Page 80 of Pure Magic
I shoot water and fire through the wand to kill as many demons as I can.
Like thunder, something pounds against the other side of the shield.
The golden glow dims but holds under the warping pressure of whatever is trying to get through.
Sara Beth cringes at the weight of it.
Ariana laughs, though in her current form, the sound is grating and hurts my ears. “He is come, and you will be the first to die.”
She shoots her filthy magic toward Sara Beth.
I throw magic in the path of my sister’s evil.
Sylvia rushes forward and beats back the dark magic with her light.
Frowning, Ariana tries again to get Sara Beth to lower the shield staff and let through whatever is pounding against the magic.
Sylvia holds her ground, and I realize she’s gotten in the way of my magic. Perhaps so I can save my energy for whatever is coming next.
Henry Dove pulls back his arm and throws a knife toward what Ariana has become. It strikes, but she only stares at the metal in her chest.
I am elated. It’s terrible to wish my sister dead, but she has no place in this world.
Then she pulls it free and tosses it aside. “I am a god. Nothing of this world can destroy me!”
Dread hits me like a hammer. Is it possible we cannot kill her? If we cannot defeat Ariana, then whatever is pushing against the shield will surely destroy us.
Sara Beth takes my free hand and whispers, “We have tools not of this world.”
Two yards away, Laura takes the head off a demon with a sword she’s crafted out of fire. She looks from me to Sara Beth and winks before charging into another battle with a six-legged demon that lunges at her with claws and fangs.
Goddess’s voice permeates the crash of death and blood. “Not one demon can be left in any world not their own. Fight with what they cannot understand. Fight with what makes your world special.”
“Small task.” I don’t even try to keep the sarcasm out of my tone. I’ll still never love the idea of a deity manipulating my life, but at least I understand a bit more now.
The pounding grows stronger. “I can’t hold it back much longer.”
Fight with what they can’t understand.
I’m so stupid. Why didn’t I realize this earlier. “Beth, I love you in this life and in all that came before. I shall love you in all the lives to come. Love is the emotion they—” I point at the gate. “Can’t understand or relate to in any way.”
She grips the shaking staff with both hands, barely holding on to the magic flowing through a god’s tool. “How does that help us?”
The shield staff cracks. Pain streaks across her face as she’s forced to drop the shattered pieces.
Something that can only be described as the devil drops to its feet next to Ariana, who again looks like a woman, though her eyes show no white or color other than black.
The devil is twice the height of a man and covered in brown fur. Two curved horns protrude from above his temples, and his eyes are black like Ariana’s. Evil pours from him like pus from a wound. In a bass voice, he speaks. “You will all bow to me, or I will kill everything in this world. Save yourselves. Your pitiful goddess will die today. That miserable fae will perish as well. I’ve waited through millennia of worlds crashing into nothing and new ones being born for this day. Do you really think you can defeat me with your silly magics?”
Sara Beth crouches and picks up the crystal that once topped the staff. She places it in her palm with the piece of the sacred hart’s antler.
I put the wand in her hand and clasp my palm over hers.
Magic of three kinds swirls between us.
The devil’s eyes widen, and he points at us. “Stop. I command you to stop this foul magic.”
Ariana runs toward us, hands raised like claws.
