Page 20 of Of Flames and Crows

“What exactly are you looking for?” the woman asked hesitantly.

She shot a wary glance at Brimstone.

“Signs that they were killed with black magic,” Mae replied distractedly.

The Salem witch blanched.

Mae ignored her. She’d already picked up on a faint trace of the sinister energy she’d detected when she’d examined Candice Reese’s missing core.

You feel that?

Brimstone propped his forelegs on the edge of Philip Glass’s coffin. A low growl rumbled from his chest as he took a careful inhale.Yes.

Mae found the circular burn mark Candice Reese’s corpse had exhibited on both Glass siblings.

“That’s where the spell that killed them entered their bodies?” Violet asked quietly as she observed the blemish on Philip Glass’s abdomen.

“I think so.”

Mae had seen the reports of the autopsies that had been carried out on the siblings, courtesy of Jared accessing them through his connections in the Immortal societies. The scorch areas on the surface of their intestines and their missing blood had been written up as unexplained findings.

She knew the cops would never find the culprits behind the murders.

Mae fisted her hands and searched the worktops in the room with her gaze. She spotted what she was looking for, slipped on a pair of examination gloves, and carried the items over to Robin Glass’s coffin.

The Salem witch startled. “What are you doing with those?”

“I’m going to examine her artery.”

“I—I can’t let you do that!” the woman protested.

“It’ll be all right,” Miles reassured the shocked witch. “She knows what she’s doing.”

Mae exposed Robin Glass’s neck, placed a kidney dish against her cold skin, and made a short incision over her left carotid. She clamped off a section of the vessel and carefully drained the embalming fluid within it before spreading the stiff walls open.

The hairs rose on her nape when she spied the same weird lesions she’d spotted in Candice Reese’s carotid and femoral arteries.

Violet peered over her shoulder. “What are those?”

Miles narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t they…blisters?”

Mae’s pulse quickened at the sorcerer’s words. “You’re right! I couldn’t figure out what they were.”

Her mind raced as she tried to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

Fire Magic and an imploded core. So, the blisters can only mean—

Bile burned the back of Mae’s throat when realization finally dawned.

“The lack of lividity makes sense now,” she mumbled numbly.

Violet and Miles stared at her, confused.

In what way?Brimstone said guardedly.

Mae’s heart slammed violently against her ribs. “I think their blood boiled and evaporated inside their bodies.”

CHAPTER9

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