around his left wrist, and the crimson power veining across his skin and radiating through his armor dimmed, then vanished.
From the trees that bordered the overpass, the caster stepped into view. Metal bands circled his arms from wrist to shoulders, and his pale hair fluttered in the breeze.
My neck twinged as I looked between the two men. Identical. They were identical.
With a shocked glance at the newcomer, Zylas grabbed the ring around his wrist to tear it off. His fingers curled around it—and the power coating his skin faded. He snatched his hand away, and his magic reignited over that hand.
“Ori septem,” the first sorcerer barked. A blue disc shot toward us like a bullet—and Ezra twisted aside with lightning reflexes, the spell just missing his arm.
“Ori quattuor!”
From the second sorcerer, a barrage of indigo spikes launched at us. Zylas grabbed my arm, yanking me clear off my feet, while Ezra leaped in the other direction, but neither was fast enough. Shards of magic bombarded me, blasting into my torso.
“Ori septem!”
The blue ring struck from the opposite side, locking around Ezra’s right elbow. He lurched upright, spikes jutting from his shoulder, side, and thigh.
“Vayanin!” Zylas hissed in my ear.
Panting harshly, I looked down at myself. Not a single spike protruded from my body. They’d passed right through my torso like I was a phantom.
The second sorcerer strode closer, stopping just beneath the overpass. “Who’s the other one?”
“A demon mage, apparently,” the first one answered.
“Enright?”
“I don’t know.” The sorcerer turned a questioning look on Ezra. “Tell us who you are and we might spare you.”
Ezra bared his teeth. Crimson blazed in his left eye and power streaked up his left arm. His right arm, with that blue ring locked around it, didn’t ignite with power. Zylas, too, couldn’t summon any magic from his spell-locked arm—but that didn’t stop him from casting with his other hand.
Spell circles flashed across his wrist. Ezra faced the other sorcerer, his fingers spread as he summoned his own spell. The temperature plunged, ice forming over every surface. The heat rushed from my body, drawn into the demons’ magic.
The sorcerers raised their hands.
Spells exploded from the demon and demon mage, a spiraling blast from Eterran and a spear-like attack from Zylas.
“Ori tres!” the sorcerers shouted in unison.
Glittering green light expanded in front of the sorcerers. The demonic magic struck the barriers and dissolved into nothing.
Zylas and Eterran glanced at each other—then lunged in opposite directions, attacking both sorcerers simultaneously.
“Ori quattuor!”
Another volley of indigo spikes launched at Zylas. He cut sideways, avoiding all except one, which pierced his ankle. As he stumbled, the original sorcerer swung his arm toward his twin.
“Ori unum!” the twin snapped.
Ezra’s crimson-lit fist slammed into a blue barrier, a blast of wind erupting from the impact. The second sorcerer staggered back a step—but the first was shouting his incantation.
“Ori septem!”
The blue ring flashed across the distance and caught Ezra’s left wrist. The demon magic veining his arm extinguished.
“Ori duo!”
Zylas flew backward, hurled away before his claws could touch the sorcerer.
“Ori unum! Ori duo! Ori tres!”
Breathing hard, the demon and demon mage backed away from their opponents, unable to break through the sorcerers’ impregnable defenses. Standing in the gap between them, I clenched my hands, limbs shivering with cold and mind spinning.
Unum. It meant “one,” and the spell was a shield that Zylas’s fists couldn’t break.
Duo. “Two.” A rippling reflection that threw Zylas back with the same force he attacked with. A reflector spell.
Tres. “Three.” Green magic that voided Zylas’s power. A negation spell.
Rare sorcery. Powerful. Difficult. And I finally knew what kind of magic it was: abjuration.
Shields and defenses. Undoing magic. Erasing magic. But abjuration wasn’t as simple as making a shield that could block everything. It was complicated, I’d read. The most complicated branch of Arcana, more intricate even than healing.
Zylas! I mentally shouted. Let me in your head! We can beat them together!
His gaze jerked to me, eyes wide, but the dark, fierce touch of his mind didn’t reach me. He couldn’t do it. His mistrust was stronger than his drive to win.
I yanked my infernus off my neck. Then distract him!
As I launched into a sprint, Zylas slashed at the sorcerer’s knees.
“Ori unum!” the man barked.
As Zylas’s strike bounced off the shield, I sprang straight for the sorcerer. He whirled toward me, spitting an incantation.
“Ori duo!”
“Ori eruptum impello!”
A silver dome burst out from my artifact as the reflector spell formed in front of the sorcerer. My spell met his—and kept going