thing finally ran out of magic."

Delia frowned. "But if we've been at the door for over an hour then why didn't..." Her eyes widened and met Daydrel's gaze. The woman's face went pale but the fear on it might as well have been joy compared to Daydrel's utter horror. He swayed on his feet dizzily before dashing toward the stairs, a single thought in his head and a single name on his lips.

"FEYLA!"

Sedgewick froze, the familiar name ringing like a foreign tongue in his ears. Mydel reacted quicker than he did. "Did he just say what I think he did?"

A brutal blast shook the floor above them.

"Master Alverdyne?"

No. Surely not. She wouldn't have.

"Sir!" Sandrina shouted.

His coat pocket lit up, warming his suddenly clammy chest. Sedgewick reached in and pulled out the small orb he'd linked to his mother's—to Feyla's necklace. It shone ominously in the dim light, illuminating two of his worst fears with its glow.

One, Feyla has left him for the healers.

And two, she was in danger from doing so.

Thought faded. Sound dimmed. Even anger became muted and unimportant next to the raw fear that devoured every other possible feeling. Feyla. Sedgewick operated on instinct. Magic flushed against the surface of his skin. He swerved around and flew out of the room, Sandrina and Mydel's cries echoing emptily in his ears.

He beat Daydrel to the beginning of the steps but pulled up short at the sight of Feyla dashing down them. "Get down!" she shouted, before launching herself from the final flight.

Desden Carrow emerged behind her, staff raised and firing right at her back. The blast hissed against a ward Sedgewick hadn't even realized he'd cast. Feyla crashed into him seconds later, knocking his own staff from his hand. The two of them hit the floor hard and Sedgewick's arms refused to move from her long enough to soften it.

Everyone froze. The electric scent of magic permeated the air like the smoke from the blast. Desden paused at the top of the stairs, staff still raised but moving no further. "How in hellgates did you get past my rune discs?" he shouted at Daydrel.

"Because I'm not an idiot," Sedgewick snarled, answering instead. He rose from the floor and snapped his staff back to his hand. Magic surged into it, making it glow orange in a silent threat. Sandrina and Mydel alighted their own as well while the two healers slipped into their stances.

Desden's nostrils flared, his own grip on his staff tightening as it slowly dawned on him just who he was staring at. The corner of Sedgewick's mouth twitched into a sinister half-smile at the panic now bubbling in Desden's eyes. Sedgewick summoned a blast to his staff, but before he could launch it, Desden set the stairs below him aflame and fled back up them.

Sedgewick's blast caught the edge of Desden's cloak. Sandrina's and Mydel's hit the ward the young wizard had thrown up. A growl escaped through Sedgewick's teeth. "Get outside and make sure he doesn't escape through a window! I'll—"

"Daydrel, boost!"

It dawned on him, finally, that Feyla was no longer safely nestled at his side. Instead, she was running toward the man who'd just tried to kill her.

Daydrel gave him a smug, victorious smirk before dropping to his knees and curling into a ball. Feyla leaped forward and launched herself off of Daydrel's back and up the stairs. Sedgewick lurched forward despite her being far out of his reach. Flames licked the bottoms of Feyla's boots. Her feet hit the stairs just past them. Their eyes met through the flames, the aqua color of hers like a mirage of an oasis in a fiery desert. Cool and deep and deceptive. Feyla bit her lip at the fear and confusion seeping past his usual control.

What she saw didn't stop her. She took off up the steps faster than she'd ran down them.

*************************

Author's Note: Finally back to Sedgewick for a bit! It was great to write him again. Do you think Desden will get away? How is Sedgewick faring now that he's learned Feyla back with the healers? And where's Reiden during all of this?

Also, as a head's up, we're reaching the point in the story where I'm going to have to make some plot decisions that I've been wavering on pretty much since I've started it. I have a couple more chapters before that point, but if the ones after those end up being delayed, that's why.