Page 34 of A Fury Of Shadows

Abraham Whitworth frowned. From the guarded look he was giving Serena and the two men, it seemed Violet and Bryony had been as scant with the truth with the aide as they had been with Mae.

The chamber doors opened. Brimstone perked up.

A retinue of kitchen staff came in with serving carts. Half were laden with steak and other raw meats, as well as platters of fruit and seeds for the non-carnivorous familiars.

Brimstone, Hellreaver, and Tarang headed briskly over. To Mae’s relief, the tiger looked to have fully recovered from Oscar’s debilitating spell.

She became aware of a stare. Bryony was watching her with a worried expression.

“What’s wrong?” Mae said.

The High Priestess waved a vague hand at the gourmet lunch her staff were laying out on a dining table. “Your stomach would normally have growled at least half a dozen times by now. Are you okay?”

Mae grimaced. “I have acid.”

It was only after they’d finished eating that she finally got to ask the super soldiers the burning questions that had occupied her mind all morning.

“How did you know we were going to be attacked?” She fixed Serena with a sharp stare. “You said Artemus Steele sent you. How did he find out Oscar and Barquiel were going to be in New York today?”

The super soldier took a leisurely sip of her coffee before replying. “We have our own seer.”

Cortes stiffened. Mae knew he was thinking of Raya Medeiros, his aunt and the woman who had shattered his core and killed his first familiar when he was sixteen in a bid to dethrone him from his rightful role as the next High Priest of the Medellin coven.

Raya had been the Sorcerer King’s seer. Cortes had killed her with his own hands a few months ago, in Prague.

Serena glanced at the Columbian. “She’s not that kind of seer. Lily is of divine lineage. She inherited her powers of prophecy from the archangel who gave rise to the Immortal races.”

Goosebumps broke out on Mae’s skin. Violet had hinted at what the woman who led the Immortals could do. She was destined to be a major player in the war at the End of Days, just as Mae and Artemus Steele were.

Serena must have seen the trepidation in her eyes.

“We should technically not be assisting you,” she admitted quietly. “Artemus and his companions had to fight their own battles before the Immortals revealed themselves to them.” A cynical smile curved her lips briefly. “And us.” She looked over at Lou and Tom. “We had to overcome our demons too. It seems our path was predestined to cross Artemus’s and that of the people who rescued us from a fate worse than death when we were but children.”

The super soldier met Mae’s tense stare. “To answer your question, Lily had a vision of us fighting alongside you in New York and Europe. That’s how she knew this was inevitable. And she was pretty adamant that you not fall into your enemy’s hands.”

CHAPTER13

Serena removedsomething from her jacket and passed it to Mae.

Mae stared. It was a thin, metal bracelet. She took it, puzzled.

The jewelry was plain and made of a material she’d never seen before. One that warmed her palm and glistened as if it contained a source of light deep within it.

“What is this?”

Hellreaver nudged the bangle curiously with the edge of a blade.

Brimstone took a careful sniff of it.I smell divine energy in this, my witch.

“Lily asked Artemus to forge it for you,” Serena said. “It’s an artifact that will allow you,” she glanced at Brimstone and Hellreaver, “and them to resist the magic-infused, nanorobot collars they wanted to enslave you with.”

Mae’s eyes widened.

“So I was right.” Violet’s expression had grown flinty. “That thing Oscar put around Mae’s neck was made of nanorobots.”

“Jeez,” Miles muttered. “Looks like I missed quite the party.”

Mae’s pulse quickened as she studied Serena. “The devils we fought today. They had nanorobots inside them too, didn’t they?”

---