“Like I said before, witch, I owe you a life debt.” Simone scanned the hall before us as we ran at breakneck speed. “And I plan on honoring it.”
“Fine.” My emotions rolled through me, a mix of exasperation and swelling gratitude that I couldn’t express because we were running so fast. What could I say anyway? The vamps and shifters were loyal to me. Although I worried for their teams, I had to admit, that felt good.
I inhaled sharply as we intersected another hallway, and Alex shot off thenexincantation at a gray, wrinkled wraith lying in wait.
“Watch our backs,” I told the vamps. “Allour backs. Shifters’ too.”
Francis rolled his eyes, clearly not as concerned about the shifters as he was about me. “Obviously. Now let me guess, you’re trying to find their supposed celebration. Well, let me tell you, I don’t think—”
A door that I recognized as belonging to the Demonology classroom burst open in front of us, and thirty demons streamed into the hall.
“Spread out!” I yelled. “Hold them back!”
There wasn’t anyone behind us, but I wanted the demons tothinkwe had backup.
The witches and vampires took the front. At our backs, the four white wolves growled, ready to rip open the throats of demons.
An ifrit moved first, turning incorporeal and zinging towards us in a blaze of fire and spark. I threw up a web of black magic, trapping it. I was about to issue the killing curse when Hunter swung his arm out to stop me, and leapt forward, his totem extended.
“Relligio!”
The spell hit the lesser demon, and the ifrit screamed as its body was ripped from my web of magic, and soared toward Hunter’s blade. Once the demon hit the metal, it disappeared.
I gaped as Hunter’s blade began to glow red-hot. Only the hilt seemed unaffected.
There was no time to ask how the hell he’d known to do that, because the rest of the demons, mostly wraiths and shapeshifting fenrirs, charged.
“Let’s get ready torumble!” Francis struck a pose like he was about to face off in the ring, before crouching and leaping phenomenally high and landing on top of a snarling fenrir demon.
The vampire sank his fangs into skin, and the beast screamed, twisting and turning. Francis hung on like he was a rodeo cowboy.
I was about to shoot off an incantation to help the vamp when a ball of fire from another demon came flying at me.
Oh hells no.
I leapt out of the way and began firing off demon-killing curses at any devil unlucky enough to be in my sight. My friends did the same and we hit our marks more often than not, eliminating the opposition quickly. There were only two left when the wolves, probably attracted to the blood, pushed past the witch line and began tearing the stragglers limb from limb.
“Nice work, team,” I said as the last demon fell to the ground. “Anyone injured?”
Heath’s fur had briefly caught fire, but it was extinguished, so we continued running down the hallways.
It was clear to everyone that either there had never been a demon ceremony, or our arrival had broken it up. Still, I couldn’t help but think the royals might be waiting for us in one of the academy’s larger, grander rooms. They were theatrical like that.
My heart was pounding and my legs burning when we arrived in the entryway. I skidded to a stop and gasped at the state of the room.
The beautiful stained glass windows that portrayed the elements had been smashed to pieces. Flecks of green, blue, red, and orange were scattered on the ground. Next to the glittering glass, pools of blood dotted the floor.
“Who do you think that’s from?” Eva asked, her eyes locked on one of the many pools.
“We thought you would never ask,” a snide voice came from above, and we whirled around to see that demons lined the double staircases and the three levels leading to smaller classrooms and dormitory towers.
The demons gazed down upon us, eyes blazing, and in the middle of them all was Xaphan. The prince of darkness’ black wings were spread aswide as his glittering, hateful smile.
My hands balled up as he pinned his eyes on me.
“Good to see you again, Dane.”
“Yes, so, so,sogood!” a feminine voice added. My attention snapped right, and my eyes widened.
