Page 37 of Madness of Her Mages

You’ll get more,I answered back, laughing under my breath.Later.

Mortimus let out a strained whinny, and I knew his end was near.

“Heal Mortimus,” I begged Nikkos.

He stumbled to his feet and knelt beside the horse. “I need your siren strength,” he said to me.

I looked over my shoulder at the girls. They were clinging to each other on trembling legs.

Blaze quickly flew to them, sweeping them up in his arms. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “They can’t hurt you.”

I mouthed my thanks to Blaze and let out a hiss when I knelt beside Nikkos. The shallow water was so frigid, it stung my skinlike venomous insects had invaded my stockings as blood from a gaping wound in the horse’s side swirled around my knees. I grasped Nikkos’s shoulder, summoning my siren voice once more, though my raw throat screamed with each word. “Heal Mortimus,” I commanded, my voice barreling through my lungs like a rush of wind.

Blue healing fire spilled out of Nikkos’s fingers, engulfing the horse’s torso. I held steady to Nikkos, unable to tear myself away if I’d wanted. It felt as if magic was pouring from me into him, strengthening his flames. Maybe it was and our mating bond enabled me to lend him some of my power.

By the time the last of the embers had died down, about a dozen fire mages came barreling into the forest. One of them set Malvolia down beside us.

She looked from her horse to us and then Bertram and Sol, still on their knees. “Someone better explain.”

Drae cleared his throat. “My Queen, Sol and Bertram attacked Mortimus.”

She narrowed her eyes, smoke curling from her fingers as she crossed over to her horse.

He sat up with a whinny, saliva dripping from his sharp fangs. And then he stumbled to his feet, spraying frigid water all over me when he shook his wings.

I sucked in a scream, too numb from the cold that crept into my bones to move a muscle. Strong, warm arms wrapped around me, carrying me to the edge of the stream. Drae turned me to face him as he sat me on his knee. Nikkos knelt beside us, warming me with pale fire.

Malvolia rubbed her horse’s snout, their gazes locked. A chill snaked up my spine, for I knew she was speaking to her familiar. Hopefully, he was telling her everything that happened. She might not believe me, but she’d believe her familiar. I tried to listen in on their conversation, but all I heard was fuzzy noise.It made sense that I couldn’t hear them, as I couldn’t hear the girls mind-speak, either. It was why I assumed my telepathy only worked when bonded mates were talking.

Malvolia heaved a shuddering breath as she hugged Mortimus’s wide chest. Then she faced Bertram and Sol. Still bound by my spell, they stared back at her with wide, frightened eyes, their wings drooping behind them, their arms stuck to their sides.

“Please, My Queen,” Sol rasped, “I can expl—”

Black smoke exploded from Malvolia, striking Sol like a burst of cannon fire and obliterating him in an instant.

I gaped at the pile of ash on the ground where Sol had been kneeling moments earlier.

Holy fuck.Nikkos’s curse echoed in my skull.

Did you know she could do that?I projected to my mates.

Drae visibly swallowed before slowly nodding.They don’t call her the sorceress queen for nothing.

I glanced over my shoulder at Blaze, mouthing my thanks as he held the girls in his arms, his wings wrapped around them so they couldn’t see what was happening.

Tears streamed from Bertram’s eyes as he trembled before Malvolia.

I didn’t know where I found my strength, but something propelled me to rise on shaky legs. “Don’t kill him,” I said to her. “We need to question him.”

She turned on me with a snarl, her eyes fogged by gray smoke, and it took all my willpower to contain my bladder. She waved me forward. “Do it, then.”

I was grateful for Nikkos and Drae, who flanked me, their steady hands on my elbows.

Bertram looked like nothing more than a burned-up corpse. His featherless wings reminded me of naked trees in the fall.

“These questions are for the demon inside Bertram.” My siren voice shook the stagnant, smoky air around us. “Who sent you here?”

He sneered up at me, and bloody tears formed in the corners of his eyes. “My mistress.” The words he spoke seemed to pain him, and I wondered if he was spellbound by this mistress of his to keep quiet.

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