A shock wave hit the building. Hit me. I staggered, breath knocked out. The energies deflected by my cloak bent and angled down. Toward the parking area instead of past me to hit my brother.
The dronewumpheddown. Two vehicles died and snow flew upward as the ????? ? ??????? was fully released. Just one. But a massive signature of malignant, intelligent, raw power.
I pressed the small stone on the staff’s side. The black emptiness of the pocket universe opened. From the parking lot, black energies, charred scarlet power, bilious green, the stench of burned bones swirled into the whirling snow, searching for ahost. I willed it to sense me, to search for me specifically. When it didn’t, with my free hand, I tossed an amulet at the ?????.
Thewitchworking opened and a blue orb appeared. Simple, easy to make. A lure.
The ????? ? ??????? whirled in the air, an eight-foot-tall tornado, still growing. It reached for the orb and sucked theilluminationworking into it. Tasting it.
Through its energies, the EEB foundme. Shot toward me.
I tilted the staff. The black emptiness of an entire barren universe drank at the fringes of the demon. Began to siphon the EEB into it. Tentacles of black fire shot out as the demon fought, trying to regather its energies, trying to spin itself away. My hand ached and froze as the EEB fought the anti-energies pulling at it.
The demon flailed. Fighting.
The staff took it in. All of it.
Big. But…just one.Decoy.
I released the trigger stone. My hand ached. Burned. I didn’t look at it.
The futures coalesced into one. I said, “Employing Everhart toys.”
“Toss at will,” Alex said.
I threw three of the amulets I had hastily made, to the front of the building, past EJ, into the snowfall. Three small drones appeared. Two of the drones stopped, hovered, tilting in midair as Everhart toys made the tech unstable.
Grizz took out one drone from above. EJ took out one, his head whipping around to make sure collateral damage wasn’t an issue. A third drone zipped toward us, fast. Villetti took it out with his police energy weapon. The sound of gunfire and thezizzingsound of the blaster echoed.
I pressed the small stone in the staff. My knees nearlybuckled as the place of darkness opened again. Wider. Deeper. A maw of darkness that pulled in everything around it. Snow. Wind. The glowing black energy of demons. Too many. Dozens.Hundreds.
“Get inside,” I screamed.
The stench of brimstone and burned bones filled the air. Orange-green light and motes of dark power crowded the porch.
Gorge rose in my throat. My hand burned-ached-froze. The pain shot up my arm and through my body like lightning. My heart beat an uneven rhythm, bounding against my ribs. I squinted my eyes against the brilliance of the demon energies.
EJ ducked back inside, behind the wards of the apartment.
But Villetti…
Hadn’t moved inside. Idiot man was being a hero. He fired at two more drones.
They spat and cracked and fell.
I struggled upright, through a drift of snow. Stumbled. Almost lost the trigger stone, my fingers numb yet throbbing with pain. I couldn’t feel the staff. I took it in both hands, both thumbs pressing on the trigger, holding it in position. My right hand ached, joining the agony of the left.
I kicked at the snow. Fell over Lee, my staff outstretched, my cloak over us both.
The demons—thousands of them—formed a sideways whirlwind of green and orange light, spinning with scarlet and black motes. Screaming, keening, sprites,chorts, and aBeshad been pulled out of their interdimensional world and trapped in the drones’ containment vessel prisons, then liberated in a blinding moment of freedom.
The stench of burning bones stole the air and I fought a coughing fit. My body shook. Tears froze on my face.
The EEBs wrenched and spun, fighting the staff’s power. But they were being pulled through the air of this dimension, and into an interdimensional prison.
Lightning flashed from within the mass of whirling energies. A pale icy glow formed in the center of the whirlwind. A ball of blue plasma.
Too much energy. Too much power.I screamed a warning, the sound lost in the blare of EEBs.
