Chapter 35
Cortes and Vladwere leaping toward the Sorcerer King, Arcane Magic and incubus energy brightening their eyes and those of their familiars.
Time slowed.
Oscar’s head shifted like he was moving in treacle, horror draining his face of color as he met Mae’s gaze. He too had registered the spine-chilling magic thickening the air.
Power detonated around them, the destructive incantations they wished to cast at the Sorcerer King forming on their lips.
The spell that froze them and everything inside the barrier manifested with a suddenness that robbed Mae of breath.
This is—this is a wordless incantation!Na Ri gasped.
Mae swallowed, heart thundering and limbs rooted where she stood. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak.
Movement captured her gaze.
Vedran straightened from where he’d crouched next to the metal truss he’d indented with his back. He wiped the blood from his lips, patted down his clothes, and ran his fingers through his hair. Amusement brightened his mad gaze.
Mae shuddered. She knew then that they had been fools to believe they could take on both Vedran and Davor Lazar at the same time.
“Ah.” A gleeful smirk stretched Vedran’s mouth, etching satisfaction across his face. “That little subterfuge was worth it just to see your expressions.” Darkness burned his pupils when he locked eyes with Mae. “Did you really think you could take me on, little girl?” His lips twisted, his smile turning mocking. “Just the five of you?!”
He indicated the motionless figures around her with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Despair thickened Mae’s throat. Shit. He was taking us for a ride all along!
Na Ri’s fury scorched her insides. Don’t give up, Mae.
She is right, my witch, Brimstone growled.
That guy hasn’t seen what we can do yet!Hellraiser snarled.
Mae’s shoulders knotted.
Vedran was approaching Cortes. He gazed at the sorcerer where he floated, frozen in midair, jaw clenched and face tight with fury. Fear chilled her to the bone at the look in the Sorcerer King’s eyes.
She could tell there was not a single drop of humanity left in him.
Cortes’s gasp made her stomach clench.
Vedran had pressed the tip of a finger to his chest.
“The name of the spell that currently has you in its grip, the spell that will bring about your demise, is Vortex,” the Sorcerer King told Mae casually. “No one who has borne witness to it has lived past its incantation to tell the tale.”
Horror rounded Mae’s eyes. Black magic was spreading across Cortes’s skin, turning it into a macabre map. The dark lines sliced into his flesh and stained his shirt with blood. Popo trembled on his shoulder, his feathers growing dull as Vedran’s vile power invaded his and his sorcerer’s cores, the golden light in his pupils quivering brightly before dying out. They fell unconscious, chests barely moving with their breaths.
Tears distorted Mae’s vision. No. This isn’t happening!
Vedran moved to Vlad.
Blood pounded loudly in Mae’s ears. The Sorcerer King touched the incubus. Tendons corded in Vlad’s neck as black magic seared his flesh. His face flushed a bright red.
The scream lodged in his throat never left his lips.
Vlad ground his teeth, crimson lines blooming on his skin, his blood steaming where it dripped heavily and struck the asphalt. Brimstone roared silently inside Mae’s mind when Tarang went limp beside the near senseless incubus.
Mae’s breath shuddered out of her. Her next inhale brought with it a torrent of rage that seared her soul and obliterated all trace of fear.
She had to stop Vedran and Davor Lazar.
We cannot let them walk off this bridge alive. Her face hardened as she sought the strength of the ones who stood with her. Together!
The power of four roared through Mae, raising all the hairs on her body. Na Ri warmed her ice-cold flesh as she poured all her magic into their cores. Brimstone and Hellreaver directed their demonic energy into their bond.
Heat flowed sluggishly through Mae’s veins.
Soul Guard!Augment!
She panted, the effort of manifesting the wordless spells rendering her so weak she would have fallen to her knees had her limbs not been immobilized by the Sorcerer King’s dark magic. Mae clenched her jaw until she tasted blood and invoked the third and fourth incantations.
Assimilate!Absorb!
Vedran stilled. The black lines mapping Cortes and Vlad’s faces vanished with a hiss of crimson. He scowled.
Mae knew he’d just realized she’d shielded the two men’s souls and those of their familiars.
Vlad and Cortes’s wounds started to heal. The incubus’s eyelids fluttered slightly. He mumbled her name. Cortes groaned.
The Sorcerer King cut his eyes to Mae. “What have you done, little girl?!”
His pupils widened at the sight of the blood soaking her T-shirt.
My witch, Brimstone whimpered.
Hellreaver made a wretched sound.
It’s okay. Mae ignored the fire scorching her flesh where she’d just assimilated dozens of cuts. I’m okay!
She glowered at Vedran, the dark power he had unleashed seeping into her body through her pores and mouth and nose as the rest of Cortes and Vlad’s injuries were transferred to her. Her white magic purified the Sorcerer King’s power of the corruption that tainted it before it entered her cores.
She felt her strength return.
Mae began consuming Vortex next, her wounds healing as magic flowed freely through her veins once more. Air started moving on the bridge.
Vedran took a threatening step toward her.
Oscar’s fingers twitched. His lips trembled. “Dis…perse.”
The Sorcerer King recoiled, eyes widening in disbelief as the spell accelerated Vortex’s destruction. He whirled around with an enraged snarl and stormed over to Oscar, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him into the air. The sorcerer gasped.
Vedran’s lips curled back on a hideous grimace. He squeezed.
The handful of seconds Oscar had bought Mae was all she needed to gather her magic so she could incant her next spell. Her lungs expanded as she took a deep breath.
“ABSORB!”
The barrier protecting the bridge wavered as she consumed it. The New York coven and their allies replenished it instantly.
Mae found she could move again. Brimstone snarled and shook himself out. Hellreaver hummed, black and red static coming to life around him. Magic churned the air around them, their auras so powerful it created ripples in the river far below and caused the bridge cables to sway.
Mae lifted a hand.
“SUBJUGATE!” she and Na Ri roared.
Vedran grunted and almost doubled over, shock flaring across his face as he clutched his stomach.
They headed for the Sorcerer King.
* * *
Elation lightenedRose’s chest as she tore at the darkness enclosing her soul fragment. She had witnessed the moment Ran Soyun used her magic on the demon who had possessed her body and she knew her every movement must be filling him with agony.
A faint groan echoed through the void surrounding her.
Rose smiled savagely.
Ran Soyun’s spell had granted her the advantage she needed, just as she’d promised it would. All Rose needed to do was hang on a little longer until Barquiel confronted Mae. Her heart swelled.
I’m coming, Mae! Wait for me!
* * *
Barquiel groundhis teeth as he bounced inside the portal taking him to Earth, his movements all over the place.
Although the effect of Ran Soyun’s magic had faded once he’d entered the rift, it had weakened him considerably in the seconds he had been in contact with it.
How could she?How could she leave me for that bastard?! His talons scored deep cuts into his palms as he recalled the sickening image of the woman he loved in his archenemy’s arms. I swear, I will kill Azazel with my own two hands and give Ran Soyun his bloodied, beating heart!
Light appeared at the end of the portal.
A tint of corruption filled his nostrils.
Barquiel scowled. Vedran!
* * *
Vedran’s fingersloosened around his son’s neck as Subjugate scorched his insides. Oscar scowled, grabbed Vedran’s wrist, and tried to peel his fingers from his flesh, legs kicking out as he struggled to free himself.
Vedran cursed, nearly losing his grip on the sorcerer. He clenched his jaw and called forth the dark sword made of his familiar’s soul. It appeared in his right hand, the blade solid despite the debilitating spell afflicting him.
The weapon wavered as he aimed it at Oscar’s heart, Balkin roaring within it.