Page 65 of A Fury Of Shadows

Golden light blasted into life around Cortes as a burst of negative energy dragged them forward.

He scowled at Vlad. “We should raise our shields!”

Vlad nodded, his heart thumping. He drew on his incubus powers. Redness bloomed upon his and Tarang’s flesh. Violet and Miles erected protective walls in front of themselves and the super soldiers.

Serena dug her heels into the ground as Mae’s magic pulled at her body. She stiffened in the next instant. Vlad followed her unblinking stare. His breath caught.

A black and red vortex had formed around Mae, whipping up her hair and her clothes. Her eyes glowed with the same sinister light.

“It’s working!” Lou shouted.

Vlad’s chest tightened. The Sorcerer King’s magic was dissipating.

Mae ground her teeth, power throbbing around her with a force that made him lightheaded. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to lay claim to her heart.

It took over a minute for the barrier to vanish. The tempest settled, leaving a deathly hush. The silence was broken by the sounds of the forest as it came slowly back to life.

Mae panted, sweat beading her forehead. She dropped lightly to the ground, turned, and startled. “What happened to the cars?”

Vlad turned.

The SUVs had come to rest haphazardly in the mud after being hauled dozens of feet across the ground.

“You happened to them,” Cortes snapped.

“Oh.”

* * *

A Baroque palaceemerged from the tree line as they navigated the rutted driveway beyond the gates. It rose against the starlit sky, a pale presence lined with dark, foreboding windows.

It radiated the kind of oppressive silence that made it clear it had been abandoned for a while.

Lou shuddered. “That’s reassuringly creepy.”

Mae couldn’t agree more. Unease swirled through her as they pulled up into a courtyard brimming with weeds.

Why did Nikolai never tell me about this place?

By the sounds of it, he would’ve been a child when it was last in use, Brimstone observed.

They disembarked from the vehicles, Hellreaver humming nervously. He moved closer to Mae as they passed an elaborate fountain featuring gargoyles and demons eating each other in a never-ending cycle of death.

Shallow steps led to a portico flanked by columns and littered with debris and puddles of water.

The main doors were bolted closed, the padlock securing them rusted over. Just like the gates, they didn’t seem to be wired with any alarms. Serena crushed the lock with one hand and removed the tarnished metal chains wrapped around the handles. She pulled the doors open.

They creaked ominously, like the jaws of a freshly roused beast.

A chill coursed through Mae. She followed the super soldier into a cavernous entrance hall. It was cold and gloomy, the decor more frugal than she’d imagined it would be despite having witnessed the austere interior of the Dark Council’s mansion in the city.

“Charming,” Serena muttered.

She put her hands on her hips and examined the distant cupola crowning the four-story-high vestibule. Moonlight streamed through the grimy, stained glass in the vaulted ceiling. The fractured shards illuminated the grand staircase dominating the foyer. It bifurcated on a main landing before rising to the upper floors.

“We should split up,” the super soldier said.

Vlad tagged along with Mae as she headed up the stairs, her crimson spell bomb lighting their way. Though he didn’t say anything, she could tell he was still vaguely annoyed with her for usingAbsorb.

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