Page 5 of The Party

Mae blinked. Oh. There’s someone with a magic core.

It must be the witch who lives here, Brimstone said.

“Mae?” Nikolai gave her a puzzled look as he took a couple of bags off Caspian.

She flashed him a distracted smile and went to help Mila. “It’s nothing.”

Brimstone tensed by Mae’s side. Alastair made a warning sound on Nikolai’s shoulder.

The ground began trembling.

Magic flooded Mae’s bloodstream and quickened her pulse. Nikolai’s face tightened, white sparks dancing around his fingertips.

“It’s okay,” Mila said hastily. “This is just,” she stopped and grimaced, “—you’ll see in a second.”

The sound of a stampede reached Mae and Nikolai before they could ask her what she meant.

A purple helldragon shot around the side of the mansion.

He darted past them, braked in a shower of dirt and grass, and reversed until he drew abreast.

“Oh. Hi, Mae. Hi, Niko!” Vozgan said cheerfully, hopping from one foot to the other.

Nikolai coughed and waved at the dust clouds thickening the air. He frowned at the helldragon.

“I distinctly recall ordering you not to call me that.”

“Don’t be such a kill joy,” Vozgan retorted, unfazed.

Brimstone went over to greet the helldragon.

Mae’s scalp prickled when she felt a fearsome presence approaching.

A chocolate-colored Rex rabbit appeared around the corner. He shot past them, legs a blur and a red glint in his limpid brown eyes.

Brimstone froze. He followed the creature unblinkingly with his gaze, ears cocked and body leaning eagerly forward.

“Hey, wait for me!” Vozgan protested. He started after the rabbit. “See you later, Brimbrim!”

Mae stared. “Was that?—?”

“Smokey the Hellhound?” Mila said. “Yeah, it was.”

“He’s cute,” Nikolai grunted.

“Dude, that bunny will lose his shit if you tell him that,” Caspian warned.

It seems this place is full of hot-blooded fools, my witch, Hellreaver said uneasily.

He’d returned to his pendant form and was hugging her sweater grimly.

Mae decided not to remind him that her life was also full of hot-blooded fools and he was the worst one among them. She’d just taken a bag from Mila when a terrifying squawk made her and Nikolai jump.

Mae clutched her chest and an equally startled Hellreaver.

“What the hell was that?!” Nikolai snapped.

An orange chicken with a lopsided neck and an ominous aura came into view. She dashed past them, tattered wings flapping menacingly as she chased after the helldragon and the rabbit.

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