Page 98 of Rites of Passage

The Sorcerer King watched it close around him with the faintest frown.

Mae blinked.Wait! Why is he so composed?!

Angry shouts answered her question. Nikolai and Brimstone missed capturing Oscar by inches as he vanished inside a rift with his injured lynx. Vlad swore as his blades, Alicia’s scythe, and Tarang’s claws raked the empty air Barquiel had occupied, the portal the demon had used to escape closing behind him.

Mae’s gut twisted. A black-magic doorway had appeared insideIce Fortress. Vedran headed toward it at a leisurely pace. He paused on the threshold and directed a cold stare at Nikolai.

“I look forward to your return, my son. Know that I shall treat you as Oscar’s equal from this day forth.” He cut his eyes to Brimstone. “As for theBook of Shadows, there are other ways to find it.”

He stepped inside the rectangle of darkness, his shocking words resonating in Mae’s ears. The door faded to nothingness. Stillness descended around them.

Her heart thumped heavily against her breast.Is it over?!

For now, Brimstone said grimly.For now.

The fox and Hellreaver made their way over to her, a pale-faced Nikolai in their wake. Mae detected the toll accessing the ley lines had taken on the sorcerer and his familiar in his haggard complexion and the crow’s dull wings. She could also see the fresh shadows clouding his eyes.

His father’s words had rung with a veracity that had surprised even Mae. She couldn’t stop herself from wondering what the Sorcerer King’s intentions were toward his second heir.

Vlad was the first to reach her as she drifted to the ground. The incubus embraced her tightly in his arms, his hands trembling on her back.

She stiffened, alarmed. “Don’t! You’re hurt!”

“It’s nothing,” he murmured in her hair.

“Your lips are blue!”

“That’s the color of love,” he said drowsily, growing heavy against her.

Tarang chuffed agitatedly, his tail sweeping the air as he paced the floor around them.

“Give me a hand!” Mae asked Alicia.

The reaper transformed back into a human and helped her lower Vlad to the ground.

“You’re so pretty,” the incubus mumbled.

He lifted a handful of Mae’s hair and kissed it.

Alicia raised an eyebrow. “Is he high?”

“No, he’s just hypoxic,” Mae said grimly.

She examined Vlad’s wound, made a makeshift dressing with a strip of her top, and partially applied it to the incubus’s open pneumothorax.

The color slowly returned to his lips and face. He blinked, his pupils constricting on a crimson flare. Tarang licked his face ardently.

“Did I just embarrass myself?” the incubus groaned, gently pushing the tiger away.

“You do that just by flapping your lips, dumbass,” Nikolai said darkly.

Alicia shrugged. “It’s nothing we’ve not seen before.”

Vlad grimaced. “Thanks.”

Brimstone shrank to his small fox form and leapt into Mae’s arms. She hugged him and Hellreaver’s medallion shape to her chest, their bond blazing brightly through her soul.

Abraham, Raven, and Derrick joined them. Violet and Miles weren’t far behind.

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