Page 37 of Of Flames and Crows

She gave them the lowdown on the dead witches and sorcerer she had recently examined in New York and Salem.

“The Dark Council killed them?!” Marlena said, aghast.

A whine escaped her familiar.

Julius was scowling. “Their cores imploded?”

“Yeah. And there are three still missing.” Mae cast an apologetic look at Nikolai. “I didn’t want to burden you when we spoke last. You had enough on your plate as it was.” She hesitated as she studied the sorcerer’s ashen complexion. “Do you have any idea what Vedran and Oscar might be up to?”

Nikolai swallowed and shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything from my contacts. They must be keeping whatever this is close to their chest.”

He hesitated.

Mae reached over and placed her hand atop the back of his. “What is it?”

Nikolai shuddered and turned his palm over. He linked his fingers with hers and met her gaze. “I sensed something strange when I accessed the nexus. Something that felt…wrong, the more I think about it now.”

Mae grew still. “Wrong how?”

“I think there might be a crack in the core of the nexus,” Nikolai said grimly. “And if that crack expands, all Hell will break loose in this city.”

CHAPTER16

Vlad frownedat his phone where he stood drying his hair with a towel in the middle of his hotel suite.

His contacts in Prague still hadn’t located Budimir Volkov.

Where the hell did that old bastard go?

He checked his messages. Mae hadn’t been in touch since they’d parted ways at the airport either. He’d booked her a suite opposite his and knew she hadn’t arrived at the hotel yet.

He was brooding over what she was up to and whether she was still with Nikolai when a knock came at his door. Tarang opened a lazy eye where he lay on the couch and closed it again.

Seeing as how relaxed his familiar looked, Vlad gathered there wasn’t an assassin outside his room intent on putting a bullet in his heart. He crossed the floor, looked into the peep hole, and sighed.

What now?

He opened the door to find Cortes standing in front of his room with a brooding expression.

“You’ll be the first to know when I find Budimir,” Vlad told the Colombian bluntly.

Cortes brushed past him and entered the suite. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“Come on in,” Vlad said drily.

He looked out into the corridor, clocked Cortes’s bodyguards chatting with Ilya and Milo, and closed the door. Cortes had made his way to the bar and was pouring himself a drink.

He shook a bottle of vodka at Vlad. “Want one?”

“Why not?”

He perched on a stool as the Colombian poured a second glass. Silence befell them as they drank.

“So, are you going to tell me why you’re here or am I going to have to guess?” Vlad glanced at the sumptuous, king-size bed visible through the archway to his left. “FYI, if it’s for a quick tumble between the sheets, I’m afraid my heart and my body belong to the Witch Queen.”

Cortes curled his lip. “You’re not my type.” Lines wrinkled his brow. “It’s about the compensation. I’ve changed my mind.”

Vlad blinked, nonplussed. “What?”

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