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Aiden glanced at me sharply. “Isn’t your sphere telling us that she is?”
“Yes, but something feels off.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Which is the perfect reason why we should raise the circle,” Belle said. “If it all goes to hell in a handbasket, then this may be our only—”
The rest of her words were drowned out by Eli’s sharp bellow.
My gaze jumped up the hill. Saw him fall—tumble—down the broken slope toward the kilns, his back a bleeding mass of sliced flesh.
Saw the shimmer in the air.
Caught a brief glimpse of bloody claws before they winked out of existence again.
The Empusae wasn’t in the kiln.
She was out in the sunshine, using magic to protect and hide her body.
And she was coming straight at the three of us.
Fifteen
There was no time to get the circle up. No time, even, to raise a rep
elling spell or demon net. Energy surged to my fingertips and it was wild mix of magic that had no defined purpose other than destruction. That was not what we wanted right now, but I threw it anyway.
The tumbling mass of threads and power spun toward the concealed Empusae. She swerved sharply, dipping underneath it, her form briefly appearing before whatever spell she was using reasserted itself.
“Ashworth,” I yelled, even as Belle began raising a protective circle. “She’s outside and concealed.”
Aiden growled, the sound low and dangerous, then his form shifted from human to wolf and he was running, leaping high into air. His teeth snapped and feathers fell even as claws appeared, raking his back, sending fur flying.
And still she came at us.
I swore and flung out a hand, directing the tumbling of threads and power around, sending it chasing after the Empusae. But it wouldn’t hit her soon enough to deflect her trajectory. She was too damn close.
I swore again and knocked Belle sideways. We hit the ground in a tangled mess of arms and legs, and for a second, a red mist rose across my vision, and I couldn’t breathe. Sucking in air did little to ease the wash of pain, but I pushed away from Belle and got up. “Get Vita here, stat.”
“On it. What are you going to do?”
“Keep the bitch away from you.”
I activated the restriction spell and then turned and ran in the opposite direction. Saw the Empusae scream and swoop around for a second attack. I recalled my ball of power, felt it skim over my head, and flicked it up to meet the Empusae. Magic—her magic—rose to meet it. There was a brief, blinding flash as the two hit, and then a surge of energy that knocked me back several feet. I looked up, saw the remnants of both my magic and hers falling like dull snow to the ground. Saw her, no longer hidden, coming straight at me.
A deep and dangerous growl rose from behind me, and I automatically dropped. Aiden leaped high above me and then somehow twisted in the air so that he was no longer coming straight at the Empusae but rather from the side. She tipped a wing and dropped away but not fast enough. His teeth snapped down on one foot and he hung on tight, his weight forcing the demon to drop several feet. The Empusae screamed, a sound that was fury and pain combined, and magic surged again, this time flowing over Aiden, attacking him so fiercely that his whole body glowed with the force of it. For one horrible second, I thought I’d failed him. That he was about to die defending me because my magic simply wasn’t strong enough.
Then the charm I’d made him came to life and a fierce, bright light speared out, swiftly countering the Empusae’s magic. A heartbeat later, the force of his bite and the sheer weight of him took its toll and he tumbled to the ground, half her leg in his mouth and her blood staining his fur.
More power surged, this time Monty’s and Ashworth’s. A net appeared, the threads of its magic widening as it swept toward the Empusae. She swerved upward and her wings pumped hard, her desperation to escape obvious. The net followed her trajectory, its thick tendrils reaching for her.
Another surge of magic, and a second net appeared, this time above her. Eli. He was alive.
She flicked a wing, cutting sharply sideways, but this time, there was no escape. The two nets hit and wrapped tightly around her, allowing no room for movement. She tumbled to the ground, hitting hard enough for feathers and dust to fly. But she wasn’t beaten yet. A darker energy rose, and Ashworth yelped as the ground underneath him crumbled away. Monty grabbed him and pulled him to safety. The Empusae screamed and raged, and another wave of energy attacked the two men. This time they were ready for it, meeting like for like, but I had to wonder how long they could withstand her force. The bitch was strong.
Vita appeared. Belle reached out to me, forcing a deeper connection, linking us so closely that I was her and she was me. There was no separation; there was just us.
