Page 68 of Witch Queen

The firstBook of Shadowsit had led them to had turned out to be a fake, just like the one Nikolai had manifested when he’d used Hellfire Magic on the artifact Dietrich Farago had created.

Damn that Azazel!Vedran clenched his jaw until his teeth ached. The demon had clearly planted dozens of fakes in case anyone ever attempted to use theBook of Lightin this fashion. His eyes shrank to slits.I imagine the skeleton key we lost to Mae and the New York coven would be the fastest way to the real tome.Determination knotted the sorcerer’s shoulders.Still, there are only so many fakes he could have planted. One of these rifts will lead me to the trueBook of Shadows, I’m certain of it.

Vedran took a moment to appreciate the magic bubbling through his veins as he tore open doorway after doorway. The power he now harbored in his dark core made his heart race like few things could. Killing off the sorcerers and witches who had been loyal to him and absorbing the magic of the coven members he’d had his hellish army slaughter had been the right call.

He felt pretty invincible right now. But it still wasn’t enough.

He would only be satisfied once he had devoured the soul of the first Sorcerer King and the core of the most powerful white magic user on Earth. The treacherous offspring he had sired with the witch he once treasured the most in his harem.

Vedran was dimly aware of Oscar’s harrowed gaze on his back. He could practically taste the sorcerer’s fear. Logic told him he had no further use for his firstborn son now that the latter’s core had been ruined bySubjugate. He had already abandoned his plan to gain control of the Witch Queen by bonding her to Oscar via theMarriage of Magic; instead, she would die by Vedran’s own hand.

The Sorcerer King frowned.But Oscar might still be of some use. I’ve kept him alive this long. A few more days won’t matter.

Something distracted him from his reflections. He stiffened.

TheBook of Lightwas vibrating in his hand.

He felt the power inside the artifact condense.

The keyhole shifted form.

Vedran stared at the star-shaped opening, his heart in his throat. He manipulated the Hellfire Magic he had stolen from Nikolai and created a matching key, his fingers shaking with excitement.

This is it. This next rift is the one!

He inserted the star-shaped key of flame inside the compass, his mouth going dry. The click of the lock echoed in his ears, a sound that preceded an event even he had not anticipated.

Oscar gasped.

Jubilation brought a mad grin to Vedran’s face.Yes!Finally!

The crack that had opened in the fabric of space was not so much a rift as it was a doorway. He hesitated but a moment before surrounding himself with a thick aura of black magic and stepping through it.

Vedran paused and blinked on the other side of the threshold. His breath caught. Stars and galaxies flashed all around and above him, so fast they were a blur against the inky firmament.

Is this—another dimension?!

His heart thumping furiously, he took a step onto a dark floor that moved as if it were made of water. Ripples broke out, the wavelets expanding and accelerating before they washed across the base of something that lit up like the sun.

Vedran flinched and covered his face with an arm. He let his eyes adapt to the bright glare before squinting through a gap between his fingers.

It was a moment before he could make out the bright object ahead. It was a dazzling pedestal that glittered and sparkled as if it were made of stars.

A shiver danced down his spine as he gazed at what floated above it.

Levitating within a roaring orb of demonic energy, its pages fluttering lightly in an invisible wind, was a dark book. Black magic crackled and sparked on its cover and spine.

Deep inside him, in the place where Vedran harbored his most wicked secret, his dead familiar Balkin howled.

* * *

“You want me to do what?”Edwin McKinney said leadenly.

Bryony met the mayor’s gaze steadily. “I want you to evacuate the city.”

McKinney turned to Jared. “Is she insane?!”

Abraham bristled next to Bryony. She raised a hand. He settled in his seat, his annoyed gaze shifting to the two somber-faced advisors framing the mayor.

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