Page 81 of A Fury Of Shadows

“What’s wrong?” Anya said, puzzled.

Sable screeched, startling her.

Erik jumped to his feet. “Shield!”

His bracelet shifted into a spear. Blue-green magic brightened his eyes and weapon as he erected a dome around them a second before violent tremors started shaking the building.

Bryony stood up unsteadily, her heart racing. Her ring morphed into a sword. Penley’s pupils flashed green.

“Is it—is it an earthquake?!” Anya shouted.

An alarm started blaring. Corruption oozed into the air.

“That’s Barquiel’s power!” Regina growled.

Abraham removed his cell from his pocket and tapped the screen. He stumbled and caught himself on a chair. A scowl darkened his face.

“The Dark Council’s in the foyer!” He cursed. “All the camera feeds just died!”

“Let’s go!” Bryony barked.

She led the charge as they ran out of the meeting chambers and made their way to the reception, the ground trembling alarmingly underneath their feet.

A group of sorcerers and witches had taken refuge under the desk in the waiting area. Brent Perkins, the man who managed the floor, gave Bryony a frightened look.

“Evacuate the building!” she ordered. “Get as many people out as you can!”

Perkins nodded tremulously.

Bryony took the stairs, Regina at her side.

“What do you think they’re after?” the Vegas coven witch said in a hard voice.

“I don’t know.” Bryony clenched her jaw. “I guess we’ll find out when we get to the bottom.”

It felt like a lifetime before they reached the first floor.

Acid burned the back of Bryony’s mouth when they emerged into the entrance lobby. Bodies littered the floor, some dead, most thankfully only injured and unconscious.

“Where is it?!” Oscar screeched. He was holding a struggling sorcerer by the throat in the middle of the concourse, black magic bubbling around his fingers and in his eyes, his lynx familiar hissing at his feet. “Where is theBook of Light, you insects?!”

So, that’s what they’re after!

Fury filled Bryony’s veins and ignited her core. An emerald blaze whooshed into life around her and Penley. She concentrated it into a powerful spell bomb.

“Release him!” she bellowed.

Her attack smashed into Oscar’s flank. He cursed, his grip slipping on the sorcerer he held as he was shoved aside. His lynx whirled around and bared her teeth at Bryony.

“Contain!” Abraham incanted furiously.

A golden bubble formed around the barely conscious man who fell from Oscar’s grasp.

Oscar straightened and glared at them. “You think that’s enough to stop us, witch?!” He scanned the foyer and the dozens of Dark Council sorcerers and witches filling it before fixing Bryony with an ice-cold sneer. “I can bring this building down on your heads with a snap of my fingers. So, how about you give me what I’m looking for and I might just do Mae Jin a favor and not kill all of you!”

Eerie magic washed across Bryony, raising goosebumps on her flesh. She glanced over her shoulder.

Blue flames sizzled in Anya and Sable’s eyes and around their bodies. The witch’s face was contorted with rage. The Illusion Sorcery she unleashed exploded across the lobby with a thump that made Bryony’s ears throb.

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