Page 58 of Of Flames and Crows

Miles shivered. “This is a nice and cheerful way to spend an afternoon.”

“It beats trying to stop Budimir and the old ha—woman from tearing each other’s throat out,” Violet muttered.

Ludmila looked at her sharply, her cane tapping out a beat that echoed against the stone walls.

I can sense death all around us, Brimstone said somberly.

Yeah.Hellreaver quivered against Mae’s chest.This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies.

Mae made a face.Sometimes, I wonder if you two really were in Hell at all.

A musty smell wafted in the cool, underground air as they moved deeper inside the mausoleum. Mae exchanged a troubled glance with Nikolai and Vlad. It grew stronger when they approached a doorway at the end of the catacombs. Mae drew a sharp breath when they stepped through the opening and stopped on a landing.

They were standing halfway up an immense, fifty-foot-high, circular crypt whose ceiling was lost in gloom. Recesses brimming with human bones and skulls lined the walls.

The sightless eyes of the dead looked down upon the bodies lying haphazardly in the glare of several spotlights on the floor below.

Tension knotted Mae’s shoulders as she studied the corpses. From the way their limbs, spines, and jaws were contorted, the men and women had died violently and painfully.

Julius frowned at the garish display. “The medical examiner thinks the cause of death is likely to be severed spines and internal bleeding. She said she’d never seen anything like it in her career.”

“I’d be surprised if anyone had,” Ludmila said tartly. She eyed the narrow stairs snaking down the wall to their right with a distrustful look. “I’ll stay up here. You young ones can tell me what you find.”

Ludmila’s escort accompanied them as they descended the long flight of steps. Mae’s skin prickled when they reached the bottom.

An oppressive atmosphere filled the base of the crypt.

“You feel that?” Vlad said warily.

“Yes.” Mae scanned the shadows beyond the lights. “We should stay on our guard.”

Alastair let out a soft squawk of apprehension from Nikolai’s shoulder. Everyone’s face tightened as they glanced at the tiers of grinning skulls staring at them.

Mae approached the first body. It was that of a young woman.

She looked away from her milky eyes, squatted, and placed her hand an inch above the witch’s belly. She focused her magic toward where the latter’s core should be.

Surprise jolted her. Though damaged, the witch’s core was still intact. Mae stared at the other bodies, her pulse quickening.

Wait. Does this mean they’re not Fire Magic users?!

It seems not.Brimstone sniffed the dead woman.I cannot detect any trace of the power I sensed in Filomena.A low growl rumbled out of his chest.But Icansmell a vestige of corruption. It was definitely black magic that killed her.

Mae frowned. She could also feel the dark residue tainting the woman’s insides. There was something else there. Something she couldn’t quite make out.

What is that?

I’m not sure.Brimstone’s ears pricked.It feels like some kind of…tether?

Violet’s voice startled her. “Mae? Did you find something?”

Mae nodded jerkily. “Yes. Let me check the other bodies.”

The others watched on uneasily as she examined the remaining sorcerers and witches. Mae made the same stark discovery in all of them.

“Well?” Nikolai asked as she straightened from where she’d finished inspecting the last corpse.

“None of these people was a Fire Magic user. They may be dead, but their cores are still present.”

---