Page 24 of A Fury Of Shadows

Milo lunged toward Vlad. “Boss!”

Violet blocked him. “Stop! You don’t know what that magic will do to you!”

Ilya restrained the younger bodyguard as he struggled to reach Vlad, the older man’s face a rigid mask of anger and despair. Regina, Isabelle, and Erik raised fresh shields to protect Anya and the bodyguards.

Cortes laid a hand on the incubus’s shoulder. “Vlad.”

He flinched,Rotburning his palm. Arcane Magic detonated in his eyes as he attempted to counter the spell.

Mae looked wildly at Oscar’s loathsome expression.

He’s crushing his heart!Blood thumped painfully inside her skull.This isn’t just Nikolai’s power! It’s Vedran’s black magic!

Dark lines bloomed under Vlad’s skin. Tarang whimpered, the crimson in his pupils flickering as he pressed against his sorcerer. The tiger swayed.

Anya and Violet caught him as he collapsed. Brimstone and Hellreaver’s wrath scorched Mae’s mind. Tarang was their best friend.

Oscar recoiled when the dark globe protecting him shook violently. Brimstone swatted it with his powerful tails before clawing at it with his talons.

The voices of a thousand demons filled the warehouse, the din making Mae’s ears ring. Even the devils flinched at the unholy sound.

Hellreaver slammed into Oscar’s barrier again and again, his fangs and blades shredding and piercing the shield layer by layer. He slipped through a crack and hurtled toward the sorcerer, his rage a red cloud that obscured his deadly form.

He would have pierced Oscar’s heart had Drabek not jumped in his path. The familiar screeched as the weapon sliced a deep cut across her face and eye.

“Drabek!” Oscar cried out.

His black magic sphere imploded under one of Brimstone’s strikes. The sorcerer shrank back.

“You are mine!” the demon fox snarled, eyes a fierce scarlet and flecks of drool dripping from his jaws.

Oscar retreated, his face full of fear and spite, a bleeding Drabek clutched in his arms. The Dark Council sorcerers and witches surrounded him in a defensive formation.

Mae turned to Vlad. “Negate!”

The incubus gasped as the power squeezing his heart was consumed by her magic.

The spell resisted her. She bit her lip and drew on her cores. A gasp left her when she finally won the battle.

The color started flooding back into Vlad’s face. He raised his head weakly, his lips tilting in a tremulous smile. “Thanks, Princess! I thought I was—”

The incubus froze, his eyes rounding.

Evil saturated the air with a suddenness that robbed Mae’s lungs of air. The acrid scent of ozone filled her nostrils and washed across her tongue.

No!

Panic bled across her bond with Brimstone. “My witch!”

The demon fox leapt toward her.

Hellreaver overtook him.

“MAE!”

Horror underscored Violet and the others’ desperate screams.

She looked up in time to see Barquiel slam intoShield. The barrier broke, weakened by the damage the devils had inflicted upon it and the tollDisseverhad taken on her magic.

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