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Considering all the mistakes I’d made over the past few weeks, I could hardly grumble at his one brief lapse in concentration—and it was oddly gratifying that I was the cause of it. I frowned at the shimmer still standing in the shadows behind him. What is an Ania?
The ancient Greeks gave them the name—it means, literally, the female personification of trouble.
Which doesn’t exactly tell me what they are. Or why they’d be here in this café, closing in on us.
Ania are demons. They can be summoned to perform a number of tasks, including harassment, assault, and murder. He paused. It is unusual to see them in great numbers. They are normally solitary beings.
Two is hardly what I’d term great numbers. And given the size of the shimmers I’d seen, as demons went, they seemed to be on the small side.
There are at least six here, and size is not an indicator of dangerousness when it comes to demons, he chided softly. Ania are rarely seen outside the dark realm. They are hard to summon and harder to control.
So they’re not the type of demon that breaks through the portals of their own accord?
No. His expression was grim as it met mine. Whoever summoned them has been able to do so simply because the strength of the portals has been weakened.
Because there were now only two portals protecting us from the hordes of hell rather than three. And that was entirely my fault.
Losing the first key is a blame that lies on us both.
Considering he’d been busy protecting me, and all I’d had to do was hold on to the key, that wasn’t exactly true. But it was pointless getting into an argument over it—no amount of arguing or remorse was going to change what had happened. So the Ania are here to kill us?
If killing was their intent, they would have attacked immediately.
Then what the hell do they want?
That I cannot say until they actually act. He hesitated. But Amaya and Valdis are well equipped to handle Ania.
That I knew. Valdis practically glowed with the blue of her fire and Amaya’s hissing rolled across the edges of my mind, filled with eagerness and the need to rent and tear.
It wasn’t the swords I was worried about. Or Azriel. It was me. I’d proven woefully inadequate when it came to protecting myself against the more dangerous elements that kept coming at us.
You are alive, Risa. Given what we have been through, that in itself speaks volumes about your ability to survive.
Surviving and fighting were two entirely different things. So what do we do?
We attack.
I glanced around. There were at least half a dozen people eating and drinking in the café, not to mention the five staff members. Not with all these people in here, we won’t.
He raised an eyebrow. Power slid through the air and, as one, everyone got up and walked out.
I blinked. I guess that solved one problem.
But it caused an even bigger one.
Because the minute the people left, the Ania attacked.
Chapter 2
I scrambled out of my seat and pressed back against the café’s rear wall as I drew Amaya. Lilac fire fell from her blade, spilling across the floor in a ribbon. It was almost as if she was marking a line in the sand.
The Ania crossed it.
I swept my sword from left to right. She hissed and spat, the sound becoming oddly satisfied as her sharp point tore through one of the approaching wisps. The Ania moaned—a sound abruptly cut off as her fragments were swept up in Amaya’s trailing fire and burned to a crisp.
Two more Ania came at me. I swept the sword around again. This time they ducked, but as the blade whooshed over their heads, they lunged forward, one seizing my sword arm, the other my legs. Their ethereal fingers sank into my skin like talons, drawing blood.
I tried to shake the thing from my arm, but even as I did, the one on my legs heaved, and suddenly I was on my butt and being dragged forward. Toward what, I had no idea, but the sensation of power suddenly surged and the air near the café’s door started to waver oddly.
