Page 1 of The Witch Queen of Halloween (Immortals After Dark 20)

PROLOGUE

NewOrleans

Halloween

“Apriestess, a sorceress, and aValkyriemeet in a graveyard,”NïxtheEver-Knowingsaid to her two visitors when they joined her atop a mausoleum roof. “Ican’t remember the punchline.Isit . . .sex?”

Bertil, the bat she carried on her shoulder, flapped his little wings.Batlaughter.

Loathe voodoo priestess sighed atNïx’sappearance.TheValkyriesoothsayer wore a plasticVikinghat with one horn missing, a pair of bell-bottoms, and no shoes or shirt.Twothick braids covered her breasts, the jet-black plaits gleaming in the waning light of the day.

Froma distance, aLykae’showl sounded, and thunder rumbled in waves.ThisHalloweenwould prove a night ripe for fate.

“Thespirits told me you were here,Valkyrie,”Loasaid, her accent tinged with notes of a warm island paradise. “You’relooking a fright.”IfNïxwas a fright, the priestess was a sight—dressed in a red number with a slit up the thigh to show off her knee-high boots. “Areyou well?”

“I’mdoing better than theQueenofEvil.”Nïxhiked a thumb atLaDorada. “Shealmost lost her life to a human last year, and it set back all of her regeneration.”

“Anunfounded rumor,”Doradasaid, though her life actually had been in jeopardy.Witha nonchalant air, she smoothed her long, black mane and gold dust trickled down.Hermystical ring, one that granted wishes (with a catch), glinted in the last rays of the sun.

Nïxasked her, “Andhow did you find me,Dorada?”

“Onlybecause you wanted to be found,” she answered, her speech vibrating from a translator spell. “Somethingwicked rises,Valkyrie.Almostas wicked asI, andIwalk in apocalypse.”Shedidn’t walk alone.Severalof her undeadWendigosprowled among the crypts below, licking their lips for the taste of fresh corpses.

Loacast an annoyed glance at the sorceress.Thetwo weren’t fans of each other.Forone thing, like many in theLore,Loaowed a debt to her—because of a granted wish—and no one knew whenDoradawould collect on those debts.

Foranother, the sorceress’s recent rising after centuries of mummification did in fact herald the end of this mortal realm.

Apocalypse. . .soon?

Itdidn’t help thatDoradawas a prickly sort of evil.Or, asLoaput it: “Thatsorceress woke on the wrong side of the sarcophagus.”

So, naturally,Loaplotted to assassinate her.Butwhat was a touch of murder between colleagues?

NowLoatoldNïx, “Ifwe’ve been feeling this disturbance, you must have.MariketatheAwaiteddispatched someone on a mission tonight, and the fallout could be catastrophic.Wefeel the change coming.Isit already too late?”

“Adisturbance in theLore!Oris it theLorce?”Nïxchuckled.SodidBertil.Flapflapwent his wings.

Doradaglared. “Ithought you had control over theHouseofWitches.”Gazegoing distant, she mused, “Icould control them, if more of them were evil.”Shecould compel any evil creature, enslaving them to her bidding.

Feigninga serious look,Nïxsaid, “Weshould address your shared worries head-on.”Shestrolled over to a sunken area on the mausoleum roof, and the others followed.Kneelingin front of a puddle of water collecting there, she said, “Witchin the glass, come in.Witchin the glass, do you copy?”

Mariketa, a captromancer also known as theQueenofReflections, was a young witch of unbelievable power.Onecould contact her through a reflection (unless she was in bed with her werewolf, which she often was).

“Breaker, breaker one-nine.”Nïxgrinned coyly at her audience of twoLoreansand one bat.Flapflap.“Witch, come in?”Herreflection in the puddle clouded . . .

. . . andMariketa’sface took its place. “’Sup,Valkyrie?Whata surprise!”Thewitch’s expression—all innocent gray eyes—might have struck a three-millennia-old soothsayer asrehearsed.

“IhaveDoradaandLoawith me, and they’ve raised concerns on thisHallowedEve.”

“Ameeting of alpha bitches?”Marisounded hurt. “Icould be there in a flash.”

Nïxlaughed. “Consideryourself safer there!Someof us atop this roof are mentally unwell.Ido so worry about them.”

Hercompanions looked bemused.Maripointed towardNïx’shat to say something, then clearly thought better of it.

“Spill, favoriteWiccan-type person,”Nïxsaid. “Areyou playing at fate tonight?Usingsome of your vast array of talents to see the future, perhaps?”

Mari’sgaze darted. “You, uh, told me to use my powers for good.Thiscould change a lot.”

---