Dex had shadow-traveled us here moments ago, depositing us onto the damp, sun-warmed sand of Gleaming Gulf.
“You as well,” Hunter said, nodding to Jesper with the calm that only came with experience. Experience my mate had since he was on the Demon Council and worked vengeance cases in the past. His posture was rigid, but there was a flicker of wariness through our bond. “What’s the plan?”
Jesper barely had time to answer before April leaned in, practically glowing with enthusiasm. “Jesper has the best plan,” she gushed, her voice lifting as she fluttered her eyelashes at him.
Jesper took an awkward step away from her, his usually composed demeanor cracking for just a second. It was clear she made him uncomfortable. “According to our intel, the ritual site is just ahead.”
“And the plan once we get there?” Dex probed. His hands were already flexing, his fingers twitching like he was ready to summon his shadows at any second.
He’d been hesitant to use his shadows around me, but I was starting to get used to them. I hated that I couldn’t push the fear from my mind altogether. I wasn’t afraid of Dex or his magic. What I was afraid of didn’t exist anymore.
Penny Bones was dead, and so was her magic.
“Destroy the site. Kill the dark magic if there is any, and make sure to ruin all artifacts.” A flicker of frustration crossed Jesper’s face, his jaw tightening. “I wish I knew more about what we were walking into, but this is all we have. Sometimes we’re thrown into situations without enough information as field agents, but we just have to do what we can with what we know.”
The air crackled as we made our way toward the site coordinates.
“There’s a lot of dark magic coming up,” Nebula hissed from my bag.
Every muscle in my body tensed.
My mates reacted just as quickly to Nebula’s words, their movements subtle but immediate. Reed shifted closer. Hunter’s fingers brushed mine. Dex’s shadows were visible, tightly curled around him. Chaos manifested next to Bram. Skel was so close behind me I could feel his warmth.
Beneath my boots, I felt the shift as we approached the ritual site. It was as if dark magic had tainted it, seeping into the grains beneath us. Ahead, symbols were scorched into the earth, the blood staining them still wet and glistening under the weak morning light. They spiraled inward, their patterns complex but deliberate, all converging toward a dark stone altar that stood unnervingly still amidst the shifting dunes.
Candles, half-melted and drooping, had been pressed into the sand around the ritual site. Their weak flames flickered unnaturally. Shadows twisted around them, lengthening and contracting in ways that didn’t match the natural sway of the wind.
A shudder rolled through me.
The scent of blood mixed with the salt in the air, the tang of it sharp and metallic. The evil of this place settled deep in my bones, putting my soul on edge.
Waves lapped at the edge, but even that sounded wrong. Muted. Like the ocean itself was recoiling from the corruption staining the shore.
A chill slithered down my spine.
“It’s a trap!” Nebula yelled, alerting my mates and I.
“Get ready!” I shouted, my voice cutting through the eerie silence.
“Be prepared for an ambush!” Jesper tensed, his fingers twitching into dragon talons, while the student shadowing him shrank behind him in fear.
The other agents moved as one, shifting into defensive stances, their eyes scanning the shadows with trained precision.
That was when the cultists emerged.
One infected demon floated up from a dark magic portal. More un-infected demons trudged their way up from behind a nearby dune.
“They’re guards,” Jesper said grimly. “Makes more sense that they didn’t leave it unguarded. Get ready for a fight.”
The infected demon turned her head, the movement sharp and unnatural. Her translucent skin barely held together, the veins beneath it blackened and pulsating. Her eyes—if they could even be called that—were empty sockets, leaking tendrils of dark magic that coiled and twisted around her face.
She lifted her arm and pointed at me. “You! You’re a dead demon.”
I exhaled slowly, tasting the magic swelling up at the back of my throat. My lips curled. “Not as dead as you.”
Power surged from me, tendrils of my power lashing out of my mouth.
The moment it slinked down her throat, she unraveled. Her soul and the dark magic infecting her were swallowed up by my magic. I wrenched both from her body, and my power spiraled toward me in a consuming rush. Her soul’s energy fueled my reserves slightly as my magic snaked back out and rushed for the altar and the tainted symbols carved into the sand.
