Page 12 of Rites of Passage

He gripped the wisps of corruption twisting around his fingers and ripped the monster out of Agnes, his mouth open on a harsh shout. The creature materialized with a stench that made him gag. Gregory twisted to the side and vomited.

The dark, hideous, crooked form shivering above Agnes’s now limp figure focused on her brother. A pair of ochre spots flashed in the shadowy mass as it started to thicken. It reached for the pale-faced sorcerer.

Nikolai let go of the ghoul and cast Gregory and the two familiars beside him out of the circle with a blast of magic. The monster halted abruptly at the edge of the runes, an outraged growl emanating from his solidifying body as his talons missed his intended victim by a hairbreadth. His evil eyes turned to Nikolai. He lunged at him, his movements blisteringly fast.

An inky blade sliced the air and ripped through the ghoul before he could reach Nikolai, pinning him to the floor. The monster screeched, spectral claws raising sparks as he raked the stone inches from Nikolai’s legs.

“I can’t hold him for long,” Alicia warned where she hovered above the monster. “I can kill him, but he’ll rip you to shreds if I let go now.” Redness filled her orbits. “Drop the spell and get out of here!”

Nikolai’s pulse raced. He lowered his brows. “I’ve got a better idea!”

CHAPTER8

He slammedhis hands on the ground, closed his eyes, and sent his magic into the Earth, his heart in his throat. The white lines that made up his power appeared in his mind’s eye, jagged lightning racing through dirt and rock.

Where is it?! There’s gotta be one close by!

He was beginning to wonder if the facility was too far from the center of New York when something pulsed weakly in the darkness deep beneath Staten Island.

There!

Nikolai reached for the branch ley line, sought out its core, and drew on the incandescent magic within it. Brightness filled his and Alastair’s souls. The floor shook beneath them.

The ghoul’s shrieks transformed into screams of pain.

Nikolai opened his eyes. He blinked.

The magic circle was now a column of dazzling brilliance that almost blinded him, the radiance it cast shooting straight through the concrete ceiling.

Fuck! I hope that’s not visible from outside!

Tremors shook the basement, plaster dust raining down and sparking against the barrier. He squinted and made out the monster’s struggling shape in front of him.

Alicia swore as the creature slipped free of her scythe. Nikolai braced himself, his watch transforming into his double-bladed spear in the blink of an eye.

The ghoul shot past him, the creature’s will to survive evidently stronger than his intent to kill them. He smashed into the walls of the radiant pillar with a violent thud, a prisoner of Nikolai’s white magic.

Alicia moved as the creature started raking the barrier with his claws. Nikolai grabbed the Soul Reaper queen’s dark robe and shook his head.

“Don’t. He’s dying.”

The ghoul’s crooked body was fragmenting into dark blobs that hissed and evaporated in the light bathing him. The monster vanished a moment later, the only evidence that he was ever there a rotting smell that soon faded.

A deathly hush descended upon the chamber.

Alicia drifted down beside Nikolai, her body taking on a human appearance once more. “Well, that was fun.”

Someone groaned behind them. They turned.

Agnes’s eyes were open, her pupils dark in a rim of blue. She twisted her head with agonizing slowness and met their gazes, her own blind as she stared at something only she could see.

“The key! Don’t let them get the key!” She gagged, her throat working convulsively. An object fell out of her mouth and clinked onto the stone. “Please…guard this…with your lives…”

Her voice withered away. She went limp, body sinking into the ground and eyes fluttering closed.

“Agnes!”

Gregory banged on the magic barrier, agony distorting his features. The dog howled and scratched frantically at the pale wall.

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