Page 42 of Midnight Witch

A desolate, red plain with a forked tree. A hill with an abandoned church atop it that looked identical to the one that had stood in this very spot the day before. Winding, moss-covered, stone steps leading to a basement deep underground. And in the middle of a crypt, chained to an obsidian pillar that rose straight through the ceiling and brimmed with runes of blue fire, a woman with long, ash-blonde hair.

Blood caked her skin where she’d struggled against the manacles binding her wrists. She was on her knees, her head bowed and pain etched in every line of her quivering body.

Mae could tell her shoulders were dislocated.

Shadowy figures kept watch around the woman, their faces hidden beneath dark hoods. The air flickered around the altar and the woman. They were guarding her with some kind of shield.

Mae’s heart clenched when the stranger’s features came into view at an angle. She was beautiful, even in her agony.

The woman’s head moved jerkily, as if she sensed Mae’s stare. Her gray gaze locked onto Mae’s with an eeriness that raised goosebumps on her flesh.

Mae’s pulse stuttered.Can she see me?!

Blue flames filled the woman’s pupils. They rounded with shock. Tears bloomed in her eyes and spilled down her grimy cheeks. Her expression crumpled with sorrow and regret.

Her cracked lips moved, forming words Mae didn’t hear but felt in her very marrow.

I’m…sorry…!

“—e! —ae! Mae!MAE!”

Nikolai and Vlad’s alarmed voices shattered the trance she’d fallen under. They were gripping her shoulders and trying to yank her back.

Mae lifted her fingers off the ground and fell on her behind. Air wheezed through her windpipe as she finally drew breath, the cold sea breeze filling her lungs and making her chest ache. Her heart thundered violently, the echoes of what she’d just seen still dancing before her eyes.

“What the hell happened just now?!” Vlad snapped.

Mae didn’t answer him right away.

She looked wildly at Brimstone. “Did you see that?!”

The fox growled.I did, my witch. I think that woman may be the one responsible for the magic you unleashed yesterday.

Nikolai took hold of her elbow as she made to rise and helped her to her feet. “What did you see?”

His voice was hard and his eyes dark with dread as he looked from her to Brimstone.

Mae swallowed and described the vision they’d just had, if vision was even the right word for what had just transpired.

Nikolai and Vlad exchanged a troubled look.

“Are you sure it wasn’t just some kind of—” the incubus paused and waved a hand vaguely, “I don’t know, left-over hallucination from that magic?”

Mae met Brimstone’s gaze. “No. We both saw the same thing.” She looked at the two men, conviction settling inside her. “Brim thinks that woman is the one who created the mirage spell.”

“So, it’s a witch.” A muscle ticked in Nikolai’s cheek. “From what you saw, it seems she’s a prisoner of the Dark Council. Do you have any idea where she’s being held?”

Mae fisted her hands. “No.”

A gust of wind whipped at their hair and clothes.

Vlad shivered. “Let’s get out here for now.”

They trooped inside the Bentley and were soon back on the expressway.

Halfway to Boston, the hum of rotors reached Mae’s ears. She stiffened and looked out the window.

“You guys hear that?”

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