Page 84 of Cleansed By Water (The Nature Hunters Academy 3)

Gabby started to feel a sliver of hope. Maybe they had a chance against the huge, fire-breathing beasts.

That sliver was crushed when, out of nowhere, a huge figure appeared in the middle of their group. Gabby had never seen one in person, only in her books from the academy, but there was no doubt he was a demon. A very large, and she would assume, powerful demon.

He was over six feet tall, probably close to seven. His eyes were as black as night. Sharp cheekbones were set around a grinning mouth containing pointy teeth. Two horns grew out of the top of his head and curled backward. His muscular arms ended in hands tipped with razor-sharp claws. His legs were shaped like that of a hoofed animal, complete with the actual hooves.

Gabby felt Liam move closer to her, his shoulder pressed against hers.

“Okay, so I seriously thought we had a chance there for a minute,” Gabby said.

“I was totally with you, Gabs,” Shelly said, nodding her head like a bobblehead doll.

If the massive demon wasn’t enough, a portal opened beside him and out marched two men and two women. Gabby had seen their pictures in textbooks as well. The four dark royal elementals.

“We’re so screwed,” Gabby muttered.

Then more women poured out of the portal. They wore black robes and black pointy hats.

“Witches?” Tara coughed. “Honest to goodness witches with black pointy hats?”

“Their hats are sort of badass,” Shelly said.

“Shelly,” Gabby called out.

“Yep,” the blonde replied.

“We cannot be friends if you start wearing pointy hats. Just want you to know that.”

“Roger that,” Shelly said. “I’ll come up with some better uniform for us.”

Tara and Gabby groaned at the same time.

“Let’s just try and live through this and worry about so-called uniforms later,” Tara suggested.

“Is that everyone?” Liam asked as they waited to see if anyone else was going to come through the portal. A minute later, a male appeared.

“Tucker?” Tara gasped at the same time that Elias let out a string of curses. Tara was surprised to see him, considering the last time she had, he’d been tossing her best friend to another acolyte who had then thrown Shelly into hell.

Tucker’s eyes found Tara’s immediately, and Gabby could tell in his greedy gaze he was obsessed with the girl.

“I take it he needs to die?” Gabby asked.

“I’ll be the one to kill him,” Elias growled. “He’s mine.”

Shelly laughed, and it sounded so wicked Gabby turned to look at her. “British boy is going to make you his bi-i-itch,” Shelly called out to Tucker, singing the last word.

“That’s good,” Gabby said, shaking her head. “Taunt the guy who’s standing next to a row of witches and a demon.”

The portal finally disappeared, and all the elementalists seemed to let out a collective sigh.

“I think we outnumber them at least,” Shelly said.

Then two more dragons came soaring out of the open portal to the dragon realm.

“I take it back. We totally don’t outnumber them,” the blonde yelled as the flames on her hands increased.

“Holy pixie babies. There’s another one coming through.” Tara gasped.

Gabby saw the pulsing of the portal and knew Tara was right. But this time, when the dragon came through, it was not accompanied by another dragon, but somethingor someoneelse.

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