And then I realized someone was missing. I heard a cry on the wind and spun around. Gage stood on the top of the thick wall. One hand was wrapped around the thin neck of a huge winged demon. It kneeled at his side, and its wings drooped to the top of the wall, creating a low tent twenty feet across.
A wide smile lit up Gage’s face, and he gave me a cheerful wave. Gage had waited until we were all distracted to make his getaway.
“It’s time for me to make a graceful exit, but don’t worry, my love. We will see each other soon.” The demon at his feet stood up, wrapping its arms around him in an intimate embrace. The huge wings hammered the air, lifting Gage off of the wall and disappearing into the darkness. Only his laugh remained, hanging in the air long after he was gone.
As I watched the empty space where Gage had been, the rain suddenly let up and the dark clouds parted. Stars shone brightly in the night sky. Everything was suddenly still and silent after so much chaos, after so much carnage. I looked around me. The dead lay strewn across the roof, carpeting the stone—human bodies covered in blood alongside the gruesome hulks of creatures torn from childhood nightmares. I could hear the sound of weeping and looked over at Darla huddled down against the far wall.
I was still alive, which was a miracle in itself. I looked at my allies, my friends, who were gathered around me. Mildred, my one-time betrayer and many times my savior. Dean, my knight in shining armor, who might have been more if my heart had not already been taken. My gaze swung to Jamie, the sister I never had. My thoughts went to Wendy and her baby in the castle—poor damaged Wendy, who was somehow much stronger after her trials, if only she could keep her sanity. And then to Luke, the man I loved in any form.
We were a misfit group that had come together by horrid circumstance. We had survived so many things, had stayed strong through everything that happened, and through it all we had somehow become closer than friends. We became a family.
Luke came over to my side. He reached out and grabbed my hand. I realized I was no longer afraid. I didn’t know what the future held, there were dark days ahead of us, but together we would face them. We would gather more death dealers, gather as many of the mage-born as we could to fight beside us. Together we would hunt the demons down and send the creatures back to hell one by one. We would not rest until every last one of the evil beasts were destroyed. During the last war with the demons, mankind had prevailed. We would do so again.
We would battle, we would fight, and we would win.
THE END
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Acknowledgments
Thank you, Full Fathom Five Digital staff for finding the Dark Rituals series on Wattpad. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to make the books so much cooler than they were! I love working with you guys! And as always a big thanks to my editors, Kayla and Samantha. You guys helped make my stories shine and for that I will be forever grateful.
Blowing kisses to all my writing buddies: author Anara Bella, author Vanessa Jaye, and author Paige Holliman. You are troopers for reading through all four of these humongous books. And thanks to Carol Huffman, Summer Tate, and Megan Frerer, my beta readers.
Special thanks to author Gwenyfur Draigtanllwyth, a Celtic witch, for answering all my questions about what real herbs would work best with my made-up spells.
And thanks again to all my Wattpad readers. Thanks for loving, hating, and wanting to smack Colina upside the head. I hope you have enjoyed this crazy ride!
About the Author
Catrina Burgess writes because it helps keep the darkness away and reminds her that there is magic in the world. She lives with one husband, two dogs, and a cat named Shitty Kitty in a small mining town in Arizona. At night the place is definitely spooky. She swears that she often hears the wind giggle and sometimes feels a very odd breeze. Luckily, Cat loves all things that go bump in the night.
What’s Cat doing when she’s not writing? She turns into her alter ego, Chaoscat, the owner and operator of RomanceJunkies.com—a romance review site that’s been around since 2002.
Other than that, Cat adores old movies, is a huge Joss Whedon fan, and has been known to eat pizza and cold Chinese food for breakfast. She is the queen of the board game Stratego and has never been beaten. Never!
Connect with Cat online at:
Author website: www.catrinaburgess.com
Facebook: /authorcatrinaburgess
Twitter: @catrinaburgess1
Pinterest: /catrinaburgess5
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Full Fathom Five Digital is an imprint of Full Fathom Five
Legion
Copyright © 2016 by Catrina Burgess
All rights reserved.
No part of this text may be used or reproduced in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in review, without written permission from the publisher.
For information visit Full Fathom Five Digital, a division of Full Fathom Five LLC, at
www.fullfathomfive.com
Cover design by Fiona Jayde
ISBN 978-1-63370-086-4
First Edition
Legion Page 34