Page 11 of Witch Queen

Violet and Miles exchanged a guarded look. “We were keeping watch while she tried to do something about that lynx.”

Mae tensed.

A muscle jumped in Nikolai’s jawline. “How is Drabek?”

Ephra sighed. “Not great. She doesn’t eat and she barely sleeps. And her fur is shedding.” She glanced at Mae. “At this rate, it might be kinder to put her down.”

Mae’s insides twisted.

Oscar’s familiar had been driven mad by theSubjugatespell Nikolai had used on her and her sorcerer in Europe. Being abandoned by Oscar had only made things worse.

Though Nikolai had trapped them inside aContainspell, he’d discovered in the aftermath of their battle with the Dark Council that his brother had escaped it somehow. No one knew if Oscar had left voluntarily or been dragged away by Vedran against his will. Still, Mae was certain Oscar had been forced to leave his familiar. Despite the evil deeds he had committed, the sorcerer had clearly loved the lynx.

Now that Drabek’s soul was free of black magic, the creature’s true nature had finally resurfaced. And she wasn’t the vicious animal she’d always appeared to be. Even in her madness, she never tried to harm anyone.

Brimstone nudged her knee with his head.I know her circumstances trouble you, my witch. But it could not be helped.

Mae clenched her fists. She couldn’t help the sorrow and pity she felt for the lynx’s wretched fate.

“Where’s Gyuri?” Bryony asked.

“She’s still down there,” Ephra said. “She’s having a break before she tries to calm her again.”

Mae frowned. “Gyuri?”

“Mrs. Son-Ha,” Bryony clarified.

Mae blinked. “Mrs. Son-Ha is here?!”

Koreatown’s number one gossip and busybody had turned out to be a powerful Shaman who’d been gifted a divine artifact by the archangel Camael. She’d used it to protect Mae, Nikolai, Vlad, and their friends when Anya Mendes’s Illusion Sorcery had turned the world of magic against them.

“We asked her over to thank her after you left for Europe,” Bryony explained. “It was the least we could do.”

“She and Bryony hit it off,” Abraham grunted. “The two of them are like peas in a pod.”

Bryony narrowed her eyes slightly at that. “Being referred to as a pea in a pod hardly suits a lady of my age and station.”

Raven smirked. “Better than a shrew in a castle.”

Violet swallowed a snort. Marlena did her best to pacify Bryony while the witch glared at Raven.

“What’s all this?” Miles said.

He indicated the photographs on the coffee table uneasily. Abraham brought the cousins up to date on the latest developments.

“Shit,” Miles mumbled, ashen faced.

His boa constrictor Millie tightened anxiously around his waist.

Violet frowned. “Does this mean the Sorcerer King will continue to taunt Mae with corpses until he’s ready to fight her?”

No one knew the answer to that.

“Say what you want about the guy, but he’s an expert at psychological warfare,” Gerard said darkly.

A knock came at the study door. Abraham rose to get it.

It was a witch. She glanced awkwardly at them before whispering something in his ear. The aide thanked her and closed the door, his expression troubled.

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