Chapter 38
The calamitythat befell New York that day was put down to a freak weather phenomenon. It was a reality seared into the citizens’ memories by Anya’s Illusion Sorcery and bolstered by Gloria’s magic to such a degree that most could describe in accurate detail the fluke lightning storm that had smashed the Empire State Building to smithereens, with the winds carrying the debris into the Hudson River.
As for the Brooklyn Bridge, a rogue typhoon became the prime culprit for the damage done to its deck and cables.
It helped that the Immortals and the Special Affairs Bureau had blacked out the satellites orbiting above the East Coast that day and shut down all media communication, courtesy of Jared and the Chicago Seer’s forward planning.
The only ones who retained an awareness of the real reason behind the disaster were the mayor and his closest advisors. Mae would have preferred it if Anya had used her Illusion Sorcery to make them forget what they had witnessed prior to the magic war breaking out, but Bryony and Jared had insisted that would be a bad idea.
The Immortals, their allies in Chicago, and the magic community needed to work together with humans to prevent the End of Days. Mae had grudgingly arrived at the same conclusion.
Which was why they were currently sitting across from the mayor and his advisors at City Hall. The meeting began cordially enough with McKinney welcoming Mae and acknowledging everything she and the magic community had done to protect the city.
Things got awkward after one of McKinney’s counselors presented them with a document.
Abraham frowned when the advisor handed him the file. “What’s this?”
“A bill for damages,” McKinney said coolly.
Jared arched an eyebrow. Bryony’s mouth flattened into a thin line.
Abraham paled as he leafed through the paperwork. His eyes bulged when he got to the final figure. Mae leaned over and sucked in air when she saw the number.
Abraham regained his voice. He stared wide-eyed at McKinney.
“Five—five billion?!” the aide spluttered.
Bryony’s knuckles whitened on the armrests of her chair. “What?!”
“We’re willing to provide the New York coven with a generous repayment plan,” one of the counselors, whom Mae had named Tweedle Dee, said with a thin smile. “It’s on the next page.”
Abraham flipped the document. He swore.
Mae looked at the proposal and narrowed her eyes at the mayor. “Thirty-five percent interest? What are you guys, loan sharks?”
McKinney’s advisors bristled.
The second guy, Tweedle Dum, sneered at Mae. “You might be the Witch Queen, but you shall address Mayor McKinney with the respect he deserves!”
Hellreaver quivered a little on Mae’s chest. This guy is begging for an ass-kicking, my witch!
Bryony, Abraham, and Jared cut their eyes anxiously to the weapon. Mae willed an incensed Hellreaver to calm down.
“Look,” she told McKinney and his clowns once she’d promised the weapon steak for dinner, “at the end of the day, this city would have been flattened and you’d all be mindless, drooling slaves serving a Sorcerer King who enjoys nothing more than ripping your limbs from your body and feeding them to his monsters. Considering the final outcome of this war, you should be offering us a reward.”
McKinney’s face darkened. The Tweedle twins glared at Mae.
“How dare you?!” Tweedle Dum snapped.
Crimson static sparked around Hellreaver.
“Shit,” Mae mumbled.
“He’s gone and done it now,” Abraham said flatly.
Hellreaver transformed. Mae winced. Jared groaned.
Bryony pinched the bridge of her nose and muttered, “This isn’t happening,” under her breath like it would make all of this go away.
McKinney and his counselors backpedaled hastily from the desk when Hellreaver hurtled threateningly toward them, teeth snapping.
“How dare you, you little shits?!”
Brimstone emerged from concealment. Now, now, Hell, we must not threaten the humans.
Tweedle Dee sucked in air. “Is that—is that a fox?” He flushed, shoulders quaking. “You brought a wild animal in here?!”
Brimstone curled a lip on a low growl. Hey, the only wild thing in here is your hairstyle.
Mae swallowed a snort and avoided Bryony’s glare.
Tweedle Dum, whom she was starting to suspect possessed the survival instinct of an amoeba, pointed a shaky finger at the demon fox.
“His eyes are red! Has he,” the counselor swallowed and recoiled, “—has he got the mange?!”
“Oh boy,” Mae murmured.
Brimstone morphed into his nine-tailed form with an angry sound. The ceiling creaked as his head pressed against it.
“The mange?!” His roar rattled the windows. “I’ll have you know that I am a divine beast, you festering piles of excrement!”
The fox stamped a giant paw on the floor, causing it to crack. Abraham chewed his lip, eyeing the fresh damage to New York public property.
“Now, bow to me and my Queen, you scum!” Brimstone demanded haughtily.
“And me!” Hellreaver whined.
“And the demonic weapon with the short fuse,” Brimstone added charitably.
“Hey!” Hellreaver protested.
Bryony’s eyes gleamed with an unhealthy shine.
She looked at Jared. “Maybe we could get Anya to do something about this.”
She indicated the cowering mayor and his counselors. They shrank back from her finger. Jared dropped his face in his hands and groaned louder.
“Why don’t we leave?” Mae suggested hastily.
They emerged from the building a moment later.
“All things considered, that could have been worse,” Mae said encouragingly.
Bryony squinted. Abraham’s eyes closed. Jared scowled.
“Wow,” Mae murmured. “You guys were completely in sync there.”
Abraham grumbled all the way back to the mansion on Fifth Avenue. Mae kept half an ear on his scolding, her gaze sweeping the city outside the SUV.
Two weeks had gone by since the day the prophecy concerning the Witch Queen had come to pass. The end of Anya’s Illusion Sorcery had seen the citizens’ lives slowly return to normal, the fake events they recalled of that day sinking into their subconscious like a bad dream.
The city still mourned the passing of those who had died and was planning to hold an official ceremony centered around the unveiling of a monument where the names of the dead had been engraved.
Violet had said they should put a statue of Mae next to it.
Mae shuddered. I’m pretty sure she was only half-joking.
It is no more than you deserve, my witch, Brimstone said firmly.
Yeah, Hellreaver enthused.
Mae rolled her eyes. Like I need that headache.
Just as it did every hour of every day since the awful events on the Brooklyn Bridge, a pang of sorrow squeezed her heart. Brimstone and Hellreaver pressed closer to her when they sensed her grief.
Saying goodbye to Ran Soyun and Rose still stung and would do for a long time to come. Though Mae had wanted nothing more than to shut out the world and wallow in her misery, those around her would not let her sink into depression.
To that end, Azazel had stayed in New York for a week after the war ended. He had met her human family and had even had dinner with them on a couple of occasions. For once, Ye-Seul had surprised everyone by refraining from her usual shocking dinner revelations. Mae suspected her mother and grandmother had been pretty much in awe of the demon.
When she’d asked Azazel what he intended to do upon returning to Hell, his answer had surprised her.
“I will revive the kingdom Ran Soyun and I once called home,” he’d said with a smile. “It is time I restored it to its former glory. Besides, Ran will return one day so I must make sure our palace is ready for its queen.”
Mae had glanced at Nikolai. “We can help.”
Azazel had nodded solemnly. “I would like that dearly.”
Abraham pulled up outside the mansion on 5th Avenue. The sounds of a commotion greeted them when they entered the foyer. Mae stared in the direction of the ballroom. The hall outside it was packed.
Violet emerged from the crowd.
“What’s going on?” Abraham asked with a frown.
The witch sighed. “Alicia’s here to take Rambrog home. The coven members don’t want him to leave.”
Mae wrinkled her nose. “Ah.”
Bryony led the way to the ballroom.
Alicia wore a harassed expression where she stood surrounded by the Rambrog fan club, a group of witches and sorcerers the giant had saved during the battle in Central Park.
“You can’t take him,” a sorcerer protested.
Mae stared at the banner on the guy’s chest. It depicted Rambrog leaning curiously toward the camera’s viewfinder.
“Where’d they get that?”
“Miles had them printed in China Town,” Violet muttered.
Her cousin stood amidst those campaigning for Rambrog to stay.
“Yeah, let him stay!” Miles said mutinously, waving a flag stamped with the same picture of Rambrog.
Abraham furrowed his brow. “He wasn’t even in Central Park.”
Bryony glowered at a figure in bright yellow pantaloons and a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: Freedom for the Giant! “What is she doing?”
Regina was going “Ra! Ra!” under her breath and utterly ignoring Barbara and Karin, who were scowling at her from the other side of the ballroom.
“Look,” Alicia said in a voice that indicated her patience was wearing thin. “He’s a giant from Hell, get it? That’s where he belongs and that’s where he’s going back to!”
She pointed toward the windows. Everyone followed the direction she indicated.
Rambrog sat quietly on the lawn, his eyes crossed as he stared at the pretty butterfly perched on the tip of his nose, his expression one of awe and admiration.
“You gotta admit, he’s kinda cute,” Abraham mumbled.
Alicia cut her eyes to the aide. “Not you too!”
There was motion outside. Rambrog was rising to his feet.
He ripped some flowers out of a patch of soil and presented them shyly to the butterfly dancing around his head.
“Not—not my dahlias!” Bryony wailed.
Mae caught the witch as she swayed.
“Brim,” she snapped.
On it, my witch.
Brimstone nudged Alicia out into the garden with his snout and had her open a portal. He shifted into his nine-tailed form, grabbed Rambrog by the back of his neck, and flung him unceremoniously inside it, dahlias and all.
Horrified objections rose from the Rambrog fan club. The protests died in the face of Bryony’s glare. Miles put down his flag, shoulders drooping.
“Thanks,” Alicia told the demon fox. She discarded her human appearance and dove inside the portal. “I’ll visit soon!”
The Reaper queen was headed for Azazel’s kingdom, where Rambrog intended to settle.
Mae waited for the brouhaha to die down before going in search of Nikolai. She found him in Oscar’s room.
To everyone’s surprise, Bryony had provided the sorcerer with temporary accommodation in her home. She was also the one who, along with Mae and Nikolai, had persuaded the High Council not to take action against Oscar and convict him of the crimes he’d committed under the aegis of the Dark Council.
It had become clear to everyone after seeing the dramatic difference in the sorcerer’s personality and witnessing his actions in the war that the awful acts perpetrated by those who had worked for Vedran had been heavily, if not completely, influenced by the dark magic he had forced into their souls.
That some might have been innately evil was not a possibility Mae, Nikolai, and Bryony ever denied.
But Oscar was the sole survivor of the Dark Council. And they would not have won the war against the Sorcerer King had he not betrayed Vedran.
Oscar was closing a backpack when she knocked and entered the room. Mae’s heart sank at the sight of the duffel bag by his feet.