Page 18 of Midnight Witch

The sorcerer widened his stance, yanked on the weapon, and sent the monster crashing into a limestone urn. Pale shards filled the air. The hellboar tried to get back on its feet. Its screech of rage turned into a choked gurgle as Cortes slit its throat with his sword.

Crimson light engulfed Vlad and Tarang as they faced off against two hellwolves. The tiger lunged at breakneck speed and sank his fangs into the closest monster’s jugular. Vlad blocked the second wolf as it prepared to pounce on his familiar, the demonic energy that blasted from his body on a roar sending the creature smashing sideways into a tree.

Mae blinked.He’s gotten stronger!

“Brim, stay here and help Bryony and Abraham get everyone to safety!” She studied the beasts clawing at Nikolai’s pale barrier with narrowed eyes before meeting the sorcerer’s tense gaze. “On the count of three?!”

Nikolai nodded. “One. Two.Three!”

He retracted his shield.

“Wind Fury!” Mae barked.

Her magic detonated across the atrium on a dark red wave that shoved Nikolai, Vlad, and Cortes back a couple of feet and sent others tumbling to the ground with surprised cries. Deadly currents wrapped around the hellbeasts dropping toward the garden court. The monsters screeched, momentum halted as they found themselves frozen in midair by the violent, magical whirlwinds.

Mae levitated in their midst, her hair and dress fluttering faintly in a storm of her own creation. Claws clanged against Hellreaver’s blades as he flashed around her and deflected the creatures’ attempts to maim her.

Power throbbed through Mae and resonated across the bond connecting her to the weapon and Brimstone. She lifted a hand to the sky and called forth another spell.

“Eclipse!”

The dark void that bloomed silently above the gaping roof of the atrium obscured the stars in the sky and distorted the air with a flood of negative pressure. The trees in the garden court trembled violently as they bowed and were nearly uprooted. The jets spouting from the fountains rose against gravity.

The shrieks of the captive hellbeasts made Mae’s ears ring as they were swallowed byEclipse. Blood pounded dully in her skull when she ended the spell a moment later.

Corruption washed across her flesh before she could draw her next breath.

Two more portals had opened in the garden court. Her eyes rounded. Scores of monsters poured out of them and bounded toward the reception hall.

Mae cursed and dove, Hellreaver at her side.

Nikolai’s wrathful shout halted them in their tracks. “MOON FIRE!”

A wall of pale flames burst into life before the sorcerer’s outstretched fingers. It raced across the atrium and swept through the ballroom in the blink of an eye.

Goosebumps prickled Mae’s flesh as Nikolai’s magic wrapped around half the beasts and sent them screaming fitfully while it consumed their flesh in an unholy blaze.

He’s gotten stronger too!

Hellfire and Moon Magic licked at Nikolai’s skin and danced on Alastair’s wings as they focused on destroying the new horde. Vlad and Cortes turned their attention to eliminating the hellbeasts in the atrium. Mae was about to go help them when heat pulsed through her belly, startling her. Her gaze found Brimstone.

The demonic fox’s tails quivered violently where he framed the exit with his body, the sheer force emanating from him pushing back the swarm of monsters trying to attack him and the people escaping the ballroom. Bryony and Abraham grunted on his left as a pair of hellhounds smashed into their shields. Valentina cursed on the fox’s right. She and a High Priest were pushed back by the beasts trying to get past their barriers.

A hellwolf raked Brimstone’s foot with its claws. The fox lowered his muzzle to snap at the beast. The quills of a hellboar pierced his face and narrowly missed his eyes. Brimstone winced before baring his fangs, pupils flaring crimson.

Fury twisted Mae’s belly as she arrowed across the ballroom.

Hellreaver shot past her in a red blur. He let out a sound that made several beasts fall to the ground in terror and sliced off the heads of the monsters that had hurt the fox. The dead hellwolf’s head spun comically through the air before landing with a wet sound in front of a sorcerer crawling along the floor.

Scarlet drops splashed onto Sergio Mendes’s ashen face and clothes. A horrified croak escaped him. He backpedaled across the ground and tripped a cursing witch and sorcerer.

Mae narrowed her eyes.Why isn’t he using his magic?!

Mendes met her gaze. Fear widened his pupils. He looked around wildly, as if searching for something.

There was movement at the corner of Mae’s vision. Heat bloomed on her arm before she could react. She startled.

The harpy eagle squawked loudly as she rose and vanished through the gaping roof of the atrium. Mae looked from the disappearing bird to the fresh scratch on her skin, confused.

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