I yelled as Zayvion flew across the room. Shamus was already running toward Zay and reached him before he hit the ground.
“Sedra,” the voice called out. “You will bow to my will. I will walk between life and death. Immortal.”
The tentacle of darkness that had knocked Zayvion down whipped through the air and plunged into Sedra’s chest.
The ice queen stiffened. She took a jerky step toward the gate. Her jaw was set, the bone there straining against muscle and tendon as she took another involuntary step.
“No,” she mouthed. She lifted one hand, traced a spell, and a shot of light pierced the man’s chest.
Several people around her cast magic, trying to break the rope that held her.
Nothing worked. Dark magic forced her forward, toward the gate, even as the light seemed to force the man to lean against it to keep his feet.
Okay, here’s the deal. I had no fucking idea what was going on. I mean, really. If this was how they always gave tests, it was amazing anyone survived.
But even though I didn’t know what was happening, that didn’t mean I was going to stand around while people were hurt.
First, stop the dude in the gate.
Right. Like I had any idea how to do that. And since I had no idea how to stop him, the next thing I could think to do was to save Sedra from his grip.
Zayvion stood again. I felt his anger, felt the calm Zen that kept his mind clear. He wove an intricate spell in the air with one hand and sang that lullaby waltz. Shamus was beside him, a bright shadow to his dark light, his hands extended in a hell of a Shield spell.
They looked good together. Like they had done this sort of thing before.
Another man joined them, Victor. Tall, lean, fit, dark-haired. Older. He took the place to Zayvion’s right, and fell into rhythm with his chant, sang with him, building a spell that licked with silver light.
While Sedra marched toward the gate.
I felt Zayvion hold his breath. He and Victor threw the spell at the same time. It skittered over Sedra, past her, a wind of silver and gray, a shatter of glass that tore into the gate and burned into it like a maelstrom of silver embers.
The man in the gate looked away from Sedra, as if noticing other people in the room for the first time.
“Victor, and your favored student. Why have you betrayed me?”
“Mikhail,” Victor said. “Let Sedra go. You cannot cheat death. No man is immortal. It violates the true ways of magic.”
“True ways?” Mikhail snarled. “Do you think you follow the truth? You follow the enemy among you. Light cannot be separated from darkness. I was a fool to assume the old ways could withstand the change. This-” He pulled, and the rope tightened on Sedra. She yelled, and stumbled forward again, but still didn’t do so much as raise a hand in her own defense. “-This is what comes of truth. Lies. Deceit. Betrayal.”
He gestured with one hand, tracing an arc from his left to his right. The burning, shattered glass tearing holes in the gate extinguished like a candle in a breeze.
“I will have what is rightfully mine.” Mikhail spread his fingers, as if throwing seed upon the ground.
The Hungers behind him burst through the gate, claws scrabbling upon dark stone. And they ran straight for me.
Chapter Eighteen
Great. Just what I needed. Slathering hell beasts from the other side of death out to kill me. And me without any magical kibble.
I was so freaked out, I was flat calm. I wove a spell for Shield and cast it, while checking in to see if maybe my dad was still in my head and awake, and might want to give me a hint as to what else I could do to save myself.
No luck. Dad was silent as a tomb. Those beasts hit my Shield with the force of a Mack truck.
Plan B would be good right about now. Really great, as a matter of fact.
I concentrated on feeding magic into the glyph, to keep the Shield strong. The beasts tore at it with fangs and claws, sucking at it, draining it.
I had maybe four or five seconds before they broke through.
Zay told me throwing magic at them wouldn’t work. I traced another glyph to shield me, and buy me time to think.
The nightmare in front of me sliced in half.
Zayvion was there, his machete in hand, carving through the creatures. Beyond him, I saw Victor wielding a sword that burned with silver flame. Shamus clapped his gloved hands together, and when he pulled them apart the Hunger in front of him exploded into black fire in midleap. Shamus held his arms wide, his mouth open, and drank the fire down.
Jingo Jingo was more subtle, wading out among a knot of Hungers and grabbing them with his big hands, sucking the magic out of them with his touch alone.
Kevin moved through the room like a tai chi master, each circle of his hands, each flowing movement pouring out a wavering, glossy impact of magic that tore the Hungers in half.
Chase was there too. And what did you know, she had an ax in one hand and a hatchet in the other, magic trailing behind each strike like electric acid.
Fuck this damsel-in-distress bit. If I survived this, I wasn’t signing up for self-defense classes, I was signing up for battle training.
More and more of the beasts poured out of the gate, a black wave of muscle and fang. So many, they filled the room.
My Shield broke; Zayvion pressed the machete into my hands and pulled a glass-bladed whip from out of thin air.
He looked up at the gate, half a room and fifty or more beasts away, and then turned his head sharply at the scream to his left.
The dark-eyed twins fell beneath the beasts. I scanned the room and realized there were other people missing: my dad’s accountant, the linebacker. And I could not see Chase.
Zayvion swore and laid into the beasts, making his way to where the twins had fallen.
That was all I had time to watch. I hacked at the first thing with fangs that jumped at me like the mother of all rosebushes was out to kill me, and then fell into a steadier rhythm, my body catching on pretty quickly how to use this much metal.
Which was great, because I liked breathing. It was one of my most favorite things to do.
But in the heat of battle, no one could reach the gate, Sedra, and Mikhail.
I stumbled backward over a dead beast and spotted a clear path to a column. I jogged to it and pressed against its relative safety. From here, I could see Sedra.
She stood in front of the gate, looking up at Mikhail. She didn’t look angry. If anything, she looked strangely happy.
The rope in her chest was gone. She had managed to cast another spell. Something that attached at the edges of the gate, trying to close it.
Mikhail stared down at her. He held up one hand, and she held up hers. Magic, dark and light, shot like caught lightning between their palms. They seemed to be caught in a stalemate. She pushed him away as he drew her closer. Her spell tried to shut the gate, but Mikhail had cast a counterspell. Neither moved.
More beasts poured out of the gate, streamed past Sedra and Mikhail, whose hands were now clasped, fingers twined.
We were quickly going to run out of room for more bodies in here.
Someone needed to close the gate.
I took a deep breath and calmed my mind. Even took the time to set a Disbursement. Then I closed my eyes.
