“No!” he yelled. “You can’t! Stop it!”

Not waiting to see if the demon or the human would win that battle of wills, I hauled Justin past the convulsing mage and toward the door.

“Aaron!” I shrieked desperately.

“Tori!” The door jolted as Aaron slammed into it from the other side. “I’m not through yet!”

Shit!

“You bitch!” Daniel staggered into view, his teeth bared and one hand pressed to his forehead. “You’re dead!”

I recoiled, almost bumping the searingly hot door. Power blazed up the demon mage’s arms and sizzling orbs of crimson formed in his palms. He drew both arms back to hurl explosive death at me and Justin, and all I could do was clutch the useless demonic amulet.

The wind gusted, blasting the smoke screen to nothing. A violent swirl of dust shot upward like a tornado—spiraling from the street below, surging past the rooftop, and reaching for the clouds above.

In the maelstrom’s center, Makiko rose, arms held straight out to her sides and a steel fan in each hand, like a raven-haired, leather-clad angel of death. The wind swept her onto the rooftop, and the moment her feet touched down, her fans slashed.

A brutal gust of air threw the demon mage back. He crashed to the ground, rolled, and came up on his knees, simultaneously hurling his two death-orbs at the aeromage.

Her fans whipped downward as she sprang into the air. A hurricane-force gust flung her upward, and the blast exploded against the rooftop where she’d been standing, hunks of concrete hurtling across the terrace.

Heat surged at my back, then Aaron slammed into the door. The softened metal gave way—and the door whipped into my arm.

I staggered sideways. Ow.

“Shit!” Aaron barked. “Blocking the door isn’t helping, Tori!”

Yeah, I’d figured that out.

He leaped past me, and Kai followed on his heels. Electricity rippled up his arms and down the blade of his katana, and as he and Aaron lifted their swords, Makiko dropped to the ground and carved the air with her swirling, dancing fans.

Red light blazed in Daniel’s eyes.

All three mages unleashed their attacks together. Razor-thin blades of condensed air, a blast of white-hot fire, and a thick bolt of electricity bombarded Daniel—and crimson magic exploded from him. I flinched back, shielding my face as debris battered me.

Red flared even brighter, burning through the haze of dust hanging over the terrace. Crimson runes snaked across the ground, lines and circles and strange shapes crawling through them. A demonic spell—a real one.

Two solid, burning crimson eyes stared from Daniel’s human face.

“Run!” I yelled. “We have to run!”

Praying they would listen, I grabbed Justin’s arm and fled into the vestibule. As I raced for the stairwell, Aaron and Kai burst through the doorway. Aaron pivoted, whipping his sword sideways, and sent a massive wall of flame surging onto the terrace to hold off any pursuit.

We careened down the stairs, sped through the door at the bottom, and bailed out an emergency exit. As we tore across the parking lot, the wind blasted us.

Makiko dropped out of the sky, landed beside Kai, and sprinted ahead. The wind swept into our backs, pushing us faster. Only after we’d raced across the street and onto the university campus did I dare to look back.

A beacon of crimson light glowed on the rooftop. The demon mage stood at its edge, watching us flee—and I knew, even from this distance, that it was the demon and not the human standing there, so still and calm.

I stuffed the demonic amulet back into my purse and kept running.

Chapter Seventeen

“Hold still,” I grumped. “This will help.”

Sitting in the back of the SUV under the open hatch, Justin clenched his jaw. I combed his hair aside to expose the cut on his scalp, which was leaking blood all over his face. Lucky for him, he hadn’t taken the full force of the demon mage’s attack. If he had, he’d be in way worse shape than a knock to the head.

Uncorking a vial from my potion stash, I dribbled clear liquid over the cut.

“This will stop the bleeding,” I told him, “but it won’t help with a concussion, so if you start feeling—”

“I’ll let you know if I have any concussion symptoms,” he interrupted, taking the damp paper towel I was offering. He scrubbed his face.

Behind me, Aaron was pacing the gas station parking lot with his hands clenched. “The Praetor didn’t figure out we were investigating him. Blake told him. That’s why the Praetor disappeared. I never should’ve trusted him.”

Anger burned in my gut—along with an unhealthy dose of shame. Blake had played us for fools.

“He’s a member of the Keys of Solomon, though,” Kai pointed out, straddling his bike with his arms braced on the handlebars. “Felix looked him up, right?”

“Why would a Keys of Solomon member be part of the cult?” I asked, sitting beside Justin. Dirt from the bumper smeared my leather pants, but I didn’t care; all my muscles ached and I had too many bruises to count. “Did Blake make up that whole story about his team dying during the extermination?”

“Probably,” Aaron growled. “And then he beat us to the Praetor’s house and …” His pacing slowed. “But if he’s in league with the cult, why didn’t he stop us from witnessing their meeting? He had plenty of time to warn the Praetor to cancel the gathering.”

“Did the cult capture him after we parted ways?” Makiko suggested as she balanced her helmet on the front of her bike. “From what you’ve described, it doesn’t seem like he was protecting the cult from the start. Perhaps they took him prisoner.”

“Or blackmailed him,” Justin added. “Daniel said Blake reported that we were leaving town.”

Aaron pressed his fist into his palm, his knuckles cracking. “I know where he stayed last night. He was complaining about the traffic noise at his hotel.”

Kai straightened. “Then let’s see if he’s still there.”

After a quick perusal of Google Maps for directions, we clambered into—or onto—our various vehicles and took off, Aaron’s SUV leading the way with the two motorcycles following. I drummed my hands on my knees with nervousness.

I’d saved my purse, but I’d lost my paintball gun on that rooftop. Hoshi had exhausted herself saving me, meaning I was down to a handful of alchemy bombs and first-aid potions. Pretty soon I’d have nothing left to fight with.

No real mythic would find themselves with no magic. A sorcerer with no artifacts could still draw a cantrip. A witch could … I frowned … call a fae? See into the fae demesne? Hmm. Maybe there was a reason you didn’t see many combat witches.

Blake’s hotel was a standard two-star outfit—four stories, faded beige exterior that hadn’t been updated in thirty years, no balconies—that backed onto a huge sports field. Aaron pulled into the lot and parked beside a cube van that would hide his vehicle from the front doors.

“Okay,” he said as he cut the engine. “Kai and I will scout the building, and Makiko will go inside and—”

I rolled my eyes. “We know the plan, Aaron.”

He rolled his eyes back at me. “Then get going. And remember our first fight with Blake. He wasn’t trying to kill us then, but this time he might.”

While he grabbed his sword, safely hidden in its black zippered bag, from the back, I buckled on my combat belt and its three whole alchemy bombs. The empty holster on the side was downright depressing, especially since the weapon had been a present from the guys. I slid the demonic amulet into a pouch and zipped it shut.

Kai and Makiko parked their bikes, and with a quick wave, Kai headed in one direction while Makiko strode toward the hotel entrance. Blake was less likely to recognize her, so she’d try to lure him out—plus she was scary lethal, so why not send her into enemy territory?

As Aaron zoomed away, Justin and I headed through the parking lot. His pistol was tucked in the back of his belt, hidden by his jacket, but the firearm seemed like scant protection when my brother was limping with each step.

And Blake, as we’d already experienced, had some nasty tricks up his sleeve. How easily could he break our bones or shatter our skulls with well-aimed battering rams of stone and concrete?

I slowed, one hand resting on a smoke bomb as I scanned the lot. “Justin, maybe you should—”

“Don’t tell me to wait in the car.”

“But you’re—”

“You’re limping too.”

I was? My left hip ached from the demon mage’s first blast of magic, but I hadn’t realized it was affecting my gait. Grimacing, I assessed the rows of parked cars, then angled around the corner of the building toward the back lot, my eyes darting for any signs of movement.

“According to other mythics I know, demon mages are the most powerful mythics out there,” I told Justin. “But Daniel was a wuss compared to—uh, compared to the stories I’ve heard.”

I’d almost said Ezra’s name. Smart, Tori. Very smart.

“And he still kicked our asses,” I added darkly.

“Was he a wuss?” Justin asked. “He fended off three mages, and you said mages tend to have the most destructive magic of all the classes.”

My brother was a fast learner. Despite myself, I was kinda proud.

“True,” I agreed, slowing to peer between two trucks. “But it wasn’t Daniel fending them off. It was the demon inside him. The demon took over at the end. That’s why I was yelling at everyone to run.”

Justin considered that as we moved to the next row of cars. “Ezra is a demon mage, isn’t he?”

I missed a step and almost fell. “What? You—how did you—”

“I guessed.”

Damn it. My brother was too swift on the uptake.

“The cult turned him into a demon mage when he was fourteen,” I explained tersely. “If anyone finds out, he’ll be executed. I’m trying to find a way to get the demon out of him.”