Page 35 of Rites of Passage

Mae’s pulse thrummed in alarm.No! I don’t know what it could do to you, Hell! We can’t take that risk!

Hellreaver grumbled in protest.

She ignored him and said the second part of the spell Na Ri had shown her. “Multiply!”

The red and white orb she’d brought forth split several times over under her command.

Mae barked out the last part of the spell. “Guard!”

The spheres shot across the operating room. They vanished inside everyone, including all the familiars. Mae shivered as the one within her formed an impenetrable fortress around her and Na Ri’s merged souls.

Nikolai pressed a hand to his belly, his expression stunned.

Abraham and the witch in charge of the infirmary traded a dazed look.

Vlad’s pupils flared crimson. “Is that you?!”

“Yes,” Mae said grimly. “That spell should keep this thing from attacking our magic cores!”

She hesitated as she prepared to unleash more of her magic.I can’t just destroy this thing. We need to analyze it!

A scarlet wave exploded around Vlad. Nikolai brought forth a brilliant, white globe. Their power warmed Mae’s flesh as they reached for the corrupt mass, Abraham in their wake.

“Don’t kill it!” she warned.

“What?!” Vlad snapped.

Nikolai glared at her. “Why the hell not?!”

“I need to figure out what it is!”

“Are you insane?!” Abraham hissed. “That thing’s trying to eat you!”

“It can’t hurt me,” Mae insisted. “Trust me!”

Abraham glowered at her. “Dammit!” The aide’s eyes and those of his owl familiar glowed gold as he drew on his magic. “Contain!”

His spell formed a yellow sphere around the dark, roiling mass. The thing quivered furiously as the aide wrenched it free from Mae’s body, trapping it inside the globe.

Abraham’s knuckles whitened. “It’s resisting my magic!”

The medical witch barked out the same spell, her powers manifesting a blue sphere around Abraham’s where it floated in mid-air. The black mass continued to fight its makeshift cages, its attempts to escape distorting the spells holding it at bay.

“Contain!” someone barked from their right.

Green radiance blossomed on Bryony’s hands as she stormed inside the chamber, her spell enclosing Abraham and the witch’s inside a complex, multi-layered lattice. Penley’s eyes shone the same color as his mistress’s where he perched atop her shoulder. Violet rushed in with Trixie. A purple cage formed around the prison as she repeated the incantation.

The amorphous shape throbbed and writhed against the barriers restraining it. A crack appeared in Abraham’s sphere.

Mae’s stomach lurched.

Nikolai’s pupils flashed white. “Al, we need to draw on a ley line!”

The crow flapped his wings and squawked.

“No!” Panic made Mae’s voice harsher than she intended. “That’s going to drain your soul magic! Besides, I want this thing alive!”

Nikolai scowled. “I can contain it!”

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