She gagged, rolled to her feet, continued on past him, and only paused to look back when his shrieks took on an entirely new level of pain.

One of the two demons that had been attacking Stev had turned away from him, thrown itself at the downed Mage, and—

—“eviscerated” was too mild a word for what the demon was doing to the Karsite. Blood and bits of flesh and organ flew everywhere, and within moments, the Mage stopped screaming, and that demon, too, vanished with a pop.

She gagged again, but there was no time to be sick. Things could turn against them again as quickly as they had turned in their favor.

She pivoted to look for the third Mage that was left; he had just realized that his companions were down—but not necessarily what had happened to them. He flung a fireball at her and quickly realized his mistake when she batted it back at him with her dagger.

It skimmed past his head, neatly piercing the shield, landing behind him and setting a smoldering fire in the bracken. His eyes widened, he shouted another word—

—but never finished it, as Jicks’s dagger lodged in his throat. More blood spurted everywhere, but at least this time she wasn’t in range of it.

She dashed past Abi to snatch the dagger out of the body. This time there was no pop, and one of the demons was still following Jicks, ignoring Abi.

Jicks executed a move worthy of Master Leandro. She grabbed the dagger, turned the grab into a somersault, turned, and lunged at the demon with all her strength.

The demon bounced off her shield and into the wagon, which now had only rags of burning canvas on the supports. With a glance at Abi, Jicks turned and ran. Abi intuited what that glance had meant. While Jicks ran for the second Mage left, Abi pinned the demon between her shield and the wagon.

It ignored her and tried desperately to free itself to run after Jicks. When that didn’t work, it finally turned to her and howled at her. The terror drove her to her knees, but she clutched her dagger to her, and kept it pinned, until it, too, evaporated with a pop.

She turned just in time to see Stev literally chop the remaining demon in two as it hesitated between two targets. Its hesitation cost it. Jicks threw her dagger again (while inside Abi shrieked never throw away your weapon). This time it struck the Mage in his shoulder; he went down with a scream, and his shield vanished.

It’s over. Oh, gods, it’s over. And we lived.

Jicks went back to the last Mage she’d killed and began rummaging in his shirt.