actually 2.5 stars. this book was unremarkable. not too bad but also not that good.
question: if nix was a conjurer, why can't she just conjure money?
Recap:
Del and Claire was out hunting Telenec demon who ate the mayor so the Order told Claire to kill it while Del wanted its telekinetic power. The demon went to a gambling den and there, Del saw Caden, Roarke's criminal brother who was also half-demon. when Caden saw her, he immediately ran, using his new power to teleport. but Del's objective was to kill the demon so she let him go and stole the demon's power. Roarke and Aidan had been looking for information about Caden and found out that he had a hideout in Florida and he would brought dampening charm and freezing potion to capture him. so they went through the swamp of Florida, riding on a boat, met THE bigfoot (del got kidnapped) and arrived at a town where supernatural bad guys holed up together.
they went to a guy named Willy to find more information about Caden. Willy told them where to find him and they went to Caden's house. Nix came in first in phantom form but it seemed that he could sensed her and attacked her. he could hurt her in her phantom form (like he was transferring some dark magic) and he made her phantom for a bit gray but she easily got rid of him and immobilized him with one of the potion.
but he easily recovered. caden and roarke got into a fist fight while del quickly made a shackle. when they were about to leave, the town people tried to stopped them and attacked them. but the friendly gators helped them along with the incoming skunk ape (the bigfoot's name?), they easily escaped and went to roarke's house to meet with del's sister along with the blood mage sister.
Mordaca and Aerdeca said that Caden was cursed, he was forced to do things by whoever put the curse. also, the curse was decaying and the more he fought it, the faster it decayed and eventually kill him. he also transferred some of the curse to Del and if she didn't get a cure, she'd be like him. but the cure was somewhere in a society of half-phantom called the Incate that already extinct in Andes mountains. fortunately, Del had the power to bring back the past. and they found out that these people like a rare obsidion in red or green.
they left the next day to Peru, pay 10 grand for a boat and llama, journeying through the plane full of reed monster that couldn't be killed, meet another guide, hike up the mountain full of stone path traps, arrived to the Incate's settlement, drunk the translation potion from connor, and brought back the past. everyone there was in phantom form. they easily traded with the healer (she said if the victim wasn't a phantom, they only need to drink it while a phantom needed to kill its caster).
when they were about to leave (cliche time), the healer's husband threw them a sedative and captured them, brought them to the emperor and planned to sacrifice them. fortunately, Del still got her phone and the communication charm and called her. but the jailer saw her and knocked her out. she woke up ready to be sacrificed. but cass and friends immediately swooped in to save them. they gave the potion to Caden (now Cade) and he said that he didn't mean anything bad he did, it was all under the influence of the Shadow and yes, the Shadow indeed meant to cursed Del and use her to open a portal on Earth to unleashed all the evil demons. there used to be six shadows but Del killed one of them so there was 5 more to kill.
But Del still couldn't drink the potion (of course she didn't want to kill Cade), so in desperate attempt to control her fate, she asked Claire for mercenary job, and together they hunted 6 demons the next day. Del ended up with two new power, sounds and weather but Del was in this crazy addicted state so Nix and Cass had to interfere before she went mad.
the next day, Del, Roarke, Cass, Aidan, Nix, Claire, Connor, and Cade went to Egypt (wow, that's a correct capitalization there), to find the 'lost city' Zerzura. they were riding camels when 2 giant snakes made of sands appeared. Del easily got rid of them using her weather power, making rain, so they were puddle and the continued to trudge through the desert. it was getting hotter the nearer they were to Zerzura until they finally arrive. but the portal couldn't be opened except if they lit fire, easily done, and they teleported to the Underworld, right to the Shadows' headquarter.
it was not easy, they almost fell to lava and fought 50 winged demons. when they almost killed all the winged demons, the shadow came and threw them a freezing spell and a demon infantry came and took them inside the castle, to the library to be exact. the shadow came, put the video of her past live with her mom about how she would destroy the world (and she agreed) on repeat and try to manipulate her into compliance. she pretended to agree and fell under the Shadow's influence but it ordered her to be taken to the 'chamber' instead. on the way to the chamber, she asked for Pondflower's help, killed her demon guards and seek her friends.
but another Shadow interfered. this one had electricity power (the previous one could immobilize her). with Pondflower's assistance, they manage to (probably) kill it. she went to the dungeon only to be captured by the Shadows again and this time, one of them could control her. she told pondflower to leave when one of the Shadow harmed her but she returned so Del asked her to save the others.
the Shadows took her to a room where there was a machine that could enhanced Del's magic to ruin the barrier between Earth and Underworld. Del couldn't fight the Shadow's command so she had no choice but to make the portal and demon could slipped through, but it took times. The Shadows said that it'd get faster overtime with the machine speed it up.
while the shadows was in ecstasy, Del tried to escape but the Shadow noticed her and commanded her to stop. at that time, Pondflower and friends came but so did the demons. they kept on coming so they decided to fight another day but not before Del attempted to destroy the machine. the dragon phantoms, all 4 of them, came to guard her so she could freeze the machine (it was ridiculous, the Shadows did nothing while she meddled with their machine! SERIOUSLY?!) and after Roarke took one of the stone that empowered it, she destroyed the machine (but not the portal) and they left.
the next day, Del practiced closing the portal with the one on the stronghold where she grew up. she only managed to close half of it but it was progress. now, they only need to find the portal she made on, stopped demons from overflowing into Earth, and kill 3 more Shadows (huh, they were so easily killed).