Page 78 of Rites of Passage

She wiped her face angrily, determination filling her bones. Bryony and the others had followed her inside the room and were staring at her in confusion. Brimstone gnashed his teeth.

Mae laid a hand against his leg, her entire body vibrating with tension and dread. “Ihaveto do this! Help me!Please!”

The fox’s face swam before her as more tears welled up. He lowered his head and licked the salty drops.

“Alright.” Brimstone looked at Hellreaver, resigned. “Tell her the spell.”

Hellreaver hummed.Ran Soyun called itAssimilate. It will use up your own magic fast, so make sure to pace yourself.

“We’ll reinforce your healing abilities,”Brimstone promised.

Mae heeded their warnings and squeezed her eyes shut. She searched the archives of spells that resided deep within her consciousness frantically, her thoughts a mess.

Come on, where are you?!

Light sparked in the shadows. The spell floated up toward her, insubstantial at first. The runes making it up coalesced.

Mae analyzed the spell, took a deep breath, and drew on her magic. “Assimilate!”

Fire lanced her left flank as the incantation resonated across the room. She gripped her side hard, blood blooming under her fingers and soaking her top. The matching wound that had ripped open Nikolai’s stomach and spleen started to close.

The power of three bubbled through her veins and started to heal her body from the inside out, blazing bright.

A gasp left her as her rib cage caved in. Her right thigh snapped with a loud crack, severing her femoral artery. Mae cried out and fell on one knee. A hot, coppery taste filled her throat. She spat out a mouthful of blood just as Linus’s breathing started to normalize and the swelling in his leg subsided.

“Mae?!” Violet mumbled, horror lacing her voice. “What are you doing?!”

“My witch,” Brimstone moaned woefully.

He leaned heavily into her. Hellreaver whined and worked himself under her hands where she clutched the floor.

Mae’s fingers spasmed and closed around him, heart thundering and breathing ragged. The spell was consuming her magic at the same speed the weapon and the familiar replenished her core.

Pain gripped her skull next, so fierce it felt like she’d been struck by lightning. Color seeped into Vlad’s face as his cerebral bleed dissipated, relieving the pressure on his brain. Tarang’s irises started darkening to a vivid blue.

“Stop!” Marlena barked. “You will die!”

Nadia clutched Marlena’s arm as she went to grab Mae’s shoulder. “Don’t! That spell will annihilate you if you touch her right now!”

Brimstone’s giant shape was shrinking, his body unable to maintain his full form. “Mae!”

“Her hair,” Miles said hoarsely. “What’s happening to her hair?!”

Mae’s heartbeat boomed in her ears, her nerve endings seared by a thousand suns as the spell continued to take its toll on her body. She blinked and caught a glimpse of her hair where it hung past her face.

It was turning white.

She gritted her teeth, her soul and magic core warping at speeds she’d never experienced before, her body healing itself over and over again even as she absorbed the injuries of the three men.

Realization dawned at the same time the other healers cried out in alarm, wrenching her breath from her lips.

Not just them!The room tilted around her.Assimilate is healing everyone in the room! And their familiars too!

Mae fell face down on the floor amidst a cacophony of shouts. She blinked. Brimstone and Hellreaver lay quivering beside her in their smaller forms.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Brimstone licked her face feebly. Hellreaver pulsed with the faintest red light. Mae’s heart thumped heavily against her ribs, each tortured pulsation dragging her down into a darkness from which she feared she might never return. Relief sighed through her mind. She had saved the people who had risked their lives to fight the Dark Council, including the two men who mattered the most to her. And she would do it all over again if she had to.

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