Ancient Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress #1)(44)

He raised a huge gray hand and threw a blast of smoky magic at me. I dove left as the searing streak of smoke plowed into the window behind me. It shattered, throwing glass everywhere. Pain pierced my back in a hundred little places.

Damn! I climbed to my feet, my back burning, as Aidan launched himself past me at the demon who’d attacked me. He was in his human form because the shop was too small for him to fight as a griffon, but he was fierce. His fists were a blur, which was lucky, because his brand of magic was so destructive that he’d have to fight with fists if he didn’t want to destroy the building he was in.

I leapt over debris in the middle of the shop, my heart aching at the sight of all the broken replicas, and joined Nix in fighting the two demons that attacked her. She’d been fine when I’d first burst into the store, fighting the demons off with her usual skill, but one had gotten in a solid hit to her middle that had her wheezing.

We each took one demon—like a double date, but way more violent. The punch I threw at my demon glanced off his face. My knuckles burned. This was why I hated hand-to-hand.

I ducked down and grabbed a jagged piece of shattered pottery. It was shaped roughly like a dagger, and I plunged it into the demon’s chest and then kneed him between the legs, hoping I was getting a ball shot. As he collapsed, I caught sight of Aidan charging the man who’d fought Del.

She was sprawled on the ground, her dark hair spread out in a crimson wave. The attacking Magica flung out his hand and sent a jet of ice at Aidan. The jagged blue wave of ice plowed him to the ground.

Oh, man, I wished I could use my power to blast him back. The bastard so deserved it. None of us wanted to destroy Ancient Magic, so we didn’t use our powers. But this guy didn’t care.

The man jumped over the counter. I ran for him. Before I got there, he reached under the counter and grabbed a box, then threw something to the ground. A silvery cloud burst up around him and he disappeared.

I stumbled to a halt.

What the hell? I thought he’d been after us. I spun around to check my deirfiúr. The demon that Nix had fought was on the ground. She knelt over Del.

Aidan slipped up behind the demon who’d fought Claire and broke its neck. It was the last demon in the shop. The rest were unconscious or had already disappeared.

“Check to see if they’re all dead,” I said. “I want to know why they were here.”

“Robbery,” Nix said. “The first real one we’ve had in a while.”

She was right—we didn’t often get thieves she couldn’t take care of. But these weren’t ordinary thieves. There was a lot more at play here that I didn’t understand.

I knelt over the demon that Nix had knocked out and shook him. Nothing. He was just dead weight. Literally. He wasn’t breathing.

He’d disappear soon, back to his hell.

“I killed this one,” Aidan said. “Sorry about that.”

“Mine’s dead too,” Connor said.

“Damn.” With the promise of information gone, I sank to my knees. The pain of my wounds finally hit me. My back hurt like hell.

“Are you all right?” Aidan knelt beside me, gently touching my shoulder with one big hand.

“Yeah.” I bit out the words. “Just a flesh wound.”

“Not funny,” he said. “How wounded are you?”

“Not as wounded as Del.” I jerked my chin toward my deirfiúr, who still lay on the ground. “Help her.”

I tried to catch my breath as Aidan knelt over Del and laid his hands on her middle. Her clothes were singed from the flame, but at least I didn’t smell burning flesh. Nix looked on expectantly. She held one hand over a gash on her arm, slowing the blood flow. Connor and Claire sat with their backs against the counter, panting. Claire looked rough—her clothes were torn and her lip was bleeding. Connor looked a bit better, but not much. He was almost as good a fighter as his sister, despite his lack of practice. A natural.

Ancient Magic was a mess. Shelves were broken, replicas shattered all around us. Pottery and glass glinted on the floor, and silver and fake gold were crushed. In most cases, if the vessels containing the magic broke into too many pieces, the magic dissipated into the air, gone forever.

How much had we lost today? And why the hell had it happened? We needed to go after whoever’d done this, but not until Del was better and we’d all talked.

“How’s she doing?” I leaned over Del.

“Okay.” Del’s voice was scratchy and her eyes weren’t open yet, but there was a bit of color to her cheeks. She was dressed in her usual mercenary gear. Whereas I favored jeans and leather jackets, she was an all-leather kind of girl. It looked pretty badass with her black hair.

“She’ll be fine,” Aidan said. “I don’t know what that guy hit her with, but it was strong.”

“Felt like a rhino hit me in the gut,” Del muttered. She opened her eyes and her gaze met mine. “Did he get away?”

“Yeah,” I said. There was a hell of a lot more I wanted to say to her and Nix, but I couldn’t. Not until I got Connor and Claire and Aidan to go away.

Del pushed herself up until she sat upright. Or at least, as upright as she could. We were all a mess. Only Aidan looked uninjured, and that was probably because he was a man who could fight like a bull.

“What happened?” I asked.