Page 84 of Witch Queen

“Brimstone is right.” Azazel frowned at Barquiel. “It has been a long time, my friend.”

“Friend?!” Barquiel spat. “Don’t make me laugh! You stole the woman I loved from under my nose!” His pupils flared crimson with loathing. “You are nothing but a traitor!”

Fury hardened Mae’s stomach.

Azazel’s face darkened. “She was never yours to claim.”

Mae blinked at the formidable aura of demonic energy and magic that detonated around her father and shook the gully. A rift opened beside Azazel. The demon extracted a dark spear crackling with crimson magic from within it.

“Ran Soyun and I trusted you, Barquiel,” Azazel said in a hard voice. He spun the spear slickly in his hands before adopting a battle stance Mae was certain he had taken thousands of times before. “We trusted that you would watch our backs when Davor first made his intentions clear. But you betrayed us.” His eyes flashed with anger as he glanced at her. “And you hurt our daughters.” He snapped his wings and rose, his voice dropping to a low growl. “I hope you’re ready for the ass-kicking coming your way, old friend!”

Barquiel dove from the bluff on an enraged snarl.

The sound their weapons made when they clashed arms had Mae’s ears ringing and the others flinching. She stared wide-eyed at the near invisible battle taking place above them, the echoes of the clash reverberating loudly against the cliffs.

It was only thanks to her powers that she could make out the two demons’ figures where they blurred in midair, sword and spear sparking as metal met metal.

They’re so fast!

Alicia regrouped with them. “Come, let’s get to that cave while your father has him distracted!”

They headed swiftly through the sulfurous clouds toward the cliff, Barquiel roaring angrily as Azazel blocked his path again and again.

Dark shapes loomed out of the shadows when they dropped to the ground some hundred feet from the bluff. Brimstone’s lips curled back on an unholy sound. Hellreaver snapped his teeth, his blades thick with crimson and black static.

Mae endedContainand narrowed her eyes at the ghouls and devils standing in their path. She called forthDevour, the spheres hissing and rotating furiously as they formed above her palms, the crimson light they emitted reflecting in the monsters’ pupils.

White magic brightened Nikolai and Alastair’s eyes. Cortes unleashed his sword and whip, Popo’s wings blazing with the golden light of their Arcane Magic. Tarang growled as Vlad manifested a thick aura of incubus energy from their cores.

Alicia flinched. Her head snapped up, her orbits blooming scarlet. She stared blindly at the distant ceiling.

Fresh tension knotted Mae’s shoulders at her glazed expression. “What’s wrong?”

The Reaper queen was silent for a moment.

“My Reapers tell me there is a sudden harvest of souls happening on Earth,” she mumbled.

She shuddered and blinked, awareness returning to her face. The look she gave Mae curdled her blood.

“Vedran is in New York,” Alicia said with a haunted expression. “He has Davor Lazar’s soul.”

CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE

Dread formeda cold pit in the bottom of Nikolai’s stomach.

“Vedran is in New York?!” Mae said hoarsely.

Brimstone lowered his head on an angry sound, drool dripping thickly from his exposed fangs. Hellreaver hummed furiously where he hovered in midair.

“He has already slaughtered thousands of people.” The Reaper queen’s voice shook with rage, her knuckles white where she gripped her scythe. Her expression grew conflicted as she studied Mae. “I know this is the last thing you want to hear right now, but you must return to Earth.”

Mae’s eyes widened incredulously. Her gaze swung toward the invisible opening to Ran Soyun’s prison.

“But I—I can’t leave now! Ihaveto see this through!”

Vlad touched her shoulder. “Alicia is right, Mae.” A muscle jumped in the incubus’s jawline. “Only you can save New York from Vedran.”

Cortes bobbed his head in agreement, his face tight with dread.

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