Page 96 of The Darkest Night

Relief darted through Nikolai.They’ll be okay!

He ascended the rickety staircase rapidly.

The second floor was eerily silent when he reached the top, the sounds of the battle unfolding above and below strangely muffled. He scanned the shadows as he advanced carefully across the debris-littered ground.

Where is he?!

Heat flared on his back. Nikolai grunted and stumbled forward, the demon’s spell bomb crashing into the barrier of white magic protecting his body. He gritted his teeth and turned.

Barquiel narrowed crimson eyes where he stood some fifteen feet behind Nikolai, his black-lightning-wreathed sword in hand. The devil observed the shimmering haze around Nikolai with a pinched expression.

“How is that possible?”

Nikolai gripped his spear, his chest tingling. Truth be told, he didn’t know exactly how it had happened. The only thing he was certain of was that he’d felt different ever since Mae had undone the spell his father had imprinted in his body when he was still a child.

It was as if his soul could breathe again.

With the act had come power, the white magic in his blood finally set free from the shackles that had bound it.

Nikolai still wasn’t certain he could take on Oscar. And he sure as hell couldn’t defeat the demon who’d stolen Rose Blake’s body.

But he had to try. For his mother’s sake and for the woman who had come to mean so much to him in the short time he had known her.

Has it really been less than a week since we met?!

“Never mind,” the devil said dismissively. “Now, put down your weapon and come with me.”

Chilled raced across Nikolai’s flesh.

Sobol was right. They no longer want to kill me. But why?!

He steeled himself. No way in hell would he return to the Dark Council of his own free will.

“Over my dead body, asshole.”

Barquiel’s pupils flared.

His next attack slammed into Nikolai with the force of a freight train. He crashed into a piece of disused machinery with a grunt. Pain bloomed on his back despite the magic protecting him. He dropped to the ground, his legs tingling while he tried to catch his breath. Had he not shielded himself, he was certain that would have broken his spine.

Static filled the air as the demon drew on his lightning magic once more. Alastair spread his wings when the spell bomb he cast sailed toward them, the familiar’s powers augmenting Nikolai’s own. White magic lit up his spear. He raised it and braced, his jaw tight.

This is gonna hurt like a bitch!

There was movement to his left. A figure flashed in front of him and deflected the black-lightning sphere a second before it reached him and Alastair.

Nikolai’s breathing stuttered.

Alicia Calvarro stood before him, her back straight and her stance firm as she faced off against the devil. His eyes widened when he saw the scythe she held. It was twice her height and midnight black.

“Hello, Barquiel,” Calvarro said coolly.

The fiend scowled. “You!”

Jared Dickson appeared behind the demon from the direction of the stairs.

“I thought I told you to wait for me, dammit!” the detective growled at the FBI agent, a broadsword in hand.

Barquiel twisted around and cast a spell bomb at the cop.

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