Page 99 of Rites of Passage

“Next time, you’re doing the shield,” Violet grumbled at Raven.

“You realize I have authority over you, right?” Raven said tartly.

“Our childhood friendship trumps your status as a High Priestess,” Violet scoffed.

“So, what’d we miss?” Miles asked. “We felt some pretty awful black magic from where we were standing.”

“Vedran was here,” Derrick said.

Miles’s eyes rounded. Millie grew limp with shock around his shoulders.

“You mean, the Sorcerer King himself put in an appearance?!” Violet spluttered.

“It was a touching family reunion,” Nikolai said bitterly.

Derrick and Raven exchanged a guarded look. Confusion clouded Violet’s face.

Mae’s gaze swept the catacombs. “Did anyone see the Immortal?”

“You mean the guy in the lab coat?” Abraham grimaced. “He made his getaway during the fight.”

Mae scowled. “Dammit!”

“Jared is gonna be pissed,” Alicia observed.

A clunk sounded next to Mae. Brimstone had regurgitated the metal compass.

Miles wrinkled his nose. “What is that?”

CHAPTER42

“It’s demon DNA alright,”Mila confirmed.

Mae’s stomach sank as the Immortal corroborated the truth she’d realized during last night’s clash with Barquiel.

She had given Mila a sample of her blood after they’d returned to the hotel. She’d wanted the Immortal to analyze it and compare it with the unknown genetic material they had identified in the specimen insideIce Fortressand Agnes’s blood.

Mila lifted her cup to her mouth and took a sip of her tea, her silver gaze calmly sweeping the noisy breakfast room.

It was the morning after. The Councils had gathered in the Royal Suite, the hotel providing an extra table to fit everyone. Karin and Gerard kept glancing nervously at the morsels and crumbs flying through the air where Brimstone, Tarang, Hellreaver, and several smaller carnivores feasted on various meat dishes.

“Are they always that—keen?” Ephra enquired politely, staring at the fox and the weapon.

“You mean do they make a goddamn mess all the time?” Mae munched gloomily on her bacon sandwich. “Never at my mother’s.”

Yoo-Mi smiled smugly. Ryu offered a piece of her bagel to Raven’s snake and Abraham’s owl.

Ye-Seul leaned sideways and nudged Bryony’s aide in the ribs with a bony elbow. “A little birdie told me you and the L.A. witch are shacking up.”

Abraham spat out his coffee. Bryony’s buttered toast fell on her plate with a splat. Violet choked on air.

Half the table gaped at Raven. She made a face. “Was that birdie Mae?”

“Hey!” Mae blurted out.

“It was the hoochie with the scythe,” Ye-Seul admitted.

Bryony turned to her aide, her expression pinched. “You’re not leaving the coven, are you?”

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