Page 90 of The Darkest Night

“Okay.”

His pulse spiked a second before he engaged his father’s spell. Mae flinched.

It was as if a black wall had crashed down before her, obscuring the brilliance of his soul, the ramparts so tall she could barely see the top.

She clenched her jaw.So, this is the power of the Sorcerer King!

She couldn’t see any obvious runes or locks she could undo on the barrier. She focused, Brimstone’s magic swirling inside her as he lent her his strength.

Something flashed on the wall. A point of light high up and to the left.

Mae levitated in the space inside her mind, her gaze riveted to the spot where she’d seen the flare. She drew closer to the wall, the corrupt magic it contained brushing unpleasantly against her consciousness.

There was a chink. A tiny crack in the wall Nikolai had erected.

She touched it.

Nikolai gasped. Mae’s eyes snapped open.

The sorcerer swayed where he stood before her, the color draining from his face. Alastair squawked in alarm on the seat and flew onto his shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Nikolai mumbled through bloodless lips.

He’d addressed the words to both her and his familiar. Mae’s stomach twisted. She started to retract her magic.

“No!” Nikolai grabbed her hand, his touch scorching her despite his clammy skin. “This is the only way for us to defeat them!”

Mae stared into his eyes and finally saw the truth. This was as much about him avenging his mother as it was about her saving Ryu and Ye-Seul.

Her throat grew tight. “I don’t want to kill you.”

Nikolai shuddered. “You won’t.”

He let go of her wrist, clasped her face, and kissed her.

Mae froze, eyes rounding.

His lips burned her, his emotions a wire that electrified her soul. She sank into him, eager for more, her mouth parting as he deepened the kiss. Some color had returned to his face by the time he finally lifted his mouth off hers, his gaze bright with a resolve she could not deny.

“Do it, Mae.”

Chapter 41

Mae’s visionblurred with a film of tears. She knew what she was about to do could potentially kill him. She wiped her tears away angrily, flattened her palm against Nikolai’s heart, and closed her eyes. She found herself in front of the black wall once more. She located the breach she’d identified, pressed her fingers to it, and let her magic loose.

Nikolai’s grunt of pain reached her dimly as the sound of her own heartbeat filled her ears. Light exploded from her fingertips and raced across the nigh-impenetrable fortification, crimson threads that mapped out the tainted runes making up its building blocks.

I see it.Mae’s breath stuttered.I see the spell!

She shot back until she could visualize the entire wall. Awareness blossomed. Her breath caught.

She knew what she had to do.

The incantation came to her on a whisper, her memories of the being she had once been bringing forth a complex conjuration that solidified into a single command.

“Nullify.”

For a moment, nothing happened.

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