I paced in front of the doors like a caged animal. I was armed to the teeth and ready to fight, yet I was forced to stand by and wait for the cavalry. My Mori’s excitement fueled the energy coursing through me, making me feel like I’d touched a low-voltage wire.
When something clattered to the floor behind me, I spun with knife in hand and scared the hell out of a wide-eyed Kaden, who had dropped his phone.
“S-sorry,” he stammered as he retrieved the phone with a shaking hand.
I sheathed my knife. “It’s okay. I’m just –”
A man’s agonized scream echoed down the hallway.
Raoul raced past me in the direction of the sound, with Brock close at his heels. Mason and I took up the rear, but we couldn’t keep up with the two older warriors. By the time he and I reached the gym, the door was open and I could see Brock and Raoul a few feet inside, their faces bathed in light as they stared at something.
Quietly, I slipped in behind them and came up short at the scene before me. In the middle of the gym floor, a large red circle was painted with a smaller one inside, just like the one we’d found in the basement of the house. Whereas the other circle had been inactive, this one was lit by the glowing crystals around the perimeter.
Standing at the center was a tall figure in a gray robe, his face hidden beneath a hood, holding another man in a white robe by the throat. The smaller man’s hood had fallen, and I could see the terror etched on his face as he clutched at the hand choking him.
I took a step forward, but Raoul grabbed my arm and held me back. “You can’t enter an active summoning circle,” he said in a low voice. “It will kill you.”
I stopped pulling against him, berating myself for the rookie mistake. I knew not to mess with magic, especially a powerful summoning spell.
The gray-robed man began chanting in a deep, gravelly voice. Beside me, Raoul inhaled sharply.
“What is it?” I asked, my eyes still on the two people inside the circle.
“Demon tongue.”
I tore my gaze from the circle to stare at Raoul. “He’s a demon?” There were no demon warlocks, so how could a demon be performing a spell only used by warlocks?
Before Raoul could answer me, the tempo of the demon’s chant increased. The crystals’ glow intensified, and the air began to crackle with electricity. I gripped my sword handle as a sense of dread settled over me.
The demon’s voice rose until it reached a crescendo. I could only watch in shock as he punched his hand into the chest of his captive. I heard the crunch of ribs breaking and the sickening wet plop as his bloody hand reappeared, holding a still beating heart.
“Jesus,” Mason whispered in horror.
The demon released the dead man, and the body crumpled to the floor at his feet. Holding the man’s heart in both hands, he raised it above his head, still chanting. A wave of magic pulsed outward from the circle, and I gasped as it stung my skin like tiny needles, driving us back several feet.
“What is that?” Brock pointed, and I followed his gaze to a shimmering crack that had appeared in the air six feet off the floor just outside the larger circle. The crack began to widen, revealing nothing but blackness on the other side.
When the hole was a foot wide, the demon lowered his hands to his mouth. I couldn’t see his face beneath the hood, but I could hear the sound of teeth tearing at meat. I had to fight my gag reflex. I’d seen plenty of ghastly things, but this one topped the list.
The demon shouted something. Then he drew back his hand and threw the heart into the fissure.
Seconds ticked by. I was starting to think the spell had failed when the hole widened another foot, revealing a murky reddish glow on the other side. A faint howling, like the wind whistling through a cave, came from the hole. There were other sounds, too, but they were distorted and impossible to make out.
Then I saw movement inside the hole. A scaly hand appeared, followed by a second one. Something gripped the edges of the hole and prepared to squeeze through.
One look at the long black claws and barbed knuckles told me what was coming out of the hole before the scaly head made its appearance. A Drex demon. The demon looked like an upright crocodile, complete with a long snout full of razor-sharp teeth. Its body was covered in venomous barbs that couldn’t harm a Mohiri, but the venom could incapacitate a human and make them easy prey.
A thrill went through me. I’d only seen one Drex demon up close, and Sara had killed it. My body tensed in anticipation of my first fight with one of these reptilian demons.
The Drex demon growled as it forced its large body through the small hole. A few seconds later, it landed on the floor with a loud thump and a scratch of claws against hardwood. Standing, it looked at the robed demon before it swung its beady gaze to us and bellowed. I wanted to answer its challenge, but it was still inside the circle and the magic kept us at bay.
A hissing sound drew my attention back to the hole in time to see a second demon push through. It was a Kraas demon like the one Hamid had killed, and its appearance rocked me back on my heels. There was only one place that thing could come from. We were looking at a window to the demon dimension.
“What do we do?” I asked Raoul as a third demon started emerging from the hole. My voice cracked, and I wasn’t sure if it was from excitement or fear. Maybe a bit of both. Only a crazy person could witness this and not be afraid.
“We wait for Orias,” he said, not taking his eyes off the demons. “He’s the only one who has a chance against this magic.”
As if on cue, a door on the other side of the gym opened, and in strode the warlock, followed by Hamid, Vivian, Aaron, and Eugene. The warriors hung back as Orias walked toward the demons, chanting in a language I didn’t know. He held out one hand as he walked the perimeter of the circle, and his other hand lay on the bulge in the satchel he carried.
Orias seemed unaffected by the power in the room, and as he neared us, I felt the stinging magic lessen until I was able to take a few steps forward. Whatever he was doing, it was counteracting the robed demon’s spell.
The demon clearly knew this because he turned to face Orias, throwing up his arms and starting a new chant. Undaunted, the warlock squared off against him, and little by little the crystals around the outer circle dimmed. I’d known Orias was powerful, but this display of power was incredible.
Inside the weakening circle, demons continued to climb from the hole in the barrier. There had to be at least ten of them, and the only ones I recognized were two Drex demons. What would happen when the robed demon’s spell failed completely and they were able to leave the circle?
“What is Orias doing?” I whispered to Raoul so I didn’t distract the warlock.
Raoul shook his head. “I think he’s trying to bind the demon’s magic with his own.”
I looked at the hole. “Will that seal the barrier?”
“I don’t know,” he said grimly.
Orias moved closer to the circle, his words growing louder and more forceful. Hope flared in me when I saw the demon falter, looking unsteady on his feet for the first time.
The demon bellowed in rage. Dropping his hands, he whispered something that set off a flash of purple light. In the time it took for me to blink, he was gone, vanished into thin air.
I looked at the window in the barrier, expecting it to have disappeared with the demon who had opened it, but it was still there. My eyes widened as I watched a thick gray tentacle lined with barbed suckers reach through the hole. I considered myself a brave person, but I really didn’t want to see what was on the other end of that thing.
Orias turned his full attention on the hole, just as the crowd of demons rushed from the circle in every direction. All eight warriors in the gym leaped into action.
I went for the demon closest to me, which looked like a mutant red porcupine the size of a Great Dane. Every time I tried to get near it, the quills stood on end and I was sure I was about to be skewered.
“Screw that,” I muttered, pulling one of my knives free. I aimed for the demon’s throat, which looked like a vulnerable area. The blade hit its mark, and the demon rolled around on the floor, squealing as smoke poured from it.
I took the opportunity to move in and finish it off with my sword. I left my knife buried in its throat, not wanting to get too close to those quills. Our scientists were going to have a field day with this one.
I looked up from the dead demon to see all the warriors engaged in battle. Orias was still chanting at the hole, which looked half its size now. Relief welled in me. Whatever he was doing was working.
A growl tore my gaze from the warlock to the Kraas demon that was stalking toward him. Orias was so focused on his spell that he didn’t see what was coming at him. If that thing attacked him or broke the spell, we were all in trouble.
I leaped over the dead demon at my feet and raced to intercept the Kraas demon before it got to Orias. It turned its head and stared at me with glassy black eyes. Hissing, it sped up, and I matched its speed. Five feet from Orias, I threw my body between him and the advancing demon.
The demon reared back and opened its pincers to show off a mouth lined with three rows of teeth.
I grinned back, brandishing my sword. Come and get me.
Something snarled off to my right at the same moment the Kraas demon jumped at me. Before I could react, an arm wrapped around my waist. I was pulled back against a hard body and spun away from the demon as a sword flashed over my head.
The demon impaled itself on the long blade, and its heavy body slammed into me and my rescuer, sending the two of us stumbling backward.
In the next instant, there was a bright flash as a loud bang shook the gym. I closed my eyes against what felt like an explosion. An icy tingle spread through me, and I gasped for breath as the air was sucked from the room.
Chapter 5
I must have blacked out for a few seconds, because when I came to, I was lying on the floor with a heavy weight pressing down on me. My ears were ringing, and I couldn’t see or move. God, had the whole roof fallen on me?
I pushed against the thing on top of me and was surprised to feel a warm body instead of roof debris. “Hey,” I wheezed.
The person above me shifted. I found myself caged between two muscled arms and staring up into dazed blue eyes. Without his usual surly expression, it took me a few seconds to recognize Hamid. Why was he staring at me like that?
“Can you get off me?” I pushed at him again, but he didn’t budge.
His lips moved, but I couldn’t hear him over the ringing in my ears.
“I can’t hear anything.” My voice sounded muffled, but at least I knew I wasn’t deaf.
What I didn’t know was why he was still on top of me and staring at me like he’d never seen me before. This close, his irises were the most stunning shade of blue with little flecks of gold in them. A girl could drown in those eyes. And his lips. Wow. My mouth watered, and I was overcome by the urge to close the few inches between us and run my tongue across that full lower lip.
Whoa. I swallowed and closed my eyes. Was the school on fire? Because it had suddenly gotten hot in here.