Page 60 of Of Flames and Crows

“Just so we’re clear, are we dealing with demon-possessed zombie pets here?” Miles said, pale-faced.

Mae and the others exchanged glances.

Vlad shrugged. “It’s as good a description as any.”

Incubus energy sparked around him. His and Tarang’s pupils flashed crimson as his swords appeared in his hands.

“Here they come,” Violet warned, her fingers tightening on her arming sword.

Magic swelled across the base of the crypt as everyone drew on their powers. Brimstone shifted into his giant form. Hellreaver detached from Mae’s neck and transformed.

The demons inside the familiars converging on them emerged with silent implosions that made the air tremble and Mae’s ears throb. Spell bombs filled the air as they dropped toward them.

The blasts missed most of the fiends.

“Shit!” Nikolai snarled, knuckles whitening as he spun his spear. “They’re fast!”

“Move to the center of the floor!” Mae barked. “Now!”

They crowded together, shields falling into place around and above them and Brimstone where the fox towered over their group. The demons smashed into the barriers with vicious screeches.

The walls held.

The demons jumped back and attacked again and again.

Orbs of Fire Magic arrowed down from Ludmila’s hands where she stood in a protective cage of flames at the top of the stairs. The spell bombs skimmed the fiends. The old witch cursed.

Mae’s heart thundered against her ribs as she tried to follow the creatures’ lightning-fast moves. “Brim, are they a new species of demon? I’ve never seen one move this quickly before! Or that tail!”

“They are not so much new as rare.” The fox growled. “These fiends are devils. They belong to one of Hell’s highest echelons of demon-like beasts and are Barquiel’s faithful followers.”

Mae gritted her teeth at the mention of the demon archduke.

One of the devils pierced a Fire Magic user’s shield. The witch cried out as talons raked her arm. Violet raised a second barrier to protect her.

A fine crack arced across Miles’s shield. Julius’s barrier trembled.

Dammit!

Heat bloomed inside Mae’s belly. She rose, her hair fluttering around her where she levitated inside a bubble of her magic with Hellreaver and Brimstone.

“Wind Fury!”

A storm of inky and crimson currents exploded across the crypt. It smashed into the devils and swept half of them into the air. The remaining monsters continued attacking the layered wall protecting the group below.

It shattered seconds later.

A devil escapedWind Furyand leapt toward her as firebombs and destructive spells smashed into the monsters charging toward Nikolai, Vlad, and the others. Mae lowered her shield, roundhouse kicked the creature in the gut in midair, and sliced a deep wound in its belly with Hellreaver.

The monster screeched as the weapon chomped down on its flesh.

Brimstone closed his jaws on the devil’s head and bit down. Black blood spurted between his fangs as he crushed the monster’s neck.

More devils broke free ofWind Fury. Ludmila’s Fire Magic followed them as they steered clear of Mae. Bones and rock exploded around the monsters as they bolted down the walls of the crypt to join the battle on the ground. One of them screeched and fell, half its body gone.

Ludmila let out a jubilant shout.

Vlad’s blades and Nikolai’s spear flashed as they landed cuts on the enemy, their eyes glowing with power while Tarang and Alastair bolstered their cores. Violet’s sword and Miles’s saber inflicted nicks and gashes on the monsters crowding around them.

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