Page 59 of Stormbringer (Tracthesian Academy #1)

H ellion hoped he could say he was surprised, but he really wasn’t. The moment he had seen Tharrexeus’s name on the guest list, he had expected something underhanded. Really, his sending Wayla to undermine him would have made so much more sense than the straightforward attack they got.

Sure, they had the numbers, but still, did he really think he could win on Hellion’s home turf? Or did he not realize that Tracthesian Academy was more his home than hell ever had been?

Or maybe the bastard did. If Hellion didn’t care about this place, he could have leveled it all with pure power and Tharrexeus’s troops with it. Now he resorted to using precision attacks and shielding innocent bystanders.

Hazard watched his back as always, leaving Hellion free to attack. It was when the first natural fireball flew his way that Hellion felt a twinge of unease. Fire clans had nothing to do with Hell Realm power bids. At least they shouldn’t.

More fire, mixed with wind and fae magic.

Fuck. He tried to see where all of that was coming from, but the ballroom was packed with too many bodies. He needed Xuan here to counteract the fae magic twisting things around.

Yash would be helpful, too, if they were deploying illusions to confuse him. Whose moronic idea had it been to separate the group for this? Oh yeah, his—because he hadn’t taken things seriously. Hopefully, Jarred would be safe and fine, off campus.

The fight seemed to grind to a standstill. He couldn’t push them out with just Hazard’s help, and they couldn’t push in. Fantastic. Now it was a waiting game to see which side got reinforcements first.

The answer came seconds later in the form of Grant blasting in from the side door with Marc on his heels. They worked together even better than Hellion and Hazard and wasted no time making their way toward him.

Hellion prepared for the next push when the air behind him shimmered and Sinister stepped through. He looked frantically around, sighed in relief, then cursed and stepped back, before Hellion had time to react.

Apparently, he didn’t think this situation was dire enough to warrant his presence, and he was probably right. Still, Hellion frowned. This wasn’t as straightforward as he had thought, and it burned him that he didn’t have everything figured out.

Sinister appeared again, this time looking furious. “Fuck. I can’t get through to her.”

“What? Who?”

“Wayla. When I get my hands on that little—”

“What?” Hellion roared. But Sinister wasn’t listening. He opened a portal and stepped through again. Hellion reached out and tried to grab his arm, but missed, and in a second Sinister was back. He was deathly pale.

“Hellion,” he whispered so low that he only read that on his lips.

“What is it?” They really didn’t have time to discuss in the middle of a battle. That was the first thing Grant had pounded into all of them. Fight first, talk later. He could see him and Marc making a dent in one side of the room, slowly working closer.

There were a lot of unconscious bodies around and a lot of wounded, but no dead. This was Tracthesian ground after all. Some things were sacred, even in underhanded attacks.

“I can’t get through to her. I need a power boost!” Sinister pulled himself together. Hellion blasted back a group rushing them.

“What?”

“I. Need. Power!” Sinister shouted. It still didn’t make any sense to Hellion. Power for what? Sinister was the strongest portalist he knew. Why couldn’t he… Never mind, they could debate that later. Hellion held out his hand, and Sinister grasped it.

“Hazard, cover us!”

Hellion pulled on all the hell’s power leaking through, thanks to Hell Moon, and channeled it to Sinister. When they linked, he could feel how low he was, and he was healing from some injuries. What had happened to wound him? And where was Zahir?

Like he was reading Hellion’s mind, Sinister replied while pulling in power as much and as fast as he could. “Ilijas has Zahir. He’s out cold, but should recover. We got jumped during the tour.” Then he took a second and glanced over at Marc. “We got too complacent.”

Hellion felt a rumble grow in his stomach and let go of Sinister, who nodded. “I’ll try to breach back to Wayla and get her out.”

“Out of where?” Hellion roared and attacked with a wall of hellfire, not caring about casualties anymore.

“From the group that attacked us. That little… shit… covered for me to get Zahir out of there and stayed behind. Alone.” Sinister was already opening a portal and stepping through when what he had said registered to Hellion.

Wayla was out there. Alone.

The blast of fury that flashed out from him cleared the way for Marc and Grant.

They needed to get out of here. Fuck Tharrexeus for picking Tracthesian Academy for this battle.

If Wayla was harmed, he would hunt down every one of his accomplices and burn them to ash, no matter who they were or on what ground they stood.