Avoiding the small crowd, Zach manoeuvred them towards the cafe and found them a seat. Drew sank down into a chair, placing his hands flat against the roughly hewn wood of the table, needing it to ground him. “Shit,” he whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. “I almost gave away the fact I can do magic.”
“But you didn’t,” Zack assured him, as he sat in the chair next to him. “Instead, you saved that woman from being injured.”
“But what if—”
“Drew,” Zach said firmly, cutting him off. “Don’t go down the ‘what if’ path. Just focus on the positives. You prevented harm from befalling someone,andyou demonstrated that using your powers is becoming more instinctual.” He wrapped an arm around Drew’s shoulders and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You did good, sweetness.”
“Yeah?” Drew asked, needing the validation.
“Yeah,” Zach agreed. “Now, let’s get some lunch and head home. I think the perfect way to end this date will be to curl up in bed together and watch a movie.”
Beaming at his angel, Drew could only agree. “I like the way you think.
Showdown
Drew hurried across campus, running late for his morning class after Zach had delayed him with a blow job that morning. The past couple of weeks had been non-stop for him, between uni assignments ramping up and Kensington demanding more and more of his time for training. He’d finally mastered the basics of wielding his power and had moved on to more advanced magic. It was absolutely exhausting and there was very little time left over for any bedroom shenanigans. He’d absolutely not been complaining when Zach had pushed him against the back of the door and dropped to his knees after breakfast, but it was a little inconvenient now he was so late.
Zach’s voice thundered in his head commanding him toSTOP!and he staggered to a halt.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Drew asked out loud, his head twisting from side to side to try and see where the danger was.
Something’s wrong,Zach said, wriggling his cat form out of Drew’s backpack and climbing onto his shoulder.Can you not feel that?
Drew concentrated, tuning out the noise and commotion of the busy university campus. Then he felt it, the change in pressure of the atmosphere surrounding them, but it was coming from all around him, not just one direction, which is why he hadn’t noticed it. “Magic? But who? Why?”
“Drew!” he heard being called out from behind him, and he turned to see Gwen and Dom crossing the quad, waving at him. In their wake trailed a sullen Edward, clearly annoyed that the others were trying to act like he wasn’t there.
He didn’t bother returning the greeting, too busy trying to figure out where the magic users were and what they were doing.
“Is something wrong?” Dom asked as he noticed Drew’s expression.
Drew nodded but didn’t—couldn’t—explain, his eyes continuing to dart around.
It’s all around us. Should I call Kensington?he asked silently.
It wouldn’t hurt,Zach agreed.
Sending a quick text off to the sorcerer, not really wanting to explain out loud while other people were around, Drew pocketed his phone and tried once more to narrow down where the magic was coming from, but it was too noisy, too busy. There were just too many distractions.
“What the hell is wrong?” Gwen asked, picking up on the vibe. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
From one side, there came a loud noise, and they all turned to see what it was. The concrete under a seating area was cracking, breaking apart as the ground beneath it began to lift.
From the opposite direction came the sounds of screams, and when Drew whipped his head around, he saw the lawn was erupting, chunks of dirt and turf flying high into the air. It was then that he caught a glimpse of someone nearby, a book open in their palms, and they appeared to be chanting.
“Oh, fuck,” he whispered.
Oberon.Zach said the name as if it were a curse and then he was leaping from Drew’s shoulder, transforming into his normal form, his eyes blazing.
“Werecat!” Edward squealed, pointing at Zach, eyes wide.
Everyone ignored him, too busy being horrified as the ground around them continued to churn and break apart. Then there were more screams as hands appeared, clawing their way up and out of the ground. The bodies of the demons followed, some of them human-looking the way Beelzebub and Asmodeus had been, others with deformed bodies and hellish features. Panic broke out as students began to run for their lives.
“Go, get out of here!” Drew told his friends. “Run!”
Dom grabbed Gwen’s hand and they started to run away, but then stopped as the earth in front of them broke open and something else began to emerge. Gwen screamed and they turned, but by now they were blocked in, with no escape.
Two beams of bright light shot through the air and Drew breathed a sigh of relief as Kensington and Simon appeared next to them. The Grand Master took in the situation with a single glance and looked over at Zach. “Friends of yours, I assume?”
