Chapter 24
The Book of Light opened yet another pointless breach. Vedran scowled.
The first Book of Shadows it had led them to had turned out to be a fake, just like the one Nikolai had manifested when he’d used Hellfire Magic on the artifact Dietrich Farago had created.
Damn that Azazel! Vedran clenched his jaw until his teeth ached. The demon had clearly planted dozens of fakes in case anyone ever attempted to use the Book of Light in this fashion. His eyes shrank to slits. I imagine the skeleton key we lost to Mae and the New York coven would be the fastest way to the real tome. Determination knotted the sorcerer’s shoulders. Still, there are only so many fakes he could have planted. One of these rifts will lead me to the true Book of Shadows, I’m certain of it.
Vedran took a moment to appreciate the magic bubbling through his veins as he tore open doorway after doorway. The power he now harbored in his dark core made his heart race like few things could. Killing off the sorcerers and witches who had been loyal to him and absorbing the magic of the coven members he’d had his hellish army slaughter had been the right call.
He felt pretty invincible right now. But it still wasn’t enough.
He would only be satisfied once he had devoured the soul of the first Sorcerer King and the core of the most powerful white magic user on Earth. The treacherous offspring he had sired with the witch he once treasured the most in his harem.
Vedran was dimly aware of Oscar’s harrowed gaze on his back. He could practically taste the sorcerer’s fear. Logic told him he had no further use for his firstborn son now that the latter’s core had been ruined by Subjugate. He had already abandoned his plan to gain control of the Witch Queen by bonding her to Oscar via the Marriage of Magic; instead, she would die by Vedran’s own hand.
The Sorcerer King frowned. But Oscar might still be of some use. I’ve kept him alive this long. A few more days won’t matter.
Something distracted him from his reflections. He stiffened.
The Book of Light was vibrating in his hand.
He felt the power inside the artifact condense.
The keyhole shifted form.
Vedran stared at the star-shaped opening, his heart in his throat. He manipulated the Hellfire Magic he had stolen from Nikolai and created a matching key, his fingers shaking with excitement.
This is it. This next rift is the one!
He inserted the star-shaped key of flame inside the compass, his mouth going dry. The click of the lock echoed in his ears, a sound that preceded an event even he had not anticipated.
Oscar gasped.
Jubilation brought a mad grin to Vedran’s face. Yes!Finally!
The crack that had opened in the fabric of space was not so much a rift as it was a doorway. He hesitated but a moment before surrounding himself with a thick aura of black magic and stepping through it.
Vedran paused and blinked on the other side of the threshold. His breath caught. Stars and galaxies flashed all around and above him, so fast they were a blur against the inky firmament.
Is this—another dimension?!
His heart thumping furiously, he took a step onto a dark floor that moved as if it were made of water. Ripples broke out, the wavelets expanding and accelerating before they washed across the base of something that lit up like the sun.
Vedran flinched and covered his face with an arm. He let his eyes adapt to the bright glare before squinting through a gap between his fingers.
It was a moment before he could make out the bright object ahead. It was a dazzling pedestal that glittered and sparkled as if it were made of stars.
A shiver danced down his spine as he gazed at what floated above it.
Levitating within a roaring orb of demonic energy, its pages fluttering lightly in an invisible wind, was a dark book. Black magic crackled and sparked on its cover and spine.
Deep inside him, in the place where Vedran harbored his most wicked secret, his dead familiar Balkin howled.
* * *
“You want me to do what?”Edwin McKinney said leadenly.
Bryony met the mayor’s gaze steadily. “I want you to evacuate the city.”
McKinney turned to Jared. “Is she insane?!”
Abraham bristled next to Bryony. She raised a hand. He settled in his seat, his annoyed gaze shifting to the two somber-faced advisors framing the mayor.
“She is not.” Jared frowned at the mayor. “I’m making the same request. I’m still waiting to hear back from the Special Affairs Bureau, but I’m pretty sure they’ll agree with our suggestion.”
McKinney leaned his elbows on his desk, his expression hard. “I’m afraid I’m going to need more than that before I okay such an asinine plan.” He pursed his lips. “Even if I did consent to it, we’d need the National Guard for such a large-scale evacuation. It would take,” one of his counselors leaned down and whispered in his ear, “—a couple of days at least before they had boots on the ground.”
Bryony clenched her jaw. It had taken her and Abraham twelve hours to secure an appointment with the mayor, to the point even Barbara had threatened to storm City Hall to speak to the “Goddamn fool in charge of this place!”
We’re running out of time.Still, we need his cooperation if we want to save as many human lives as possible.
“We may have had our differences in the past, Edwin,” she said in a level voice, “but Jared and I are being deadly serious. New York is facing an imminent attack.”
McKinney raised a mocking eyebrow. “From this so-called Sorcerer King you mentioned before? The one responsible for the incident at that hotel?”
Bryony swallowed a sharp retort. “Yes.”
“He’s also the one behind all those dead bodies showing up,” Abraham ground out, the “asshole” unspoken.
McKinney waved a dismissive hand, his expression undeterred. “My advisors believe that was the work of some kind of cult and it’s the last we’ve seen of them.”
Abraham drew a sharp breath. Jared stared at McKinney’s advisors like they were the dumbest things on two legs he’d ever seen.
“Maybe we should bring Rambrog here,” the Immortal suggested flatly to Bryony.
“Don’t tempt me,” she muttered.
McKinney sneered. “Who the hell is Rambrog?”
Something behind the mayor caught Bryony’s gaze before she could utter a reply. She blinked, not quite understanding what she was seeing for a moment. Her eyes widened.
The air trembled on a ripple of sinister magic, making the hairs on the back of her neck rise to attention. Penley’s pupils blazed a bright green as he hissed at her feet.
Blood drained from Abraham’s face. The aide clenched the armrests of his chair, his gaze riveted to the window. “What is that?!”
Jared cursed when he registered the phenomenon that had captured their attention.
McKinney frowned. He twisted around, his advisors following suit.
“What are you talk—?” The mayor’s words ended on a gargled cry.
He swiveled his chair and climbed clumsily to his feet, his thighs hitting the desk and knocking over an ink pot.
“What the devil is that thing?!” McKinney croaked, indicating the sky with a trembling finger.