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“We have to lead him away from the beach,” I told Thea, Aerilyn, and Khalon. Then I started to run. “If we get far enough away from those lights, our magic should return.”

“You’re basing your whole strategy on a should?” Khalon growled, but he ran beside me anyway.

So did Thea. “Hey, it’s better than staying back on that beach,” she told him.

“Where we know our magic doesn’t work,” Aerilyn added.

A tree burst into flames in front of us, courtesy of Stash’s spell.

“Why is his magic working?” Khalon demanded, covering Thea from the falling ash and flames.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “Maybe it’s because the magic that’s cursed him—and given him these powers—is very old.” I dashed to the side just in time to avoid falling into the hole in the ground that Stash had made. “Very special.” I screeched to a stop when Stash landed in front of us, lit up like a shooting star. “And very powerful.”

Stash lifted his hands in the air, and his halo pulsed faster, brighter. He was building up for his ultimate demon-killing attack. I flicked my wrists, and magic sizzled on my fingertips.

“Bad news, coz,” I told Stash, giving my wrists a few more flicks. “My magic’s back.” A protective telekinetic bubble closed around me, Aerilyn, Thea, and Khalon.

“A shield?” Khalon scoffed. “When you should have made a sword!” A magical spark bounced back and forth between his hands, faster and faster, until it looked like a solid beam of lightning.

“Wait,” I said. “Don’t kill him.”

Stash’s magic slammed against my shield with a boom.

“Don’t kill him?” Khalon repeated, aghast. “He is trying to kill us.”

“He’s being controlled,” I said as Stash’s magic hit my shield again.

Tiny fissures formed in the translucent magic bubble, spreading and merging like lots of little streams combining into a big, raging river. My spell cracked like a sheet of ice, and then dissolved into a puff of smoke.

Khalon moved forward to confront Stash. “Take Thea and get away from here,” he told Aerilyn.

Thea rushed to his side. “I am not leaving you. Not again.”

“All three of you need to get out of here.” I grabbed them roughly, pulling them behind me. “If Stash’s magic touches you, it will kill you.”

“We did not come all the way here to run away now,” Aerilyn protested.

“Then don’t run away,” I told her. “Instead help Faris. He’s got his hands full protecting Grace and fighting Regin’s order.”

“Help a god?” Khalon said with a barely-restrained growl.

“Yes, because demons and gods are allies now,” I reminded him. “Unless you’d rather join your mother in Regin’s order?”

“I would sooner have that abomination kill me.” Khalon glowered at Stash for a moment before he, Aerilyn, and Thea ran back the way we’d come.

“Don’t listen to him,” I told my cursed cousin.

He tried to bypass me to run off in pursuit of the demons.

“No, none of that.” I cut him off. “It’s just you and me now, big guy.”

“Not quite,” Nero declared, closing in beside me.

“Hey, handsome.” I winked at him.

“How about you save the flirting for after the battle?” Damiel suggested.

Cadence snorted.