Page 88 of Of Flames and Crows

Violet’s chest heaved with her ragged breaths where she maintained the golden shield protecting them. “Shit!”

“We could really do with Mae and Nikolai’s help right about now!” Miles grunted.

Sweat dripped down the sorcerer’s face as he poured magic into the barrier.

Roman stared at Barquiel.He’s the one doing that!

Black lightning cracked the sky. The bolt connected with the demon’s blade and arced toward Ludmila.

A crimson wave exploded from Brimstone as his tails vibrated violently. Barquiel’s attack crashed into the red sphere blossoming around him and Ludmila.

The ground caved beneath the nine-tailed fox. He snarled, flecks of drool falling from his jowls as he bowed under the pressure of the attack, his pupils aglow with demonic power. His legs slowly straightened.

Barquiel scowled.

* * *

A red rivuletdripped down Vlad’s thigh where one of Raya’s attacks had carved a gash in his flesh. Had it not been for the veneer of incubus energy coating his skin, he would have lost the limb.

He wiped sweat and blood from his face before shooting a hard glance at Cortes. “Together!”

Cortes nodded, his face an icy mask of resolve. He followed Vlad’s lead and charged Raya, the black blade dancing in his hands as he batted away at the barrage of spell bombs she aimed at them.

Even though the Colombian could not wield magic, he more than made up for it with his animal instincts and his fighting skills. Vlad understood why the seer had been so scared of her nephew and had attempted to get rid of him when he was too young to defend himself.

Had Cortes been able to tap into his Arcane Magic right now, she would have been a bloodied corpse on the ground.

Tarang snagged the back of Raya’s left ankle with his claws. The witch screeched in pain and fury as her flesh was ripped to shreds, exposing her Achilles tendon. She whirled around and cast a spell bomb at the tiger.

Vlad deflected the orb a few inches from his familiar’s left eye.

“Stay away from my tiger, bitch!” he hissed at Raya.

Incubus magic boomed around him as he drew on his demonic core. Tarang roared, pupils radiating a deadly scarlet light.

Raya cursed as Vlad darted closer, the edge of his blade skimming past her face again and again. The witch’s eyes flashed amber as she raised a hand to blast him with a spell.

Something glinted at the edge of Vlad’s vision.

A savage grin stretched his lips.Gotcha!

Raya’s look of incomprehension froze. Cortes’s dagger sailed straight and true through the air, nicked her ear lobe, and sliced her black mamba’s head clean off. The snake’s body convulsed and sprayed her cloak and face with blood even as the knife pierced a column opposite them.

The seer reached up and touched her cheek in a daze. Her eyes rounded when her fingertips came away crimson. “No!”

Her frightened gaze found her familiar’s head where it flopped at her feet. A choked sound left her with her next breath.

“It sucks, doesn’t it?” Cortes said inches from Raya’s face. “Having your familiar die?”

Raya’s shocked gaze dropped from her nephew’s face to the black blade that had stabbed her chest and skewered her heart before exiting her back.

Cortes stared into Raya’s eyes and twisted the blade. “At least I’ve done you the courtesy of killing you quickly, aunt.”

Blood spurted from the witch’s mouth.

Cortes ripped the sword out of her body and dispassionately wiped away the crimson jet that had sprayed his chin as she folded limply at his feet.

Vlad joined him. Cortes handed him his sword wordlessly.

---