Page 72 of A Fury Of Shadows

He shut his ears to the horrors he was witnessing and focused on the dark spot growing ahead.

That’s the exit!

Nikolai tried to decelerate as he approached it, to no avail.

Shit!

He shot out of the portal, flailed wildly when he found himself some ten feet in the air, and hit the ground hard.

CHAPTER27

Alastairalighted gracefully on Nikolai’s back.

Nikolai stifled a groan. He pushed up onto his hands and knees and peered around warily. He could see the vague walls of a chasm rising on either side of him. Foul, yellow fumes swirled through the air, obscuring his view of pretty much everything else.

A distant animal shriek raised goosebumps on his flesh. Alastair made a nervous sound. Nikolai recalled the hellbeasts they had fought before.

He flinched when the sulfur clouds stirred on his left. Something glowed and bubbled some eighteen feet away. The billows cleared, revealing a lava pit.

Nikolai swallowed.Good thing I didn’t land in that.

Alastair clicked his beak and took flight, Hellfire Magic brightening his feathers. Nikolai climbed hastily to his feet and followed the crow’s red wings as he arrowed toward the base of a distant cliff.

It was where the white magic they had sensed was coming from.

It took him a good ten minutes to reach the far end of the gully. Demonic energy brushed across his skin when he approached the bluff. Nikolai slowed.

That’s Barquiel’s power.

Alastair dropped down on his shoulder and stared intently at a spot ahead of them. Nikolai frowned. All he could see was a dark rockface.

“Is there something there, Al?”

The crow squawked.

Nikolai hesitated. He released a weak pulse of Hellfire Magic. It sparked against something. The wall wavered.

Nikolai’s insides twisted as the entrance of a cave glimmered into view. It disappeared just as swiftly. His heart thundered against his ribs.

Barquiel shielded this place!

The white magic that had drawn him and Alastair to Hell throbbed strongly from the cliff, as if whoever or whatever was emitting it was angry.

Nikolai’s mind raced as he tried to come up with a way to cross Barquiel’s barrier. A memory jolted him. His pulse stuttered. He recalled the spell Mae had created to disable demonic energy, when the demon had attacked them in Philadelphia.

Negatecan get me through this wall!

Bitterness tightened his jaw. The countermeasure Vedran had invented to neutralize Mae’s powers had involved analyzing the structure ofNullifyandNegateandcombining his black magic with Nikolai’s Hellfire Magic to create a spell that could cancel them out.

His nails bit into his palms.I’m sure I can recreate it.

Alastair clutched Nikolai’s shoulder tightly as he reached for their magic. He closed his eyes and brought up the shape of Mae’s conjuration.

Another recollection flashed across his inner vision. His heartbeat accelerated.That’s right! I helped Mae design a spell to undo the black magic Vedran had placed inside the core of…

He frowned, his memory failing him as he tried to remember whom it was they had helped. He gritted his teeth.

It doesn’t matter. I can visualize the process!

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