The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) Brad Magnarella (ink book reader txt) 📖

scattered it in an arc and shouted, “Fuoco!” Flames exploded from the sand, engulfing tomes and creatures before settling into a high wall between us.

I really had to hurry now.

I dug into the sack, pulled out a wand, and aimed it at the glass pendant.

“Disfare!” I shouted. A burst of bright red energy emerged, enveloping the pendant. But when the energy dissipated, the glass faces remained intact. The pendant continued to pulse and scream.

I exhausted the wands and moved on to the maces and amulets, repeating the invocation. But though the magic in each enchanted item was powerful, none seemed to have any effect on the glass pendant.

C’mon, dammit, I thought, digging in the sack. It has to be one of you.

I squinted back at the flames. The fire was keeping the creatures at bay, but it would only be a matter of time before the commotion attracted Lich—unless, of course, he was already on the battlefield, claiming souls. I was tempted to tap into the collective, to check on them, but my father was right. My focus needed to be here. I reached into the sack again.

Only one item remained: the rusty dagger.

“Please, let it be you,” I whispered, and plunged the blunt blade against a glass face.

Something broke. The screaming stopped. Holy crap—it worked, I thought, my ears ringing in the sudden silence. But when I looked down, the pendant was intact, the glass not even scratched. It was the dagger that was in pieces.

“How unfortunate,” someone said.

I wheeled to find Lich standing on the far side of the room, his back to me. The flames had been extinguished. Several of the fish and slug creatures were on the ground, burnt to a smoking crisp. The rest were arrayed on either side of Lich in a defensive formation.

“Your collaborators were counting on you,” Lich said. “Now half of them are fallen while the rest hardly have strength enough to stand, including your father.” A cold wind blew through the narrow window he was peering out of, ruffling his robe and shuddering my sweat-soaked body. “I’ll harvest their souls in a moment, but first I want to make you an offer.”

I spiked the glass pendant against the floor and tried to smash it with my heel. I grunted with the effort, but it was like trying to crush a block of granite. The magic that protected it was too strong. I called up the syllables my grandfather had left on the vault wall.

“Gug-lugal-i!” But though I drove power through them, they did nothing.

“Come now,” Lich said, turning to face me. “There’s no point in carrying on like that.”

I looked up at him, my legs trembling with exhaustion and fear. As a last resort, I unsheathed my sword and stabbed the pendant. Lich watched me patiently, his gray, vein-mapped head canting to one side as though in pity. He signaled to his creatures to move away as he stepped between them.

“I understand your fear,” he said. “When I discovered the fissure to Dhuul, when I understood his desires, I was just as revolted as you are now. He whispered of returning the world to a primordial state, of feeding on the dissolution. Horrible, horrible images, Everson.”

“Yeah, so horrible that you’re helping them come true,” I said, giving the pendant another vain jab.

“Like I told you, his arrival was inevitable. One could either ignore that or come to the best terms possible. My siblings chose the former, leaving me to act as Dhuul’s lone diplomat. Not at all what I wanted.”

“Sure.”

“It was a Faustian bargain, Everson, I agree. I would help deliver Dhuul into the world in exchange for the Order being spared. Understand this, though. Once Dhuul feeds on the enormous release of energy, he will leave in search of other worlds. He will leave us to rebuild this world, to construct new order from the chaos. Don’t you see? The Order of Magi and Magical Beings will become a godhood, Everson. We will be the Creators, the life-givers.”

With Lich’s mind warped by centuries of Dhuul’s influence, I could only imagine the nightmare world he would bring about. I peered at the horrid creatures on either side of him.

“The souls you believe I’ve sacrificed,” he said, gesturing toward the window, “they suffer now, yes, but they will soon know power they never thought possible. And all because I was willing to look on the horrible being Dhuul, and where others saw dissolution and death, I saw opportunity.”

“Opportunity for yourself.”

“For the Order,” he insisted. “The only entity I have ever truly served.”

“Bullshit.” I aimed the sword at him.

“I understand the enmity you feel toward me,” he said, taking another step forward. “I did take your mother’s life. Nothing I say can, or should, lessen that in your mind. But do know that when I entered the Refuge, it was to make the same appeal to them as I’m making to you now. They were only stalling the inevitable and, in doing so, prolonging the agony of the souls toiling below. The members of the Front attacked me, and I fought back.”

“And lives were lost, yeah, yeah, yeah,” I interrupted, anger spiking through me. “Do you want to know what really happened? You were the runt of Saint Michael’s children. You didn’t get the powers you thought you deserved, and so you went looking for them. You found the fissure to Dhuul, a being that could only emerge into our world if someone helped him. He promised you power. You jumped at it. Period. End of story. All this talk of making the tough choice for the Order is horseshit. Dhuul probably didn’t have to convince you of anything, either. Didn’t even have to use Whisperer magic. He simply made the offer and then let your power-hungry little mind come up with the rationalizations all on its own. You killed your brothers and sisters. Murdered them. Let that sink in for a second.”

Lich’s brows crushed downward. “I could destroy you now, is