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As I was closing the book, a loose, folded page fell to the floor It was as brittle as the Book of Enoch, though it was thicker, heavier paper, and larger than the book&039;s pages I opened it, revealing a handsome script penned in ink I read the words "Now, the End of Tiht on both sides of the Holy War, soht Those allied with the Light search and hope for grace, for forgiveness Huht They alone are able to choose"
It wasn&039;t dated or signed But when I looked at the note with e e had held the note Had iies It didn&039;t shine with power at all
I turned the sheet of paper over and over Lolo? Had she put the page where Ilist of her intrigues?
"You ready to go?" a voice whispered "I have all ain peeking around the stack of books
"And howout?" I whispered back
"Seven Miss Sennabel says they&039;re reprints from Pre-Ap times And they&039;re really cool Is that okay?"
"If Sennabel says they&039;re appropriate for your age, sure" I stood, tucking the e-e would need it someday If the library and the books survived whatever was co to Mineral City
On the way out, I tucked the thin voluloves "Thank you," I said "If you would like to co, we could have tea or coffee That is, if you live close enough for me to walk you home after"
"I&039;ll be there," the plu with pleasure "Tea would be lovely I&039;ll bring shortbread cookies and some strawberry preserves I put up last su it, as I followed Ciana out and into the street Together alked to Thorn&039;s Gehter curled up in a corner to work on her report, and I went to work filling Internet orders From the nook beneath the stairs, I heard the far-off cry of the lynx Hunting? A warning forin hout the day as blizzard-strength winds blew in and back out Disputatious, the stor farther south than expected As blizzards went, this one was a bust for Mineral City, but heavy clouds re onto housetops, turning the town diht was falling, Sennabel opened the door with a jaunty clanging of the bells overhead and peeked inside She was dressed in a bright blue cape, a red tunic, and leggings Her hair had been freshly washed and plaited, coiled into a crown Hanging prolass beads with a focal stone of pale green agate carved into a turtle It wasn&039;t expensive, but it had been crafted and sold in the shop Over her arm she carried a covered basket that smelled of cinnamon, yeast, and honey Sennabel had clearly left the library hours earlier and gone hoether, it was a public affirmation of me A luone into planning for what had been, to nificant visit I felt dowdy and callous and ill-prepared All I had done was otten out the good china and the silver spoons Audric had dead-mined from his claim, and some starched and ironed linen napkins
Behind Sennabel came Polly, the elder&039;s wife, equally stylish and well dressed, wearing full skirts and a Thorn&039;s Gehted at ht another - "
The displaybeside her shattered Instinctively, I covered lass shot in An explosion sounded outside Screah the open door and e sounded "Spawn! Devil-spawn! To arms!"
With an expression of disbelief, Sennabel touched her face Blood trickled on one cheek, and she stared at her hand in confusion Polly fell, buripped her waist, its teeth buried beneath her breast Mage-fast, I grabbed Sennabel and spun her inside, out of the way As she was falling to the floor of the shop, cape swirling wide, I pulled the tanto froht sleeve and raised it over Polly With three fast cuts, I severed the spawn&039;s head from its body For an instant, its eyes rolled up and looked at ht Belatedly, Polly screa stick from the umbrella stand at the door
The stench of sulfur filled the shop A ht flicked on, and ht I reached for my amulets but san attack a man in the street, his body a silhouette on the snow First, I had to get outside
"Audric!" I shouted, whipping the blade fro stick sheath I slammed and locked the door to the shop and whirled to the brokenFour spawn, their naked ray froered hands ripping out broken glass to es, black in the evening light Rows of razor teeth snapped, their reddish bodies writhing I dropped the sheath and beheaded two, slicing the arms from another A dozen led in
At the top of the stairs I heard Audric&039;s battle cry, "Raziel! By blood and fire!"
Theof the door cracked and shattered Spawn crawled through the new opening Claws scrabbled on the porch above the door, on my porch Behind me, Polly&039;s screaet it off get it off!"
A fleeting look showed her peeling at the spawn&039;s head, their blood ory rush Jacey and Sennabel were bent over her Ciana peeked around the opening beneath the stairs She had been researching online I sliced and cut, taking down half asme the marble sphere from beside my bed!" In a flash she raced around the corner and up the stairs Her seraph a her, Audric and Rupert ran from the stairwell, swords drawn, and scythed into the pack rushing in
A horde converged on the broken s Ti in apparent slow-nant water blew in, for a single breath overriding the spawn stench of sulfur and brimstone Outside, aa spaith a long-bladed knife Another spawn rushed fro its teeth in his neck Froh the top of the beast&039;s head to its spine It fell, shuddering like an insect A second twisting sword thrust decapitated it Eli stood over the injuredfluid over him fro And then spaere inside
Audric and Rupert took up positions to ht, Rupert at the door with its broken , Audric eight feet fro in front of Jacey and my visitors
I spun into the swan, the move flashy, used to cut multiple opponents at once Five spawn fell to the floor My feet slid in bloodyI kicked spawn bodies to the side I wasn&039;t wearing battle boots The leather ofto the wood floor with each step The black blood ate throughof the acid blood If I lived, I&039;d heal
In the street, soht, leaving the is and an arathering night, dead huether
Ciana shouted, "Thorn Here" Underhanded, she tossed the sphere It lifted frohts overhead I stabbed the tanto into the body of a squir spawn and reached up, over my head, to catch the sphere
"Outside," I said to Audric He leaped over the opening in theRupert sprinted through the broken glass of the door "Behead the spawn Then stay put," I shouted to the wo the tanto from a lifeless body "You too," I said to Ciana
Two strides tookbeside and behind Audric The snow cooled h ht vision sharpened I opened the ward stored in the sphere Instantly, the entire building caht Spawn screamed and plu me I hadn&039;t expected residual power to cross them "Nice," Audric said as he and Rupert whacked at spawn "Too bad you can&039;t do the whole town"
"Yeah," I agreed, sucking in deep breaths and stretching, preparing while I could
South of us, across the street, spawn crawled through broken s into shops People screah spawn are hard to kill with bullets, humans often resort to theht and doind, Thadd and the assey Durbarge stood together in the night, hacking a six-foot-long beast, so that looked part centipede, part wolf Three woly calm
Odors of sulfur and brimstone were interspersed with theflowers, scents re Looking fast, I scanned the street upwind and sao on a door In every particular she was huusted on the frozen wind and the fact that she was naked beneath a sheer gown In ht she looked like a la on her face
I knew her Jane Hilton The wo her clothes, she reached in for the man He touched her breasts Fell on her Feathers and fire A succubus At another house, a second succubus knocked on the door It too opened, and inside a ht; the woman to keep him inside, the man to reach the beast who called to him She too looked like Jane
I scanned the three woe They were succubi as well, but were visually different froht fell across thees, they looked just like me Except they were voluptuous, like sex toys made for a man&039;s erotic dreams, and they had no scars
As I watched, Thadd dispatched the thing he fought, cutting it in half Spinning, his seraph ring spitting sparks, he attacked the nearest succubus, slicing her across her huge breasts She squealed and raised her arms in defense, the sound of an animal in pain Thadd wouldn&039;t confuse us Not a kylen But the s of the fa into parse the scents A spawn attached itself toit The se for a ue
A shadow fro a body, catching on bone with a jar I felt to s went one way, the torso the other It would have landed on Rupert&039;s shoulders and bitten into his neck before he could respond None of us were dressed for battle and, like ht three un All I could see of the weapon was a two-foot-long, inch-wide barrel with a bag strapped beneath his arm He beheaded a spaith the blade, turned, and fired When he pulled the trigger , a cloud shot out the barrel, ignited by a spark It was a one-handed flamethrower, but the flames it shot weren&039;t ordinary fire Spawn liked fire, dancing in rings of it at Dark Feasts But with this fire they screa spawn, I s
Just beyond Eli, Zeddy fought in front of Jacey&039;s door, bleeding froht froht on one heel, I twisted toward him, an instability inthe sword to block, I reached for a throwing blade, ht on the sheath strap, altering the doardknife and the tanto into the snow Almost in slow ht atspawn, taking off a hand and part of a head in a fountain of blood My face and neck burned where it splattered My hands, coated with spawn blood, were blistered, but I felt nothing They were numb The spawn fell back I saw Zeddy fall Spaarmed over him "Zeddy!" My voice sounded thready,knife, I stuh I looked down as a spawn claw, three-fingered and venos and sopped the torn fabric Acid pain burned inward fro a chunk of my flesh with it
"Need help?" Eli took the third spaith a gout of fla the way he danced, with fluid grace I pointed at Zeddy, and Eli called to anther ht, who sprinted over to Jacey&039;s stepson
I pulledthem by the hilts in one hand, the blades opposite one another, one pointing forward, one back I had dropped the walking stick sheath in the shop, abandoning it for the tanto Noung the , as the knives weren&039;t ht on the fabric of my tunic I sobbed once in frustration