Phoenix Academy - Lucy Auburn Page 0,7

full of only the smell of sulphur and distant sound of slobbering beasts—becomes tinged with blue. And over my shoulders, several feet wide and burning impossibly hot, two blue wings of fire unfurl.

Within me, the connection to my familiars shivers. Shakes. And yanks at the open door, pulling it wide for a brief moment.

Racing through come three familiar figures: Reggie in thorn-torn clothing, Xavier with his glasses in one hand, and a naked, distraught-looking David, who lost his clothes to his shifting.

As soon as they're through the door slams most of the way shut again, save for the tiny crack created by Ezriel's spell.

The trickster demon, meanwhile, is in quite a state. Snarling in anger, he's grown two horns from his head. Red-hot energy blazes from his fingers, and I can sense somehow that he's calling out to other demons in the darkness, raising a horde of his own.

"You'll pay for this," he vows, as my familiars come to stand beside me, and I hate myself for how glad I am to not be alone anymore—even though it means I dragged them to Hell with me. "As soon as I'm done with you, you're going to wish you've never been born. Your penises will be flat and useless. Your wings cut off. Every organ in your body will be on the—"

He doesn't get to finish his train of thought.

Behind him, a demon ten feet tall with long knives for hands and a dozen legs roars and cuts his head off.

Then severs his body into little pieces.

Slices and dices it until it's nothing but meat and blood.

And turns its eyes on the four of us.

"Run!" I scream, turning and casting my blue magic out, creating a path through the darkness. "With me, now!"

The guys don't need any convincing. As my feral magic creates a trail for us, bright blue and strange in the darkness, we run straight through Hell—and away from the demon that just eviscerated what I thought was the worst, most evil thing I'd ever meet.

Welcome to Hell, Ari Wolfe.

Chapter 3

We run along the path my magic makes. Then walk, slower, as we come to a strange place in the middle of Hell, what feels like a mirage at first: a lovely little lake with trees all around it and a garden at its shore.

My blue magic happily burbles around and around the water, everything about it drawing me near. When I reach out with my naturalistic senses, I feel peace. No alarm goes off.

"Hey guys," David says, "could you maybe..."

"Oh, right."

I glance over and blush to realize that David is still naked. It's not the first time I've seen him, or his... well, his cock, a thought that makes heat rise in my cheeks. But every time it's because he shifted.

It's never been anything romantic or sexy.

I wouldn't even know what to do if it was.

I know that David is available for me. That I could have him if I wanted. The twins have even suggested that I could have them too, that they wouldn't fight over me, for the sake of their shared friendship and our bond if nothing else.

But I'm no Dani Carpenter. I can't imagine myself with one boyfriend, let alone multiple. It sounds like the sort of thing that would be doomed.

Thankfully Xavier has a spare set of shorts stowed away in the large inner pocket of his blazer, which he keeps around because of David's inability to shift with his clothes. And Reggie peels his blazer off, rolling up the sleeves of his white button-up, the muscles in his arms flexing appealingly. I find myself glancing in his direction, staring at the way his long thin braids hang over his shoulders, how his wrists flex and fingers curl.

I wonder what those fingers would feel like if they touched me.

Shaking the thought off, I turn towards the distant lake and stop to discuss our next steps. "So. We're in Hell. All of us, apparently, even though I tried to keep you guys out of it. Sorry about that."

"Wasn't really your fault," Xavier offers sympathetically.

"Well, technically she did make us her familiars in the first place," Reggie points out. "And she decided to bring that dude here to Hell with her. And got us stuck. Hey, we couldn't just go back through that door, could we?"

"Not without opening it all the way. I put a spell on it after we went through to make sure it wasn't possible. And you heard all those demons gathered