Page 36 of Witch Queen

Nadia grinned and gave them a thumbs up. “Break a leg.”

Ephra cut her eyes to the Sun Magic High Priestess.

“I really wish you’d let me come with you,” Roman said dejectedly.

Mae made a face. “Ludmila will burn the city down if I do that. And Budimir will probably light the torch for her.” She looked at Bryony and Abraham. “Hold the fort while I’m gone, will you?”

Bryony frowned. “We will. Say hello to Astarte for me.”

“Don’t do anything too crazy,” Abraham murmured.

Magic exploded around Violet and Miles as they incantedShield. The maelstrom of purple and gold flowed along the outer edge of the circle before rising to fuse into a dome that surrounded Mae and the three men.

The witch and the sorcerer stabbed their weapons into the edge of the barrier and brought forth the divine energy they had inherited by virtue of their alliance with their friends in Chicago.

A shimmering, translucent layer covered the shield. Bryony and everyone else poured their powers into it.

“Whenever you’re ready!” Violet shouted above the violent hum of magic filling the underground space.

Brightness bloomed in Nikolai and Alastair’s eyes. A scarlet haze enveloped Vlad and Tarang. Gold flared on Cortes’s skin and in his and Popo’s pupils.

Mae took a deep breath and called forth the power that was hers and hers alone to wield. The basement trembled as a tempest of crimson laced with black and white flashed into life around her and Brimstone.

She placed a hand on Cortes’s stomach. He met her resolute gaze, clenched his jaw, and dipped his head.

Mae’s heart thumped as she drew on her bond with Brimstone. She focused his mind into her connection with Cortes’s core, Na Ri bolstering the link with her own memories.

A moment passed.

The sorcerer drew a sharp breath.

“I—I can see it!” he mumbled dazedly, his eyes growing unfocused. “I can see their memories of Hell!”

“Now!” Mae ground out.

She invokedLevitateandContainjust as Vlad and Nikolai pressed their hands to her back.

Arcane Magic pulsed from Cortes and Popo.

“DISTORT!” the sorcerer barked.

The world twisted dizzyingly around them. The basement vanished. There was a blistering sensation of speed.

They emerged on the edge of a battlefield filled with the war cries of a thousand demons and hellbeasts.

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

Vlad’s heartthundered violently in his chest as he stared at the hellish landscape before them from where they bobbed inside Mae’s spells.

They were in an immense valley ringed by dark, towering peaks. Rivers of lava spouted from their summits in violent eruptions, filling the air with clouds of smoke and acrid sulfur. The yellow haze hid the distant sky and blanketed the dark forests covering the flanks of the mountains.

His stunned gaze switched to the two armies fighting one another viciously in the cradle of the valley. The ground trembled as giant beasts clashed horns and tusks and claws, the demons sitting astride them bellowing orders to their troops while they tore into the winged enemies surrounding them with their weapons.

“What kind of amusement park did Artemus Steele go to when he was a kid?” Nikolai said hoarsely.

Vlad had to agree. It was a scene from another world. A nightmarish one where monsters ruled and only the strongest and most vicious among them survived.

Tarang made a soft sound and pressed closer to him. Vlad touched the tiger’s head and swallowed past the lump in his throat.

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