“They plan to summon demons to attack Alden, then they’ll eject him to the underworld along with the demons,” Darin told him.

“That is insane. Demons cannot be controlled,” said Kai.

“They think they can control them,” Edric replied.

“No. They can’t.” Sera thought back to her experience with the demon Arkan. She’d barely managed to send it back to hell, and that had been just one demon. How many would the Council manage to summon to the earth?

“The Council has crossed the line,” Kai stated.

His voice echoed throughout the base, carried along by his magic. Everyone stopped and turned to listen. People looked down from every level.

“The Magic Council plans to make a deal with the demons of hell,” Kai continued. “They refused to ally with us because of Sera. They think she is an abomination. She’s not. She’s a protector, someone who has always stood up for those plagued by monsters.”

He took her hand as Alex took the other.

“Sera sent Arkan back to hell where he belongs,” Kai said. “And now the Council wants to open the floodgates. They want to let the demons out. In their arrogance, they think they can control the demons. It’s the same mistake every person who has ever summoned a demon has made. They should know better.”

People were nodding.

“The Council is fracturing, just like Alden wanted,” he told them. “But Alden didn’t take into account the bonds that hold us together. Friendship, compassion, unity, love.”

He, Sera, and Alex lifted their hands into the air.

“The new Council knows only death and devastation. Only power. They have no honor, no code,” he growled in disgust. “And they have pushed us into the shadows. They call us traitors. I say they are the traitors. They have sworn to protect us all, and they are inviting demons into this world. It is up to us to stop them.”

Kai turned to the Kensington brothers. “Do you know where the Council will make their move?”

“Yes,” Darin said. “Tonight at the Fairy Dust Casino.”

“Then we don’t have much time. Gear up,” he called out to everyone. “We’re going to crash the party.”

* * *

As expected, Kai didn’t want Sera to come along, but this time she wasn’t giving him a choice. He needed her to eject the demons. Alex could do it too, but she was only one person, and the Council planned to summon many demons. Even Sera and Alex together probably wouldn’t be enough to stop them. Kai had tried to call Naomi, but he couldn’t get hold of her. And they didn’t have any other Spirit Warriors.

Kai’s attack force, a team of fifty people, stood outside the Fairy Dust Casino. The place was run by a fairy family with a seat on the Magic Council. Pink and purple flashing signs—made with magic, not technology—pulsed out the casino’s name across the front of the grand fairytale palace. The path to the entrance was paved with gold bridges that arched over pink glittery water. No one could accuse these fairies of being subtle.

Kai led the way through the gem-studded front doors. The inside of the casino was awash with color and magic. The carpets shone the color of rubies, the walls were painted in gold and pearl tones. As they passed one of the glistening machines, big magic sparkles streamed out of the top like fireworks. Pink and purple fish swam in lazy loops along the surface of the indoor ponds.

Sera glanced at the elegantly dressed people at the tables. Her group was noticeably out of place in their black leather getups. There was no time to fool around with disguises and secret identities.

Guards stood in front of four artistically-crafted doors. They looked more like entrances into a castle’s treasure vaults than the elevator doors that they were. The commandos made short work of the guards, then Kai waved everyone forward. Behind them, the casino’s patrons had temporarily abandoned their gambling to snap photos of the attack squad in black. Sera turned away from the blinding wall of firing flashes.

The inside of the elevator Sera entered was every bit as extravagant as the outside. A master artist had painted every wall with supernatural scenes. Mages and fairies smiled at her from the sunny side of the painting, while vampires and ghosts stalked the night side.

As soon as all the elevators were full, they descended into the basement together. According to the Kensington brothers, that’s where the Council would try to summon the demons.

As the elevator doors parted, Sera caught the first whiff of a few familiar magical herbs: Crushed Velvet, Sunshine Leaf, and Cream of the Abyss. When combined, they could be used to summon a demon. The Cream of the Abyss, less innocuous than the other two, wasn’t easy to come by. It was highly regulated— regulated by the Magic Council, that was. Well, when you were the ones making the rules, you could break them whenever it suited you. Damn hypocrites.

Sera coughed, trying not to gag on the stench. Separately, each of the drugs had a pleasant smell, but together, just below the falsely seductive perfume, they reeked of demon. Dread churned in Sera’s stomach as Kai’s forces closed in around the smaller group of Magic Council members.

“Kai,” sighed one of them, an old man with a glossy head. “You shouldn’t have come.”

“When I heard what you planned to do, how could I not come?” Kai shot back. “Demons. You want to summon demons. And not just one of them. As many as will answer your call. Have you all lost your minds?”

The Council members shifted uneasily. A few of them looked at their feet, but even more met Kai’s accusatory glare with defiance.