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“All those decades of slus that we’ve seen, little sheep Let us show you”

The circle in the sky began to spin, as the clouds around it grew red to ic Then a line appeared in the center of it, bisecting the circle into two halves My heart seized with terror as the line split apart to reveal a bright yellow pool, a slit of black at its center The slit swiveled around, rolling, until it found the thirteen witches far below, until it found us

I held reat eye blinked once more

Chapter 27

The thing in the sky was the size of a stadium, its horrible, sl

itted pupil flitting about, a grotesque re er There was no way in hell that anyone within nore its presence You don’t look up in the sky, shrug, and go back to binge-watch TV shows after you see theback at you from the heavens

The Lorica was going to have a hell of a tih Mouths on hand to wipe the memories of that many civilians

Theconcern, of course, hether any of those civilians were going to survive the night Whoever – whatever that thing in the sky was, there was no question that it was su the world Agatha’s laughter reverberated from thirteen equidistant points around us, like we needed another re

I hurled a fireball at the closest witch, pouring as much of my spirit as I could into the flames, It only snuffed out before it even made contact with her body The thirteen were shielded, either by their own ift of their insane masters Still, I knew that the key was to deactivate the the doorway open for the Eldest, one corner of the thirteen-sided gate that gave thee between dimensions

“Where the hell are the others?” I said,around the hilltop, barely able to see through the hellish green fire that Mammon had left behind

Asher fu mystic symbols with the other as he called out more spikes of bone from within the earth At one point, exactly thirteen of theround to strike at the witches, a feat of arcane power that would have made even Carver swoon But they only shattered before they could make impact

Calling on the Vest horrors Every one of his spears splintered into pieces, then vanished into wisps of gold, returning bent and broken to the armories of heaven I fired balls of fla harder and harder at how the Dark Rooathas We were just flies to her, worthless little insects

The flash of black and silver streaking towards another of the Agathas gave me some hope This had worked before, both Gil in his olf forether to break Agatha’s shield Both claws and katana struck the air just around her, sending up a shower of sparks – but nothing Either Agatha was on to their trick, or there was a greater source powering her protections Likely both Sterling and Gil landed lightly in the grass, totally ignored by the witches

But the gap in the sky was growing larger, and now the Agathas had lifted their arues as ic leaked fro rift I cast more fireballs as Asher sum had happened, uncaring

They didn’t even react when the first of several snowflakes drifted out of the sky – when that gentle, ic was followed by a terrifying hail of icicles I fell to the ground, taking Asher withand Gil – returned to human form, thank God – rushed for shelter