Fire, wind, and lightning undiminished, the three mages backed toward the exit. I moved with them, the elements raging around us but nothing reaching us except the heat pouring off Aaron. I retreated into the stairwell. Kai darted in after me, then Ezra, and finally Aaron. With a twist of his sword, he sent a wave of boiling fire shooting through the doorway back into the basement room.
“What about Robin and—” I began in a panicked shout.
As Aaron’s fireball swept out the door, Zylas skidded across the threshold just beneath it. He had Amalia over one shoulder and Robin under his other arm. He spun in a neat pivot and tossed Amalia and Robin toward us. Ezra and Aaron caught them as Zylas leaped right back into the hazy basement room.
A man’s howl of pain rang out as the demon found his next victim.
“Go!” Aaron shouted.
I didn’t stop to ask where Zylas was going all by himself. I sprinted up the stairs, Robin and Amalia on my heels. Up, up, up, then I flew through the door at the top—and right into the first of three mythics waiting in the hall, reinforcements for the team below.
My fist flew and my brass knuckles smashed the guy’s nose. As he lurched back, a small hand grabbed my shoulder. Robin?
“Ori eruptum impello!”
With her incantation, an expanding silvery dome hurled the mythics into the wall so hard they smashed through it.
“Go left!” Ezra ordered sharply.
I spun left and streaked down the hall—away from the exit. Pounding footsteps told me the others were following, but there was nowhere to go. The corridor ended in an arched window.
As my steps slowed, Ezra charged past me. He thrust both hands out and a blast of wind shattered the window like a battering ram, blowing out all the glass. He leaped over the sill and disappeared outside.
Adrenaline burning in my veins, I ran to the window and sprang through it.
Six feet down, Ezra caught me. He pushed me aside and lunged forward to catch Robin as she leaped out next. He tossed her toward me as Amalia plunged down. As I steadied Robin, objects tumbled from her arms—the case of demon blood and her gray backpack, a corner of the grimoire sticking out the top.
“You—you grabbed it—” I gasped, scarcely able to believe she’d managed it amidst the smoke and battle.
As Aaron and Kai landed on the pavement beneath the window, I crouched and shoved the metal case into the backpack. Robin gripped her infernus, her eyes going out of focus.
The pendant lit with crimson light—and a red streak of power shot out of the lower wall of the building. It sucked into the infernus, then burst out again. Zylas reformed from the light, the red glow of his power washing over the alleyway.
The instant he was solid, he swept Robin off her feet and onto his shoulder. He snatched Amalia with his other hand, throwing her over his other shoulder.
“Run,” he snarled at us—then bolted across the alley.
With one leap, he was over the chain-link fence bordering the opposite property. Two more leaps, one off the roof of a rusting van, and he was on top of a building. He disappeared on the other side.
Gone. I blinked stupidly, clutching a strap of the backpack.
A shout sounded from inside the building. Ezra seized my arm, and the four of us sprinted away. Unable to follow Zylas’s escape route, we raced down the alley to an intersecting back street and wheeled around the corner.
Light flared behind us. The Odin’s Eye mythics were giving chase.
We came out on East Hastings Street. Ezra sped across the four lanes, causing two cars to blare their horns, their tires squealing. The flash of their headlights disappeared as we ran into another dim alley.
My lungs burned. Clutching the precious backpack, filled with the irreplaceable materials Robin had saved from the basement, I kept running, Ezra beside me and Aaron and Kai right behind.
Run. Just run. Alley after alley. Across another street. Into the shadows again. Headlights suddenly blinded me as a black SUV screeched to a halt beside us.
“Get in!” Kai barked.
I glanced back at him, shocked by the order, and saw the cell phone in his hand, screen glowing. Gasping for air, I wrenched the back door open, dove inside, and slid across the seat to make room for Ezra and Aaron. They dove in after me while Kai sprinted around the SUV’s hood and jumped into the passenger seat.
We were still closing the doors as the engine roared and the vehicle tore away. I craned my neck, looking back. As the SUV took a turn on two wheels, men in black combat gear barreled out of the alley. They’d been right behind us.
I slumped in my seat, lungs heaving, and looked toward the driver. The rearview mirror reflected Makiko’s pale face as she clutched the steering wheel.
“Kai, what happened?” she asked tersely.
He didn’t answer. None of us spoke a word.
Chapter Ten
Numb inside and out, I held an icepack to my jaw as I watched Makiko clicking on her laptop. On the sofa beside me, Ezra was hunched forward, elbows on his knees and chin resting on his fists.
Aaron and Kai were a dozen paces away at the small condo’s kitchen island. Kai had his shirt off, and Aaron was stitching a gash in the electramage’s bicep, first aid supplies scattered over the counter. Kai stared at the ceiling, jaw tight.
The apartment belonged to Makiko, but she didn’t live here. It was one of half a dozen secret properties her family owned in Vancouver—places to retreat during emergencies. This one was located in Coal Harbour, high in a tower with a view of the inlet, the dark water tinged with yellow as the morning sun peeked above the horizon.
Aaron knotted off the stitches and selected a jar of white cream from the large first aid kit. He
