Page 100 of Witch Queen

Nikolai’s voice had her head jerking around.

“Oscar!”

The sorcerer had dropped to his knees and was pressing his fingers to the wound in his brother’s belly, his hands shaking. He lowered an ear to Oscar’s lips. Relief had his shoulders sagging. He met Mae’s eyes as he straightened, his lips stretching in a trembling smile.

Vlad cursed as Barquiel broke free of the hold he, Cortes, and Rambrog had on him. The demon flashed toward Mae.

Azazel blocked his nemesis’s sword with his spear before he could reach her.

“Not today!” he snapped. “You’re not touching a single hair on my daughter’s head!”

Mae’s scalp prickled. The sky darkened, eldritch clouds forming above the bridge, their spinning motion reminding her ofEclipse.

Her pulse accelerated when she looked over at Vedran.

The Sorcerer King had risen to his feet and was moving toward his sons in a black cloud of corruption. The asphalt melted under his steps. Metal corroded when he brushed against a truss.

“Brim! Hell!” Mae barked.

The demon fox and the weapon regrouped around Nikolai.

Brightness filled the sorcerer and his crow’s eyes.

He widened his stance and shot a warning look at Mae. “Brace!”

Confusion fluttered through her. The bridge shuddered violently. She gasped.

Vlad swore. Cortes cursed. Rambrog almost stumbled off the deck.

The Sorcerer King seemed oblivious to what was happening, his attention focused on Nikolai.

“Give me your core, you wretch!” Vedran spat. “You do not deserve that magic!”

Nikolai lowered his brows. “Fuck you, asshole.”

The waters below Brooklyn Bridge turned a dazzling white as he drew on the nexus beneath New York, static crackling around him in an ever-growing cloud.

Mae almost swallowed her tongue when a stream of dazzling magic rose from the East River and slammed into the deck straight beneath Nikolai’s feet. Alastair opened his wings wide and screeched, his feathers running pale with magic.

“HELL STORM!” the sorcerer roared.

The flames that erupted across Brooklyn Bridge swarmed its stonework and trusses, and brightened its cables with white fire.

Vedran choked and fell to his knees, hands rising to clutch his throat.

“Now, Mae!” Nikolai yelled.

Her heart pounded in her throat as she removed the skeleton key from her jeans. It had already assumed the star-shaped form Azazel had warned her about. Mae removed theBook of Lightfrom her jacket and swallowed.

There was movement in the magic streaming from the New York nexus.

Her breath froze. An ethereal figure emerged from the bright beam rising from the river. Na Ri shuddered inside her.

The woman who floated down in front of Mae had long, black hair and a face that was nearly identical to her own. A beautiful, white Korean dragon danced sinuously in the air above her, his wise eyes observing Mae kindly.

“Hello,” Ran Soyun murmured. “It’s nice to finally meet you in the flesh, Mae.”

Her face blurred as tears swarmed Mae’s vision.

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