Page 65 of Midnight Witch

“Shit,” Violet mumbled.

Cortes lowered his brows. “When’s the next Equinox?”

Mendes sagged. “The Harvest Moon is tonight.”

Mae’s stomach knotted.

Nikolai looked jerkily out the window. Dawn was leaching the darkness from the horizon. He met her horrified gaze, his own eyes filled with dread.

They had less than twenty-four hours left to find the church and the altar.

Cortes’s face tightened as he looked at Mae. “That means the person who helped Raya by invoking the Illusion Sorcery that allowed her to defeat me retracted the spell of their own free will. Or else my family would never have regained their memories. Raya would have wanted them to forget about me forever.”

Mae’s eyes widened. “You’re right.”

Mendes and his aide traded a confused glance. “What are you talking about?”

Cortes explained how his aunt had tried to get rid of him and killed his first familiar. “Someone we know told us my Arcane Magic protected me, even though my core ended up cracking. And my coven did not seem affected by the Illusion Sorcery that wiped everyone else’s memories yesterday this time around.”

Mendes drew a sharp breath. “So the rumor is true?” His wild gaze swung to Mae. “You fixed his core?!”

“Nikolai and I did,” Mae confirmed with a nod.

Mendes looked blindly at the floor, his shock reverberating through his coven. He lifted his face and observed Cortes cautiously. “To be this powerful again after your core was damaged means you would have been destined to be the strongest Arcane Magic user this world has ever seen.”

“I still am,” Cortes stated bluntly.

Popo bobbed his head proudly on the sorcerer’s shoulder.

“Arcane Magic can indeed protect against Illusion Sorcery,” Mendes said. “You just need to know how to wield it against that specific spell. That’s why those with the ability to use Illusion Sorcery are born in families with Arcane Magic.” He fixed Cortes with a shrewd stare. “It appears your coven found out about the spell they had been under and learned how to counter it in case it ever happened to them again.”

Cortes looked discomfited at that.

Nikolai frowned at Mendes. “Why are you hiding from the Dark Council? Aren’t you worried about what they might do to Anya?”

“They won’t kill Anya,” Mendes said bitterly. “She’s too precious a commodity for them to cast aside.” He glanced at his aide. “Oscar promised Anya her coven wouldn’t come to any harm if she did as he asked, but we knew he lied. We overheard one of the Dark Council witches say he was planning to kill us the day after the reception.”

A sour taste filled Mae’s mouth. The Dark Council’s actions should come as no surprise to her.

“I take it you have no idea where they could be holding her?” she asked Mendes.

He shook his head, his expression gaunt.

“The church and the hill,” Nikolai said uneasily. “They both vanished as if they never existed. Was that Illusion Sorcery too or is the Dark Council capable of relocating entire buildings with black magic now?”

Mae suspected he was thinking aboutTransmigrate. As far as they knew, no one in the Dark Council could use that spell. She narrowed her eyes.

Then again, Vedran keeps on surprising us.

“It was the first part of the illusion,” Mendes explained reluctantly. “Your blood helped put it together. The full spell only took effect after one of you touched my daughter’s magic.”

Mae winced. “So, the church was there and it also…wasn’t after I activated Anya’s magic?”

Mendes nodded. “Reality shifted completely at that moment.”

“It hurts my head to even think about it,” Violet mumbled.

“What now?” Frustration tightened Vlad’s face. “We have less than a day to find a church no one knows about and stop these bastards before their plans come to fruition!”

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