Page 76 of Of Flames and Crows

“The soul of the first Sorcerer King is in theBook of Shadows?!” Roman gasped.

Mae nodded. “We think Vedran wants his soul for some reason.” She clenched her jaw. “What that reason is we still don’t know.”

Brimstone lifted his head from where he lay at Mae’s feet, his face alert. Nikolai startled when Alastair squawked out a warning on his shoulder. Tarang rose on all fours and snarled.

The building started to shake.

* * *

Mae jumped to her feet,her pulse quickening as she scanned the windows. “Is it an attack?!”

Brimstone’s crimson gaze followed hers.I don’t think so.

Mae silently castNullify.She frowned as the tremors intensified.

Brimstone was right. There were no black magic users nearby.

It’s an earthquake.A low growl vibrated through the fox’s chest.But it feels…unnatural.

Plaster dust rained down upon their heads. Movement on the ceiling caught Mae’s eye. She cursed and blocked Cortes with a barrier as a chandelier came crashing down toward him.

“We should get out of here!” Nikolai yelled.

They erected shields as they made their way out of the suite, Mae and the others protecting Vlad’s bodyguards and Cortes and Budimir’s men while they all headed for the fire escape. A crack tore up the wall of the stairwell when they started down the steps.

Alarm twisted Mae’s stomach. “Contain!”

The spell flooded her veins with heat as it exploded around her. It unfurled, spreading through the hotel and down to the foundations of the building. She clenched her teeth as she tried to hold together the spreading fissures.

Shit! It’s not enough!

Something brushed against her magic. Mae looked over at Roman, startled.

Power was building inside him.

Bright flames burst into life in his and Filomena’s eyes. Their cores ignited with a thump she could have sworn she heard.

“Fire Fusion!” Roman invoked.

Fire Magic bloomed around him and his familiar. It whooshed up and down the building, sparing living flesh and flammables. Budimir stared at his grandson, stunned.

A proud expression danced across Ludmila’s face. “Now, that’s what I’m talking about!”

Blood pounded in Mae’s veins when she felt Roman’s conjuration melt metal and bricks into a mixture that filled the expanding cracks like glue and rapidly solidified.

They made it out of the hotel in time to see a crevice tear down the main road and swallow several vehicles in its path. The overhead lines of a cable car snapped as it plunged into the gulf, the driver’s eyes round with terror behind the windshield.

“Levitate!” Mae shouted.

Crimson magic flickered in Brimstone’s pupils and around Hellreaver as their bond amplified her power. The cable car and the vehicles reappeared from the abyss inside shimmering, red spheres, the screams of their passengers drowned out by the chaos spreading across the city.

Mae clenched her teeth and carefully deposited them in an area unaffected by the destruction the earthquake was wreaking. She widened her stance as the ground continued quaking violently beneath them, her heart racing at what she sensed deep inside the earth.

Magic was bubbling underneath Prague. Magic that was out of control. Her eyes widened.

That’s—

“Shit!” Nikolai cursed, his face reflecting the same realization that had just struck her. “It’s Hellfire Magic!”

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