Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger
42
Cassius and Morganrose on the warm air currents blowing in from the Pacific and headed north across the city, Julia and Zach in their wake.
Their passage went mostly unnoticed, the people milling below them too focused on their daily commute and the early morning traffic to pay much attention to the sky.
Suzie’s magic pulsed faintly in Cassius’s palm, a beacon searching for a signal as he trailed his fingers loosely through the air. He marveled at the strange new sensation and the fact that Bostrof had known about a power he was unaware of. He wondered what other secrets the Lucifugous king and his Goddess wife harbored about him and Morgan.
Cassius’s hand tingled, an echo of resonance dancing across his skin from Suzie’s magic. His gaze found the spire of a Gothic cathedral on a hill to the right.
“There!” He tucked his wings and dove.
Morgan and the others followed.
They landed on the steps of the church a moment later. Startled shouts sounded from the pedestrians on the sidewalk. Adrianne’s SUV screeched into view a moment later. She slammed on the brakes, brought the vehicle to a screeching halt diagonally across the road, and jumped out with Bailey. They flashed their badges and shouted at everyone to clear the way.
A patrol car approached from the east, siren silent and light bar flashing. Bailey jogged over and spoke urgently with the cop behind the wheel. The woman looked anxiously at her partner, reversed, and blocked off the opposite end of the street.
“We’ve asked them to set up a one-block security perimeter around this place until Argonaut and the other agencies get here,” Adrianne said briskly as she and Bailey joined them. “You guys got anything yet?”
Cassius frowned as he examined the towering stone facade above them, power thrumming from him in subtle waves. “He’s here alright. I can sense his magic.”
There was movement in one of the towers. Something flashed toward Cassius, leaving inky trails in the air.
Morgan cursed and deflected the dark sphere with his sword. It smashed into the steps to their right and exploded. A four-foot-wide crater appeared amidst the debris clouding the air.
“Those are sorcerers up there!” Adrianne yelled.
Zach rose, Julia close behind. “We’re on it!”
Bailey cast a protective barrier around their bodies as they flew toward the towers through a barrage of black-magic balls, their gray wings snapping the air with powerful beats.
Cassius clenched his jaw as darkness throbbed across the ground from somewhere beneath the church.
“Shit,” Adrianne murmured. “Even I can feel that!”
“They know we’re here!” Cassius said grimly. “Let’s go!”
Black-magic spell bombs greeted them when they rushed inside the cathedral. Most bounced off the shield Bailey erected around them and exploded against the volley of offensive spheres Adrianne cast in the air. Cassius and Morgan batted away the ones that got through with their swords.
Morgan flexed his left hand, lifted the benches in the nave with his Aerial powers, and sent them crashing into the sorcerers lurking behind the giant stone colonnades rising to a distant, vaulted ceiling.
“Looks like the whole gang is here,” Adrianne muttered, eyeing the horde of dark-cloaked sorcerers converging on them from the transepts and chancel.
Cassius’s tense gaze found the circular patterns set into the limestone and marble floor beyond the baptism font ahead. He could feel a corrupt energy emanating from beneath it.
“There’s a way to the crypts beneath that labyrinth!”
They fought their way over, Bailey dropping his shield so they could engage the sorcerers directly. Cassius’s blade sang through the air as he carved fatal wounds into the enemy, anger stirring his blood.
He could sense something else beneath the labyrinth. Something that felt a lot like over a dozen fractured human souls.
“Anyone else seeing what I’m seeing?!” Adrianne shouted, stabbing a sorcerer in the gut.
She indicated the benches around them. Cassius stiffened when he registered what she’d spotted.
Shoes, bags, and phones lay scattered haphazardly on the ground beneath the seats. There had been people there a short while ago. And they’d left in a hurry.
Cassius cursed. “They must have been attending morning mass!”
“I have a very bad feeling about where they could be,” Morgan said darkly. “We didn’t see anyone running out of the building when we were making our way over here.”
Cassius scowled. They doubled their efforts and soon reached the labyrinth.
“We’ll keep them at bay!” Morgan shouted.
He rose and took front guard while Adrianne and Bailey brought up the rear.
A group of Argonaut and Hexa agents burst through the doors of the cathedral just as Cassius pressed his hands against the limestone floor. Figures bearing the badges of Rosen and Cabalista followed close behind.
“What’s your status?!” Reuben shouted as he made his way rapidly toward them, Jasper and Brianna on his heels.
Cassius gritted his teeth. “There’s an immense source of black magic beneath this floor. I’m pretty sure that’s where Chester is.”
The limestone felt scalding hot to the touch.
“How do we get down there?!” Jasper barked, destroying a black-magic spell bomb with a large chunk of rock.
Another sphere of corrupt magic shot toward the demon’s back.
Reuben deflected it with a burst of wind and cast it back at the sorcerer who had launched it. The man’s dying scream faded against the background noise of the battle unfolding inside the cathedral.
“Whatever you’re intending to do, do it quickly!” Brianna snapped at Cassius.
Adrianne gasped as the witch transformed into a giant, white tigress with blazing, blue eyes. Bailey stumbled back a step.
Reuben exchanged a glance with Jasper.
“We haven’t seen you in this form for a while,” the angel drawled.
“Yeah, well, I missed out on the fun in London,” Brianna growled. “I’m not missing this for anything!”
“I wouldn’t exactly classify this as fun,” Bailey muttered, blocking an attack to his left flank.
Cassius shut out the noise around him. Brightness flared around his fingers as he sent a wave of power through the stone floor, mapping out what lay beneath it.
“They’re a hundred and fifty feet below us.” A muscle jumped in his cheek. He closed his eyes and concentrated. “There’s about forty of them. No, wait.” Cassius’s pulse stuttered at what he finally perceived. “Fuck!”
He jumped to his feet. His Empyreal powers throbbed across the cathedral, making the stained-glass windows and lights tremble violently. Brianna and Jasper startled. The bright incandescence faded to reveal his dazzling white angel form and the crackling energy surrounding his body and his sword.
Trepidation burned in Reuben’s eyes as he stared at Cassius. “Heaven’s Light.”
“What did you sense?” Morgan asked Cassius urgently.
“The people who were in the church are down there, along with an army of war demons.” Cassius gritted his teeth. “It looks like these bastards are preparing for some kind of mass sacrifice!” He scowled at the sorcerers fighting the agents around them. “And I can feel Loki. He’s hurt, but he’s still alive.”
He raised his lightning-wreathed blade and stabbed it into the center of the labyrinth with a harsh grunt. A crack appeared in the floor.
Dark wind exploded next to him as Morgan unleashed his new powers, the windows rattling in their frames once more.
Jasper stumbled back, his gaze shifting from the Aerial’s midnight-black wings to the sword of dancing shadows in his left hand. “What the—?!”
“That’s new,” Brianna said leadenly.
Reuben narrowed his eyes.
Morgan drove his blade into the floor, next to Cassius’s sword. Ripples coursed across the cathedral. Glass exploded, several of the windows caving under the percussive force of Morgan’s powers. Startled shouts echoed across the church as the closest agents and sorcerers went tumbling to the floor.
Cassius’s eyes widened where he’d maintained his position next to Morgan. The lines making up the labyrinth were separating, sinking to form steps that spiraled down into gloom. Morgan stared, similarly shocked.
“It’s like what happened back at the alley,” Cassius mumbled, his heart thundering against his ribs. He stared at the inky currents fluttering around Morgan’s body. “The black wind. I think it nullifies dark magic!”
Reuben indicated Morgan’s wings and blade with a scowl. “You and I need to have a conversation about that—whatever it is—afterward!”
“That’s if we survive this,” Brianna said grimly.
“What? You scared of a bunch of sorcerers and war demons?” Jasper scoffed.
The demon tucked his wings and dove down the steps.
“Where the hell are you—?! Goddammit, wait for me!” Reuben snarled.
Julia gazed thoughtfully from the vanishing demon to the angel hot on his trail. “Er, is it me, or is there—?”
“Please don’t finish that sentence,” Brianna begged as she loped down the steps. “Just imagining those two together is enough to make me bring up last night’s dinner.”
Cassius and Morgan headed after the witch, Adrianne and Bailey bringing up the rear. Gloom engulfed them as they descended past the ancient crypts that formed the basement of the cathedral.
A shaft opened up beneath it, the walls of the dark pit widening and rising swiftly past them. Screams reached their ears when they neared the floor of the vertical drop. They emerged next to a rock shelf and joined a grim-faced Reuben and Jasper on the edge of a shallow cliff.
Dread twisted Cassius’s gut at the sight of what lay beyond.