Page 9 of Witch Queen

“We even have a Phoenix,” Raven said.

Mae chewed her lip.Dammit. This Sebastian guy sounds even more uptight than this lot.

“Anyway, the reason I called all of you here is because you need to see something,” Bryony said.

Her tone had Mae stiffening. Brimstone glanced over curiously from where he was demolishing his third dish of beef.

Abraham went to Bryony’s desk and brought an envelope over. He took out the contents and spread them on the coffee table, his lips pressed into a grim line.

It was a series of photographs.

Isabelle made a horrified sound. She covered her mouth with a trembling hand, the color draining from her face. Simon clasped her shoulder, his own expression turning strained.

“Look familiar?” Bryony asked in a brittle voice.

“Shit,” Nikolai ground out.

Tension knotted Mae’s shoulders. Brimstone joined her.

The bodies in the pictures had the same appearance as Isabelle’s butler and housekeeper when they were found buried in shallow graves on her property, after she was kidnapped and held hostage by the Dark Council. Except there were dozens of corpses piled haphazardly atop one another on the scorched ground.

Mae’s pulse raced as she tried to understand what they were looking at. Bryony’s next words sent a chill down her spine.

“They are Dark Council members,” the older witch stated in a flat voice. “And they all died from injuries consistent with black magic.”

Mae’s eyes rounded. “What?!”

“We found the first…group twelve hours ago,” Abraham said sourly. “We’ve discovered three more since then.” A muscle ticked in the sorcerer’s jawline. “The crazy part is these witches and sorcerers aren’t even from around here, yet we keep finding their bodies in our territory.”

“The only silver lining to this incident is that it hasn’t made the news headlines yet.” Bryony looked her age all of a sudden. “The bodies are turning up in areas of New York under the strict jurisdiction of our coven,” she explained wearily in the face of their stares. “I’ve had to inform the mayor of our findings and Jared is doing his best to keep things under wraps so no one in the NYPD leaks information to the press, but I don’t know how much longer we can keep this from the eyes of the ordinary public.”

“Why would they kill their own?” Nadia said stiffly in the fraught silence.

“Maybe it’s some kind of message,” a pale-faced Roman hazarded, his gaze locked on the macabre images.

Nikolai went as still as stone at his words.

“I think Roman is right,” he mumbled. He traced one of the figures in a photograph with a finger. “This wasn’t a normal fire. It looks like Hellfire Magic was used on them.”

Alastair rustled his wings restlessly on his shoulder.

Ice formed in Mae’s veins. “So, this is Vedran’s work?!”

Nikolai met her anxious gaze and bobbed his head.

“But how?” Derrick leveled a hard stare at Mae. “Wouldn’t you have picked up on the Sorcerer King’s presence if he was in the city?”

Mae shared a wary glance with Nikolai. “Not if he’s usingVoid.”

“The only way to cancel that spell is with pure white magic from a ley line,” Nikolai elaborated.

“If he was in New York, he would have come after Mae,” Raven said dismissively. She lowered her brows. “More importantly, why is he killing his own sorcerers and witches?”

Brimstone nosed at the photographs.He must be in need of their magic, my witch. It is the only logical explanation for him to sacrifice his army.

A sour taste filled the back of Mae’s mouth.

“Mae?” Nikolai asked worriedly.

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