Nazhivēr released Darius and turned to face his new opponent. The demon’s lips curved in a satisfied smile.

Zylas curled his fingers and crimson flashed up his wrists. His glowing talons appeared, the eerie light reflecting off the wet pavement.

I gulped at the sight of his magic in front of so many mythics. If his disguise worked, he would be mistaken for a human using demon magic—in other words, a demon mage. But if it failed … I’d deal with the consequences after he was back in his own world.

Nazhivēr summoned his phantom talons as well. His wings stretched out, making him appear huge.

Zylas sank lower into his fighting stance, then charged. Nazhivēr lunged to meet him, and Zylas dove for the slick asphalt, sliding past the winged demon. He leaped up behind Nazhivēr—and slammed both sets of talons into Nazhivēr’s back.

The winged demon roared in fury.

As Zylas darted clear, Nazhivēr whirled on him. Zylas leaped into the air, catching one of Nazhivēr’s horns and wrenching his head to the side. Zylas’s talons slashed, just missing Nazhivēr’s throat as the larger demon hurled him away. Tail lashing, Zylas landed on his feet. The two demons faced each other.

I waved at Amalia to follow me, and together we sprinted into the intersection. We needed to be close enough to help. This wasn’t a fight for Zylas alone—not anymore.

“Robin?”

My head jerked toward the shocked scream.

Her bright red hair unmistakable, Tori stood among the chaos in her leather combat gear, her pale face smudged with soot. Her wide eyes flashed from me to my companion.

“Amalia?” she added, her voice even higher with shock.

Before I could call back, red light blazed—Nazhivēr had created a writhing spell circle aimed at Zylas. I raced away from Tori, hoping I’d get a chance to find her again.

As I ran, I caught a glimpse of movement—Darius, back on his feet and not seriously harmed by Nazhivēr’s attack. He held two silver daggers, light gleaming across the blades.

Then he vanished.

Gone, as though he’d never existed. And I remembered that he was a luminamage—a mage who could bend light to his will.

A booming explosion of magic shook the earth, and fear shot through me as I refocused on Zylas and Nazhivēr. A smoking crater had appeared in the pavement, Zylas on its far side. Nazhivēr leaped across it with wings spread.

The two demons slammed together as I grabbed my second new artifact—a one-inch metal cube—and stretched it out to the end of its chain. Taking aim, I pointed it at the two demons.

“Ori impello arcuate!”

The air boomed as a faint band of silvery light swept out from the artifact, expanding wider and wider as it rushed forward. Zylas broke away from Nazhivēr and vaulted straight into the air.

The spell swept beneath him and hit Nazhivēr at waist height, throwing him sideways. Zylas landed and sprang in the same motion, talons flashing.

Nazhivēr rolled, and Zylas’s talons caught his wing, tearing through the membrane in almost the same spot Zora had sliced it last week. The Dh’irath demon shot to his feet, crimson blazing up his arms—and something flew out of the darkness and slammed into Nazhivēr’s spine.

As the demon staggered, the object flew backward: a steel sphere the size of a softball, hovering in midair. Another object zoomed out of nowhere—a billiard-ball-sized glass sphere.

Nazhivēr ducked the glass sphere. It halted in midair, then whooshed toward him again like a persistent fly.

As the winged demon again dodged both the glass sphere and the steel one, Zylas called up a spell. It flared out beneath his palm, a pentagram filled with runes.

Evashvā vīsh!

Red power blasted toward Nazhivēr, but the instant before it struck, the demon called up a lightning-fast spell of his own. The two demonic forces collided—and exploded.

The blast catapulted Zylas away, simultaneously shattering the glass sphere. Zylas arched over backward, catching himself on his hands before flipping onto his feet. His tail snapped as he launched back toward Nazhivēr.

The demon flung his wings open, throwing off the pale dust that coated his skin. As his breath puffed white in the air, I realized what the glass sphere had been—an alchemic frost bomb. A thin layer of ice covered Nazhivēr.

Zylas rushed the demon head-on, then feinted right—and from behind Nazhivēr on his left, light flashed over a long blade.

Zora rushed in, sword swinging, and raked the blade across Nazhivēr’s back.

The demon snarled furiously and leaped into the air. His wings pumped as he gained altitude, up and up, then he glided onto the rooftop of the nearest building. Glowing red eyes glared down at us from the demon’s dark silhouette.

My heart skittered in my chest. Nazhivēr had fled from us.

“Robin!”

Zora rushed over, sword in hand, and with her came Drew, his wounded arm hastily bound in bloodstained fabric, and Venus, an X-shaped belt around her waist loaded with glass spheres, vials, and other small objects.

I opened my mouth, an apology on the tip of my tongue—only to almost bite my tongue off when Zora grabbed me in a brief, one-armed hug.

“I’m so glad you’re alive! Tell me how you survived that fall out the window after we survive this.” She spun to face Nazhivēr on the rooftop. “Okay, guys. Drew, can you fling something up there? And Venus, what’ve you got that can knock the demon down from his perch?”

The two mythics swept over to us, heads craned back as they studied their foe. I stared at them, then looked at Zylas, standing a few feet away in his human disguise, also calculating how best to attack Nazhivēr.

Did Drew and Venus not recognize Zylas as my demon? Did they not care?

“I told them,” Zora said simply, noticing my anxious bewilderment. “They promised not to tell anyone else.”

“But …”

Drew peered at Zylas. “Zora said he’s not like other demons.”

The demon in question watched Nazhivēr, tail lashing side to side. “I’m not. I am smarter.”

Drew blinked—then laughed.

Venus bounced a glass sphere on her palm. “Hey Zee, will that demon hate my stink bomb as much as you did?”

He cast a glance across the alchemist. His sunglasses had fallen off during the fight, and his eyes glowed from within his hood.

“He will hate it.”

“Then try this one, Drew.”

She tossed her sphere into the air and Drew caught it with his telekinesis. As battles raged around us, he lobbed it at the rooftop three stories above. The sphere rushed upward—and crimson magic blazed over Nazhivēr’s hands and feet. The demon’s grin flashed, then his body dissolved into light and streaked off the roof.

I whirled, tracking the glow as it shot across the intersection—across writhing bodies and blazing magic—and disappeared among the pandemonium at the far end.

Xever had called Nazhivēr back to his infernus.

Xever was here.

And we were going to kill him.

“Amalia,” I shouted as I reached for Zylas. “Find Jack and meet us a block to the south.”

Nodding, she raced away, and I swung onto Zylas’s back, legs around his waist and hands on his shoulders.

“Robin!” Zora yelled. “Wait—”

But Zylas had already leaped forward—racing toward the ferocious battle of mythics and monsters that had consumed everything in sight.