Font Size:  

My stomach twisted before I spoke. It wasn’t as brilliant as I’d have liked it to be. It was just the best we had.

“We’re going to try to lull it into a daze,” I said. “Slow and sleepy. And then when its guard is down, maybe we’ll be able to shove it onto the cage so we can trap it before it wakes up enough to really fight back.”

“Sounds worth a shot,” Jin said.

His arms slipped around my waist in the briefest of embraces, and then the truck screeched to a halt at the side of the road. We rushed over to join the enforcers who’d been assigned prep duty.

Jin grabbed a narrow hoe-like implement to dig the glyphs into the earth and hurried off again. I hefted up a large bag of lavender powder. For people, it had an actual chemical effect as well as its magical properties. I didn’t really think the demon would be affected the same way, but hopefully the magical enhancement and our own associations as we worked our magicking would make it a useful addition.

Figures scattered the field, carving glyphs. A few of the other enforces and I spread out between them, scattering lavender powder all around the field except the far end where the demon was approaching.

I was only halfway through my bag when the first nausea-inducing tremor carried through the air. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. “It’s close!” someone shouted farther down the field.

I tossed the rest of my powder across the grass as quickly as I could. Then I dashed back to the ring the enforcers had formed, crouched low in the grass. The tall uneven blades tickled my arms as I knelt among them. Their warm scent mingled with the lingering essence of lavender rubbed into my hands. The clouds let out another faint rumble of thunder.

“Here it comes,” a witch near me murmured. A second later, I wouldn’t have needed her to tell me. The dissonant rippling of energy washed over me even more strongly. I couldn’t restrain a shudder.

The hulking glowing form came into view less than a minute later. It barged into the field at such a swift pace compared to the cautious meandering I’d seen before that my pulse stuttered.

The enforcers all around me straightened up at the same moment, and I pushed myself to my feet to join them. To join their spell, weaving peace and calm through the atmosphere and casting it out toward the demon.

A cool airy sensation settled over me as I moved through the form, drowning out some of the demon’s energy and the stormy tinge in the atmosphere. Our magic flowed around and past me in a softly soothing wave. All around the edges of the field, the enforcers swept through the same movements, our efforts building on each other.

The demon’s gait slowed. Its head drooped and listed to the side. It peered at us with those flat black eyes that chilled me almost as much as its eerie energy did. It kept up its swaying journey across the field, but with each step, it covered less ground. The next step came later, and later.

I spun in a careful circle, my arms lifting and descending beside me, and when I looked at the creature again, it was moving at no more than the shuffle I’d seen when I’d gone to observe it the first time.

Itwasstill moving, though. Lurching bit by bit across the field, its gaze intent enough that I didn’t have much hope we could toss it into the cage just yet. The grass around its oddly jointed limbs sagged and grayed.

I hadn’t really drawn on my demon-tainted power yet, not anywhere near as much as I could. I hadn’t been sure how that effect might interact with the spell. But in another ten, maybe fifteen seconds the demon might already be out of range of the trap. Sucking in a breath, I reached down into the depths of my spark to seek out that uneasy thread.

There. I focused on the unpleasant tremor despite the churning of my stomach and threw myself into the form a little faster. If we couldn’t lull the demon into a total daze, maybe I could bludgeon it into one. Gently.

I tossed out surge after surge of compulsion—to drag at its limbs, to darken its mind, to numb it almost like I’d been numbed by the enforcer’s baton, just all the way down to its thoughts. Whatever thoughts a demon even was capable of.

The fiend leaned forward onto its knuckles and rocked there for a second. My spirits lifted. I whirled again to cast one more burst of that numbing binding around it, almost giddy at the amount of power that was reverberating through me now.Yes. You will bend to my will. You will—

The creature jerked around, its head swinging toward me with that blank gaze. My nerves jumped with electric chill. My hands wavered, just for an instant—and in that instant, the demon lunged.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Seth

I’d heard Gabriel and Damon—and Rose, of course—describe what being in a demon’s presence was like, more than once. But either they’d downplayed the effect or what they’d said hadn’t totally sunk in.

When that massive humanoid form pushed between the trees at the opposite end of the field, my heart seemed to literally rattle against my ribs. For a few seconds, the alarm clanging all through my body stole my ability to even breathe. I could only stare, paralyzed, as the dimly glowing creature clambered in its deformed ape-like way through the tall grass.

“Holy fuck,” Jin murmured behind me, sounding choked. His voice woke me up, enough to remember that the plan was to put the demon in a stupor, not to fall into one ourselves.

And after they’d stupefied it, Rose and the enforcers were going to propel it into the cage I was standing right next to. So now might be a good time to move well out of the way.

My legs wobbled as I shifted backward. Jin gripped my elbow, supporting me and seeking support at the same time. When I glanced back, his face had grayed under his tan skin. His mouth was frozen with lips slightly parted in horrified awe.

The demon was still lurching toward us. A bolt of panic raced through me, and my legs finally started working.

Jin stumbled backward with me as I hauled us away from the cage, away from the truck, to the edge of the field where the enforcers were swaying through the motions of their magicking dance. My heart was still thumping painfully hard. I didn’t know where Rose was in the wide semi-circle around the field—didn’t know whether trying to find her was even a good idea. She hadn’t wanted any of us, any of her consorts, out here with her because she’d be distracted worrying about us. I was not about to prove that concern right.

The enforcers stood on their own patches of land, just enough space between them so they could sweep through the motions of their forms without bumping into each other. They’d left no room for anyone to squeeze past them. Jin swiped his hand over his forehead, his gaze starting to clear, and tugged for me to crouch down with him near the inner edge of their ring. The closest we could get to any sort of safety.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like