Page 82 of Midnight Witch

Anya Mendes looked barely conscious where she hung limply from the shackles biting into her wrists.

Sable released an unholy sound of wrath.

Fury filled Mae’s heart. The witch’s torn, white dress exposed heavily bruised, cut skin. It was clear she’d been badly tortured.

Magic seared Mae’s veins on a crimson wave that pulsed across the basement. It lifted the startled sorcerers and witches fighting Brimstone and Hellreaver off their feet and sent them smashing into the walls.

Sable flew ahead of Mae as she crossed the floor.

Anya lifted her head weakly. Her eyes rounded at the sight of her familiar flapping her wings frenziedly outside the barrier. She froze when she saw Mae. An emotion Mae hadn’t expected to see drained what little color the witch possessed from her face. Anya shouted something Mae couldn’t make out, her trepidation evident as she struggled against the chains holding her prisoner.

Mae unleashedNegatewhile Cortes, Brimstone, and Hellreaver took care of Oscar’s subordinates. The barrier quivered violently when she slammed the spell into it.

It resisted her attack.

She clenched her teeth. She could taste Oscar and Vedran’s magic in the wall. Her bond with Brimstone and Hellreaver bloomed with an incandescent, red light as she drew on the power of three.

Mae raised a hand toward Cortes. “Shield!”

A scarlet guard detonated in front of a startled Cortes and Popo.

She conjured the next spell on the same breath. “Absorb!”

The witches and sorcerers of the Dark Council shuddered and fell to their knees as her spell consumed the magic inside their cores. The black barrier around the pillar wavered and started to dissipate,Absorbexhausting the power keeping it up.

Anya’s voice finally reached Mae.

“Don’t let him touch the altar!” she cried out.

Mae froze. “What?!”

Anya’s eyes filled with tears, her expression one of torment and regret. “There’s a second enchantment in the altar meant for Nikolai Stanisic! If he touches the stone, he’ll trigger it! Even if the altar breaks, that spell will stay in effect!”

Fear weakened Mae’s knees. She swallowed down the panic choking her throat.

“Hellreaver, free her!”

The weapon shot across the basement and carved through the shackles holding Anya to the pillar. The chains clattered to the ground.

Sable flew into her witch’s arms.

Anya sobbed and hugged her familiar tightly to her chest. “Sable!” She squeezed her eyes shut briefly before meeting Mae’s stricken gaze. “Stop him before he touches the altar! I’ll try and retract my magic from down here!”

Mae twisted around. “Enrique, help her!”

Cortes nodded and hurried over.

His Arcane Magic warmed Mae’s back as she ran for the exit with Brimstone and Hellreaver. A single thought filled her mind while her sluggish legs carried her up the winding stairs.

Please! Please, don’t let me be too late!

* * *

Nikolai duckedbeneath a demon’s swinging arm and narrowly avoided the claws that would have shredded his face. He stabbed the monster in the chest, pressed his foot against the creature’s body when it fell to the ground, and tore out his bloodied spear.

A wave of demons and hellbeasts lunged toward him.

Moon Magic and Hellfire Magic heated up his core and lit Alastair’s eyes. He raised a hand at them.

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