Page 8 of Midnight Witch

“It’ll be faster if you do it,” Jared insisted.

Mae pursed her lips. “I’m just a tool to you, aren’t I?”

She cast a wave of magic at the ceiling. Metal screamed. The sprinklers imploded. A pipe burst and released a high-pressure jet that smashed the window of the projection room.

Jared and Nikolai leveled dull stares at her.

“Told you we should have waited for the fire department,” she said smugly.

My witch, Brimstone warned.

Mae whirled around. She stiffened.

Jared’s eyes widened. “What the—?”

Nikolai scowled.

The bodies of the hellbeasts had burst into silent flames that rapidly withered to wisps of fiery ash. Soon, all that remained of their presence was a dark stain on the carpet and the fading smell of sulfur.

CHAPTER5

Abraham Whitworth stared. “They just vanished?”

“Yeah.” Mae made a face. “It kinda resembled what happened to the devils I usedDecimateon, in that crypt in Prague where the Dark Council had laid a trap for us. But they didn’t erupt into flames like these ones did.”

Bryony’s aide looked dubious at her words.

“The only time demons and hellbeasts’ bodies break down in a similar manner is when a holy blade kills them,” Alicia Calvarro said with a frown.

The Queen of Soul Reapers turned FBI special agent touched the scythe pendant at the base of her throat distractedly.

She is correct, my witch, Brimstone said.I recall Azazel saying something similar.

I do too,Hellreaver concurred.

They were in Bryony’s office, at the New York coven’s headquarters. Though the hour was late, Alicia had responded to their call to attend the impromptu meeting when she’d found out about the hellbeasts. Astarte, the goddess turned demon general who headed the alliance of fallen angels determined to stop Satanael from destroying the world at the End of Days, had tasked her with keeping watch on the Sorcerer King and Barquiel’s activities involving the Underworld.

Mae pondered Alicia’s words with a faint frown. “So, when you say a holy blade, you mean like the guy in Chicago?”

The Soul Reaper queen dipped her head.

Bryony straightened. “That’s right. Violet and Miles would know.”

“Where are they, by the way?” Mae said curiously. “I haven’t seen them in several days.”

“They’re attending a family reunion. One of their cousins got engaged.”

Nikolai studied Alicia with a troubled expression. “So, if it wasn’t a holy blade that did that to them, what did?”

Alicia was quiet for a moment. “The only other thing I can think of is that it was some kind of delayed destruction spell.”

Mae’s scalp prickled at her words. “A delayed destruction spell?”

Brimstone’s ears twitched, his expression alert.

Alicia met their wary gazes, her unease plain to see. “Like a time bomb.”

Mae’s mind raced in the tense hush that followed. The more it seemed that tonight’s incident might have been a fluke, the more her instincts screamed at her that it was anything but.

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