“Lex?” Sophie asked.
“It’s fine,” I gritted out. “He’s just trying to break down the circle.”
I let her think that was all that was happening. While they had been distracted, I’d subsumed her magic and that of the Fae into my own. It meant that every time Professor Mortimer struck, I bore the brunt of it. If he was just trying to tear down the circles, that wouldn’t have been a problem. But as I drew, my vision had started to slip in and out of the Ley dimension. The darkness was back with a vengeance. On the one hand, I was glad that I could see something besides blue. On the other hand, I kinda wasn’t that keen to die.
A single drop of blood spilled from my nose. I slapped my hand over it before anyone could see. Swiping my nose with my sleeve, I sucked in a breath and finished off the circle.
Now we were faced with the problem of getting Professor Mortimer inside the circle. The answer of course was bait.
“No way!” Diana said.
“We don’t have any other choice!” I said. She snagged my arm as I stepped into the circle.
“That’s nuts! You saw what he did to Bran. The second he sees you, he’s going to kill you!”
“I’ll shield myself. I have a better chance at surviving something he throws at us than anyone else.”
There was a second of silence. They were all physically stronger, but my magic could withstand more than a physical blow.
“I’ll stay in the circle and you shield me,” Trey said.
“We don’t have time for this!” My point was punctured by a series of explosions. I was thrown aside by another assault from the undead. I didn’t even want to think about what could be happening to the guards outside.
Without giving them time to argue, I retracted the circle outside the school and drew a smaller one around the common room. The other students scrambled to remain within the circle’s protection. It was a gamble. I was betting on my friends’ survival instincts overriding their need to protect me.
It was a stupid assumption. I’d forgotten how we’d first met. Not one of them had run at the sight of the manticore. They refused to run now.
Trey and Sasha leaped in front of me as Professor Mortimer snatched the front doors with his mind and tore them open. He sent them flying across the lawn. They decapitated six undead before skidding to stop.
My heart jackhammered in my chest. The professor sauntered through the door. He tapped the severed head of an undead at his feet and lobbed it into the building. It rolled along the floor emitting a foul stink that stripped the lining from my nostrils. Like flies following the stench of rotten meat, the undead clambered into the Academy. Only one or two guards trailed behind them.
Roland and Diana met the undead head-on. Roland cleaved at the neck of an undead. Diana ducked beneath the vicious swing of another and buried her axe in its spine. She levered the axe away using the base of her boot and pirouetted to slice another undead directly in the face.
Sophie backed up against the far wall, her eyes fixed on the circle. A swirl of pink magic bloomed in her hands. She thrust once and the magic jumped from her fingers to hold a pair of undead in place. She was attempting to take over their minds. Seeing that there were two sitting ducks, Roland and Diana each took one out with gleeful screams of rage.
Still the undead continued to advance.
Trey growled low in his throat. He was caught in between his human and shifter halves. Still humanoid but hairy all over. His muscles flexed to reveal a broad, striped back.
Everything in this world was about context. When he was himself, the professor was everyone’s favourite great uncle. The mysterious relative who showed up with his bag of tricks and made you believe anything was possible. The man who strode through the foyer towards us was a harbinger of death. Magic crackled around him in a vile storm. It swept everything in its wake and destroyed it. The doorway crumbled around the professor where his magic touched it. The demon had struck supernatural gold. How it had managed to override the professor’s mind was beyond me.
“Get out of the way!” I screamed at the boys. Sasha stepped back. His torso pivoted. I read his intention to knock me out of the way. Charles was right. Without any kind of buffer, they were literally demon fodder.
I threw circles around them at the same time the demon that had a hold of Professor Mortimer’s mind lashed out with a whip of magic. Our minds collided. I screamed as the acidic bite of its thoughts crunched down on me. I sank low to the floor, my head spinning. A high-pitched squeal just outside the door had my throat locking. Half a dozen demons lumbered into the room. Trey clashed with a monstrosity with two heads but no eyes. It kept balance with a corded tail littered with metallic spines.
Sasha grabbed me just before a cambion demon took a swipe at me. He jumped wide to avoid the blow. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Professor Mortimer raise his hand. His magic materialised into a whip. Without thinking, I phased, taking Sasha with me. We crashed to the floor. I dropped Morning Star. The magic lashed at us. I hissed as a phantom heat sliced through me, but Sasha gasped as though he’d taken a full hit.
We rolled as we fell. I ended up at the bottom. His hands came down on either side of my head. Glowing-red eyes met mine. I heard the sound of blistering flesh.
