Page 77 of Rites of Passage

She looked over her shoulder.

Barbara had entered the room, a glum-looking Violet and Miles at her side.

“Hey,” Mae murmured.

“Hi,” the cousins mumbled back.

Mae narrowed her eyes slightly at Barbara. “By the way, has anybody ever told you that you move like a cat? I swear there’s some kind of hover spell on your cane and shoes.”

The elderly witch’s solemn expression did not change. “You haven’t answered my question.”

Her terrier Thorn woofed gently beside her.

Mae looked at Brimstone.

The fox shrugged.Might as well show them.

Mae walked over to the table and touchedSoul Shield.

Magic sparked against her skin. The white runes converged to form a dazzling line that connected to her index finger. Gasps sounded as she stretched the pale thread away from the spinning, red sphere. The orb inside it flickered.

Mae’s stomach curdled as she relived the suffering Charlotte had experienced in her final moments on this Earth. She’d only glimpsed it before, when she’d castSoul Shield. There was no point torturing the witch’s friends with the harrowing details of her demise.

She clenched her teeth and kept her voice steady by a sheer act of will. “There’s a lingering connection between a soul and their mortal coil. How long it remains after death is anyone’s guess. As long as it still exists, I can locate the body.”

A stunned hush followed.

“When did you…” Karin stopped and swallowed, “when did you realize you could do this?!”

Mae let go of the bright cord. It snapped back onto the scarlet globe, the runes expanding once more to cover the surface. “When I broke the spell suppressing Nikolai’s powers. And when I freed the soul of a possessed sorcerer two days ago, in New York.”

Gerard sat down heavily in a chair, shellshocked.

“I get the feeling there’s a lot we still haven’t talked about,” Derrick said stiffly.

CHAPTER33

The door slammedopen before any of them could say another word.

Marlena stormed in. “They’re dying! Nikolai and Linus!” Her voice broke. “Nadia can’t help them and neither can I! She doesn’t know if Vlad will—”

Mae stormed past the witch, Brimstone running by her side. Her heartbeat roared in her ears, the terror within her so overwhelming she wanted to throw up. Ice prickled her skin as she skidded to a stop in the doorway of the sitting room.

Linus’s bleeding had worsened and he had started to gasp his last breaths. Nikolai was as white as a sheet and Alastair’s feathers grew duller by the second as he shuddered on the floor next to the sorcerer. The blueness was fading from Tarang’s irises. The tiger lifted a trembling paw and laid it on Vlad’s limp hand.

“Brim! What can I do?!” Mae’s breath hitched. “There must be something I can do!”

Tears blurred her vision and fell down her cheeks. Brimstone’s shadow fell upon her as he morphed into his nine-tail spirit form.

The fox’s voice was tortured. “My witch.”

Hellreaver transformed.There’s a spell! I saw Ran Soyun use it once, when Na Ri was still a babe and had a fever. Ran took on the burden of Na Ri’s illness!

“No!” Brimstone snapped his jaws close to Hellreaver. “That was a fever! Mae could die if she tries to absorb these men’s wounds!”

Hellreaver’s aura swamped them, his frustration making the air tremble.And she will never recover if she loses them, you dumb fox!

“What’s the spell, Hell?!” Mae asked grimly.

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