Page 107 of A Fury Of Shadows

Since no one had seen what happened, Mae was unsure if Oscar had deserted Drabek of his own free will or if he had been forced to leave the lynx behind. The only one who knew the answer was the sorcerer.

And probably Vedran. He’s the only person who could have gotten through Nikolai’s magic.

Rage simmered in Mae’s blood at the thought of the man who had robbed her of Hellreaver. Not only had Vedran broken the weapon Azazel had had forged for her, he’d also gotten his hands on theBook of Light, which meant he was one step closer to finding theBook of Shadowsand the soul of the first Sorcerer King.

It was upon their return to New York that Nikolai had told her the shocking truth she had long suspected. Vedran had been siphoning his and Alastair’s Hellfire Magic directly from their cores.

Mae didn’t realize magic was seeping from her pores until Tarang bobbed past her line of vision. Brimstone, Trixie, and Millie clung grimly to the tiger.

She startled and looked around.

Popo, Shiloh, and Penley floated near the ceiling. Everyone else bar Alicia was barely hanging on to their seats.

Mae retracted her magic guiltily. “Sorry.”

The crimson haze filling the air faded. Penley landed nimbly on Bryony’s lap. The coven’s healers had fixed the cat’s broken leg.

Bryony looked relieved as gravity took over. “You haven’t done that in a while.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a bit vexed these days,” Mae muttered. She looked at Jared. “Did Serena deliver Dietrich to the Immortals?”

“He’s under lock and key, awaiting his trial.” Jared’s face tightened. “I’m pretty sure he’ll get the death sentence. That bastard has a rap sheet that could fill an entire room in my precinct. He has six more lives left. He will be executed until his final death.”

Mae shuddered. Serena had told her the likely fate awaiting Dietrich after she and Tom had captured the Immortal. Since Immortals could survive sixteen deaths, a death sentence meant they would be killed, allowed to revive, and killed again. It was a gruesome way to go and not a decision the Immortal societies took lightly. Considering Dietrich’s crimes over the centuries, it was what he deserved.

Serena had made a gruesome discovery in the bolthole where she and Tom had cornered the Immortal. It had been home to several tanks holding the dismembered remains of decades-old, first-generation super soldiers. It seemed Dietrich had ferreted them away from the primary facility where they had been kept and used them in his macabre experiments.

No one could tell if the super soldiers had still been alive at the time the Immortal had taken them captive.

As for the enhanced devils Dietrich had created, Serena and the super soldiers had spent a couple of days hunting down the fiends who’d managed to escape the island. If not for the Immortals’ satellite network, the monsters would have reached the closest village in the mountains.

Cortes eyed Alicia cautiously. “Any sign of Barquiel in the Underworld?”

The Columbian looked more relaxed than before they’d left New York. All it had taken was a near death experience for his girlfriend to forgive him.

The Reaper Queen shot a glance at Mae. “WhereverChaos Sealsent him, it’s not any of the places I’ve searched in Hell Deep.”

Tension knotted Mae’s shoulders. She hoped Barquiel never resurfaced.

“Do you think he’s dead?” Vlad asked Alicia warily.

“No.”

The Reaper Queen’s answer squashed Mae’s vain hopes.

“He’s an Archduke of Hell,” she continued. “Besides, I would know if he’d perished. And the news would have spread through the Underworld like, well, fire.”

Mae licked her lips, her pulse quickening. “What of Ran Soyun and Azazel? Has Astarte’s alliance found any sign of where they might be?”

Alicia hesitated. “A demon thought he spotted your father on the edge of Arakiel’s domain, a few weeks ago.”

“Arakiel?” Nikolai repeated.

“The Second Leader of the Grigori,” Cortes muttered. “He’s a fallen angel who used to go by the name Earth of God.” He narrowed his eyes at their stares. “I was curious, so I read up about them.”

Alicia grimaced. “Arakiel’s an ornery bastard. I’m planning to check in with him soon.”

“And the devils Astarte and her allies had spotted in Hell Deep?” Abraham asked stiffly. “Have they discovered anything about them?”

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