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“Incoming,” Petra said, but held her position. We all did, because we were the last defense against the demon in case the sigil didn’t hold.
A crack of sound, and the air seemed to rupture. A face emerged from that breach above the sigil, screaming in anguished fury. Then the rest of it appeared, shoved bodily through the gap we’d created.
It was shaped like Rosantine but had no clothes or hair. Its skin undulated with alternating ash and flame, and its teeth were yellow and sharp. Its eyes were gleaming yellow, the pupils long and rectangular, more goat than human. They had me wishing for holy water and a crucifix—which wouldn’t hurt me, contrary to folklore.
“You are commanded,” Lulu said.
It raised its arms, screamed into the night with enough force to ripple the air above the sigil. But it didn’t take a step out of it.
“You are commanded!” Lulu said again, this time a scream of anger that had her body bowing with the effort.
The demon closed its mouth.
The demon turned in a circle as if taking us all in, as if committing our faces to memory for later revenge.
“Release me,” it said. The voice was hoarse, but undeniably Rosantine’s.
“No,” Lulu said. “You are commanded.”
“Release me,” she said, another burst of magic filled the air, hot and sour.
She chanted low in some hard and guttural tongue. The air around the sigil wavered, and a face, then two, then dozens emerged from the boundary around her. Bodies followed, their skin as fiery as hers.
“Legions,” I heard Lulu say. “Solomon didn’t mention this. What is happening?”
“Demonettes,” Petra said, tossing a spark at one even as she held her link to the circle. “Strongly dislike.”
Rosantine hadn’t been loosed—she was still stuck within the sigil. But she was far from under our command. Had we done thespell wrong? Missed some crucial part of the sigil? The one we’d drawn had burned as it was supposed to, but the effect wasn’t nearly strong enough, even with Petra’s spark.
“Hold the circle!” I said as a dozen more of the fire creatures followed her out. “And loose the army!”
The howls came in a wave that crashed over us all—ghostly and living alike—as Ariel’s army joined the party. I heard the living ones move behind me, two dozen shifters in wolf form, and saw real, actual terror in Rosantine’s eyes.
And I reveled in it. I couldn’t step out of the circle, but I’d damn well protect it from the... well, “demonettes” worked.
Have at it,I murmured to monster, and it stretched into my body instantly, gripping the sword around my fingers.
A demonette emerged near our feet, and we slashed through it, slicing it in half. It seemed to be boneless and dissolved into ash that was reabsorbed into the circle. And fueled another demonette that emerged a foot away.
We swung the sword, took that one out, then pivoted toward one that was stretching for us from behind. We struck its arm, then back again through its torso. Ash. Reabsorption.
Would there be an end to this?
Fire slashed at the back of my thigh, and I swung the sword behind me, nearly hitting the gray wolf that was chomping at the demonette’s leg. It made a sound like the hissing of steam and dissolved. Connor coughed smoke.
“Sorry about that,” I said. “You okay?”
He gave me an “as if” look and trotted to the next monster.
There were more of them now, and we spun in an arc, my blade going red-hot from contact with the creatures’ fire. Slashing, plunging, striking seemed to make no difference. They dissolved easily but kept re-forming.
“Fifteen minutes,” Theo called out. “We’re down to fifteen minutes.”
I had to push down panic, ignore the fear. They kept coming, a seemingly endless supply of monsters for us to kill. What had I missed?
I sliced through another, then another, my arms slick with sweat, and thought back to what Claudia had said.You must feel your way.
Crap.Feelyour way? Had she meant that literally?
