Chapter 32
A blaze ignitedMae’s stomach, startling her.
Her gaze jerked to Brimstone.
The demon fox’s chest swelled a second before he opened his jaws and released Wrath. The orb flashed through the air with a high-pitched whine, blasted most of the incoming enemy to smithereens, and took a chunk out of an iconic bridge in the distance.
Mae, Vlad, and Cortes gave Brimstone a pointed look as debris rained down into the lake below.
“That was an acceptable loss under the circumstances,” the fox said, unabashed.
Hellreaver zoomed after the remaining creatures with an evil cackle.
Mae’s hair fluttered around her shoulders as magic unfurled from her cores and roared through her bloodstream. She levitated to some hundred feet above the ground.
From that height, she had a better impression of where her allies, and the foes they were dealing with, were located. She unleashed her first spells.
“Soul Guard!Augment!”
Startled cries rose from the sorcerers and witches clashing with Vedran’s monstrous army as her magic reinforced the Soul Shield she had placed inside them. A few spotted her and pointed, excitement lighting up their faces.
Mae was about to focus her magic into her next spells when movement below drew her gaze and made her pause.
Hellreaver tore seamlessly through entire packs of beasts, his blades carving his targets in half before they even sensed his presence.
Brimstone invoked Wrath again and again as he decimated the fast-moving devils trying to attack him, the power of the spell undiminished even though he unleashed it repeatedly.
Arcane Magic burned dozens of ghouls as Cortes wielded his blade and whip with deadly efficiency, his eyes and those of his familiar blazing with incandescent brightness.
But it was the indomitable power Vlad demonstrated that made Mae’s pulse quicken. The incubus brought entire troops of hideous monsters to their knees with his sheer demonic will before finishing them off with his blades and the energy bombs Ilmon had taught him to use, Tarang delivering the death blow to many with his claws and fangs.
Mae swallowed. Damn. We would never have gotten this strong had we not gone to Hell.
I don’t know about that, my witch. Brimstone stopped and gazed at her, his crimson eyes bright with affection even across the distance. You could even give Azazel a run for his money right now.
Mae blinked. Really?!
Really, Brimstone huffed. Now, how about you show these fools the power of the Witch Queen?
Mae smiled faintly. She took a shallow breath and guided the magic bubbling inside her veins into her next spells. The power she unleashed detonated across the park with a force that made her allies cry out in surprise and the monsters attacking them scream.
“Negate!Purge!Decimate!”
The first two spells robbed the ghouls and devils of the demonic energy powering their bodies and the black magic controlling their minds. Decimate crackled violently above her head as it sent out deadly currents next, the black and crimson arcs snaking through the air to reduce the enemy to ash. It took a moment for her to make out those still standing in the aftermath of her devastating attack.
Mae lowered her brows.
The only creatures who’d resisted her spells were the abominations Vedran had put together from the dead bodies of the humans, fiends, and hellbeasts he had killed.
Her frown deepened when she detected the dark cores inside them. The soul orbs throbbed with malevolence, powering the creatures with a continuous supply of black magic faster than Purge could consume it.
Looks like he put those things inside them to counter my magic.
“Shame you didn’t know about this spell, asshole,” she muttered darkly.
Magic whipped her clothes and hair into a frenzy as she voiced the first incantation Azazel had taught her and Na Ri.
“DECAY!”
The air thickened, the sharp rise in pressure driving many to clutch their heads and drop to their knees.
Mae’s heart thudded wildly against her ribs at the crimson light that bloomed into life around her and rolled across the landscape. Laced with black and white magic, the tide uprooted bushes, bowed trees, and made water surge violently across the lakes and ponds in the park.
The chimeras screeched, the spell destroying their cores and the vile stitches keeping their bodies together. Decay consumed their dead flesh until all that was left were wispy, black clouds that faded into nothingness.
The end came so suddenly that even Mae blinked. A deafening silence fell across Central Park in the wake of the enemy’s downfall. Her chest shuddered, not so much because she was out of breath as because the magic she had just wielded defied the laws of this world.
Mae’s pulse was still racing when she floated to the ground. Vlad and Cortes joined her.
The incubus’s eyes glittered.
“That was pretty incredible,” he said quietly.
“Yeah, remind me never to piss you off,” Cortes grunted.
Mae smiled faintly. “You guys weren’t so bad yourselves.”
“Mae!” someone shouted.
They turned.
Abraham was running across the park, Bryony following in Rambrog’s arms. Mae’s eyes widened at the sight of the sorcerer behind them.
“Oscar!” Vlad hissed.
His knuckles blanched on his demonic blades.
Mae couldn’t take her eyes off the black magic sorcerer. He looked…different. She startled when she realized what it was about him that had changed.
Oh, Na Ri murmured. His core.
Mae stared dazedly at the source of Oscar’s power before exchanging a shocked look with Brimstone.
The fox nodded. “It seems he no longer carries the Sorcerer King’s corruption inside his body, just like Drabek.”
Vlad furrowed his brow.
“What do you mean?” Cortes asked uneasily.
Abraham arrived before Mae could reply. “Where have you been?!”
“Hmm, in Hell?” Mae grimaced and scratched her cheek. “You were there when we left.”
The aide scowled.
Her stomach knotted queasily. “My family?”
“They’re safe. Noah took them to a haven in Brooklyn. Nadia and Sergio are guarding it with their covens.”
Relief had Mae blowing out a heavy breath.
Cortes’s gaze swung between Bryony and Rambrog. “He your new ride?”
The giant lumbered to a stop next to them. The High Priestess sniffed while Rambrog carefully put her down.
“He insisted on carrying me. Apparently, some fox told him to be my bodyguard.” She squinted at Brimstone. “Wait. Are you bigger?”
“He definitely is,” Abraham said leadenly, head tilting to take in the demon fox’s new form.
Mae chewed her lip. It was only now she was realizing her familiar had kept the size he’d manifested in Hell, this despite the fact that they’d returned to Earth.
“It’s because my witch is stronger now,” Brimstone huffed. He cocked his head toward the open park. “That one’s second awakening had something to do with it too.”
Hellreaver reappeared on cue, serrated blades coated with blood.
“Man, that was fun!” he enthused.
Abraham and Bryony’s eyes bulged. Even Rambrog looked uneasy at the sight of the sentient weapon.
“He can talk now?” the New York coven High Priestess said warily.
“You’ll get used to it.” Mae’s gaze locked on the man watching them silently from a distance. “Why are you here, Oscar?” She scanned his wounds with a neutral expression. “And why does it look like you’ve been fighting on our side?”
Oscar’s face tightened with resolve as he met her stare. “The spell Nikolai cast on me back at that castle broke the hold my father had on me.”
Mae swallowed. So, we were right!
She felt happy for Nikolai then. Even though he’d never said anything out loud, she knew he’d been thinking about Oscar ever since they’d seen what Subjugate had done to Drabek.
Vlad took a threatening step forward.
“So what?! Are you saying we should forgive you for all the horrible crimes you’ve committed over the years? That we should feel sympathy for you?!” The incubus’s pupils burned with a crimson radiance that sought to scorch the man he glared at. “Don’t make me laugh!”
Cortes similarly glowered at Oscar. The Dark Council had assisted Raya in killing his first familiar and removing him from his destined role as the next High Priest of the Medellin coven.
Oscar sighed. “No. That’s not what I’m saying at all. I will never be able to make amends for all the evil acts I’ve perpetrated and the people whose lives I’ve taken. I will never—” His voice broke, his shoulders slumping. He took a shuddering breath before meeting their gazes unflinchingly. “I will never receive my brother’s forgiveness for what I did to him and our kin. But I do regret everything I have ever done to you and yours. That’s why I left my father’s side at the earliest opportunity. So I could bring you this.”
He removed something from his pocket, walked over, and placed it in Mae’s hands. Her breath caught at the sight of the Book of Light.
A shudder shook Hellreaver. He coughed and spat out the skeleton key she’d given him for safekeeping.
Mae snatched the artifact out of the air. Her pulse spiked.
It was vibrating.
The Book of Light trembled in her other hand, matching the key’s resonance. It could only mean one thing.
We need to find it, Mae!Na Ri urged.
Blood thrummed in Mae’s veins.
She met Oscar’s steady gaze. “Where’s the Book of Shadows?”