Page 25 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

Ra frowned. How could they possibly know this stuff? Ra pictured the first time they had a bit of fun with some forest fairies and ended up drunk off their asses from the fairy wine.

“And the fairies,” Liam said. “Those tricky little demons tried to keep us.”

Ra’s brow furrowed, and then his eyes widened as he realized that they were taking the memories directly from his head. They were reading his mind.

“Get out of my head!” He roared as he lunged forward, swinging his blades at both Liam and Elias. They hadn’t been expecting the fast movement, and Ra managed to cut them both—Liam on the shoulder and Elias across the chest.

Both of them hissed, and, for the first time, their masks dropped briefly. Ra was able to see the demons beneath. He held on to that image as he went on the offensive and drew on all his battle knowledge.

“I don’t believe your lies,” he told them. “I know you aren’t my brothers. You’re worthless demons, destined to burn in Hades for all of eternity.”

All three males drew their lips back and hissed. Demons hated to be faced with the truth. They much preferred lies, even their own.

“You do realize that breathing in the sulfurous fumes of hell will make you delirious,” Aston said. “You don’t even know what is real anymore.”

“Truth wrapped in lies,” Ra said as he brought his swords down in a double arc, meeting Liam’s blade, and then lifting his leg to kick the demon in the stomach, shoving him back five feet.

Aston finally pulled his own sword and swung it expertly as he warmed up his muscles. He bounced on the balls of his feet and then moved forward, watching Ra with a critical eye. He was looking for a weakness. Ra refused to show any. The fire elementalist moved with complete confidence in his years of sword practice. He’d begun studying different types of hand-to-hand combat and fencing long before his parents died and he ended up at Crimson Academy.

Sweat dripped off Ra’s body as he continued to match blades with the three demons who still wore the faces of his friends.

“This has to be the most tedious battle I’ve ever witnessed,” a fourth voice said.

The three demons turned as one, and Ra backed away from them, turning to the newcomer.

He was a small demon but wore an air of confidence that showed he believed himself to be someone of importance.

The three imposters backed up and growled at the new demon.

“This is not your domain,” Elias said to him, only this time, the voice wasn’t that of the earth elementalist. Instead, he sounded very much like the demon he was.

The new demon laughed. “As if I can’t go anywhere I wish.”

“You go where the lord tells you to,” Aston said.

The demon shrugged. “Yes. But that means I’m more important than you. You should remember that I hold the ear of Lord Osiris. Have you ever evenseenyour lord?” When the three didn’t speak, the creature’s expression became smug. “Exactly. Learn your place, or I will bring you to Lord Osiris’s attention.”

The three larger demons hissed at the other demon’s words. Ra didn’t blame them. From what he understood of the underworld, drawing the lord of the underworld’s attention was never a good thing.

Ra began shifting to the side, moving his feet slowly and smoothly, trying not to draw attention to himself. He might be able to sneak away while the demons were distracted with one another.

“Attempting to leave is pointless, young king,” the little demon said. “The laws of the levels of Hades say you have to defeat every level before moving to the next. You aren’t going anywhere until you slay these three.”

Ra stopped moving as his three friends’ heads snapped around to glare at him. Apparently, they were done pretending to be anything other than what they were. Though they kept the faces of Elias, Liam, and Aston, their eyes shifted and turned reptilian.

“Go on,” the little demon motioned toward the group. “Finish this. I’m bored.”

Ra ignored the comment and focused his attention back on his opponents. He adjusted his stance and raised his blades.

The three demons smiled, and their teeth were no longer those of humans. They were pointy and layered in slime that began to drip from their mouths.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” the demon wearing Aston’s face purred. “We will gut you and watch you heal, only to then gut you again.”

Ra didn’t wait for the others to add their own taunting words. He rushed forward with a new fervor. The demon Elias met Ra’s oncoming blade with his own. The otherworldly strength of the block caused Ra to grit his teeth, but he gave no ground. With a loud battle cry, Ra whipped his right sword around and about his head while bringing his left sword around and low. His blade slid across the demon Elias’s throat, cleaving the creature’s head from his body.

“Finally,” the little demon clapped gleefully. “Maybe this won’t be so boring after all.”

The demon that had been Elias collapsed in a dead heap. Ra turned to the other two who were staring at him with a renewed hatred.

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