Page 73 of Rites of Passage

Brimstone was being forced down by something she couldn’t see. Hellreaver crashed next to him with a snarl, similarly immobilized.

“Brim! Hell!”

She dashed toward them, only to rock to a stop at their desperate pleas.

“Stay away, my witch!” Brimstone groaned.

Don’t come closer!Hellreaver grunted.Please!

Blood pounded in Mae’s ears, her heart racing so fast it was almost a continuous drumming. She could feel Brimstone and Hellreaver’s souls struggling against a power greater than them.

Panic dulled her senses.What is this?!

Na Ri’s voice came to her faintly.It’s—

“That’s Charlotte’s magic!” Karin shouted. She pointed at the shimmering, blue light escaping Barquiel’s right fist. “I’d recognize it anywhere!”

Nausea churned Mae’s stomach. The demon bared his teeth in a feral grin and unfurled his hand, exposing a shivering, pale globe laced with crimson and dark threads.

Is that how he managed to shatter Raven’s spell?! With magic?! But how did he get his hands on—?!

The truth came to her in a flash. Mae pressed a hand to her mouth and swallowed down bile.Oh God! What have they done?!

“That’s not just her magic!” she mumbled. “That’s her soul!”

Bryony gasped. Barbara cursed.

The implication of Mae’s words leeched the blood from the face of every Council witch and sorcerer in the room.

“Charlotte’s dead?!” Raven said numbly.

Invisible bands squeezed Mae’s arms to her body before she could answer, snatching a startled cry from her lips. She fell to her knees. The restraints choked the air from her lungs as they tightened savagely around her ribcage. Dozens of invisible whips flogged her flesh. Redness bloomed on the cuts. She screamed, the cocktail of corrupt magic and demonic energy Barquiel wielded attacking her nerve endings.

Whiteness exploded in Nikolai’s eyes and hands. “Mae!”

The heat of his magic washed across her skin in a powerful wave. A second wave followed as Vlad’s incubus energy rippled across the room in a crimson tide.

“You bastard!” Vlad snarled. “Let her go!”

The two men charged Barquiel, only to be viciously cast aside by the demon before they even reached him. Horror drained the strength from Mae’s limbs as she watched them slam into the wall. A spiderweb of cracks exploded outward from the points of impact. They slid to the floor, half dazed and bleeding.

Tarang’s snarl cut off abruptly as he crashed down beside the incubus, his large form growing deathly still. Alastair screeched and thudded into the sorcerer’s chest, left wing drooping.

Violet and Miles went after Barquiel. They were thrown back brutally by the demon’s newly acquired powers, the only thing saving them from injury the shield Barbara and Bryony cast to cushion their fall.

Barquiel raised his face to the sky and bellowed, his features twisting in triumph. Despair drenched Mae in a cold sweat.

No!Black spots filled her vision as her oxygen-starved brain started to falter.Not like this!IT CANNOT END LIKE THIS!

She didn’t realize she’d screamed the words out loud until they reverberated around her, drowning out all sounds to the point she thought even the city grew still. Barquiel faltered, wariness replacing the victorious glow in his pupils. He startled as the floor started to tremble.

Na Ri’s presence filled Mae with the next beat of her heart, their souls shaking the very foundations of the building. Mae’s breath stuttered.

There was another there. A light she had never glimpsed before, hidden within Na Ri. The agony crippling Mae’s body faded on a soothing wave that smelled like a bright, summer day. She blinked, cognizance exploding into a singular truth.

Ran—Ran Soyun?!

Tears dripped down her cheeks.

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