Page 46 of Crimson Skies

“Even if I were to reveal their location to you, you wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

The warlocks stilled at his words. Obsidian filled the whites of their eyes. Elios’s corruption exploded around them on a silent wave that wrapped them in throbbing clouds of shadows.

Bile flooded the back of Theo’s throat. It was as if the God of Darkness was looking at him from the men’s bodies.

Strickland wheezed, face slowly turning purple.

It’s now or never!

Theo moved, the Spear of Light brightening the grounds and the facade of the high rise as he called on its power. An otherworldly energy fluttered against his senses in the next instant. His pulse stuttered.

Dozens of rifts tore open above him as he halted in his tracks. The smell of camphor suffused the air when an army of spectral forms stepped out of them.

Two figures blurred behind the warlocks.

“You stink of his power, humans.”

The Reaper God decapitated the men with a single swing of his scythe.

Mortis caught the director before their heads hit the ground.

The warlocks’ skulls bounced and rolled. One of them collided with Theo’s left foot with a soft thump. A shout had him spinning around from the ghastly sight.

Adrianne was running across the parking lot with Lucy Walters, Argonaut’s chief medical mage. Cars squealed into view around the perimeter as more agents arrived.

Theo hurriedly retraced his steps, his heart racing with dread.

“How is he?!” he asked Loki and Charlie tensely where they tended to Bailey.

“I’m okay.” Perspiration beaded Bailey’s face as he flashed a weak smile his way. “But I’m pretty sure I lost a kidney.”

Charlie’s eyes gleamed wetly while he staunched the bleeding in the wizard’s left flank. “Shame you didn’t lose your shitty sense of humor!”

Adrianne arrived and fell on her knees beside them. “Bailey!”

Horror drained the color from her face when she saw the wizard’s wound. Fat tears welled in her eyes and coursed down her cheeks.

“It’s not that bad, babe,” Bailey protested.

Lucy hunched down beside them, her expression pinched. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

Magic flared on her hands. Charlie moved so she could stem the wizard’s bleeding.

Heat throbbed through Theo’s core. He turned and searched the sky with his gaze. Metal glinted to the north.

The armored demigods racing toward them at prodigious speed landed on the ground with a violent gust of wind seconds later.

Alarm tightened Morgan’s face when he caught sight of Bailey. “Dammit! Is he—?!”

“He’s gonna be fine.” Relief colored Lucy’s voice. “I’ve stopped the bleeding for now.”

“He is not near Death’s door yet,” the Reaper God ascertained as he joined them, Mortis supporting a limping Strickland at his side.

Everyone sagged.

“Glad to hear it,” Bailey mumbled. “Even more so when it’s coming from, you know, Death.”

Adrianne grasped his hand tightly. “Shut up, you idiot.”