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Blood spilled across the room. Demon fought demon. The Lunar League hunters were moving as one, squaring off with one or two demons at a time, although I was surprised there were this many left after the battle in Cassius’s lair.
“Aisling,” Karn hissed.
I pulled on his shoulder with my other hand, using his body as leverage to help me stand. “I have to. Willa.” I pointed to where Leif had turned his back to his sister to be their first line of defense.
Karn nodded. “Follow me. Closely.”
He took off, and together we fought our way toward Willa, Quinn, and Leif. Although my world still occasionally spun, I launched fiery attacks at demons who got too close. At one point, Karn and I were surrounded on all sides by other fights, but we clawed our way out.
Okay, I can see now the benefits of staying in shadow demon form.
“Aisling!” Willa shouted as we approached.
I moved my feet faster. Let my magic hit harder. Everything I had to do to get to Willa’s side I did without thought, until, finally, her arms wrapped around me.
“Where Mrak?” she asked. “And the sword?”
“The sword?” I spun, scanning the floor for the nightsteel sword. “The sword!”
Karn pointed into the battlefield before us. “There. Sylas has it. It got lost in the fight.”
I cursed loudly. One landed attack from that and Mrak would be dead. Gone. More than.
“You know he’ll die if that connects,” Leif interjected between attacks of his own against Sylas’s demons.
“No shit,” I said. “Turns out Icouldn’tmake it, by the way.” Not as a human.
Leif caught my gaze for a moment, and I saw in his eyes every bit of disgust he felt for his sister, too. He dug into the pocket of his jacket and shoved a piece of paper at me. “Maybe that’ll help you with Sylas. Since you’re one ofthemnow, you’ll be powerful enough.”
“Leif,” Quinn warned.
He raised a hand to her. “Wecan talk later.”
A shadow demon charged him. Leif swung fast, stabbing the demon through with a nightsteel dagger lit up with runes.
Dagger. My back-up plan. I’d totally forgotten in the chaos. I reached between my legs and felt the small knife still strapped there. I used my claws to slice open my pant leg and retrieved the nightsteel knife.
“Willa, help me do this.” I held the paper from Leif out to her, then to Karn. “Help us. You know the spell, Karn. Your power can make up for how strong Sylas is now that you’ve let him destroy Kithonia for years.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so angry at the demon who’d just saved my life, but I would in no way forget the role Karn played prior to returning to Mrak’s service.
Quinn put a hand on my shoulder. Her eyes were glowing silver. “You only have a few minutes. I can see how this turns out.”
Fantastic. “Watch our backs.”
Quinn and Leif both nodded before Quinn took to her own shadow demon form. The two of them banded together, fighting off anyone who got close tho te three of us.
“Repeat after me,” Karn said to Willa and me.
We started the spell for the second time this morning. Karn changed the words just slightly. I did not know what they meant. But I could feel the magic radiating off from him, combining with Willa’s powerful witch magic. Their eyes glowed with power as I could only assume mine did, too. Again and again we chanted the spell. But I still needed something to carve in the ward against Sylas into the blade.
“Here,” Leif said as he handed over a small pocketknife with a witch rune inscribed on the side.
Willa laughed. “You demon hunters aren’t much different from us, after all.”
“Just a lot more arrogant, yes, I know.” Leif placed the knife in Willa’s hands. “Carve.”
Willa held the pocketknife in her palm and briefly whispered a spell that brought the rune on its side to life. The blade popped open and looked to be as hot as lava.
