Page 8 of Of Flames and Crows

Marlena Kosek was the High Priestess of the Council of the Moon and Nikolai’s maternal aunt. It was she who’d suggested Nikolai come train with her and other white magic users in Prague, to refine his powers and to learn how to avoid the debilitating side effects he and his crow familiar Alastair suffered when they accessed ley lines.

Mae’s heart sank a little. “You spoke to Marlena?”

“Yes, a couple of days ago.” Bryony wrinkled her brow at her glum expression. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” Mae mumbled.

Raven squinted. “Has your boyfriend not called you since he left?”

Mae bristled. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

Brimstone rolled his eyes as he wolfed down a mouthful of beef. Hellreaver sniggered around a pork chop.

Mae leveled a hot stare at her demonic weapon. “Would you like a replay of what I did to you a few weeks ago?”

Hellreaver stopped sniggering. Abraham paled. Bryony muttered something unsavory under her breath.

Derrick arched an eyebrow at their pasty looks. “Was it that bad?”

“Don’t ask.” Abraham shuddered. “I still have nightmares about it.”

The face of the dead woman in Hodge’s autopsy lab rose in Mae’s mind.

She lowered her brows. “I think the Dark Council is up to something again.”

There was a general tightening of faces at her words.

Bryony’s gaze bore into Mae. “What do you mean?”

“Raven, can you run a name through your database of magic users?” Mae said. “It’s a woman called Candice Reese. She’s in her mid to late thirties, with brown hair and hazel eyes.”

Raven blinked, surprised. “Sure.”

She started working the keyboard of her laptop.

“Who’s Candice Reese?” Gerard asked suspiciously.

“A magic user. She’s from a small town outside Minneapolis and was visiting family in New York. They recently registered her as a missing person.” Mae paused. “Her body was found a couple of days ago in woodland, in Central Park. The official cause of death was a coronary.”

Ephra arched an eyebrow. “Official?”

Mae dipped her chin. “I think she was a victim of some kind of black-magic attack. There was a strange burn mark on her body and inside her abdominal cavity.”

Derrick stared. “And you deduced this was the work of the Dark Council because?”

“There was nothing left of her magic core,” Mae said quietly. “It had imploded.”

CHAPTER5

Isabelle gaspedand covered her mouth with her hands. Simon’s expression turned ashen.

“It’s not like what happened to Charlotte,” Mae added hastily at their horrified looks. “This was different. And there’s something else. All her blood had disappeared, like she’d been sucked dry or something. Brimstone and Hellreaver also picked up on the trace of black magic and demonic energy I detected inside her body, where her core should have been.”

Tension thickened the air.

“I’ve never heard of someone’s core imploding,” Karin said in a strained voice. “Is that even possible?”

“According to Brimstone, I could probably do it,” Mae said grimly.

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