Page 104 of A Fury Of Shadows

Crimson trembled around Hellreaver. A terrible whine escaped him.

The sound he made when he cracked stopped Mae’s world.

Brimstone yowled as Hellreaver came apart in two, disbelief dulling the light in his eyes.

TheBook of Lightfell out of the weapon, its edge gleaming as it caught the moonlight. Vedran dove and snatched the artifact.

“HELL FLARE!” Nikolai bellowed.

A black and red firestorm engulfed the Sorcerer King. He cursed and invokedVoid.

Wrath seared Mae’s veins. “CHAOS SEAL! PURGE!”

The spells detonated around her, filling the room with a storm of crimson magic. The windows exploded. The walls cracked. The castle trembled.

Vedran grunted as he vanished from view with his dark sword and theBook of Light, pain underscoring his voice.

A buzzing sound filled Mae’s ears in the aftermath of his disappearance. Her gaze found Hellreaver. He had returned to his pendant form and lay in two pieces on the floor.

“Hellreaver?” she whispered brokenly.

Brimstone nudged the weapon with his snout, deep shudders shaking him, his throat choked with whimpers.

Mae dropped down, stumbled, and fell onto her hands and knees. She crawled to Hellreaver and gathered him with trembling fingers. He lay unmoving in her palms, metal cold and voices silent. Her chest tightened until she could barely breathe. She ground her teeth, drew on her magic, and invoked the spell that had allowed her to heal Nikolai and Vlad’s fatal injuries in Philadelphia.

“ASSIMILATE!”

The incantation fizzled into nothingness. Hellreaver stayed still.

A sob left Mae when she felt the absence of his bond deep in her cores.

“No! No!No!”

Nikolai knelt behind her and took her in his arms as she rocked and screamed out her denial, Na Ri’s wail of agony echoing through her soul. Brimstone threw his head back and howled.

Vlad stumbled into view in the doorway of the suite, Cortes and the others behind him.

Horror drained the blood from their faces when they saw Hellreaver’s remains.

CHAPTER38

Mae wokeup to Nikolai’s arms wrapped around her waist. She blinked blearily at the clock on the bedside table of her old bedroom, in her parents’ house in Flushing. It was six-thirty in the morning.

She settled down on the pillow and hugged Brimstone to her chest. He stirred, his heartbeat strong and steady against her hands. Like her, the fox had barely slept last night.

They both gazed wordlessly at the small box on the dresser. It contained Hellreaver’s remains. The weapon was as still and as silent as the day Vedran had smashed him to pieces.

Mae’s throat clogged up.I miss him so much, Brim!

The fox whined and licked the tears tumbling down her cheeks. The sound woke Nikolai. He stiffened before relaxing against her.

“Want to go for a walk?” he said softly against her nape.

Mae wiped her face and nodded.

Daylight was peeking over the horizon when they stepped out of the house, the rest of her family still fast asleep. The guards on night watch greeted them with silent nods as they walked out of the front gate.

Even though there had been no sign of the Sorcerer King or the Dark Council in the past week, Noah Tegner and his team were still assigned to Mae’s family as their protection detail. No one could be sure there wouldn’t be any retaliation for what had happened in Poland.

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