Page 45 of Midnight Witch

Eclipsesucked the flames and oxygen out of the giant fireball racing toward them and the work plants. The barrier Nikolai erected protected the Bentley and the hangars from the brunt of the shockwave that accompanied the explosion.

The car juddered on its suspension as the aftershock washed over them in a gust of dark smoke.

“These assholes really are trying to kill us, aren’t they?!” Vlad ground out.

Mae glared at the gunship. Firing a grenade at the depot to try and stop them had been beyond reckless. Had the explosion reached the factories, there would undoubtedly have been civilian casualties.

To her surprise, the state police helicopter shot ahead of the military aircraft and swerved around to block its path. She clenched her teeth. It didn’t matter that Jared was trying to prevent the gunship from blowing them to smithereens. She needed to stop them.

Mae closed her eyes and sought out an ice spell that could immobilize the aircrafts without killing anyone inside. One came to her slowly, the runes making up the conjuration rising languidly from the depths of her consciousness.

She opened her eyes.I hope this works!

Mae focused her magic, put the window down, and raised a hand toward the helicopters. “Ice Storm!”

Clouds darkened the sky. A blizzard exploded into existence around the two helicopters. They rolled and yawed, engines whining as their fuel lines started to freeze.

The spell kept them afloat within a violent squall of snow and ice.

Mae settled back into her seat and closed the window. “Go!”

Vlad floored the gas.

Wind Furygot the Bentley across the bridge without further incident. A wetland appeared on the other side of the river. Mae’s heart sank.

Patrol cars had blocked off the tracks.

Her scalp prickled as bursts of magic that were not her own resonated with her core. Nikolai swore.

Vlad slammed on the brakes. “Son of a—!”

A veritable barrage of spell bombs had bloomed into life ahead of the patrol cars. It was an army of sorcerers and witches headed by Bryony and Abraham.

CHAPTER20

The soundproof roomdeep beneath the U.S. army facility on Staten Island possessed all the charm of a death row chamber in a maximum-security prison.

Mae wrinkled her nose.I can’t believe Nikolai spent days exorcising people down here.

The shackles securing her wrist and ankle cuffs to the floor jingled faintly as she shifted in the metal chair she’d been sitting in for going on two hours. The chains hummed as magic seeped into them from the jade and golden circles surrounding her.

Bryony and Abraham’s binding spells would have stung her flesh were it not forSoul Shield.

Another fifteen minutes passed.

Mae frowned at the cameras dotting the corners of the ceiling.I wonder how long they’re going to leave me stewing here.

A thread of disquiet danced through her. She’d been separated from Brimstone and Hellreaver when they’d been apprehended outside Boston. Though the fox and the demonic weapon had wanted to obliterate the enemy who had captured them off the surface of the Earth in their rage, Mae had insisted they keep their calm. She couldn’t hurt their former allies, however much they currently loathed her very existence.

Besides, being here might give us a clue as to how to find that woman.

The despair and fear she’d read in the eyes of the witch the Dark Council were using to fight an invisible war against her reminded Mae all too much of what she’d glimpsed in Nikolai’s gaze last night.

It was hard to see a way out of this when the entire world seemed to be against them.

She could sense the sorcerer and Vlad in the upper levels of the facility. They were unharmed, for now. Unbeknownst to their captors, she’d activatedSoul Shieldaround everyone’s cores the moment they’d stepped out of Vlad’s Bentley, back at the rail tracks. And that included their familiars.

Brimstone and Hellreaver were being held behind several layers of heavy security in a sub-basement three floors beneath her. They were in separate cells and their anger at being forcibly parted from her still simmered across their bond with her.

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