Page 52 of The Darkest Night

Mae hesitated.They’re right.

She rose from the table and headed to the middle of the room, Brimstone padding beside her.

“What’s she doing?” Abraham asked suspiciously.

“Giving herself space,” Nikolai replied curtly.

Mae stopped in the center of the chamber. She raised a hand to the pendant, reached for the ever-present points of heat in her heart and belly, and unleashed her magic, careful to control the flow of power pouring from her core. She didn’t want her first official visit to a coven to end with the building collapsing around her.

The air turned red. Glass vibrated, the crystal chandeliers and wine glasses trembling under the magic washing over them. A shudder shook Brimstone as he transformed into the nine-tailed fox. His claws clinked on the wooden floor, his massive head brushing the ceiling when he was forced to crouch. Hellreaver morphed into his dark, double-bladed, curved-dagger form, the knuckle duster on his hilt guard gleaming where it fit snuggly atop her hand.

Abraham jumped up, his chair clattering behind him and his owl flying off his shoulder in alarm. “What the—?!”

Blood drained from his face as he looked up at Brimstone’s monstrous form. Bryony and the rest of the coven members rose shakily to their feet, their expressions similarly stunned and their familiars frozen beside them.

The chamber doors opened. The sorcerer who had escorted them to the coven headquarters appeared, two of his acolytes wheeling in a pair of large, silver service carts loaded with fresh steak and beef in black bean sauce.

“We have prepared the meat you requested, my qu—”

He froze when he registered Mae’s magic and the beast and weapon in the center of the room.

Meat!Hellreaver growled.

He left Mae’s hold, flew across the chamber, and sank into a steak like knife through butter. The edges of his blades transformed into jagged teeth. He chomped down.

The sorcerer and his subordinates fell back with horrified cries.

Hellreaver ignored them, a happy hum leaving him as he siphoned blood out of the thick slice with a grizzly sound.

Brimstone padded over, lay on the floor, and carefully skewered a piece of beef with a giant claw. He opened his jaws and dropped it down his gullet, swallowing it whole.

“Thank you,” he growled at the ashen-faced guards, a wicked tooth gleaming.

Bryony and her coven startled as his voice boomed across the chamber.

Brimstone glanced at Hellreaver.“I apologize for my friend’s lack of manners. He is a savage through and through.”

Hellreaver glared at Brimstone and stole a piece of his beef. Brimstone’s hackles rose, his magic filling the room with pure menace.

“I swear to God, I will ground your sorry asses if you fight in here!” Mae snapped.

Brimstone’s aura abated. He and Hellreaver carefully avoided looking at one another as they wolfed down their meal. Mae rubbed the back of her neck, a headache throbbing between her temples.

She returned to the table. “Sorry about that.”

Violet and Miles were grinning, their expressions vindicated. Nikolai sighed. Bryony and the rest of her coven slowly took their seats, their faces pale.

“That is the first time I’ve heard of a sentient weapon and a familiar who can talk,” the High Priestess confessed after a short silence, color gradually returning to her cheeks. “The prophecy did not mention it.”

Mae couldn’t help feeling guilty.

Bryony noticed her expression. “You have nothing to reproach yourself for. You cannot help who you are or the power you wield.”

Mae found herself liking the older woman more and more. A thought came to her.

“By the way, what’s this prophecy everyone keeps talking about?”

Bryony arched an eyebrow at Violet and Miles. “You didn’t tell her?”

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