Shadow Duel (Prof Croft Book 9) by Brad Magnarella

Author:Brad Magnarella [Magnarella, Brad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Croftverse Press
Published: 2021-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

23

“Respingere!” I shouted.

The force from my shielded body knocked the Cerberus off course. But a paw, more lion’s than canine’s, raked me, leaving trenches of pain down the slats of my ribs. I reeled, an elbow pinned to my side. The Cerberus stalked around me. As if anticipating my plan, he placed himself between me and the Hudson.

“Who the fuck are you?” I growled.

“We could ask you the same,” the middle head said. “You’re out of your league, Everson Croft. You’re standing between armies, and you don’t even know it. Leave it alone.”

The Doideag’s words returned to me. If ye should fail and war should come…

But I was also thinking about the scrying spell. A couple times, Bear had noted an odd shine in Victor Cole’s eyes, and I remembered his prodigious strength when he’d lifted Bear from the car.

That hadn’t been Victor Cole.

“You’re the one who drove Bear Goldburn to the body shop. Hacked out his kidneys.”

“I drove him to the body shop, yes.”

“So who did the hacking?”

“The one I serve.”

“And who’s that?”

The Cerberus barked a laugh. “What was it that killed the cat? Oh, yes. Curiosity.”

His eyes narrowed suddenly, and he lunged. I swung my sword, shouting the banishment Word. Light flashed from the inscribed rune as the blade cleaved the Cerberus’s leading neck. He roared in agony, but a trailing head seized my leg. Pain speared the muscles of my thigh as I was lifted and flung. My shield blunted the impact against a building, but I landed hard, brain rattling in my skull.

Heavy pads pounded toward me as I pushed myself up. Though the streetscape had gone blurry, I could see the Cerberus incoming. His right head, the one whose neck I’d banish-cleaved, was flopping like a wet noodle.

I’d debilitated him.

I dug out my remaining salt and sent it flying. The Cerberus reared, squinting from the flames that broke across his faces. I ducked around and swung my blade, activating the banishment rune a second time as it disappeared into the left neck. I followed with a staff thrust to the shifter’s chest. A force bolt from the opal end shoved him away before he could grab me.

When we faced off again, two of his heads were lolling. I wasn’t in much better shape. A cut high on my brow was sending blood dribbling into my right eye; my ribs and right knee were throbbing; and my left thigh, where the Cerberus had grabbed me, was swelling to tire-like proportions.

I was also exhausted. The fact that Thelonious, my incubus spirit, was still too weak to claim me was little consolation. Only adrenaline was keeping me upright, and that wasn’t going to last.

Just one head left to disable.

The Cerberus narrowed his angry, calculating eyes. The shifter recognized the danger, but he was also under orders to take me out. One of his limp heads struggled up weakly, then collapsed again.

“What’s wrong?” I panted. “Necktile dysfunction?”

The goading was deliberate. I was trying to bring the creature into another careless charge.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.