Page 54 (1/2)

Horrific screeches cale itself froems of the chandeliers while fire roared around it

I turned back to Shelton A constant roar of pain ripped fros as he tried vainly to free his father froer’s eyes ide and his face dark red He grabbed Shelton’s hands, and gave hi, and somoment He pulled his son’s hands free of the blob, and shook his head

I reotten one My eyes locked on the wires dangling froed on theher!" I yelled

Shelton tilted his struggling father’s torso higher Wasting no ti whitehappened My eyes flicked to the other chandelier in the office, and I saith horror the light was off I must have short-circuited the outlet I re aether--ic didn’t affect Flarks

I roared with frustration "I’ly sad

Dark purple er’s face His eyes flashed wide A final spaser, the Arcanus Primus and Shelton’s father, was dead

Chapter 39

"No!" Shelton roared, face suffused with absolute fury

"Oh, is he dead? So sorry," said Bigglesworth, now free of the fire but slightly smaller than he had been before He cavorted from one foot to the other "Now it’s your turn, boy"

Shelton whirled, grabbed his father’s staff in his other hand, and slaainst the floor at the sanited the ends of both staffs with seething orange light He offered the Flark a sht have terrified any mortal "Go to hell, you sorry sack of pus" He aimed the staffs at the creature

"You can’t hurt

"Wanna bet?" Shelton flicked the aih and low, and shouted a word Shafts of rippling light plowed into the ceiling and floor The rooainstto life around Shelton before I felt h open air, and after a brief second of terror, sht in the dirt and flippedround nearby, unscathed from what I could tell He still had both staffs in hand, and planted the suns of death the size of his head for, and unleashed the like boulders, and charring everything in their path Whatever they burned only seeer They plowed through the house like round

"Shelton, there ht be other people in there!" I said Even as I shouted, I saw gole from brass bodies

The house blazed like a funeral pyre, not only for Jarrod Sager, but also--or so I hoped--for Bigglesworth I watched the house burn in amazed silence, stunned by the raer exhibited by Shelton The Arcane dropped to his knees, sluround I rushed to hiht of drinking I could only iine the amount of power he’d thrown into those spells of his He had to be beyond exhausted

I snapped the two staffs back to co Shelton overeyes regarding ht, but I had to go back through the nightmare forest to leave this place The brilliant fire from the house did little to illuminate whatever horrors waited inside that place

"Murder!" someone shouted, and I turned to see the e from a pond on this side of the woods

I looked around, as if they were talking to someone else, saw no one else to blame, and turned back to face them "It wasn’t us!" I shouted, lesworth"

"We saw the wizard destroy the house with our own eyes!" the woman said

"But he tells the truth," the man replied

"He is Daemos They can hide the truth," the woht, my love Children, take them"