Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger
43
Unlike Bostrof’sunderground fight club, this space was made of bare stone. Ancient scriptures and magic symbols were carved in the walls framing the shallow recesses where human skulls and bones gleamed. The oval floor was pure obsidian, the rock glistening with an ominous sheen.
People lay strapped to it in concentric circles, children, elderly, and adults alike. Their clothes had been ripped asunder and their skin was being marked with Dark Blight runes by a group of sorcerers, the knives the magic users wielded drawing blood from their victims’ flesh. Those who had yet to faint writhed and shrieked in agony, the poison burning into their bodies causing more suffering than the cuts the sorcerers were inflicting. The hordes of war demons thrumming the air near the ceiling of the cavern watched on with hungry eyes.
Morgan realized why the victims whose remains they had uncovered in the past two months had been so viciously mutilated.
“The war demons!” he hissed, baring his teeth. “These assholes use them to kill the people after stealing their souls!”
Chester Moran stood at an altar in the center of the cave, one hand around Loki’s throat where he held the imp down on the dais, a bloodied knife in the other. Crimson oozed under the demon cat’s matted fur and coursed down a channel that ran to a shallow basin surrounding the altar, the drops casting ripples in the scarlet pool already filling it.
Loki’s eyes blazed red as he glared at the warlock. The imp struggled violently despite the stab wounds he bore, his claws vainly attempting to pierce the shadows throbbing around Chester’s hand. A golden object covered in blood throbbed with light on the altar next to him. It was a dagger pulsing with divine power.
Morgan’s eyes widened. The Eternity Key!
Floating in the air above the demon cat were thirteen pale globes of light.
Morgan knew without looking at Cassius that they were the fractured souls of the humans who had been killed by Chester and his sorcerers. He could feel the truth in the shudder that echoed through him from the white angel beside him.
“Twenty,” Adrianne mumbled, ashen faced.
Bailey glanced at her. “What?”
“There are exactly twenty humans down there,” Brianna growled. “Which will make the total number of fractured souls thirty-three if they succeed in ripping them from their bodies.” The witch met the sorceress’s alarmed stare. “That’s a powerful magical number.”
Adrianne nodded grimly.
“That’s more than Tania had in London.” Cassius scowled. “We can’t wait for back up.” His pupils flared with power. “We have to stop Chester, now! Before he kills Loki and those people!”
Morgan cursed as Cassius leapt from the edge of the cliff and shot down into the cave, his blazing wings flaring wide before he tucked them close to his body.
The war demons’ heads snapped around as one, their skeletal figures growing still when they detected the enemy in their midst. Clicks echoed from their jaws as they tasted the air with their tongues. They shrieked and plunged toward Cassius.
Morgan jumped, Reuben and Jasper hot on his wings, the demon cursing the Empyreal who had given away their presence. Sulfur wreathed the air as the sorcerers on the ground starting casting offensive spells at them. The black-magic bombs missed Morgan and the others by inches as they flicked their bodies right and left, the war demons screaming above them when they became accidental targets of their summoners’ spells.
None reached Cassius as he arrowed down to the altar.
Brianna landed on the floor of the cave with a thud that fairly shook the ground, Adrianne and Bailey clinging grimly onto her back.
“Protect the humans!” Brianna barked at Bailey.
The wizard nodded, magic flaring in his palms and in his eyes.
Adrianne cast a volley of attacks at the closest sorcerers while Brianna maimed two with her massive jaws, the enemy’s black spells exploding uselessly against the intangible layer of white magic protecting the sorceress and the witch’s bodies. Morgan, Reuben, and Jasper slowed to a hover above them before turning to face the legion of war demons descending toward them.
Morgan cast an anxious glance at Cassius over his shoulder.
Then the monsters of the Nine Hells were upon them and the Empyreal disappeared behind a wall of leathery wings, sharp fangs, and wicked claws.
* * *
Chester glaredat Cassius over his shoulder when he sensed his approach. He slammed his knife through Loki’s left hindleg, bunched his fist, and cast a spear of darkness at Cassius.
Cassius scowled and flicked his wings, the demon cat’s shriek of pain bringing forth another wave of fury. The weapon hissed past him as he rolled, the corrupt energy dancing harmlessly inches from his skin.
He smashed into the warlock and took him to the ground.
Blood splashed onto their bodies as they landed in the crimson pool next to the altar. Chester roared and slammed a shadow-wreathed fist into Cassius’s jaw.
Cassius grunted, head snapping violently to the side from the force of the blow even as the corruption burned his skin. He called forth the seraphic light blazing in his soul core and fixed Chester with a hot glare, his flesh healing in a single breath.
The warlock cursed and rolled as Cassius brought his lightning-wreathed sword down upon him. The blade struck the floor in a shower of blood and sparks.
“Why are you doing this?” Cassius barked, swinging the weapon once more. “Who is your master?!”
Chester ducked, an incantation falling from his lips. The darkness fluttering across his body thickened until it resembled armor.
He bared his teeth. “Die!”
A black sphere exploded from his hands, the ball expanding as it shot toward Cassius. Cassius’s eyes widened. He knew this strike was the deadliest one yet that the warlock had cast at him.
Time slowed.
He moved, his legs shifting as if the very air had turned to treacle. Morgan screamed his name from across the way. Cassius turned his head and saw the black-winged Aerial’s horrified face amidst a swarm of war demons.
Something exploded deep inside him as their gazes met.
Heat bloomed from his soul core, filling him with power.
Black magic detonated over his body.