Page 5 of The Spell Caster

Costi jolted as he realized just how screwed we were. He regained himself, though, tearing his phone out of his pocket and shoving it in my hands.

“Whatever happens, stay behind me. Do not run. Call Ash, tell them to get the guardians. Now.”

I couldn’t look, just punched the phone on with shaking fingers. Costi didn’t use a passcode.

Angels were here? At the Circle? How were angels here?

I found Ash at the top of the contacts and waited in agony while it rang through. Please pick up.

“Costi, what? It’s late.”

“Ash?” I gasped.

“Who’s this?”

“Layla Rosen. Costi’s with me. We’re on the seawall. Get the other guardians right now. Angels are attacking us—”

“What?”

“Seven,” Costi said grimly.

“S-Seven,” I whispered into the phone.

There was a pause. Shock, I assumed.

“Stay where you are,” Ash said. “Keep the phone connected.”

Peeking behind Costi, I saw them. Human-shaped monsters of wing, claw, and sharp teeth silhouetted against the stars. Nothing like the adorable cherubs the non-magical painted in their cathedrals.

Costi moved viciously as the first angel spiraled close enough to hit. Feathers and talons tumbled through the air as the creature hissed and grabbed the metal railing, trying to haul itself up. Costi slammed his dagger into the angel’s neck and kicked through the gap in the rails, sending it hurtling down into the sea.

There was a moment where all was silent except for Costi’s heavy breathing.

In the distance, eerie sirens whirred to life, something I had never heard before. The guardians had sounded the alarm.

Background shouting came through the phone as Costi slashed at another incoming enemy, this one smart enough to dodge. Moonlight glinted off the eyes of the angels, hovering just out of reach.

“Backup ETA five minutes, Layla. Hold tight,” Ash said through the phone.

Five minutes? We wouldn’t survive that long. Without a spell caster, angels were unkillable. “Please hurry,” I begged.

Two of the angels swooped in tandem, and I yelped, ducking low. The phone flew from my hand and clattered to the pavement. Costi hit one wing with his dagger, severed feathers flying, but he roared as the other angel ripped into his arm with its talons.

I had no weapons, no experience fighting, nothing at all. Panicking, I began to breathe in magic, hauling in huge amounts of power until my bones ached with it. The magic was like the waves battering the seawall. Relentless. Without a way to channel it, it was only going to hurt me, but I couldn’t stop. I was designed for this.

The angels were swarming now, Costi whirling like a dancer to keep them from hitting us. Five minutes was an eternity. One of the sharp talons slipped past his guard, sending his dagger spinning, catching a flash from the moonlight as it careened off the wall.

I screamed, throwing my arms over my head to protect myself as one of the angels sliced the back of my shoulder with a wicked shriek. Costi’s voice carried over the fray as he continued to lash out with his boots and fists, but I couldn’t understand what he was yelling.

The magic I had gathered pulsed in me alarmingly, a dizzying force that threatened to shut down my consciousness. I wanted to push it back out. I needed to push it back out—this was going to kill me before the angels even got to me. But I couldn’t stop pulling, and there was nowhere for the energy to go—

Until there was.

The intricate, glowing lines of a spell curled together, burning my eyes even though they were clamped shut. My hands grew impossibly hot, and I flung them toward the sky.

The connection completed, as nature intended.

The magic burst from me, flowing into the spell and surging out, an ecstatic tsunami of power that brutalized the enemies in its path and left me starkly, blessedly empty.

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