Page 29 of Witch Queen

“I can explain.”

Jared Dickson watched her woodenly before indicating the monster crouching meekly in a corner of what remained of the autopsy lab. “Explain that.”

Mae scratched her head awkwardly. “It’s a giant from the Underworld. Vedran sent him here.”

Vlad shrugged. “We didn’t really have a choice but to fight.”

“Yeah,” Roman murmured.

Jared cocked a thumb at the Fire Magic sorcerer. “Who’s this?”

“Budimir Volkov’s grandson,” Mae admitted nervously. “You know, the guy I told you we met in Prague.”

Nikolai maintained a tactful silence.

Jared’s brows met in an almighty scowl.

Mae fidgeted. “Have you heard from Alicia?”

“Don’t change the subject!” the Immortal detective snapped.

One of the other cops wandered over. “The chief just called. He’s asking us to arrange autopsies for these,” he glanced at one of the dead giants and shivered, “—creatures.”

Steve Hodge tensed where he’d been clearing up some of the mess in the lab and pretending not to listen in on their conversation. Mae’s boss had taken the appearance of a monster from Hell in his stride when he’d come in to assess the damage to the pathology department. Compared to the demon who had tried to disembowel him on the night Mae’s powers had first awakened, the giant looked like a cuddly teddy bear.

“I don’t think that’s going to help,” Jared said sourly. “And not a word about this to anyone,” he warned his associate. “The last thing this city needs is another alarmist report.” His eyes shrank to slits. “Whoever leaked that story to the press is going to wish they’d never been born.”

The Immortal cracked his knuckles. The cop flinched. Hodge swallowed.

The bodies the New York coven had discovered in the last twenty-four hours had finally made the news. Though the piece had broken out in the middle of the night, Mae was pretty certain the photographs that had been disclosed to the media would be all over the headlines by morning.

She swallowed a weary sigh.Mom’s gonna go apeshit when she finds out it involves the coven.

She won’t be pleased when she discovers what you intend to do next either, Brimstone observed.

Mae chewed her lip. With Alicia still MIA and Vedran’s efforts to consume powerful magic cores accelerating, she had no choice but to adopt plan C.

Let’s hope he agrees to do it.

CHAPTERTEN

“You want me to do what?”Cortes said dully.

Anya sat with her jaw open beside the sorcerer.

They were at the makeshift headquarters of the New York coven. Dawn was just breaking across the city, along with news about the dead bodies that had been discovered in several locations across the state.

Abraham recovered from his shock first. “Are you nuts?!”

Told you they’d react like this, Brimstone said smugly, chomping down his breakfast.

Mae cut her eyes to the fox. “How about you focus on that bacon sandwich?” She turned to the others. “Look, hear me out?—”

“There’s nothing to discuss, Mae,” Bryony interrupted grimly. “It’s one thing agreeing to let Alicia escort you to Hell. It’s a whole other ballgame asking a human to take her place.”

Anya and Roman nodded vigorously. Vlad and Nikolai remained silent. Judging from their expressions, they still harbored misgivings on the subject.

“The fact that we haven’t heard from Alicia could mean there’s a reason she can’t return to Earth right now,” Abraham said stiffly.

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