Page 101 of The Darkest Night

The reaper was the only one who had escaped her magic.

Mae ground her teeth. “Watch!”

She shot up through the hole in the ceiling Barquiel had created, Brimstone on her shoulder and Hellreaver in her grip. Calvarro followed her as she flew out of the factory.

They rocked to a halt some hundred feet above the abandoned building.

“Mae?!” Ryu shouted from where she and Ye-Seul still hovered inside a bubble of magic to their right. “What’s going on?” She pointed at Calvarro. “And what the heck is that beside you?!”

Mae looked over at them. Ye-Seul had woken up and was watching her with a serene expression.

The older woman smiled gently. “It’s going be okay, Mae.”

Mae’s heart clenched. She nodded and took a shaky breath. Magic flared inside her, heat blossoming from her soul and filling her veins. She reached for it and invoked the spell.

“Eclipse.”

The black orb that burst into life above her was more controlled than the one she’d unleashed the night of the attack on Grandview General. It resisted for a moment before expanding at the rate she willed upon it, the currents’ gravitational pull sparing the people she wished to protect.

The factory started to disintegrate beneath them, rusted metal warping and fracturing. Chunks of machinery and walls rose, some as large as cars. They sped up as they ascended into the swirling vortex and disappeared with faint whooshes.

Barquiel became visible far below, the demon still in the grip of his rage, his power making the air throb with violence. The explosion he wished to unleash had halted some dozen feet from him, momentum frozen by Mae’s spell. He roared as he was dragged inexorably toward the black hole. Oscar cursed beneath him, the sorcerer losing his hold on the metal pipe he’d been clinging to.

“No!” Calvarro barked.

She dove, scythe glinting under the starlight.

Mae’s eyes widened.

A portal had appeared next to Barquiel. The demon reached out, yanked Oscar toward him, and darted into the scarlet-tinged doorway, his hateful eyes on Mae and Calvarro as he vanished. The portal closed behind them.

The rest of the factory was sucked into the vortex, metal screeching and concrete crumbling until there was nothing left but dirt and a gaping void where its foundation had once been.

Mae ended the spell, blood pounding heavily in her ears.

A deafening lull fell on the pier.

Brimstone leapt into her arms as she drifted to the ground, his head butting her chest with affection and relief. Mae hugged him and Hellreaver tightly.

“I am so glad you are mine,” she whispered tremulously.

As are we, Hellreaver hummed.

Brimstone’s eyes flashed crimson.Yes.

The spheres she’d created to protect the others disintegrated when they touched down a moment later, releasing everyone except their foe. To Mae’s surprise, theBlack Devilsseemed to take what had just happened in their stride. They started carting away the survivingOniksmembers, their guarded gazes flitting to Mae from time to time. The New York coven regrouped and did the same to the fallen Dark Council sorcerers and witches, as well as the humans possessed by demons.

Mae studied them with an anxious frown.

I hope we can save the ones who got taken over against their will.

Calvarro alighted beside her. “There is a way.”

Mae turned to the reaper, unsurprised she’d read her mind.

Calvarro shrank back to her human form, scythe transforming into a medallion of the same shape that hung from her neck. She tucked it inside her shirt.

“It is hard, but not impossible to return those humans to normal. It requires powerful white magic.”

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