My fists clenched harder.
“Brother,” said Nuriel. “Perhaps a parting gift?”
Baradiel’s smile was thin as he bowed his head. “It is only polite. A present for the princeling.”
The two vanished to the sound of huge, beating wings, fucking off to wherever it was they were needed. I would have breathed a sigh of relief if I hadn’t known to take their threat so seriously. The sky was already darkening.
“Inside,” I said. “Now.”
Quick as a flash, Pierce retrieved Dantaleon from the field as we all rushed into the building. The world outside turned from a calm California morning into a Siberian snowstorm in the span of an instant. No, not snow. Hail.
“Those things are as big as bowling balls,” Pierce said, his hands pressed up against a window.
“Will you get away from there?” I barked. “Just one of them smashes in your face and you’re done for.”
He slunk away from the window, sulking. Crystal shook her head. “I honestly can’t tell if he’s dumb or brave.”
“Unfortunate mix of both,” I said, looking up at the ceiling as massive chunks of ice began to pummel the roof. The building was being bombarded so hard that I could feel the ground reverberating. “I don’t know if they’re trying to smoke us out or bring the place down around our ears.”
“Either isn’t good,” Crystal said, her breathing heavy, her brow lined with anger.
“Then back to defensive magic,” I said. “Help me with this. All of you.”
Pierce and Crystal rushed towards me, joining hands and forming a circle. Even the least experienced among us knew how fundamental casting a circle was, how ceremonial magic could amplify a spell.
More surprising was the fact that Dantaleon joined the circle. Even without a face, something about Dantaleon was so physically expressive, how he was hovering just out of reach, waiting hesitantly before grudgingly placing himself down in the palm of my hand, the leather of his cover brittle and rough against my skin. For once, he was trusting me.
Yet most surprising was how Mr. Wrinkles slipped between Pierce’s legs to enter the circle. He mewed at me, looking directly into my eyes, placing a single paw on my shoe. Crystal wasn’t wrong, after all. There was so much talk about familiars throughout arcane history for a reason. He knew, somehow. Maybe I had to rethink this whole familiar thing.
“What do we do?” Pierce breathed.
“Leave it to me,” I said. “Just lend me your energies.”
I looked up at the sky, penetrating the ceiling with my gaze, envisioning a dome sealing the building even as the world came crashing down outside. I could feel pure arcane force coursing into my body, everything coming to a focal point as my allies infused me with their power, suffused me with magic.
“Now, Quilliam,” said Dantaleon.
I nodded, then called out the words that would save our lives.
“Arma grandia.”
Thin as gossamer, yet hard as steel, a film of magic expanded from my skin. The regular version of the spell was good enough for personal defense, but we needed something to weather the storm.
We fell silent as the force field took root, encasing the building in a protective bubble. The sound of shattering ice was different now, more hollow, more distant. Yet the pace and frequency hadn’t decreased. Nuriel and Baradiel had left us a parting gift, all right.
“The shield isn’t going to hold,” I hissed, feeling every strike against it in my body.
“We’re here for you,” Pierce said, his forehead coated with sweat. “Hang in there.”
“This is my home,” Crystal said, her voice hard. “You have to defend it. It’s all I have.”
Yet the hail storm wouldn’t stop, rattling my bones under its continuous assault. My palm was wet, painful from how deeply my nails were digging into my skin. I feared that my teeth would shatter into powder with how hard I was clenching my jaw.
But the shield shattered first.
From all around us came the noise of breaking glass, shards of my spell falling away, then dissipating as the ice punched through. The building shook as it weathered the attack, until it gave one final, definitive shudder. Somewhere above us, the sound of the second floor ceiling caving in replaced the clamor of the storm.
I fell to my knees. “It’s over.”
Crystal’s voice shook when she spoke. “And this place is ruined.”
I raised my head, following her line of sight to the stairs leading to the second floor. A cloud of dust was still suspended there, no doubt shrouding a layer of debris. Pierce tried to stop Crystal, but her body shimmered and she slipped easily from his grasp, teleporting the small distance from our magic circle to the bottom of the staircase.
“No,” she said, covering her mouth, coughing from the dust. “Ruined. Everything’s ruined.”
“We can fix this,” Pierce said, looking between us. “Right?”
Dantaleon floated away from my hand, suspending himself in midair. “No. The witch is right. This place is destroyed, and the condition of it hardly matters. Those angels know where we are now. It will not serve us to stay here. We must keep moving.”
Kicked out of the Palace of Veils, and now we’d destroyed the life of the one person who’d pitied us enough to take us in. “Where would we even go?” I said, looking up through the sweat-laden tangles of my hair. “We have nothing now.”
Crystal rounded on me, advancing so quickly that I scrambled away from the circle. “You have nothing now? You bastards showed up, I gave you food and shelter, and I lost my home in the process. And it’s you who has nothing now? Why don’t you go crawling back to mommy?” She rubbed under her eyes in frustration, her free hand wreathed in purple fire. “Heir of Asmodeus. I can’t believe I fell for it. All of it.”
“We’ll make it up to you,” I said, holding my hand out as a protective gesture,
