The Council (Darkness #5)(41)



“Towards the demon.” Mage Marius spat out a curse under his breath.

“A demon?” Dominicous breathed. “Andris.”

“It would seem. We better help. I know how to cut one off from the source.” Toa’s head dropped. “We should’ve killed him when we had the chance.”

“I would’ve,” Dominicous pointed out. “As I recall, you fought against it. Wanted to get Cato active again, if I remember correctly. Thought that would wake him up.”

“Can you guys argue another time?” Mage Marius started off at a jog, Dominicous and Toa right behind him.

“Sasha?” Toa reminded as they ran.

“I haven’t seen her. I heard a whisper that Stefan might’ve been taken. Hopefully, if that was true, she went for him before all this.”

“She got out?”

“I don’t know.”

As they ran, Mage Marius shot a grayish-white ball in front of him. It pulsed and throbbed through the corridor ahead of them, causing anyone in the way to flee lest they get trapped in it.

“I have not seen a spell like that travel so quickly,” Toa said.

They emerged into the wide open, colors whirling and moving as swords slashed and jabbed. A howl sounded way in the front, a claw rising over the heads and hacking down with incredible force. A group of people fought, working together, trying to bring the thing down.

At the front stood Cato, ten yards from the front entrance, leaning against a couch with his head down and eyes closed. Five men stood around him as protection, facing off to a group of six on the attack. Two lay dead and bloody on the floor, eyes staring. There was no way to determine who the dead belonged to—whether it was the attackers, the defenders, or both. Beyond them fought a crowd of people and one intensely strong demon, so powerful that it stood completely corporeal, moving so fast its limbs got lost in a blur.

“I know how to cut it off from this world,” Toa shouted as he ran up, a wary-eyed defender of Cato stepping to cut Toa off.

Cato glanced up and looked at Toa out of a face lined with fatigue. “Link with me. Pay attention to how you do it.”

“I know how to link,” Toa grumbled as he stepped forward.

Dominicous turned to the six attackers, all tired and drawn. They’d obviously been ordered to kill Cato, but looked like they knew they were no match for his defenders. The question was: would they die trying?

“Are you linked with anyone else?” Toa asked above the demon’s roar. It slashed through someone, ripping the body in half.

“Three, but they are secured in the rooms.”

“Is Constance with them?” Mage Marius asked in a harried voice.

“Yes.” The word was nothing more than a wheeze.

“Hurry Toa,” Dominicous called, stepping forward with a grin for the would-be attackers. Grins with swords always threw people off. “It’s probably sucking all the energy out of him.”

“You act as if I have not done this before.”

“Even in the middle of battle you’re snotty.”

“Must you two always fight?” Mage Marius asked. He whisked an intense spell up and fired at one of the attackers. As if shot by razor blades, gashes opened up half the male’s body. Blood seeped out from over a hundred cuts.

“Learned something from the human, eh?” Dominicous asked with a welling of pride.

“Anyone can get lucky.” Mage Marius lifted his chin in defiance.

“Uh huh.”

“You have the same power as her…” Toa’s breath drifted away into the room, colored with shock. “One in a million. How have you kept this a secret?”

“Notice how you are linking. I do not link like others.” Cato leaned heavily on the couch, his eyes fluttering, his breath forced out in pants. “This is to protect you. Sasha does not know how, though. You must adapt her to human magic. You must show her…”

“Talk after!” Dominicous roared. “Get that thing out of here.”

The demon howled, its monstrous jaws snapping. The tiny black eyes stared directly at Toa. Horrible scrapes and scratches hissed out of its mouth, trying to speak.

“Please tell me you don’t understand it,” Dominicous mumbled.

Cato slumped to the ground, face drawn and white. Toa staggered forward and braced himself. “Dominicous, I need more.”

Dominicous felt out and linked immediately, feeling a huge chasm open up before him filled with a pit of infinite magic. A sea of it, huge waves swirling and crashing, kept at bay. Toa didn’t need power, he needed energy.

Finally, Dominicous completely understood what Sasha had and what Cato had. They would never run out. They would never yank and twist and pull, trying to get every last drop of the elements to accept the invitation into their body. They had all that at their disposal, constantly. Instead, they would not remember to turn it off, and the magic would rage through their bodies, draining them of every last drop of energy until it completed its directions.

Dominicous had never felt so happy to have the kind of magic he did, even though he wasn’t white. It could be worse. It could be infinitely worse.

“Miraculous,” Cato breathed, his body limp as it rested against the back of the couch where he sat. “I would not have thought to go in that way. Much easier, though much more strain magically. More to do.”

K.F. Breene's Books