XVI
Celesse and Tony stood back-to-back as a cluster of Magic Eaters slithered toward them.
“Got a grimoire?” Tony asked.
“I-I can’t cast,” Celesse said. “I’m mostly human.”
“Damn.”
He was drenched. He had cast a wind spell to blow the monsters away, but it had been a poor choice. They came back in bigger numbers than before, and the blowback from the spell had knocked Tony in the water.
Celesse glanced back at the white claw. The magical force field was still glowing.
She wished she could call Lucan.
As the monsters groaned and slid toward them, sickening the air with a rotten, fetid smell, she gripped the stake and swung it.
Nothing. They kept coming.
A Magic Eater jumped into the air. She screamed and put her hands in front of her face.
But the beast didn’t land on her.
It l
