Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger
25
The warlock casta burst of magic over his shoulder as he bolted toward the corridor that led to the alley behind the bar, the hood of his outfit casting his face in shadows. Cassius batted the dark globe away with his sword.
Morgan cursed as it narrowly missed his head and smashed into the ceiling, melting metal and bricks.
“Sorry!” the Empyreal shouted over his shoulder before disappearing into the passage.
Morgan and the others followed, Suzie at their side.
The witch flashed a frown at Morgan. “Argonaut had better pay my repair bills after this!”
“Argonaut will give you a goddamn medal after tonight!”
“Medals are for fools,” the witch scoffed. “I prefer cold, hard cash!”
Zach laughed at that. “A woman after my own heart.”
The witch smiled at the demon despite their dire situation.
The bitter stench of dark magic and the sulfurous taint of the warlock’s powers slammed into them as they rushed through the back door and emerged into the alleyway.
“Watch out!” Julia barked.
She deflected a destructive spell with her blade. Morgan and Adrianne blocked the ones that followed.
Suzie and Bailey joined forces, their magic fusing to form a shield around them. Dumpsters blew up on their left and several craters formed in the asphalt and the opposite wall as a volley of dark spheres bounced off the defensive barrier.
Morgan scowled at the hooded sorcerers surrounding them. It was clear they intended to stop him and the others from following Cassius where the angel chased after the warlock to their right.
“We’re going to have to drop our shield if we want to help him!” Suzie warned.
“Do it!” Morgan ordered.
The barrier vanished as Suzie and Bailey retracted their defensive spells.
Ozone and magic saturated the air as they engaged their attackers. It didn’t take long for the Aerial to realize that their enemies were all Level Two and Three magic users.
Adrianne’s offensive magic brought a sorcerer to his knees. The man snarled as Charlie’s enchantment spell covered him in a dark haze. He dropped to the ground, semi-conscious.
Suzie sent a sorcerer flying toward the fire escape above her head, her eyes and hands aglow with magic. The man’s scream ended abruptly as he smashed into metal.
Bailey and Zach fended off a double attack to the witch’s back, the wizard’s rune-covered blade humming with defensive magic while the demon cast a wave of water that lifted the sorcerers off their feet and sent them crashing into the wall across the way.
Morgan unfurled his wings and rose on the updraft, his heart thundering in his chest and his gaze locked on Cassius and the warlock. Metal glinted as he flew over a line of sorcerers. He rolled and twisted, avoiding the poison-coated daggers aimed at him. Startled shouts sounded as he shoved his attackers into the ground with a violent burst of wind. The asphalt cracked and rose around the sorcerers as they tried to rise, Julia using her Terrene powers to entrap them in a prison of rock.
A tide of sinister energy blasted into Morgan’s body, slowing his flight. He swore and angled his wings to maintain his position in the air. He didn’t have to look far to locate the source of the evil power he was sensing.
Blackness was pooling in the air next to the warlock where he’d stopped short of the alley’s end. He ignored the sound of the police and ambulance sirens rising from the road behind him, low words tumbling from under his hood as he uttered an incantation. Morgan’s eyes widened.
An inky shield was protecting the man from Cassius’s attacks.
A frown darkened the Empyreal’s face as he repeatedly smashed the ever-shifting wall of shadows that separated him from the warlock with his sword. Though the blade chipped the barrier, it couldn’t penetrate it.
Dread twisted Morgan’s belly.
Julia’s wings thrummed the air with powerful beats as she came to a hover to his right. “What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know.”
Zach appeared on Morgan’s left, his expression grim. “It has to be something out of this world to be stopping Cassius in his Empyreal form.”
The warlock barked something at Cassius before reaching inside the shadowy portal next to him and extracting something from within.
Julia swore.
“Oh shit,” Zach said hoarsely. “Is that—?!”
“A summoning staff!” Morgan growled.
They surged forward, knowing they had but seconds left before the warlock achieved his goal.
The hooded man bit down on his finger and smeared his blood on the ebony wood. He slammed the summoning staff on the ground, flashed a wicked smile at Morgan from under his hood, and raised a hand toward him.
A gossamer wall of shadows exploded in front of Morgan and the others. It rapidly extended above and below, curving to form a translucent sphere that enclosed the distal end of the alley where Cassius and the warlock faced off against each another.
Morgan smashed into it with a grunt and rebounded sharply backward. Julia and Zach cursed when the same thing happened to them.
Julia scowled. “What the everliving fuck is this?!”
She shot forward again. The barrier repelled her once more.
Water wrapped around Zach’s blade as he unleashed his Aqueous powers, forming a coating as sharp as diamonds. The demon stabbed the insubstantial wall with his sword, putting all of his strength behind the attack. Sparks erupted on the blade’s tip.
The barrier held.
Several bright balls smashed into the wall beneath them, to no avail.
“Damnit!” Adrianne panted as she slowed to a stop. She lowered her hands and flashed a frustrated scowl up at Morgan. “This isn’t magic!”
Morgan glanced over his shoulder. Adrianne and the others had incapacitated the rest of the sorcerers with Suzie’s help. Charlie was staying put near the bar’s exit, his attention focused on keeping their prisoners under his enchantment spell.
Suzie walked up to the barrier and placed her palms on it. She frowned, magic pulsing off her in powerful waves.
The warlock glanced her way and curled his hand into a fist. The barrier throbbed with a violent burst of dark energy. Suzie cried out, her palms reddening as the wall burned her skin. Bailey grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back.
Ice filled Morgan’s veins as he watched the inky pool forming at the warlock’s feet. He sensed the same dread echoing across the rest of them as they gazed helplessly at Cassius.
The Empyreal was trapped on his own inside the ethereal sphere.