Page 7 of Of Flames and Crows

Abraham rubbed his temple where he stood beside Bryony’s chair. Mae was eyeing the sandwiches next to Bryony with some interest when she became conscious of a battery of jaundiced stares.

“What?” she said defensively.

The only ones not scrutinizing her with outright suspicion were Raven Quinn, the L.A. coven High Priestess, Simon Roth, the recently appointed head of the Atlanta coven, and Isabelle West, the Phoenix coven High Priestess. Raven was busy typing on her computer, Simon was still new to his role, and Isabelle pretty much owed Mae her life.

“Does this mean you broke the law again getting here?” Gerard Mosele asked in a clipped voice.

The Orlando coven High Priest looked like he’d bitten into a lemon.

Mae grimaced. “How about you guys put some faith in your Witch Queen, huh?”

Derrick Adlington, the High Priest of the Baton Rouge coven, rolled his eyes. Armand Duprey, the secretary of the High Council, mumbled something under his breath. Ephra Erwin, the High Priestess of the Houston coven, started drumming her fingers on her desk.

Mae’s stomach grumbled. Bryony pushed the tray of sandwiches in her direction.

“It’s exactly because we know you that he said that,” she said, tight-lipped. “Besides, the fox looks like he’s been in some kind of wind tunnel.”

Hellreaver tittered. Brimstone gave Mae a baleful look and shook out his errant fur.

Abraham’s phone buzzed with an incoming text. He looked at the screen and scowled. “Jared says he wants to have a word with you. Apparently, there’s some traffic cop yelling in his ear about his VIP’s speeding infractions.”

“I thought he was taking care of those,” Mae told the sorcerer guiltily around a mouthful of pastrami sandwich.

“He means tonight’s traffic offenses,” Abraham ground out.

“Jesus,” Derrick muttered.

“Oh.” Mae swallowed. “So, what were you guys talking about?” she said brightly.

Bryony pinched the bridge of her nose. “We were having a discussion about theBook of Lightand its key.”

Hellreaver flinched when everyone in the room and on the conference screen flashed a pointed look his way.

Once a powerful, white-magic grimoire used for theRites of Passage, an obsolete oath witches and sorcerers used to have to take in the past, theBook of Lightwas in fact a compass that could lead to theBook of Shadows, the grimoire in which Azazel had sealed the soul of the first Sorcerer King. Normally under the guard of the Council of the Moon in Prague, theBook of Lighthad been brought to Philadelphia at the behest of the High Council so they could convince Mae to perform the banished ritual that would have bound her to them.

It had turned out the Dark Council had been behind the entire scheme and the white-magic grimoire had ended up being stolen by Oscar Beneventi, the current Sorcerer King’s son and heir, shortly after the Council of the Moon had arrived in Philadelphia.

Barquiel had injured Mae during the fight that had taken place at the hotel where the covenstead was being held and given the sample of her blood he’d stolen to Dietrich Farago to inject into the black-magic and demon-DNA virus the Immortal scientist had created. Only Azazel or someone of his bloodline could unlock the secret of theBook of Lightand Mae’s genetic material had done the trick. The completed virus had been used on the Philadelphia coven witches and sorcerers the Dark Council had captured and enabled their possession by the ghouls who had turned the grimoire into the artifact it truly was.

Mae, Nikolai, Vlad, and their allies had successfully retrieved the compass during their showdown with the Dark Council, though not without incurring some heavy damage. As for the skeleton key needed to operate theBook of Light, it had come into Nikolai’s possession when he’d purged the soul of a ghoul-possessed witch in New York. Unfortunately, Hellreaver had gnawed on the thing while it had been in his charge, rendering it unusable.

“What about theBook of Lightand the key?” Mae said warily.

“Karin is proposing letting the other covens take a look at the skeleton key to see if it can be fixed.” Ephra raised a hand when Mae opened her mouth to protest. “I know. It was forged in Hell and the chances of us being able to repair it are slim at best, but we have to try something.”

Mae swallowed the objection bubbling up her throat. The skeleton key remained in her possession at a secret location. As for the compass, Brimstone had temporarily swallowed it for safe keeping.

“Vedran intimated that there were other ways to find theBook of Shadows,” Derrick said. “We need to find that grimoire before he does.” The High Priest’s brows drew together. “God only knows how powerful he will become if he manages to use the soul of the first Sorcerer King.”

Mae chewed her lip. They weren’t wrong.

Given that the original Sorcerer King had managed to defeat Azazel and Ran Soyun with Barquiel’s help, the thought of the first dark magic user’s soul in Vedran’s possession was enough to give anyone nightmares.

“Alright, I’ll get you the key,” she said reluctantly.

“By the way, does anyone know how Nikolai’s training is going?” Isabelle asked.

Bryony shook her head. “Not in great detail. All Marlena said when I last spoke to her was that it was coming along well.”

---