Page 95 of Immortal Burden

I could see her straining, her face scrunched up in concentration, her muscles drawn taut.

The cuffs slowly extended, inch by inch, up his lower legs. She was trying to trap him wholly, because, even rooted to the spot, he was still doing major damage, his Hellfire raging, his magic firing wildly all over the place in a violent fury.

She needed to release him, banish him from the grounds rather than continuing to confine him here.

Did she possess the power to do that, though?

She might be half-Immortal, but Draco was pure Immortal. I wasn’t sure what she was capable of in this capacity and, judging by her lack of good strategy, neither was she.

I gestured at Thomas and Louise, demanding of him, “Let them go. Your fight’s not with them.”

His almost completely white eyes drilled into mine, studying me. “You are Martel’s black sheep.” His eyes shone. “A true prodigy.” He moved to step forward, grunting angrily when Mia’s magic held him in place.

She groaned at the additional effort his attempted movement was causing her.

Shit. She wasn’t going to last much longer.

There was no one else around, no other magic-wielders remaining, aside from Thomas and Louise who were tapped out.

There were dropped bodies everywhere, at least two dozen, that I’d tried not to focus on. I couldn’t afford an emotional response, not while I was currently facing down with the monster just twenty feet from me.

I needed to do something, to help Mia.

But I had to get Thomas and Louise the hell out of here first. From what I’d seen, it looked like they were the only two Coven Heads left. If they died, the coven would cease to be.

Aside from what the Maven Coven meant to me on a personal level, the people who’d saved me from the dark path my father had intended for me, my surrogate family, it was a vital pillar in the magical community, in the supernatural world, as a whole, actually.

“Your lover is near,” Draco stated.

My gaze inadvertently went to Mia.

“Not her.”

Lucian?

He was talking about Lucian?

No, he had to be mistaken.

Lucian was far away by now. Safe.

“I look forward to the both of you joining me.”

Joining him? What the ever-loving-fuck? “You’re deranged.”

He merely smiled, amused, rather than offended. He had that same infuriating know-it-all expression that Cornelius had ninety-percent of the time, the look that said he knew more than the rest of us.

“Martel has you both bound by a leash. I will sever it.”

He tensed in the next second, clearly sensing something.

A blur of movement streaked across the area covering the distance in a split second.

It leaped over the wall of fire, snatched up Thomas and Louise, and hauled them clear of the fire, depositing them in front of me.

I’d barely managed to adjust my eyes when it stilled to realize who it was, when Lucian’s voice called out with an urgent command, “Now, Ryker!”

Instantly, I knew what he was asking. Now the Hellfire was no longer blocking me, I could use my magic on them.

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