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.

Chapter Ten

Numb inside and out, I held an icepack to my jaw as I watched Makiko clicking on her laptop. On the sofa beside me, Ezra was hunched forward, elbows on his knees and chin resting on his fists.

Aaron and Kai were a dozen paces away at the small condo’s kitchen island. Kai had his shirt off, and Aaron was stitching a gash in the electramage’s bicep, first aid supplies scattered over the counter. Kai stared at the ceiling, jaw tight.