Isabelle made a horrified sound. She covered her mouth with a trembling hand, the color draining from her face. Simon clasped her shoulder, his own expression turning strained.

  “Look familiar?” Bryony asked in a brittle voice.

  “Shit,” Nikolai ground out.

  Tension knotted Mae’s shoulders. Brimstone joined her.

  The bodies in the pictures had the same appearance as Isabelle’s butler and housekeeper when they were found buried in shallow graves on her property, after she was kidnapped and held hostage by the Dark Council. Except there were dozens of corpses piled haphazardly atop one another on the scorched ground.

  Mae’s pulse raced as she tried to understand what they were looking at. Bryony’s next words sent a chill down her spine.

  “They are Dark Council members,” the older witch stated in a flat voice. “And they all died from injuries consistent with black magic.”

  Mae’s eyes rounded. “What?!”

  “We found the first…group twelve hours ago,” Abraham said sourly. “We’ve discovered three more since then.” A muscle ticked in the sorcerer’s jawline. “The crazy part is these witches and sorcerers aren’t even from around here, yet we keep finding their bodies in our territory.”

  “The only silver lining to this incident is that it hasn’t made the news headlines yet.” Bryony looked her age all of a sudden. “The bodies are turning up in areas of New York under the strict jurisdiction of our coven,” she explained wearily in the face of their stares. “I’ve had to inform the mayor of our findings and Jared is doing his best to keep things under wraps so no one in the NYPD leaks information to the press, but I don’t know how much longer we can keep this from the eyes of the ordinary public.”

  “Why would they kill their own?” Nadia said stiffly in the fraught silence.

  “Maybe it’s some kind of message,” a pale-faced Roman hazarded, his gaze locked on the macabre images.

  Nikolai went as still as stone at his words.

  “I think Roman is right,” he mumbled. He traced one of the figures in a photograph with a finger. “This wasn’t a normal fire. It looks like Hellfire Magic was used on them.”

  Alastair rustled his wings restlessly on his shoulder.

  Ice formed in Mae’s veins. “So, this is Vedran’s work?!”

  Nikolai met her anxious gaze and bobbed his head.

  “But how?” Derrick leveled a hard stare at Mae. “Wouldn’t you have picked up on the Sorcerer King’s presence if he was in the city?”

  Mae shared a wary glance with Nikolai. “Not if he’s using Void.”

  “The only way to cancel that spell is with pure white magic from a ley line,” Nikolai elaborated.

  “If he was in New York, he would have come after Mae,” Raven said dismissively. She lowered her brows. “More importantly, why is he killing his own sorcerers and witches?”

  Brimstone nosed at the photographs. He must be in need of their magic, my witch. It is the only logical explanation for him to sacrifice his army.

  A sour taste filled the back of Mae’s mouth.

  “Mae?” Nikolai asked worriedly.

  “Brim thinks he’s after their magic.”

  Another thought struck her then. Her stomach grew heavy with dread and guilt.

  Could it be that our attacks injured his core? And he needs his subordinates’ powers to heal himself?

  “Oh fuck,” Nikolai said hoarsely.

  The color had leached from the sorcerer’s skin, leaving him ashen. His crow familiar made a worried sound.

  “What is it?” Mae said tensely.

  “I think I know how he’s killing them,” Nikolai replied numbly. “And he doesn’t even have to be in New York to do it.”

  “What?!” Karin gasped.

  Blood pounded dully in Mae’s skull as the truth Nikolai had just grasped emerged from her subconscious.

  “The spell your father put on them,” she mumbled. “The one I erased from your core.” A dizzy feeling swept over Mae. “That’s how he’s killing them?!”

  “It has to be,” Nikolai murmured, his knuckles white.

  Derrick cursed.

  “How utterly evil,” Marlena mumbled.

  Mae swallowed. “He must need the black magic he put inside their cores to recover from the wounds Nikolai and I inflicted on him during our last battle.”

  Abraham drummed his fingers on his armrest. “It still doesn’t explain how or why he’s choosing to leave those men and women’s bodies here though.”

  “His black magic can open rifts.” Nikolai cut his eyes to Mae, his expression haunted. “As to why⁠—”

  He paused, his face darkening with disquiet.

  “It is a message,” Mae stated flatly. She scrutinized the photographs on the table. “He’s telling us we’re next.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Dammit!” Bryony cursed. “Does that mean he’s managed to find the soul of the first Sorcerer King?”

  “I doubt it,” Mae said grimly. “If he had, he would have come after us.”

  The study door opened before anyone else could speak. Violet and Miles Nolan came in ahead of Ephra Erwin. The Houston coven High Priestess appeared physically drained.

  Violet rocked to a stop when she clocked their bleak expressions.

  “What happened?” The witch grimaced. “Did someone die?”

  “Yeah,” Roman muttered.

  Violet recoiled. “Really?! It was a rhetorical question.”

  Ephra’s expression grew stilted when she saw the pictures on the coffee table.

  “I see you told them about the bodies,” she murmured to Bryony.

  “Where were you?” Mae asked Violet and Miles curiously. “And why does Ephra look like she needs a tonic?”

  Ephra gave her a jaundiced glance as she plopped down on the couch next to Karin. Karin passed her a sandwich.

  Violet and Miles exchanged a guarded look. “We were keeping watch while she tried to do something about that lynx.”

  Mae tensed.

  A muscle jumped in Nikolai’s jawline. “How is Drabek?”

  Ephra sighed. “Not great. She doesn’t eat and she barely sleeps. And her fur is shedding.” She glanced at Mae. “At this rate, it might be kinder to put her down.”

  Mae’s insides twisted.

  Oscar’s familiar had been driven mad by the Subjugate spell Nikolai had used on her and her sorcerer in Europe. Being abandoned by Oscar had only made things worse.

  Though Nikolai had trapped them inside a Contain spell, he’d discovered in the aftermath of their battle with the Dark Council that his brother had escaped it somehow. No one knew if Oscar had left voluntarily or been dragged away by Vedran against his will. Still, Mae was certain Oscar had been forced to leave his familiar. Despite the evil deeds he had committed, the sorcerer had clearly loved the lynx.

  Now that Drabek’s soul was free of black magic, the creature’s true nature had finally resurfaced. And she wasn’t the vicious animal she’d always appeared to be. Even in her madness, she never tried to harm anyone.

  Brimstone nudged her knee with his head. I know her circumstances trouble you, my witch. But it could not be helped.

  Mae clenched her fists. She couldn’t help the sorrow and pity she felt for the lynx’s wretched fate.

  “Where’s Gyuri?” Bryony asked.

  “She’s still down there,” Ephra said. “She’s having a break before she tries to calm her again.”

  Mae frowned. “Gyuri?”

  “Mrs. Son-Ha,” Bryony clarified.

  Mae blinked. “Mrs. Son-Ha is here?!”

  Koreatown’s number one gossip and busybody had turned out to be a powerful Shaman who’d been gifted a divine artifact by the archangel Camael. She’d used it to protect Mae, Nikolai, Vlad, and their friends when Anya Mendes’s Illusion Sorcery had turned the world of magic against them.

  “We asked her over to thank her after you left for Europe,” Bryony explained. “It was the least we could do.”

  “She and Bryony hit it off,” Abraham grunted. “The two of them are like peas in a pod.”

  Bryony narrowed her eyes slightly at that. “Being referred to as a pea in a pod hardly suits a lady of my age and station.”

  Raven smirked. “Better than a shrew in a castle.”

  Violet swallowed a snort. Marlena did her best to pacify Bryony while the witch glared at Raven.

  “What’s all this?” Miles said.

  He indicated the photographs on the coffee table uneasily. Abraham brought the cousins up to date on the latest developments.

  “Shit,” Miles mumbled, ashen faced.

  His boa constrictor Millie tightened anxiously around his waist.

  Violet frowned. “Does this mean the Sorcerer King will continue to taunt Mae with corpses until he’s ready to fight her?”

  No one knew the answer to that.

  “Say what you want about the guy, but he’s an expert at psychological warfare,” Gerard said darkly.

  A knock came at the study door. Abraham rose to get it.

  It was a witch. She glanced awkwardly at them before whispering something in his ear. The aide thanked her and closed the door, his expression troubled.

  “What’s wrong?” Bryony asked.

  Abraham’s gaze moved to Mae. “Mrs. Son-Ha is asking for you.”

  Nikolai’s pulse quickened as they approached the door that led to the basement. He could hear the high-pitched sound of a distressed animal in the distance.

  Abraham led them down a flight of stairs and along a shadowy corridor. They came in sight of the cell at the end.

  Mrs. Son-Ha sat on a low stool outside it, her dog Dexter on her lap. She was eating a rice cake and sipping a cup of green tea. Her Chihuahua whined as he gazed at the creature pacing the floor of the prison restlessly.

  Nikolai’s throat constricted. Alastair croaked softly.

  Drabek was but a shadow of her former self. The lynx looked gaunt, her ribs protruding through her thinning fur. Her ragged claws left trails of blood on the ground as she cried and yowled, her orange eyes radiating grief and loss.

  “How did she get injured?” Mae asked in a voice devoid of emotion.

  Nikolai glanced at her. He didn’t have to be a genius to know the sight of Oscar’s familiar was hurting her as much as it was him. Her nails were digging so hard into her palms he was surprised she hadn’t cut herself.

  Mae flinched when he took hold of her hand. She swallowed and gave him a grateful look.

  “She clawed at the floor until her nails wore down,” Mrs. Son-Ha said quietly. She sighed. “I think that’s enough rest for these old bones.” She put her cup on the tray beside her, got down off the stool, and reached a hand through the bars. “Come here, cat.”

  To Nikolai’s surprise, Drabek slinked over to her. The lynx stopped and lowered her head obediently so Mrs. Son-Ha could touch her face.

  Mrs. Son-Ha’s pupils flashed white.

  The hairs rose on Nikolai’s arms. Mae stiffened beside him. The power emanating from the old woman felt different from magic.

  “There’s an element of divine energy in it,” Mae murmured, surprised.

  Nikolai stared at the pale light shimmering around Mrs. Son-Ha’s fingers. Is that because she deals with the dead?

  Drabek slowly relaxed under her touch. She plopped down on her belly, her expression a little glazed. Dexter pushed his head between the bars and licked her nose.

  The lynx made a soft sound and closed her eyes. She lay on her side, her body loosening as she succumbed to sleep.

  Mrs. Son-Ha gently stroked her head.

  “It would be best to put her out of her misery soon,” the Shaman said in a cold voice that was in sharp contrast to the kindness she was showing the animal.

  She fixed Mae with a hard stare.

  The old woman’s features softened a fraction at her distraught expression.

  “Unless you undo this spell and reconnect her core to her sorcerer, she will be driven to death by her madness,” the old woman stated with a finality that made Nikolai’s stomach twist. “And she will suffer immensely before that time comes.”

  He swallowed. “I—I will do it.”

  Mrs. Son-Ha shook her head. “You shouldn’t. You won’t be able to live with yourself if you kill your brother’s bond.”

  “So, you’re saying it has to be me?” Mae asked in a brittle voice.

  “Yes.” Mrs. Son-Ha rose with some difficulty and pressed a hand on Mae’s shoulder. “This is also your duty as the Witch Queen.”

  Her words haunted the silence between Mae and Nikolai during their drive back to Vlad’s apartment. Nikolai’s fingers clenched on the steering wheel as he replayed their final conversation with Bryony.

  “I want you to examine one of the bodies we found,” the witch had asked Mae. “You’re the only one who can confirm whether your theory is correct.”

  Mae had reluctantly agreed. Since the hospital in the basement of the main headquarters of the coven was out of action, she would have to sneak the corpse into the mortuary at Grandview General to carry out the autopsy.

  “Steve would kill me if he knew what I’m about to do,” Mae murmured as they drove into the underground garage beneath Vlad’s apartment building.

  “He still can’t get the higher-ups to grant you an extension on your leave?” Nikolai said.

  “No.” She grimaced. “At this rate, I’ll be without a job soon.”

  Nikolai refrained from telling her that the combined wealth of all the covens meant she could live out the rest of her life in gold-plated luxury and eat all the cake she wanted. He knew how she felt about using money she hadn’t earned for herself.

  She must get it from her parents.

  They’d just gotten into the lift to Vlad’s penthouse when Mae startled.

  “Oh.”

  Nikolai frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “I just felt Cortes and Anya’s cores in the building.” Mae’s expression grew puzzled. “That’s strange. They weren’t there a second ago.”

  She stiffened the next instant. The hairs rose on Nikolai’s arms. He could sense something in the distance. Something sinister.

  A vile pressure thickened the air, drawing a gasp from them both. The cabin trembled.

  Nikolai’s eyes widened. That’s⁠—

  Crimson lit up Mae’s pupils. “There are hellbeasts in the building!”

  Brimstone’s hackles lifted.

  Nikolai’s pulse quickened as he reached for his magic. His spear manifested in his hand, brimming with the pale light of his Moon and White Magic.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  A foul stench flooded Mae’s nostrils when they emerged on the landing outside Vlad’s apartment. Relief shot through her.

  She couldn’t sense the incubus or his familiar.

  A violent burst of magic brushed against her cores just as Nikolai reached for the door handle, its taste as familiar as her own. She grabbed the sorcerer’s arm and yanked him aside a second before the door exploded outward and crashed into the opposite wall.

  The giant hellboar that had smashed into it left a bloodied trail as it slid to the floor, golden sparks sizzling inside the six-inch crater in its chest. The red light in the monster’s eyes faded.

  Mae’s stomach roiled when the creature’s dead form collapsed into inky threads that vanished with a hiss of corruption.

  “What the hell?!” Nikolai mumbled.

  A scream came from inside the apartment. “Enrique, no!”

  The chilling power of Anya’s Illusion Sorcery drenched the air.

  Mae scowled. “Let’s go!”

  The inside of Vlad’s penthouse looked like a bomb had gone off. Broken glass and debris crunched beneath their feet as they closed in on the sounds of the battle. Mae’s heart lurched when they came in sight of the living area.

  Cortes stood in the middle of the floor, his eyes and those of his bird familiar Popo blazing with a fierce light as he braced against the bull-like monster towering over them. The sword in his right hand sparked against the beast’s wicked horns while blood dripped from a nasty wound on his flank and soaked into his suit.

  The muscles and tendons in his left arm bulged where he hung on grimly to the whip he was using to stop a hellwolf from shredding Anya to pieces, the bright cord raising the sickening stink of burning flesh as it scorched the creature’s hind leg.

  The wolf snarled and snapped its jaws inches from the witch, heedless of the pain, claws scraping deep grooves in the floor.

  Blue flames flickered around Anya and her Harpy Eagle Sable, their magic focused on the dozen hellbeasts that had surrounded her and Cortes. The witch’s left cheek and forehead bore shallow cuts and she was favoring her right leg. Though most of the creatures had frozen in their tracks under the spell Anya had unleashed, the hellbull and the hellwolf seemed immune to it.

  Magic surged through Mae’s veins. Half a dozen Devour spells burst into life above her hands. She blinked.

  Black and ivory flickered within Devour, the threads intertwining with the crimson light of her demonic power.

  Fire resonated across her bond with Brimstone, distracting her. The demon fox shook himself out into his nine-tailed form, the red aura that surrounded him making the air tremble.

  It too was tainted with darkness and light.

  Mae’s throat tightened on a sudden wave of dread. Is that white magic and—black magic combined?!

  Na Ri’s presence rose inside her. Focus, Mae!

  Mae clenched her jaw. She’s right. I’ll worry about that later!

  She hurled the Devour spheres at the hellbull just as Nikolai cast Hell Flare upon the wolf. The monsters screeched under their attack. The sounds pierced Mae’s ears and shattered what remained of the windows.

  Brimstone brought the hellbull to the ground. He pressed a powerful paw against its chest, sank his fangs into its neck, and ripped it open with a savage growl. A crimson tide gushed out of the monster’s torn vessels, the ripples washing against Cortes’s expensive shoes before they bubbled down into obsidian threads that dispersed into nothingness.

 

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