Page 36 of Rites of Passage

“This would make it your third time in under twenty-four hours accessing a ley line!” Mae gnashed her teeth. “I saw what happened to you and Al last night! Don’t pretend it didn’t affect you!”

He flinched. Bryony stared between the two of them, her somber expression telling Mae she’d grasped her meaning.

Remorse shot through Mae at Nikolai’s hurt look.I don’t have time for this right now!

She focused on the spell Abraham and the three witches had manifested, the power she had been born to wield analyzing and copying it in an instant.

“Contain!”

A crimson sphere twice the size of the others exploded around the corrupt mass and its prison of spells. Mae’s skin prickled.

The dark shape continued to struggle within it.

It’s only a matter of time before it breaks through that. There’s gotta be another way. Think, Mae! What could put this thing to sleep?!

The answer struck her like a bolt of lightning.

“Of course!” she mumbled. “Ice!” She glanced dazedly at the others. “We need an ice spell!”

Violet’s jaw set in a hard line. “I’ve got one.” The witch planted her feet wide and raised both hands. “Ice Cage!”

Purple magic bloomed around her hands. Mae’s breath misted in front of her face as the temperature in the operating room plummeted rapidly. White crystals formed around the spheres. They merged, forming a thick layer of ice.

Mae’s lips thinned.That’s still not enough to quell its power!

She moved, crimson magic detonating around her with enough force to push the others back.

“No!” Vlad barked.

He gritted his teeth and tried to draw closer, Tarang struggling in his wake.

Nikolai’s shout echoed in Mae’s ears, his voice and Alastair’s squawk full of dread. “Don’t, Mae!Please!”

Mae gripped the magic prison with both hands and squeezed her eyes shut, her hair fluttering wildly around her. The spells sizzled against her skin, stinging her. She sensed Brimstone and Hellreaver’s presence at her side a heartbeat later. The bond connecting them brought goosebumps to her flesh as the power of three amplified her magic exponentially.

The structure of Violet’s spell formed in her mind, the symbols aligning themselves neatly before her inner vision. It took but seconds for her to deconstruct it and create a stronger, more indomitable formula.

Brimstone growled, his demon soul bolstering her own.

Mae’s eyes snapped open. “Ice Fortress!”

Whiteness exploded at her feet. It spread, covering the floor and the walls of the operating room in a flash. A thick prison of frozen air and water formed around the magic spheres. The corrupt mass within them slowed, growing sluggish. It stopped moving whenIce Fortressformed fully, trapping it inside a solid cage from which there would be no escape.

Mae fumbled and almost dropped the cube as gravity took effect.

Damn! It’s heavier than I thought it would be.

CHAPTER18

Vlad snatchedthe ice block from her grip and dumped it on the operating table.

“It’s okay,” Mae mumbled at his angry expression. “The cold put it to sleep.”

This only seemed to enrage the incubus. “Just because you’re the Witch Queen doesn’t mean you’re invincible!”

Mae flinched. Tarang’s head drooped, his shoulders hunching as his master’s wrathful words echoed around the chamber.

A horde of sorcerers and witches stormed the operating room, magic shining at their fingertips. They staggered to a stop when they sensed the mood and looked around awkwardly.

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