Page 22 of A Fury Of Shadows

They all converged on her.

“Wind Fury!”

The tempest that roared into life across the building at her command lifted half the sorcerers and witches hurling spell bombs in her direction inside a vortex from which there would be little chance of escape.

The next incantation left Mae’s lips on the same breath. “Devour!”

Scarlet spheres exploded around her shield. They swallowed the multiple attacks arrowing toward her.

“Watch out!” Vlad yelled.

A shadow fell across her. She looked up and narrowed her eyes.

A devil had landed on top of her barrier. Another alighted to her right. A third one crawled across the surface on her left. They started striking her defenses.

Mae flinched when their claws piercedShield. She caught a glint of metal on their talons, and in their hide and eyes.

What the heck is that?!

Brimstone batted the devils away, his wrath making the air boil and his tails vibrating so hard the storm they raised tore part of the roof from its supports. More landed on him. He snarled.

Horror twisted Mae’s belly at an echo of pain across their bond. “Brim!”

The monsters’ talons were drawing blood from the nine-tailed fox’s flanks.

That’s impossible!Her heart thumped violently against her ribs.They shouldn’t be able to get through his demon magic!

Regina’s curse had her gaze swinging down distractedly.

A group of devils and black magic users had surrounded Vlad and the others. Sparks exploded where the monsters’ strange, metal-tipped claws punctured the barrier she’d erected. The Dark Council sorcerers and witches focused on the breaches, blasting them with wave after wave of powerful spell bombs.

Violet stabbed her sword into the edge of Mae’sShield.Sweat beaded her forehead as she focused her magic and the energy she’d absorbed from Artemus Steele and the divine beasts in Chicago into the crimson wall.

The expanding cracks froze.

Anya whimpered, eyes wide and body rigid with fear. Mae knew the witch was recalling the horrors she had suffered at the hands of the Dark Council mere weeks ago.

A dark foreboding chilled her to the bone. There was something strange about these devils. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the luxury of figuring out what that was right now.

She glanced at Hellreaver, her pulse racing. “Go!”

He shot out ofShieldon an ululation that rooted the legs of the sorcerers and witches bombarding the barrier enclosing Violet and the others to the ground. Blood coated his blades as he rapidly cut down the enemy.

The only ones who avoided his serrated fangs were the devils. They flickered in and out of view, their movements faster than when she’d last fought them.

Mae’s stomach roiled as they pounced on Hellreaver in a coordinated attack that brought him to the ground. “Hell!”

Vlad’s voice jolted her out of the panic threatening to overwhelm her.

“Drop your shield, Mae!” the incubus shouted, a ball of demonic magic hovering above his hand. “The three of you can’t fight them and protect us at the same time!”

Cortes scowled. “He’s right. Let us help you!”

Mae raised her hands to the sky, too far gone in her fear and rage to care about anything but the monsters attacking the familiar and the weapon bonded to her and Na Ri’s souls.

“DECIMATE!”

Her savage bellow was swallowed by the detonation that ripped the air above her head. An orb brimming with dark red lightning materialized with a sizzle of ozone. It swelled rapidly, sapping her strength as it grew. Black currents laced with crimson shot out of it. The arcs multiplied, moving at speeds and angles that defied gravity as they sought her foe.

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