Page 102 of The Sundered Realms

She hadn’t faced a demon alone since the first, before she’d been able to use magic on her own. This was different—not least because now people were expecting her to be able to hold her own, and despite all her training, working in the presence of a demon was different.

“Her” demon lashed toward her, and Liris fired again.

She flipped another page and barely had time to write both variables to arc the lightning through the demon’s multiple extending limbs. Keeping her eyes on the demon, Liris skittered backward and slipped on some snow, feet coming out from under her and head going down fast.

She turned on instinct to catch herself on her hands and in less than an instant had just enough presence of mind to think, No, not my hands! because if she broke her hands and lost her ability to cast spells the only way she knew, she was done for.

Liris heaved her body into a twist, feeling a muscle around her ribs wrench as she went down in a roll on her side, spinning and spinning and spinning.

When she came to a stop, the demon loomed directly above her.

Lying still, eyes and hands steady, Liris sighted, wrote, and fired.

It reared back with a scream, and around its sides shadows spilled outward, hands with too many fingers elongating like taffy to stretch toward her—

And then a protection sphere slammed into it.

Gods bless Princess Nysia, Liris thought fervently.

Then Shry filled her vision.

“Good work,” Shry told her, hauling her to her feet as Liris hissed in pain.

“Was it?” she asked with a wince.

Shry took Liris’ face between her hands and stared at her hard. “You lived to fight another day. That’s always, always the first and most important goal. You hear me?”

Her friend had clearly taken some falls, too. Through her lacy top, blood streaked down an arm.

Liris nodded jerkily, and Shry released her.

“Good. You have more work to do.”

Shry turned away, and Liris followed after her, wincing and pressing her hand to her side with every step. Bad sign that she felt this much pain already with her adrenaline up.

Vhannor looked her over with a glance and Liris just nodded. It would have to wait. With the demons floating above them contained, the black demon portal radiated through the platform clearly.

“I’ll deal with any demons that come out, but work fast,” Shry said, pulling out another blade. Where does she keep those, Liris thought irrelevantly. “They’re starting to come through faster than I can kill them, and this portal is huge.”

Princess Nysia shook her head. “I don’t have a big enough protection spell prepared for this—“

“Just keep a demon-sized one handy,” Vhannor cut her off.

“Always,” Nysia said grimly.

He looked to Liris. “Ready?”

“Always,” she echoed.

He smiled tightly. “Then let’s get started.”

Liris turned, taking in all the diagrams around her. “Vhann, there are two Thyrasel layers—“

“Indeed,” Jadrhun’s silky voice came from behind her.

Liris whirled and saw him with pen poised on pad, angled toward her.

“So wouldn’t it be a shame,” Jadrhun said, his gaze piercing hers, “if something were to happen to Liris?”

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