Page 64 of Witch Queen

Vlad’s eyes widened. Nikolai frowned.

“You mean, your friend who got possessed by Barquiel?” Cortes said, unconvinced.

Mae nodded. “I thought I felt a remnant of Rose’s soul when I stabbed Barquiel with Hellreaver in Brooklyn, the second time we fought. I was certain she was still inside him when I usedChaos Sealto imprison him.”

Armaros and Astarte traded a wary glance.

“My witch is right,” Hellreaver piped up. “Brimstone and I felt it too.”

The fox huffed in agreement where he’d coiled into a ball on Mae’s lap.

Azazel’s brow knotted. “Soul Magic.” He met Alicia’s troubled gaze. “That’s the only thing that would make sense.”

Surprise jolted Mae. “Soul Magic?”

“Barquiel was cursed when he fell from Heaven,” Azazel explained. “He cannot survive in the realm of man in his demon form for long. That is why he must possess another to walk the Earth, so he is able to access his powers outside Hell. Man, woman, demon, beast. It doesn’t matter who it is as long as that being possesses a soul that is compatible with his own.”

Mae’s pulse thumped rapidly as her father’s words sank in.Does that mean Barquiel has a weakness when he’s on Earth?!

We need to remember that when we fight him next, Na Ri said in a steely voice.

A muscle jumped in Nikolai’s cheek. “This…Soul Magic is how he does it? How he takes over other people’s bodies?”

“Yes,” Azazel replied.

“Could he have taught that spell to Vedran?”

Azazel stiffened at the sorcerer’s question. “Why do you ask?”

“Because my father killed his familiar and is using his soul to perpetrate his crimes,” Nikolai said coldly.

Alastair crooned quietly on his shoulder.

Astarte’s eyes widened. Ilmon cursed.

“Nikolai and I caught a glimpse of the Sorcerer King’s dead familiar when we last confronted him,” Mae confirmed. “He appeared before us a few days ago, after I usedSoul Conjureon the body of a Dark Council witch Vedran had killed. His familiar was a wolf named Balkin.”

Crimson flashed in Alicia’s pupils. “How despicable. That magic carries the harshest of penalties. To think Barquiel would even think of teaching it to a human is unbelievable.”

“That bastard would do anything to achieve his goal of reviving Ran Soyun,” Nikolai ground out.

Azazel froze, his pupils rounding. Demonic energy detonated around him, rattling glass and metal and whipping their hair and clothes into a frenzy.

His enraged roar shook the castle. “WHAT?!”

Astarte hung on grimly to her chair in the violent tempest and scowled at Nikolai. “You know, you could have broached that topic more sensitively!”

Mae stood up and closed the distance to her and Na Ri’s father, her magic buffering her against the powerful storm shaking Armaros’s palace. She knelt before Azazel and clasped his hands, the anger she and Na Ri had felt when they’d first learnt the dark truth of Barquiel’s intentions a banked heat simmering in her blood.

“It’s okay, Dad.”

Azazel shuddered. The fury darkening his face and wreaking havoc on the room abated at her quiet words.

“I—I apologize, child,” he mumbled after a moment, his tone haggard.

“The one you should be apologizing to is me,” Armaros grumbled.

The demon peeled himself off the mounted hellbear he’d been clinging to.

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