Page 42 of The Darkest Night

The devil appeared from amidst the storm.

“That’s right,” Rose said gleefully. “That’s a doorway to Hell, little girl. We think a trip there would do you some good.”

“Come now, demon, you should be kinder to my future spouse,” someone drawled on Mae’s left.

She looked around stiffly, the muscles and tendons in her neck screaming in protest as she fought the wicked energy immobilizing her.

A man with red hair and a hungry look in his gray eyes walked out of the shadows, a tawny lynx at his side. He closed the distance to her, stopped, and lowered himself on his haunches opposite her.

The stranger studied Mae like a scientist would an insect.

“I’m going to enjoy taming you, witch.”

His loathsome gaze dropped to her mouth. He grabbed her chin in a painful grip, yanked her forward, and kissed her brutally. Mae gagged at the corrupt magic he breathed into her lungs.

The man stared into her eyes, his own full of madness and a lust that would not be quenched. He forced his way inside her mouth. She fisted her hands in the dirt, bit his tongue, and headbutted him with a vicious roar, breaking free from his kiss.

The man fell back, surprise widening his eyes. They turned ugly in the next instant.

He rose and lifted his arm to strike her. “Why you—!”

“Get away from her!”

A bright bolt of magic carved through the gloom on her right. It glanced off the red-haired man’s shoulder as he jumped out of the way, striking the sorcerer behind him instead. The dark-robed figure cried out and fell to the ground, a broken rib protruding through the bloodied cavity in his chest.

The lynx hissed angrily at the red-haired man’s feet. Their hateful gazes locked on the figures materializing out of the tempest.

Violet and Miles approached, magic burning at their hands, their familiars’ eyes aglow with power. A man with a crow on his shoulder and a double-ended spear in his hand led them, along with Brimstone.

Mae stared dazedly at the pale light on the stranger’s hands and weapon before looking at his face. It was the guy who had stopped her from completely losing control, that night on the rooftop. The one Violet said had brought her the pentagram pendant.

It was his magic that had just stopped the red-haired man from hitting her.

Some of the pressure driving her into the ground abated. Mae glimpsed bodies on the ground behind Violet and Miles. They had already incapacitated several of the witches and sorcerers chanting the incantation crippling her.

The man with the crow stopped beside her and offered her a hand, his gaze and that of his familiar still on the enemy. “Are you okay?”

Heat scorched Mae’s skin when she placed her hand in his. If he noticed it, he didn’t say anything. She swayed as he helped her up, the mantle forcing her down ever present.

How come he and the others are moving freely?!

He glanced at her with a frown and answered her silent question. “This spell is intended to seal your powers alone. It is magic only my father, the Sorcerer King, should be able to wield.” A muscle jumped in his jawline as he glared at the red-haired man where the latter had fallen back to join the devil in Rose’s form. “He taught you the binding ritual, didn’t he?”

Mae startled.Wait. The Sorcerer King? The one who killed Na Ri all those years back? The Sorcerer King is this guy’s father?!

Chapter 21

A savage expressiontwisted Oscar’s face. “Are you jealous, little brother?”

Nikolai sensed Mae’s surprise.

The ruby ring on Oscar’s finger shifted into a sword quivering with a black aura, the precious stone settling in the ornate hilt. The power emanating from it stank of the Sorcerer King’s dark will.

Nikolai clenched his teeth. “If you think I envy you, then you are gravely mistaken.”

Oscar looked at Mae and smirked. “Even though I have taken the Witch Queen’s first kiss?”

Fury surged through Nikolai at his mocking words. His knuckles whitened on his spear, his anger tainted with a jealousy he could not deny.

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