Page 97 of Rites of Passage

A black cage exploded around Mae, its surface covered in crimson runes. Nikolai and Vlad shouted out her name, their voices reaching her as if traveling across a vast ocean.

Mae gnashed her teeth, moved back a couple of feet, and bolted for the wall of her prison. She smashed into it with her shoulder.

It held, solid as concrete.

“Come, Oscar.” Vedran’s voice echoed clearly in her head, the spell obviously making it easier for her to hear him. He turned, expression bored. “We’ll take her back with us. I’m sure we’ll bring her around to our way of thinking eventually.”

Brimstone howled in rage. An inhuman sound left Hellreaver.

She met their tortured gazes through the hazy barrier. “No!”

Go to Nikolai! Tell him to do what he did in New York! Tell him this time, the circle is you two! He’ll understand what I mean!

The fox and the weapon hesitated, their distress churning across the bond that linked them to her. They retreated reluctantly.

“Giving up so easily?” Vedran drawled.

Mae’s head whipped around.

The Sorcerer King was studying her with faint curiosity.

“No.” She bared her teeth at him. “Just getting ready to wipe the floor with your ass.”

The Sorcerer King blinked. A bark of laughter left his throat. “I like your sense of humor. Your company might amuse me.”

Mae’s eyes shrank to slits. “Shame. I think yours would bore me to tears.”

Vedran’s smile faded. The pressure of his presence pressed against her prison. “You should bow to me while you still can, little girl.” His tone raised goosebumps on her skin. “Who knows, I might grow tired of your attitude and slice your head off.” He turned his attention to Oscar. “Where is the compass?”

The sorcerer shook his head, brow furrowed. “I lost it earlier. It should still be here!”

I ate it, Brimstone said triumphantly.

Mae blinked and kept her face blank.

Vedran frowned. His gaze landed on the fox.

Mae’s stomach lurched.No!

She inhaled and laid her hands on the wall of black magic separating them. “Absorb!”

The red runes flickered. The cage trembled.

Vedran stared, his attention successfully diverted. “Now, there’s a spell I have yet to witness.”

Mae glanced past his shoulder. A savage smile split her mouth. “Unfortunately, you won’t see the end of it!”

Vedran spun round, alarm flickering in his eyes for an instant.

Magic arced across the floor of the catacombs, sizzling lines of dazzling power. The Sorcerer King’s gaze found the son who had fled his court. Anger darkened his face, the first true emotion he had shown since he’d appeared before them.

The radiance blazing from Nikolai’s eyes and hands and sparking from Alastair’s pupils scorched everyone’s shadow onto the walls. The white magic they had drawn from a ley line powered through Brimstone and Hellreaver’s souls and arrowed straight to hers inside the black prison.

The Sorcerer King’s spell exploded into nothingness.

“Ice Fortress!” Mae barked.

The temperature inside the catacombs plummeted. Whiteness raced across the ground and up the rock walls, what moisture there was inside the catacombs and on their breath solidifying instantly into crystals. An ice cage grew around Vedran, the layers thickening and melding together at dizzying speed.

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