Page 77 of Witch Queen

She must be the reason the city is so quiet!

It was a moment before he recovered his composure.

“It doesn’t matter.” Power seared his blood. “Disperse!”

Black magic swarmed the golden sphere protecting the witch. It shivered but held.

Rage sent blood roaring in Vedran’s ears.

“What is that power?!” he snarled.

Oscar flinched.

Vedran cut his eyes to his son. “You know what it is, don’t you?”

Oscar swallowed at his dark stare. Regret darkened the sorcerer’s gaze for a moment. Then he did something Vedran never expected him to do.

He stepped out ofVoidand plummeted toward the city.

“No!”

Vedran lunged forward, arm outstretched. His fingers closed on empty space. He scowled and unleashed a net of black magic. The thick threads streamed from his fingers and snaked through the air, wrapping around Oscar’s ankle in seconds.

The sorcerer castDisperse, cutting the ties. He fell silently, nary a scream leaving his lips as he plunged through the air.

Vedran stiffened at the glimpse of a glittering object in Oscar’s hand. It was theBook of Light.

When did he take that?!

He hesitated. He had no further use for the artifact now that he had obtained theBook of Shadowsand Davor’s soul. Still, it rankled him that Oscar had stolen the compass.

He’s a pawn that might still come in handy in the days ahead. Besides, I did not give him permission to leave my side.

“Go after him and bring him back,” Vedran ordered a regiment of the monstrous troops silently awaiting his command. His eyes shrank to slits. “You can hurt him if he resists, but don’t kill him.”

The Sorcerer King turned his attention to the city below.

The Hellfire Magic that bloomed around his fingers sent a thrill through him at the same time it made the main body of his army recoil, the sheer power of the flames causing the air to shimmer in a fifty-foot-wide radius around him.

Vedran aimed the devastating spell he had invoked at the bridges spanning the Hudson River. “Obliterate.”

A dark smile stretched his mouth.

Hellfire Magic engulfed the overpasses and the vehicles jamming their lanes. Tiny shapes leapt from the structures a moment later, the humans trapped there desperately trying to escape their fate. The flames found them and charred their bodies to black shells before they struck the water.

* * *

Bile burnedthe back of Violet’s throat as she watched the burning figures splashing into the river from where she floated above where the Empire State Building once stood.

“Fuck!” Jared snarled.

“Focus!” Violet snapped when the Immortal’s concentration wavered for a split second.

Jared swallowed, his knuckles whitening on the handle of his sword. The divine power pouring out of the weapon augmented the barrier she and Miles had erected to protect Anya.

A muffled sob reached Violet’s ears.

Sorrow made her belly clench. She looked over her shoulder and saw the tears streaming down Anya’s face. The witch could feel the pain of all the people dying at the Sorcerer King’s hands.

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