Page 36 of A Fury Of Shadows

“It won’t come to that.”

Abraham lowered his brows at her curt tone. “You still haven’t been able to undo Anya’s Illusion Sorcery. Vedran could just order him to subjugate you again.”

“Oh.” Violet offered him a contrite look. “We forgot to tell you what with everything that went down today. Mae succeeded in breaking Anya’s spell.”

Bryony went still.

Abraham’s eyes bulged. “She did?!”

“Yeah.” Mae started telling the witch and her aide how she’d used Cortes’s Arcane Magic to makeDissever. She stopped mid-explanation at the sight of their leaden expressions. “What?”

“Like I told you before, you say the most incredible things with the most blasé attitude,” Cortes muttered.

Serena’s lips twitched.

A familiar energy resonated against Mae’s core a second before a rift split the air behind the super soldier. Serena and her companions were on their feet in a heartbeat.

Alicia Calvarro stepped out of the portal. She looked up into the barrels of three guns and froze. Her pupils flashed crimson. Shadows fluttered into life around her as she prepared to transform.

“Wait!” Mae jumped up and stepped between Alicia and Serena. “She’s a friend.”

Alicia blinked. Recognition dawned in her eyes.

“Oh.” Serena lowered her gun. “It’s you. I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you for a second there.”

“You know this chick?” Lou said suspiciously.

“She’s the Queen of the Soul Reapers.”

Lou sobered. Tom paled.

Mae squinted. “You guys have met?”

Alicia studied Serena with a faint frown. “You’re the super soldier from that time I came to Chicago with Astarte, for that birthday…party…”

Serena and Alicia’s faces glazed over a little.

“Shit,” the Reaper Queen mumbled. “I did my best to forget what happened that day.”

“Don’t,” Serena groaned. “I still have nightmares about it.”

“Oh yeah. We were out of town that week,” Violet commented. “Wasn’t that when the chicken fought a helldragon? And someone broke Artemus’s favorite antique clock?” She grinned. “Also, didn’t Haruki accidentally flame the grounds when he was performing a party trick for the kids?”

“A chicken fought a helldragon?” Vlad said dully.

“She’s an undead chicken,” Miles explained, as if that made all the difference.

“An undead chicken?” Cortes repeated woodenly.

Brimstone’s ears twitched with interest.

“Her name is Gertrude.” Miles shuddered. “Don’t mess with her if she ever crosses your path.”

“I hear ten fire engines turned up at the mansion after Haruki nearly burned the whole place down,” Violet continued with barely suppressed glee. “Aunt Barbara got an earful from the mayor afterward.”

“Oh.” Bryony pursed her lips. “I heard about that party.”

“We have—demonscoming to Earth for birthday parties now?!” Abraham spluttered.

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