The Red Scrolls of Magic (The Eldest Curses, #1)(89)

The closest one landed on the steps with a heavy thud. Aline darted in and slashed it with her seraph blades, carving deep gouges into its chest. It roared and swept her away with its wing, knocking her off her feet.

The Shinigami reared up, towering above her. Its wings repelled starlight, outlining a jagged black hole against the night. Another of the Shinigami demons crash-landed among the cultists, sending them scurrying for cover.

“Eremiel!” Helen’s yell rose above the din as she danced among the large figures, the white slashes of her seraph blade lighting up the night.

Alec jumped to the side and avoided a swooping demon, its talons nearly raking his shoulder. He skidded on his back and pierced its wing with another arrow, sending it crashing to the ground. He checked the others. “Aline, look out!”

Aline was back up, darting between two Shinigami, cutting them up with her seraph blades. Another demon was diving toward her.

Helen tackled Aline to safety at the very last second. The demon missed them and went past, then turned for a second charge. It bared its fangs, each as long as a human hand. Helen rose to her feet, clutching her hurt shoulder. She dropped to her knees as the monster leaped, jamming her seraph blade upward, slicing the demon from its navel to its neck.

“By the Angel!” Aline shouted. “That was amazing.”

Helen beamed, but not for long. No sooner had she finished the kill than another demon landed in front of her and swung a taloned wing at her face. This time Aline was there and sliced the wing at the joint, completely severing it. Helen followed with a spinning slash that lopped off its head.

Alec turned his attention to another diving Shinigami and managed to avoid getting cut in half by a sharp wing. He tracked its trajectory as it passed and shot it in the back. The demon crashed at the base of the amphitheater.

“Alec!” Aline shouted. “The stage!”

Alec whirled just as a massive column of light descended from the whirling vortex and struck a massive glowing pentagram of flowers that surrounded the stage. The entire amphitheater was illuminated.

Magnus was a silhouette, bathed in scorching brilliant light. Alec could only just make out his eyes. They were fixed on Alec. Magnus’s mouth moved, as if he wanted to say something.

Then Magnus and Shinyun disappeared. The scorching dazzle of the light filled the moonflower pentagram, erasing everything inside.

Alec’s heart lurched. He ran for the stage, only to be cut off by a cultist looming up in his path. He cut him down with a blow and looked into the startled face of the next man. He spoke quietly, but loud enough for all of them to hear.

“If you value your life,” Alec said, “run now.”

The nearest cultists scattered. It cleared a space for Alec to cut a path to the pentagram. His head buzzing with panic, he flung himself toward it—and slammed into an invisible barrier as hard as a granite wall.

There was a skinny man with a tuft of a beard standing in front of the cultists beside the pentagram, as if he was their leader. Alec had never seen him before.

“Where is Magnus?” Alec demanded.

“Who are you?” asked the bearded man.

“We are Shadowhunters,” said Helen, striding to flank Alec. Aline slid into position at his other side. “And you are all in a lot of trouble. What’s going on here? Who are you?”

“I am Bernard, the leader of this cult.”

Someone behind the cult leader said, “We agreed to betraying the Great Poison and the Cursed Daughter. Nobody agreed to you leading us, Bernard.”

Bernard went purple above his white robes.

“Who’s the Great Poison?” Aline inquired.

“Our founder, Magnus Bane,” answered Bernard.

Helen sucked in her breath.

“However, we broke away from his teachings of caring for the children and pranking the rich many years ago,” Bernard asserted. “Since his departure we have had a much more wickedness-based agenda. A few of us do murders. Lately, a lot of murders. Mostly we’re evil but laid-back about it.”

“So Magnus is innocent! Kind of,” Aline said. Helen looked disconcerted.

Alec didn’t care about any of it. He shoved past Bernard, took a deep ragged breath, and drew a seraph blade from his belt.

“Raguel.” It burst into angelic light.

Using a seraph blade on a mundane was a horrible thing. His father had told him no true Shadowhunter would dream of doing it.

Before anyone could move to stop him, Alec swung the tip of the glowing seraph blade so close to Bernard’s throat that the collar of his white shirt began to blacken and smoke.

“Where is Magnus?” Alec demanded. “I will not ask again.”

Bernard’s eyes went white. His lips parted, and a voice that was clearly not his issued from his throat. It rumbled and crackled like a bonfire.

A demon’s voice. The voice of a Prince of Hell.

“The Great Poison? Why, he’s right here.”

Bernard waved jerkily to the pentagram awash in awful light. In its fiery heart, the palest of shadows began to resolve. Alec was able, more and more clearly every moment, to make out shapes.

“Find him,” said the demon within Bernard. “If you can.”

The scene inside the pentagram clarified. Alec’s mouth went dry with horror.

He could see Magnus. He could see more than one Magnus.