Page 76 of Witch Queen

White magic blazed in Nikolai’s pupils. He furrowed his brow.

“Go left.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

Voidopenedinside a bank of low clouds some three thousand feet above New York.

Black magic boiled inside Vedran’s veins as he studied the city spread out below his feet through the wispy billows. The once bright metropolis looked dull and dank under the mantle of darkness shrouding it.

It’s been a while since I was last here.

His cold gaze found the queues of traffic moving at a snail’s pace on the bridges connecting Manhattan to the mainland.

“Look at them,” he muttered. “Like insects begging to be killed.”

Oscar stayed silent, his face pale and his eyes bright with fear; the sorcerer avoided meeting his eyes.

Vedran could understand his son’s reticence. Even the macabre army lurking silently behind them kept their distance from the power making the air tremble around him. The magic surging from his core was so brutal it shook his bones and rattled his teeth.

He took a deep breath and smiled savagely when he tasted the terror in the air.

Davor Lazar’s soul was everything he had hoped it would be and more. Dark, twisted, and full of a hunger that matched his own greed. He knew he would now be able to achieve his long-held dream with the first Sorcerer King’s spirit inside him.

This is it. This is the day I shall become a god!

Pain stabbed through his belly. He clenched his jaw as Balkin clawed at his insides, his dead familiar’s rage a fire that seared his flesh where the creature had slipped through the chains that had bound his soul for hundreds of years. Vedran fisted his hands and reinforced the shackles, his brow furrowing in an almighty scowl.

Curse that witch!

He’d known, ever since retreating insideVoidafter his last battle with the Witch Queen, that her spells had done something to the prison that sealed Balkin’s soul. A prison located in the very center of his core and that was now clashing with the other powerful soul that inhabited it.

This wasn’t the first time he’d felt Balkin reach through his cage in the short hours since he’d found theBook of Shadowsand absorbed Davor’s spiritual remains. Regret tightened his chest.

It seems I won’t be able to hold on to both Balkin and Davor’s souls.

Vedran was a little shocked at how conflicted that realization left him. Logic dictated that he abandon Balkin, since the first Sorcerer King would grant him powers beyond those his familiar was capable of. Yet, he found himself strangely unwilling to do so.

A mirthless chuckle left him.Maybe my heart isn’t as dead as I thought it was.

Balkin snarled inside him, the sound growing faint as he succumbed to the dark fetters binding him.

A flicker below captured Vedran’s gaze. The air around the Empire State Building looked different to that in the rest of the city. It was brighter, clearer. As if?—

Vedran cursed, detecting the spell emanating from the skyscraper. He realized then that something crucial was missing from the scenario he was observing. He could not discern the screams he’d expected to hear as panic spread throughout New York.

Fury burned his veins, powering up his magic. The spell left his lips like a death sentence.

“Rot.”

For a moment, nothing happened.

Black magic detonated silently around the base of the skyscraper and raced up its walls, consuming everything in its path. Inky clouds shrouded the giant structure as it imploded.

Vedran narrowed his eyes when the dark billows faded. Where the uppermost observatory once stood was a shimmering, golden bubble. Floating within it were two witches, a sorcerer, and a man with a blazing broadsword.

Oscar drew a sharp breath at the sight of the blonde with the Harpy Eagle. Vedran cursed.

Blue flames brightened Anya Mendes’s eyes and those of her familiar.

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