Page 68 of Midnight Witch

He dove inside the vast ocean that was Mae’s subconscious and grasped at the pale rune he and Alastair had just spotted. It resisted his hold for a moment. Another bright flash lit up the shadows on his left. He frowned and swam toward it.

It felt like forever had passed by the time he had all the runes in his clutches.

He studied them for long seconds before weaving them into a spell. He had never seen it before but he knew inherently what its power could do. The white-red core inside him brightened as he drew on his and Mae’s fused magic. His chest swelled on his next inhale. He felt Mae take a deep breath.

Their combined voices rang sweetly in his ears as they invoked the conjuration.

“PURGE!”

The light that scorched the dark runes from Sable’s core filled his world. Black spots swarmed his vision. Shouts reached him faintly above the buzzing in his ears. The ground quaked beneath his feet.

Mae steadied him, her touch unshakable.

Nikolai’s heart pounded heavily when he felt her endSoul Conjure. Light filled the murky interior of Sable’s body as her soul reappeared and sank inside her core.

There was a moment’s stillness during which both he and Mae held their breath.

Brightness pulsed through the bird’s core. It detonated with blazing blue flames that lit up the space around it.

Mae sagged against his back. “Thank God!”

Nikolai shuddered as she unfused their magic and lifted her hands off his back. He reached blindly behind him and grasped her wrist, not wanting to let go of this intimate moment. Her fingers slipped into his grasp and twined around his.

His vision flickered. His sight returned. The terrace and gardens blurred into view.

It took a moment for him to grasp what he was seeing.

“Shit,” he mumbled.

“Yeah, well, it couldn’t be helped,” Mae muttered.

Brimstone and Hellreaver huffed, clearly unrepentant.

Giant cracks had torn across the estate, uprooting bushes and trees and even a pergola. All the glass this side of the mansion had been blown to smithereens. Half of Mendes’s coven looked to have been blasted onto their backs by the power of the spell despite their shields and were slowly getting back onto their feet.

Vlad watched them warily from behind Cortes’s Arcane Magic barrier.

“Is it over?” the incubus asked.

Nikolai’s gaze swept the destruction he and Mae had unleashed. “Yeah.”

Violet sagged and retracted her shield alongside an ashen-faced Miles.

“Next time, we’ll just leave you guys to it and go to the next town,” the sorcerer grumbled.

Mendes’s eyes rounded. “Sable!”

He hurried over, his hare loping at his side.

Nikolai looked around.

The harpy eagle was awake and floating serenely insideContain.

Mae ended the spell. Sable fluttered onto her shoulder. She studied Mae for a moment before nuzzling her cheek lovingly.

Brimstone’s hackles rose slightly. The harpy eagle ignored the fox and started grooming Mae’s hair with her beak.

“That tickles,” Mae chuckled.

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