Page 20 of A Fury Of Shadows

“It should fade in a moment,” Anya said distractedly. She clasped Mae’s hands, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright. “That was incredible!”

Mae’s heartbeat finally slowed. “I couldn’t have done it without the two of you.” She squeezed Anya’s fingers and addressed Cortes. “Your magic was the key to—”

She froze mid-sentence. The hairs were lifting on the back of her neck.

Vlad’s smile faded as he watched her expression change. “What’s wrong?”

Mae’s pulse accelerated all over again. “I’m…not sure.”

She scanned the warehouse for the source of the eerie sensation that had just glanced off her senses. Brimstone’s low growl raised goosebumps on her flesh. Hellreaver vibrated agitatedly beside her.

Whatever it was that was making her skin itch, they’d picked up on it too. Except she wasn’t sure what it was she was actually feeling right now.

Dread knotted her belly. She could only think of one thing that would make her and her bonds instinctively uneasy.

“Nullify!”

The air swelled with tension. Vlad and the others exchanged wary looks. They knew what that spell meant.

“Is it the Dark Council?” Cortes asked in a hard voice.

The sorcerer had stepped in front of Anya. He unleashed his whip and sword, his wary gaze and that of his parrot familiar aglow with golden magic as they swept the shadows. Though Anya’s Illusion Sorcery was powerful, she and Sable were vulnerable to physical attack.

Demonic power bloomed in Vlad’s pupils. The diamond stud in his left ear dropped into his hand and transformed into a second blade.

Purple disks formed around Violet’s wrists as her ring extended into an arming sword. Erik shifted closer to her, his eyes and spear brimming with an aquamarine light.

Violet shot a worried glance at her. “Mae?”

Mae clenched her jaw. Instead of the black magic cores she’d expected to find close by, all she could feel was a whole load of nothing. She stiffened in the next instant.

Something had just moved on the edge of her mental map of the area around the warehouse. She focused.

The sinister sensation from before returned ten-fold. It came in growing waves, a foul energy that felt akin yet different to the black magic and corruption she was used to feeling from their enemy.

Is it him?!Na Ri ground out.

Mae knew she meant the Archduke of Hell who had killed her and Ran Soyun. Frustration churned her insides. She still couldn’t figure out what the hell this was.

“Brim?”

The demon fox sniffed the air. His pupils flashed red a moment later.

He bared his fangs.This is something from the Underworld. I am certain of it!

Ilya and Milo startled when he shook himself out into his nine-tailed form.

Crimson throbbed around Hellreaver. The weapon dropped defensively in front of Mae.I agree, my witch. I can practically smell Hell’s stink from here!

Mae’s heart pounded heavily against her ribs. “Brimstone and Hellreaver say it’s something from the Underworld.”

Isabelle cast a fraught look at Regina. “Didn’t you fight things from the Underworld once?”

“Yeah.” Regina’s expression grew pinched. “It was about as fun as being sober at a covenstead.”

“Stay behind me,” Vlad instructed Ilya and Milo curtly.

The bodyguards traded nervous looks. In a fight against the powers of Hell, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

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