Page 73 of Hell to Slay

“Get her!” called out a familiar voice.

La Cora and Cyrene stood among the demon hunters, and they both turned to face us where we stood on the small rise above them.

“Why am I not surprised?” I muttered.

“Kill them!” La Cora ordered, pointing his finger up at us.

“Circles,” Hudson said. “Jax, keep them busy.”

Even though any of us could draw our circles now, we didn’t want to show our hand if we didn’t have to. Jax gestured, and the demon hunters running toward us suddenly tripped, falling. They stumbled to their feet, calling out but not answering their allies, their hands blindly grasping. Jax had struck them deaf and blind — I could feel it as though it were my own magic that had done the deed.

“Now to crank up the heat,” Jax said as I drew my sigils for telekinesis beside him. A demon hunter began yelling and tearing off his armor as fast as he could as Jax increased his sensitivity to the heat emanating from the infernal realm only steps away.

As soon as I had my telekinesis circle created, I lifted all the helpless witches off the ground and yanked them behind us. As one, they screamed, but now wasn’t the time for precision. I just needed to keep La Cora and Cyrene from killing them.

Meanwhile, the other three kept the demon hunters busy when a sensate among them countered Jax’s spell, restoring their senses. Judging from the concentration on his face, though, he was having a harder time than my coven-mate, who had access to our near-boundless magic reservoir.

Nico turned to the witches I’d moved and began using magically enhanced vines to tug at the manacles until they fell off. The five of them were a crying, sobbing mess. I had a feeling they weren’t trained demon hunters and wouldn’t be much help to us in this fight.

“Get back,” Hudson told them, but they were all clearly in a state of shock. I used my telekinesis to move them farther behind us to safety, and not a moment too soon.

Fire rained down on us, but our artifacts held strong against witchfire and demonfire alike. Nico directed a stream of water against Cyrene, but she redirected it right back at him, bowling him over. In return, I sent a bolt of lightning at her while she was distracted, but she also redirected it, forcing me to leap aside.

“Get as far away from here as you can,” I called to the victims as I got back to my feet.

Meanwhile, Hudson sent flames against the demon hunters, who had their own methods of countering magic.

“And tell the DHA,” Hudson growled through clenched teeth.

“They’re the ones who did this to us,” one of the victims protested.

None of us had time to argue, and they finally fled. Apparently none of them had teleportation or any useful magic to aid in their escape.

“All at once on the one closest to the portal,” I called.

Together, the four of us hit him with flame and lightning. Jax and Nico added their own helping, since it would be masked by mine and Hudson’s. With all of our magic directed at our target at once, he couldn’t counter everything, and a spike of earth finished him off.

“Don’t kill them!” one of the fleeing witches called back. “That’s what they want!”

The shadows at the edge of the threshold surged forward toward the fallen demon hunter we’d killed, stroking along his body. Something light and silvery trickled away from him like quicksilver, disappearing into the smoky wall of the infernal threshold.

Cyrene laughed. “Keep it up! This close to the threshold, souls are easily pulled inside.”

The two of them were once again responsible for the expansion of the infernal realm that Preta’s people had detected.

“You’re insane!” Hudson called as the demon hunters regrouped around their two leaders.

“No, we’re ambitious,” La Cora called back just as Cyrene groused, “What other choice did you leave us?”

“We’ll have to knock them out,” Nico warned, coming to stand on Hudson’s elemental air circle. Jax and I joined him, but only Hudson raised his arm, covering for us.

Together, the four of us used his arcane air magic to steal the breath from all the demon hunters below.

They clutched at their throats, and Hudson reminded us, “Careful not to kill them.”

I focused all my attention on the demon hunters below, and yanked my magic away from those who slumped first. One by one, all the demon hunters dropped unconscious, leaving only La Cora and Cyrene standing.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Cyrene put her hands on her hips. “I’ve made artifacts to counter any type of magic you could throw at us. Who do you think made the first infernal antidote, after all?”

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