Chapter 9

Beneath glaring fluorescent lights, Ezra stood in one of the two circles inside the twenty-five-foot outer ring that Robin and Amalia had drawn on the museum basement's floor. He was dressed in full combat gear, including his bad-guy-smasher gloves with their steel-reinforced knuckles and elbows.

Kai, Aaron, and I were arranged on his left, outside the silver array. We'd dressed in combat gear too, my belt around my hips, Sharpie in its sheath on Aaron's back, and Kai's vest loaded with small weapons. Had we dressed for battle because we felt stronger in these clothes? Or because it was a way of acknowledging the gravity of this night?

Robin stood opposite us. She hadn't dressed for a fight, wearing a gray sweater under her leather jacket, but I wasn't sure she owned real combat gear. Amalia was positioned across from Ezra, facing him, and she looked as "haphazard posh" as always in leggings, tall boots, and a leather jacket of her own.

I'd never paid much attention to Amalia. Next to Robin's mysteries, the apprentice sorceress had seemed kind of inconsequential—but I was revamping my impression of her big time.

Holding the ornate cult grimoire in her hands, Amalia chanted in Latin. The ancient words rose and fell with undeniable power, her voice smooth and confident, almost regal. It was as though she'd been born to read this spell—or as though she'd prepared since birth to read it. The thought that she might falter seemed ridiculous, and I had no doubt about her ability to perform the ritual flawlessly.

The final member of our strange group wasn't in the basement. Zylas was somewhere above us, prowling the museum rooftop as he watched for any sign of trouble. If any cultists showed up, he would warn us—and, depending on the intruders, eliminate them.

As Amalia's voice rolled through the room, Ezra waited alone in the circle, his left eye glowing faintly as both human and demon watched their fate unfold. Fighting to control my nauseating fear, I held on to Aaron's and Kai's hands. They gripped my fingers as tightly as I held theirs.

Amalia continued to chant, voice rising, then she paused. She gestured to Robin. The petite contractor knelt and opened the case at her feet. She withdrew a vial of demon blood—Nazhivēr's Second House blood, crucial to the summoning.

Walking into the empty circle, she uncorked it and tipped the vial, pouring the demon blood onto the central symbol. Instead of splashing across the floor, the thick liquid stuck to the rune, turning it dark scarlet.

She retreated to the circle's edge, and a heartbeat of silence ran through the basement.

"Te tuo sanguine ligo, tu ut vocatus audias, Eterran of the Dh'irath House!" Amalia declared.

A scarlet shimmer rippled out from the blood-coated rune. It spread across the silver array, turning the lines around Ezra's feet an eerie, iridescent ruby. He stiffened, the crimson gleam in his left eye brightening.

Amalia launched into the next phase of the ritual. Endless Latin flowed from her lips, then she pointed at the outer circle a foot in front of her boots.

"Terra te hoc circulo semper tenebit!"

The reddish glow imbuing the array whooshed upward in a shimmering wave, outlining a faint dome that arched over the outer ring. The gleaming dome faded, invisible, but according to Robin's explanation from a week ago, Eterran was now sealed inside the circle. Ezra would leave that silver ring as a human—or he wouldn't leave it at all.

My pulse drummed in my ears, a rapid beat counting down the minutes and seconds that remained.

Almost ten years had passed since Eterran had been summoned from his world and tricked into accepting a contract. Ten years since Ezra, deceived by the cult that ensnared his parents, had accepted his transformation into a demon mage.

Eight years since Ezra had run away from home, triggering the chain of events that had led to his parents' deaths and the destruction of Enright.

Six years since Aaron had encountered Ezra on the downtown streets and made a safe home for him.

Nine months since my first shift at the Crow and Hammer when I'd thrown a margarita across the three mages and Ezra had burst into laughter.

Three and a half months since I'd found out he was a demon mage.

Two months since our first kiss under the mistletoe.

One month since I'd realized I loved him.

And tonight, whether Ezra lived or died, none of our lives would ever be the same.

A silent buzz vibrated against my hip and I started, accidentally yanking my hands free from Aaron and Kai. Shit. Hadn't I turned my phone off?

I slid it out, the screen glowing with an incoming call from a number I didn't recognize. Amalia was still chanting, either too focused to have noticed my movement or ignoring me.

As I rejected the call, Kai glanced at my screen.

"That's Izzah's number," he whispered.

Izzah? I blinked at my phone, the screen dark. Why had Izzah called me? I hadn't heard from her in weeks.

The screen lit up, the phone buzzing. The same number appeared. She was calling again.

Amalia recited another Latin phrase. I hesitated, every nerve in my body prickling, then tapped the screen—answering the call. I brought the phone to my ear.

"Izzah?" I whispered as quietly as possible.

"Tori!" She was whispering too, but I could hear the urgency in her tone. "Where are you?"

"Where? I—"

"Is Ezra with you?"

The floor shifted under my feet. "Ezra?"

"I just overheard—two officers, they were talking about a classified bounty on Ezra. They're saying—"

Amalia's voice rose through another incantation. The air grew electric, scented with an unfamiliar tang of power.

"—Ezra is a demon mage."

The floor fell out from under me. The world fell. The universe was spinning out of control. Exploding. Imploding.

"A bounty," I choked out, scarcely making a sound. Aaron and Kai went rigid.

"Yes," Izzah whispered at top speed, "and the officers mentioned a team. I think they might be—"

Amalia stretched her hand out, pointing toward the blood-drenched rune as Latin flowed from her lips. The swirl of power through the two circles shifted back and forth, rippling across the interconnecting lines.

Izzah was still talking. "—already started, and you need to warn him before—"

"I have to go." I yanked my phone away and ended the call. My hand shook, the device almost slipping from my fingers. I shoved it into my pocket.

Aaron's and Kai's expectant stares were scorching the top of my head, but I couldn't look away from Ezra as he waited in the circle. Power sizzled in my nose and throat as Amalia's voice swirled through the room.

We couldn't stop now. We were so close.

Zylas was on the roof, keeping watch. No warning yet. We had time. Just enough time to unmake a demon mage. Just enough time to save Ezra not only from Eterran and madness, but from the justice of the mythic world that had just been unleashed.

I grabbed Aaron's and Kai's wrists, holding on to hope as I held back my terror. Every molecule in my body vibrated with urgency. Faster. Hurry. Quickly!

But Amalia didn't chant any faster. A single error would ruin the ritual. She continued at the same steady pace, power rising, the eerie glow of crimson magic in the circle deepening until it was more black than red.

Drawing herself up, Amalia lifted her hand toward Ezra. "Tenebrarum auctoritatem da mihi, da super hunc imperium sine fine!Eterran of Dh'irath, bearer of the power of Ahlēa, wielder of the king's command, by your blood and your oath, I summon—"

In a flash of glinting armor and reddish-brown skin, Zylas appeared behind her. His hand clamped over her mouth, halting her final words.

His eyes glowed like pits of magma. "They are inside."

My thundering heart plunged toward my feet.

"Who's inside?" Kai demanded.

"Odin's Eye."

The answer rasped from my dry throat. Odin's Eye was here. A team responding to a top-secret bounty on a demon mage.

"We have to get out of here!" Aaron barked urgently.

As one, Aaron, Kai, and I turned toward the lone exit. The open doorway led into a dark landing, and beyond it was the stairwell.

Zylas grabbed Robin's arm, shoved the petite contractor toward Amalia, then stepped in front of the two women and sank into a defensive stance. His fingers curled, claws unsheathing, crimson eyes fixed on that dark doorway.

"Aaron Sinclair," a deep male voice called, echoing out of the stairwell. "Kai Yamada. Tori Dawson. You've been charged with harboring a demon mage, a capital offense under MPD law. Surrender now, or we will attack with lethal force."

My lungs locked.

"Ezra Rowe. You've been identified as a demon mage and the MPD Emergency Judiciary Council has ordered your immediate execution." A short pause. "If you have any integrity or humanity left, you will surrender as well."

Tremors ran through my limbs. Ezra's secret was out. The world knew he was a demon mage.

I slowly slid one hand up my thigh to my hip. As my fingers curled around a cool glass sphere, I flicked a glance at Aaron and Kai. Aaron gave the slightest nod.

I yanked the alchemy bomb off my belt and flung it. As it arched through the air, Zylas launched toward the summoning array. His fist swung down, knuckles smashing into the concrete floor at the circle's edge. The concrete cracked under the blow, splitting the lines and runes.

My alchemy bomb smashed on the floor—and with shouted battle cries, the Odin's Eye mythics charged through the doorway.

I caught only a glimpse of familiar and unfamiliar mythics in dark gear before the billowing smoke obscured them. Its peppery tang filled my mouth as the room went white with mist.

Aaron and Kai leaped ahead of me, drawing weapons, and chaos exploded everywhere. Fire burst outward as Aaron's sword swept into a charging mythic, and their blades met with a ringing clang. Kai flung his throwing knives, and electricity leaped into the fog. A pained shout revealed that his attack had landed.

I yanked out my paintball gun, scouring the darting shadows for a target.

Something hit me in the back and I landed painfully on my knees. I swung my gun toward the bulky Odin's Eye mythic attacking me from behind, but he caught it and twisted it out of my hand. His fist flashed out—one, two, three strikes—and pain struck me in the jaw, the sternum, and the gut.

I went down. He flipped me onto my face, put a knee in my back, and wrenched my arm behind me. Through locked lungs, I felt a zip tie pull against my wrist. He yanked my other arm over to bind my wrists together.

That fast, I was done. Beginner's luck, a couple months of training, and a gutsy attitude were no match for professionals. I was nothing more than an amateur against the practiced bounty hunters of Odin's Eye.

Flashes of white electricity and orange firelight blazed nearby, but Aaron and Kai were too busy fighting off the Odin's Eye team to help me. My cheek ground into the floor as I squirmed violently, but the far stronger mythic forced my wrists together and looped the zip tie around them.

Hoshi burst from my belt pouch.

I didn't see what she did, but the mythic reared back with a shout. I pulled my feet in and kicked as hard as I could. My boots met his stomach, protected by an armored vest, but the strike was enough to throw him off balance.

Rolling away, I slipped my hand from the zip tie he hadn't had a chance to tighten and snatched my paintball gun off the floor. As Hoshi shot up toward the ceiling, I pulled the trigger.

The yellow ball exploded against his left cheekbone, and he pitched backward with a pained grunt—but he didn't collapse into unconsciousness. Sleep potions were common, and some pros dosed themselves with the antidote before heading out on jobs.

As I scrambled in my belt pouch for my brass knuckles, Hoshi dove at the mythic's head, buying me time. She whipped him with her tail—and he caught it. Yanking her down, he smashed his huge, gloved fist into her small body. The blow hurled her into the floor.

I shoved my brass knuckles onto my fingers and lunged at him with a scream. "Ori amplifico!"

My punch connected with his chest, and the air boomed. He flew backward and hit a shelf. Cardboard boxes tumbled down on his head.

I whirled around, but I couldn't see the sylph through the smoke screen. "Hoshi? Hoshi?"

She didn't appear. Had she shifted into the fae demesne?

A concussive burst of air swept through the room. The smoke ballooned outward, carried on an expanding ring of wind. In the center of the clear space was Ezra, unarmed except for his gloves. He was completely surrounded by mythics.

Faster than any human, he lunged into his opponents and unleashed rapid blows on his attackers, each strike punctuated with a blast of wind that threw his victim backward—but the mythics behind him closed in, weapons gleaming.

"Mario!" someone bellowed over the cacophony. "Get your demon over here!"

Crimson light flared through the room, and the shadow of a demon appeared in the fog—recognizable by its terrifying height, messy mane of hair, and lion-like tail. The demon advanced toward the corner where the Odin's Eye mythics had pushed Ezra.

I stood alone in the chaos, unnoticed by the other combatants, and in that moment, I understood the hopelessness. I couldn't tell how large the Odin's Eye team was, but we were outnumbered by at least three to one. I'd heard over and over that Odin's Eye was a tough guild. Aaron and Kai had talked about the skill of their combat members. They were the second most proficient bounty hunting guild in the city.

And they were supposed to be our allies. Rivals, yes, but allies. Now, all that skill and experience was our enemy. Our only hope was for Ezra to unleash his demonic magic, but that would mean killing our former allies and condemning himself as a violent demon mage.

The haze swirled wildly, flowing in and around the combatants—and a dark shape with glowing red eyes shot out of the misty shadows. As Ezra fended off his attackers, Zylas rushed in.

He dove for the floor, sliding into the legs of the nearest mythic. The man was still falling as the demon launched up into the next mythic. Swinging off the larger man like a fulcrum, Zylas slammed both feet into a third mythic—then wrenched the second one off the floor and threw him into another man.

My jaw hung open. I'd witnessed how much weight the demon could lift but seeing him hurl a larger man across a ten-foot distance was still a shock.

The horde of Odin's Eye mythics surrounding Ezra broke apart as Zylas smashed through them, inconceivably agile and unstoppable. Ezra flung two mythics away from him with powerful gusts.

"Ezra!" Aaron roared over the raucous noise. "Whirlwind!"

The aeromage thrust his hand into the air and a gale erupted through the room. The wind howled, spinning around us and whisking the smoke from my alchemy bomb into a spiral. I leaped out of the buffeting gale and into the safe eye of the storm with Aaron and Kai. Where was Zylas? I couldn't see him, Robin, or Amalia.

"Counter!" an Odin's Eye man bellowed. "Jerome—"

Orange-white flames raced up Aaron's arms and across his shoulders. His sword was blazing. Fire rippled off his hair, and I couldn't tell where man ended and flame began.

He extended his sword, then snapped it in a tight circular motion.

Ezra's whirlwind exploded with fire.

I reeled away from the roaring inferno as it whooshed around and around the room—and I realized Ezra had made it over to us. He stood a few feet away on Aaron's left, and on his right, Kai held two short knives.

Power crackled over the electramage's arms, and with the terrifying tornado of flames surrounding us, he calmly pointed his blades at the ceiling.

Outside the ring of fire, every strip of fluorescent lighting shattered and electricity leaped for the floor. Shouts and cries erupted from the Odin's Eye mythics as lightning rained down on them.

Fire, wind, and lightning undiminished, the three mages backed toward the exit. I moved with them, the elements raging around us but nothing reaching us except the heat pouring off Aaron. I retreated into the stairwell. Kai darted in after me, then Ezra, and finally Aaron. With a twist of his sword, he sent a wave of boiling fire shooting through the doorway back into the basement room.

"What about Robin and—" I began in a panicked shout.

As Aaron's fireball swept out the door, Zylas skidded across the threshold just beneath it. He had Amalia over one shoulder and Robin under his other arm. He spun in a neat pivot and tossed Amalia and Robin toward us. Ezra and Aaron caught them as Zylas leaped right back into the hazy basement room.

A man's howl of pain rang out as the demon found his next victim.

"Go!" Aaron shouted.

I didn't stop to ask where Zylas was going all by himself. I sprinted up the stairs, Robin and Amalia on my heels. Up, up, up, then I flew through the door at the top—and right into the first of three mythics waiting in the hall, reinforcements for the team below.

My fist flew and my brass knuckles smashed the guy's nose. As he lurched back, a small hand grabbed my shoulder. Robin?

"Ori eruptum impello!"

With her incantation, an expanding silvery dome hurled the mythics into the wall so hard they smashed through it.

"Go left!" Ezra ordered sharply.

I spun left and streaked down the hall—away from the exit. Pounding footsteps told me the others were following, but there was nowhere to go. The corridor ended in an arched window.

As my steps slowed, Ezra charged past me. He thrust both hands out and a blast of wind shattered the window like a battering ram, blowing out all the glass. He leaped over the sill and disappeared outside.

Adrenaline burning in my veins, I ran to the window and sprang through it.

Six feet down, Ezra caught me. He pushed me aside and lunged forward to catch Robin as she leaped out next. He tossed her toward me as Amalia plunged down. As I steadied Robin, objects tumbled from her arms—the case of demon blood and her gray backpack, a corner of the grimoire sticking out the top.

"You—you grabbed it—" I gasped, scarcely able to believe she'd managed it amidst the smoke and battle.

As Aaron and Kai landed on the pavement beneath the window, I crouched and shoved the metal case into the backpack. Robin gripped her infernus, her eyes going out of focus.

The pendant lit with crimson light—and a red streak of power shot out of the lower wall of the building. It sucked into the infernus, then burst out again. Zylas reformed from the light, the red glow of his power washing over the alleyway.

The instant he was solid, he swept Robin off her feet and onto his shoulder. He snatched Amalia with his other hand, throwing her over his other shoulder.

"Run," he snarled at us—then bolted across the alley.

With one leap, he was over the chain-link fence bordering the opposite property. Two more leaps, one off the roof of a rusting van, and he was on top of a building. He disappeared on the other side.

Gone. I blinked stupidly, clutching a strap of the backpack.

A shout sounded from inside the building. Ezra seized my arm, and the four of us sprinted away. Unable to follow Zylas's escape route, we raced down the alley to an intersecting back street and wheeled around the corner.

Light flared behind us. The Odin's Eye mythics were giving chase.

We came out on East Hastings Street. Ezra sped across the four lanes, causing two cars to blare their horns, their tires squealing. The flash of their headlights disappeared as we ran into another dim alley.

My lungs burned. Clutching the precious backpack, filled with the irreplaceable materials Robin had saved from the basement, I kept running, Ezra beside me and Aaron and Kai right behind.

Run. Just run. Alley after alley. Across another street. Into the shadows again. Headlights suddenly blinded me as a black SUV screeched to a halt beside us.

"Get in!" Kai barked.

I glanced back at him, shocked by the order, and saw the cell phone in his hand, screen glowing. Gasping for air, I wrenched the back door open, dove inside, and slid across the seat to make room for Ezra and Aaron. They dove in after me while Kai sprinted around the SUV's hood and jumped into the passenger seat.

We were still closing the doors as the engine roared and the vehicle tore away. I craned my neck, looking back. As the SUV took a turn on two wheels, men in black combat gear barreled out of the alley. They'd been right behind us.

I slumped in my seat, lungs heaving, and looked toward the driver. The rearview mirror reflected Makiko's pale face as she clutched the steering wheel.

"Kai, what happened?" she asked tersely.

He didn't answer. None of us spoke a word.