Page 60 of A Fury Of Shadows

A keyhole opened in the compass where none had been before.

Oscar gasped. Vedran leaned forward, his expression rapt. A muscle jumped in Rose’s jawline.

The compass shuddered violently in Nikolai’s grip.

It was trying to resist him.

He scowled, drew on his and Alastair’s combined powers, and blasted the artifact with the full strength of their magic on a roar that made birds take flight from the surrounding trees.

The air exploded in front of him with awhoomphthat stole his breath and doused the lanterns on the pier and the flaming torches across the castle grounds.

Waves swelled on the lake. They surged toward the opposite shore, invisible but for their foam-tipped edges. The trees on the island groaned, roots poking through the soil under the weight of the violent storm sweeping across them. The cloud cover broke on an outward ripple that exposed a star-bright firmament and a gibbous moon.

The Moon Magic he’d inherited from his mother responded to the bright orb, augmenting the Hellfire Magic he was pouring into the compass.

A black hole some two-feet wide materialized above the artifact. Nikolai’s pulse stuttered. The edges of the rift fluttered in the destructive maelstrom it was wreaking upon this world.

Something danced into view inside it.

He blinked.Is that a—?!

“Take it!” Vedran barked. “Take the book!”

Nikolai shot a glance at his father.

The Sorcerer King’s features were twisted in a hungry grimace that was overshadowed by the fanatical light in his eyes. Oscar stood ashen-faced and slack-jawed beside him. But it was the woman standing behind them that captured Nikolai’s attention in that instant.

Rage lit Rose’s pupils with an unholy red light.

The black hole whined, drawing Nikolai’s startled gaze.

“Take the goddamn book!”Vedran bellowed.

Nikolai ground his teeth and reached inside the rift, unable to disobey his father’s command. An icy void wrapped around his flesh. His fingers closed on something smooth and dry. He yanked the object out a second before the portal shuddered and closed.

The lake stopped churning. The branches in the trees stilled, the last of their broken twigs and leaves fluttering to the ground. The whole world seemed to hold its breath as Nikolai stared dazedly at the object in his hands, his heart pounding against his ribs.

It was a black book. One that looked like hundreds of others in the Dark Council’s library.

Is this thing really the fabledBook of Shadows?!

Vedran snatched the artifact from his grasp before he could react. He flipped it open and stilled. Confusion rounded his pupils. He stood frozen for a timeless moment.

A shudder finally shook him. His arms dropped slackly by his sides, his eyes dead. The pages of the book fluttered in his hand.

Nikolai’s chest tightened. They were empty.

The truth struck him like lightning as he watched the Sorcerer King’s thunderous face. “It’s a fake, isn’t it?”

Oscar jerked at Nikolai’s low mumble.

Rose closed her eyes, her shoulders sagging.

Black magic detonated around Vedran. He opened his mouth and howled out his fury.

Corruption swamped the island, an oppressive force that caused the guards atop the castle walls and in the grounds to faint. Oscar choked and clawed at his throat. Even Rose flinched.

The only thing that stopped Nikolai’s knees from hitting the ground was the Moon Magic and white magic barrier his core had automatically erected around him and Alastair.

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