by Sadie Moss
“Hey,” Roman says through clenched teeth.
We all turn and look—just as a portal opens. A portal as black as a void, with unearthly orange light around the rim.
I’ve seen a portal like that before. When we were fighting Raul.
Roman doesn’t even bother with a clever line. He just steps out of the way as an enormous fucking demon, a demon that looks like smoke and ash and broken bones and frozen screams, emerges screeching from the portal and launches itself at Agustin.
Oh, fuck yes.
Time to kick this guy’s ass once and for all.
Chapter 23
I’m going to be honest here, I want to yell that’s my boyfriend!
And then maybe jump up and down and point at Roman ecstatically. Because, well, look at him. He’s bruised and burned and bleeding and staggering on his feet, and he still just summoned a fucking demon.
But the only people in the room already know Roman’s a badass, and we’re all fighting for our lives right now, so they probably wouldn’t be able to take time to be impressed, so, ah, I’ll just save that for later.
When Roman and the rest of us are safe, and we can celebrate.
Agustin, unfortunately, doesn’t react with the dismay and shock I was kind of hoping for—and that I think Roman was hoping for.
The demon leaps at Agustin, ready to pounce—and Agustin snarls and holds up a hand, making a sort of crushing motion with his fingers like he’s got an orange in his grip and he wants to squeeze all the juice out.
The demon freezes, struggling. Then its head slowly turns to look at Roman.
Oh, fuck.
“You think you’re the only one who can control demons?” Agustin spits.
Roman holds out his own hand, his fingers trembling slightly. Fuck, if he collapses and dies in this godforsaken basement, I’m never going to forgive myself for letting him be taken, for not getting here faster.
The demon struggles, looking from one man to the other, clearly confused. Both Roman and Agustin are pulling at it, tugging with their minds, issuing commands, and I almost feel sorry for the poor monster. It obviously doesn’t know what to do.
Well, if nothing else, this is distracting Agustin, and the rest of us can’t let that opportunity to go waste.
“You—will—die,” the eerily bland-looking man spits at Roman.
Cam teleports nearer to Agustin with a furious yell, the sound cutting off and picking up again as his body blips through space.
“We can’t let him get Roman!” Asher calls, still safe behind Dmitri’s doubles.
“I can’t let him get any of you!” I shout back, snapping the whip at Agustin.
“No, Elliot—if he gets Roman’s death touch, he’ll be unstoppable. He’ll be able to kill people and steal their powers in just one touch!”
Oh shit. Okay, yeah, talk about overpowered.
“I’m on it!” Shaking my hand, I let go of the whip, and the electricity fizzles out. Then I focus on Dmitri instead.
Agustin’s too powerful. With just five people against him—especially with Roman injured and in a stalemate with him over control of the demon—it’s not going to be enough to take him down. Our only chance is to spread him thin, make him use as many of his powers as possible.
I’ll be honest, I’m at a disadvantage here. I can only mirror one power at a time. I wish I could mirror all of Agustin’s abilities, be his true equal, but as far as I know, I can’t manage that.
But what I can do is split myself like Dmitri’s doing and give that bastard even more people to fight against.
I close my eyes, focus—and split.
Holy shit.
Okay, so, here’s the thing. I’ve actually gotten pretty good at mirroring other people’s magic, at drawing their power into myself.
Actually using that power once I have it, though?
Ahh… not so much.
I guess I assumed that when I had Dmitri’s powers, I would be splitting my mind between the duplicates. That I could see what they see and control what they do. And it’s sort of like that. But it’s also like when you’re playing a video game and the screen’s split four ways like on a team shoot ’em up game—only I’m the person controlling all four screens, and I have to pay attention to all of them at the same time.
It’s really fucking hard, is what I’m trying to get at here.
I attempt to have the double on my right run at Agustin, but she ends up running into a wall instead. I feel like I’m a bunch of glitching video game characters.
Jesus Christ, I look like an idiot.
Agustin’s still focused on the demon, battling with Roman. Between the two of them, the demon’s kind of neutralized. It isn’t attacking one or the other, it’s just kind of standing there, growling and grunting. Stuck.
But I know that neither man can afford to stop focusing either, because the moment one of them does, the other will gain the upper hand with the demon and use it to attack.
Despite all of that, though, when Cam launches himself at Agustin—the super-powered mage deflects him with a strong backhand that sends him flying.
Shit, okay.
“He’s got super strength!”
“Thanks,” Cam groans, clambering slowly back to his feet from where he crash-landed. “Never would’ve guessed.”
Dmitri comes at him, but Agustin throws up a wall of fire, cutting Dmitri—and me—off. Dammit!
Asher looks like he’s about to collapse as he tries to work his way into our opponent’s mind, past the fortifications he has in place.
“Don’t push yourself too hard!” I yell.
“I have to!” Asher manages through his clenched teeth. He looks like he’s going to either vomit or pass out, and frankly, neither option’s all that great.
I’m trying like hell to get this damn mirroring power to work, trying to use my sonic boom, trying to keep track of everyone and not get hit by any stray blasts. But Agustin is wielding fire and water, making the earth move and shift, sending stones flying—he’s clearly stolen the magic of all the elements, and he’s using them to his painful advantage.
And then he whips up a cyclone.
Cam is knocked off his feet immediately and just manages to teleport back, grabbing Asher around the shoulders and holding him so he doesn’t fall. I brace myself, gritting my teeth, and release a small sonic boom to blow against the wind and keep myself standing.
And the whole time—the entire time—Agustin is still locked in his standoff with Roman.
He’s controlling elements like it’s nothing and holding a fucking demon at bay, and we’re getting our asses kicked. And despite every attempt we make to take him down, he’s still standing there like it’s the easiest damn thing in the world.
And that’s when I realize—
I don’t think we’re going to win this fight.
Chapter 24
Let’s get one thing straight right now. Just because I think I might be losing a fight doesn’t mean I’m going to stop fighting.
I think it would honestly go against my very nature. The score might be ten to nothing against me, but you bet your ass I’m going to keep going until the buzzer announces the end of the game.
Roman and Agustin are still caught up in a deadlock. The demon between them is hovering, suspended, and I’m not sure it’s even mentally present right now. From where I’m standing, it looks like it’s just a massive body being tugged back and forth by the two men. It’s even stopped growling and snarling, and there’s something truly disturbing about a blank-faced, silent demon.
What we really need is to get that demon back on our side. We need it snapping and snarling as it goes for Agustin’s jugular.
Okay. So that means I need to give Roman some kind of advantage. I need to stretch Agustin thin with his powers, and I need to distract him and potentially do something that will actually hurt him.
I refocus, dropping my mirroring of Dmitri’s powers. I feel my duplicates get sucked back into me and it
’s hugely disorienting, making me stumble, causing my vision to blur for a second before everything rights itself. Holy crap, how does Dmitri do that all the time? I knew he was disciplined, but I seriously underestimated how much work it must take for him to control all of his duplicates so well.
Straightening up, I shake my head out to clear it.
Okay. I can do this.
Both men are standing close to me, and I’d like to mirror Agustin, but he’s such a bundle of different types of magic—like a snarl of tangled Christmas lights—that I can’t even begin to sort out which of his powers is the one I want.
Instead, I focus on Roman.
Roman’s three powers are like beating hearts inside of him, hearts I can reach out to. I know exactly which one I want, and I stretch out my hand, using that physical action to propel and direct my magic.
I feel it in my fingers, like a string on a violin—and I just have to pluck it.
Maybe it’s because I’m already so connected to Roman, but accessing his magic feels almost unnervingly easy. It’s right there, just waiting for me. Keeping my hand outstretched and my breathing even, I reach for it and tug. Just like with Dmitri’s power, I’m not quite sure how to use this one, but I act intuitively, channeling the magic through myself as I focus on what I want.
And just like that, a portal springs open, and another demon bursts out.
This one looks like a… a giant slime thing.
The thing about demons, I’ve found—and the fact that I’ve seen enough of them to form an opinion at all says a hell of a lot about my life—but the thing about demons is that they’re very hard to describe. Every time you look directly at one, it feels like there’s something wrong with your eyes. It almost feels like staring at a mirage.
So I can’t quite say with certainty that I’ve just summoned a giant slug.
But, man, that’s sure the impression I’m getting from all the damn slime.
“Elliot!” Roman yells, not so much like he’s worried about me. More like he’s worried because I just turned on a time bomb, and he’s wondering what the hell would give me such an insane idea.
The slug demon roars, spraying slime everywhere. Some of it gets on Cam, who looks absolutely horrified, like someone just got red wine on his Gucci jacket or something.
Some of it gets on me too, and it’s warm and smells like sulfur and makes me gag a little. But I ignore it and reach out to the demon with my mind, feeling for some kind of connection between us. I’m not quite sure I have it, but I’m pretty sure I feel something, so I think with all of my might, attack Agustin!
The slug demon just roars again and goes after one of Dmitri’s doubles.
Or at least I hope it’s a double.
Goddammit. Come on, why isn’t this working?!
“You can’t—just summon the demon, Elliot!” Roman yells. “You have to—control it!”
Agustin feeds more power into the mini cyclone, whipping the air around the large room even more, and it’s hard to stay on my feet. Dmitri—the real one, I think—loses his footing and goes crashing into a pole, grunting in pain and clutching his leg.
“Having a little trouble with the mirroring power?” Agustin asks me mockingly. I can hear a bit of strain in his voice, though—could it be that we’re having an effect on him after all?
“Do you ever shut up?” I shoot back. It’s a legitimate question if you ask me. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn he really does practice his evil villain speech in the mirror.
He’s also right though, damn him. I don’t know how to control this demon. I could summon it, but apparently that was the easiest part of this whole thing. Now that I have it here, I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do to get it to listen to me.
“Attack Agustin!” I yell aloud, focusing everything in my mind on that idea. Attack him, tear him to shreds, rip his heart out!
The slug demon tries to take a chomp out of the other demon instead.
The smoke demon—the one Agustin and Roman have been fighting over—lets out a roar of anger and attacks the slug demon in return, the two of them going at it in a fury of slime and smoke that I can’t even see properly.
At least now Agustin doesn’t have even a smidgen of control over the smoke demon anymore.
Silver lining?
Cam teleports to right behind Agustin, who whips around, backhanding him again, his hand lighting on fire as he does it. I duck and dive for cover as flame bursts in an arc toward where I was just standing.
Shit. Shit.
We are so out of our fucking depth here.
The demons are wreaking havoc, blasting holes in the wall, smashing into support beams. Rubble goes flying everywhere, and Agustin catches it up in his cyclone, whirling it around at high speeds before sending it hurtling back toward us. Whatever concentration Asher’s been able to muster is shot when he has to duck and cover, diving behind an intact support beam at the last second to avoid flying debris. Two of Dmitri’s doubles catch chunks of cement in the face and vanish. Roman, already injured, gets smacked in the back of the head with some rubble.
My stomach pitches sideways as my fear ratchets up to a whole new level. Goddammit. I shouldn’t have summoned that fucking demon. I refused to use Roman’s death touch because I didn’t want to risk killing my men, but what if I’ve done it anyway? What if my recklessness doomed us all?
Fuck. What damn good is this mirroring power if I suck at using the abilities I borrow?
But I can’t stop trying. Unlike Agustin, I’ve got a limited number of powers to draw on, and the mirroring still offers our best chance of success. I reach out with my mind, trying to find something that’ll be relatively easy to control, and latch onto his fire powers. I manage to fire off a blast, sending a spurt of flame toward his head. But he blocks the torrent of fire with a flick of his wrist. Fucking hell.
“Well, this has been fun,” Agustin drawls, “but I’m afraid I really do have to be going now.”
Oh, no, you don’t, you asshole!
I rush toward him, trying to keep my feet under me with the cyclone still tearing around the room. I leap over a fallen support beam and dodge chunks of flying rubble to hurl myself at him.
“Until next time, Miss Sinclair,” Agustin says, and then he just—blinks out of existence.
And I go crashing to the floor.
Chapter 25
He’s gone.
We all stare at each other for a second, at the spot where Agustin just was, in disbelief.
How—what—he’s gone?
He ran again.
Roman yells something, a growl in his voice, something what I think is Latin, or maybe Lillum, the language of demons—and the demons we both summoned vanish.
Thank God for that. I have no idea how to banish a demon once it’s been summoned. I have a feeling that’s the whole catch. That summoning is the easy part, and the goodbye, see you later part… not so much.
Note to my future self: do not try someone’s exceptionally crazy magical power if you’ve never actually practiced that power before. Big no-no.
Asher collapses against the wall, sucking in gasping breaths as sweat pours down his temples. Dmitri manages to get to his feet with a wince.
“Is he—he’s coming back, right?” Cam says, still in his battle stance, still ready. “He has to.”
I have no idea why he’d run away. He was winning—had practically won. He was kicking our asses. Why would he flee?
“He had us,” Dmitri says, speaking my thoughts as Asher bends over and makes unpleasant noises that sound a lot like retching. “He had us all. We were getting our asses kicked. You heard him. He said he needs our powers. Well, Elliot’s and Asher’s and Roman’s. Why would he just leave?”
“He had a hot date?” Cam jokes weakly.
Roman coughs, and my heart stutters in my chest. I hurry over to him and get myself under his arm, supporting him, keeping him from falling. He looks like a damn mess. I would think it was
badass and kind of hot if I didn’t know how close he came to dying, if it weren’t for the fact that I know exactly how he earned looking like this.
It’s one thing to watch a hot actor in a movie go into a den of bad guys and kick ass and come out with some attractively placed cuts and bruises.
It’s another thing entirely when it’s your boyfriend nearly dying.
“He’ll be back.” Cam clenches and unclenches his fists. “He has to be.”
We wait, ready and tense, anticipating the moment—that moment when Agustin will reappear with a new weapon, a better weapon, more powers, something to crush us completely. Even as we stand in taut silence, I wonder if we should be fleeing right now, if we’re waiting around just to be obliterated.
But the moment stretches on, and Agustin doesn’t show.
“What the fuck?” Despite the fact that we were losing that fight, Dmitri still looks pissed he didn’t get to finish it.
Cam finally drops his hands and stands up straight as Roman leans more heavily against me, the last of his adrenaline fading. “So he’s… really gone, then. Why?”
“At least we know why he was attacking the school now,” Asher says weakly.
“Why?” Cam asks, sounding frustrated.
Asher looks like he’s in no position to give a speech, but I think I know what he’s getting at, so I answer, helping move Roman from the middle of the room toward the wall. “He talked about how powerful Unpredictables are. About how we were stronger than anyone else. How only we could oppose him.
“I bet you anything that he’s the one who’s been making Unpredictables disappear when they graduate. Disappear or die.” I swallow hard. “Remember what I told you Brodie said? He said it was… I don’t remember exactly the number, but somewhere around seventy percent. A lot. And it was all because of Agustin.”
Cam whistles slowly. “Damn.”
“But he couldn’t take out Griffin Academy entirely.” I’m thinking back on Agustin’s attacks. “I’m not even sure his attacks were designed to do that. But what did they do? They threw suspicion on us. They threw us into the public eye.
