The Red Scrolls of Magic (The Eldest Curses, #1)(79)

Helen opened her eyes and gazed at Aline. Her fingers curled around Aline’s. Hope glowed in Helen’s face, then flickered and failed.

“I’m not a great Shadowhunter,” she said. “But I want to be. If I’m great, if the Clave is impressed with me, then I belong. I’m so afraid they will decide I don’t.”

“I understand,” said Aline.

Alec did too. He and Aline and Helen all exchanged a look, united against the same lonely fear.

“I’m sorry,” Helen whispered, her voice floating to him soft as smoke.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” said Alec.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell anyone what we were doing or where we were going, and now we’re going to die,” said Helen.

“Well,” said Alec, scanning the treetops, “when you put it that way it does sound bad.” He spotted a section of a wall of fire that was sputtering slightly where it ran over a swampy portion of ground. The flames there were a little lower than the other barrier walls.

“Just in case we do die,” Aline said, “I know we just met, Helen, but—”

“We’re not going to die,” Alec broke in. “Helen, how high can you jump?”

Helen blinked and came back to herself. She set her shoulders and studied the flames. “I can’t jump that high.”

“You don’t have to,” said Alec. “Look.” He charged at the space between two of the pillars and, as before, the flames bent to block him.

“So?” said Aline.

“So,” said Alec, “I do that again, and then one of you jumps the flames while they’re lowered to block me.”

Helen surveyed the flames. “That’s still going to be a hard jump.” Her face hardened with resolve. “I’ll do it.”

“I can do it,” said Aline.

Helen put her hand on Aline’s shoulder. “But I got us into this, and I’m going to get us out.”

“You’ll only have a second or two,” said Alec, backing up to make the run. “You’ll have to be right behind me.”

“I will be,” Helen said.

An instant before Alec started toward the wall, Aline yelled, “Wait! What if there’s worse on the other side of the flames?”

“That,” said Helen, brandishing yet another seraph blade, “is why I am heavily armed. Sachiel.” A white, familiar light appeared, the glow of adamas a reassuring rebuke to the red, demonic flames around them.

Alec smiled to himself. He was beginning to like Helen. Then he started to run.

He dove for the ground, and felt the heat of the flames as they lowered to block him from escape. He stayed down, rolling, and he heard Aline give a cheer. He sprang up and brushed the dirt off of himself.

There was a small silence.

“Helen?” Aline called uncertainly.

“Demons! Fire demons! They’re demons!” Helen yelled back breathlessly. “The . . . pillars . . . are . . . demons! I’m fighting one of them now!”

Alec only now noticed that one of the flame pillars that had bent to stop him hadn’t returned to its original position. Instead, he realized, he was looking at the back of a huge humanoid form made of flame, on the other side of which, presumably, was Helen.

He and Aline looked at each other. Alec, uncertainly, drew his bow and fired an arrow directly into the center of the next pillar.

The pillar erupted into motion, splitting and shaping itself into a humanoid figure that Alec recognized as a Cherufe demon. The demon roared, flames like a hundred awful tongues in its gaping maw, and charged at Alec, fiery claws extended. It moved with the speed of a wildfire blaze, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.

Alec twisted away from the claws, trying to roll in the direction of the gap between his demon and Helen’s, just managing to avoid being disemboweled and flambéed. The world rattled as he hit the ground hard and skidded several feet. Only the sting of a falling ember on his cheek snapped him back to consciousness.

He could only watch, dazed, as a streak of fire hurtled at him through the dark. The demon was coming back for another round.

Then Aline was there, slashing so quickly with her daggers that her arms were a blur. The angel blades had the effect of water on the demon fire, turning it into steam wherever they passed through it. One slash across its lower torso, one up the middle, and one to lop off its flaming arms, and the Cherufe demon disintegrated into a puddle of magma, ichor, and steam. Aline stood outlined by orange sparks.

She tucked one dagger under her arm and offered Alec her free hand. Helen, singed but unhurt, joined them, appearing through the fading flames of the first demon as it fell into cinders. Together they turned to the other Cherufes, which had all now taken their usual humanoid shape.

Alec dropped to one knee, and three arrows streaked in the air in rapid succession, striking one Cherufe demon in the chest, its wounds spouting jets of flame. It roared and turned toward him, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. He loosed two more arrows, ducked and spun out of the monster’s path, and finished it off with one more arrow in the eye. The demon collapsed like a burning house.

Helen and Aline stood back-to-back in the dark of the forest clearing, the glitter of infernal sparks and the glow from angelic blades surrounding them. Helen finished off another demon with a spin move that separated its torso from its lower half. Alec carefully made his way around the melee, keeping himself at a distance, until he had a clear angle. One arrow took off a Cherufe demon’s arm, then several more caused it to tip over even as it tried to charge Aline. One downward stab of a dagger ended it.