A FURY OF SHADOWS (HARDBACK)

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The air sizzled with magic. Static raised the hairs on Mae Jin’s arms as she dove to her left.

She missed the curving whip threatening to wrap around her left leg by a hairbreadth, used Hellreaver to block the powerful spell bomb arrowing toward her as she twisted in mid-air, and landed on her side with a grunt. The whip hissed close to her cheek as she rolled and came up on one knee. She studied the witch who’d attacked her with a faint frown.

Karin Everheart sneered. “Come now, demon. Is that all you’ve got?!”

The Siamese cat pacing the ground at the High Priestess’s feet hissed and spat, her eyes aglow with the orange magic dancing on her mistress’s fingertips and weapon.

“You give her too much credit,” Derrick Adlington said coldly. Gold sparks danced along the length of the double-ended spear spinning lazily in the High Priest’s hands as he trod the floor to Mae’s right, his stare predatory. “We both know she’s nothing but a fake.”

Wow.

Mae grimaced at the insult and climbed to her feet. She hadn’t anticipated they’d be quite so annoying in the grip of Anya’s Illusion Sorcery.

They’re almost as bad as that brat Abraham was when he was under the influence of her magic, Hellreaver grumbled in her hand. Let me at them, my witch!

Mae tightened her grip on the weapon as he struggled to break free.

“Down, Cujo!” she snapped. “You know that’s not part of the plan.”

Hellreaver growled, annoyed.

She was distracted by a calm voice.

“How’s that counter spell coming along?” Enrique Cortes said from the shadows of the empty warehouse in Brooklyn where the mock battle was taking place.

Anya Mendes stood beside the Columbian sorcerer, her pupils and those of her Harpy Eagle Sable lighting up the gloom with the blue flames of the power pouring out of them.

Karin and Derrick were oblivious to her and Cortes’s presence.

Now that Mae had gotten used to sensing Anya and her familiar’s cores, she could feel their eerie magic throbbing against her flesh. It still set her teeth on edge even though she knew they were no longer her enemy.

She glanced at Cortes. “I know you said I shouldn’t use my full powers during these sparring sessions, but it would be a lot easier to focus if I wasn’t getting my ass handed to me. How about we try something—?!”

Movement out of the corner of her eye had her cursing.

She was too late to dodge the attack hurtling toward her. Heat seared her right thigh when it glanced off her flesh, wringing a gasp from her lips. Though the wound healed almost instantly, it still stung.

Derrick curled a mocking lip. The sorcerer looked like he was enjoying himself, as did the hawk on his shoulder.

It was Cortes who’d suggested the High Council assist Mae with her training. They’d been initially reluctant to do so. Considering how the entire magic community had turned on Mae mere weeks ago after falling prey to the Dark Council’s latest heinous scheme, she could hardly blame them.

Cortes had finally convinced them it was in everyone’s interest that she succeed in overcoming Anya’s spell.

Mae eyed Karin and Derrick glumly. They’ve grown suspiciously enthusiastic now they’ve realized they get to kick my ass every day.

Heat pulsed across her bond with Brimstone. That floozie from the West Coast and the damn fool from Orlando were the same when they visited last week. The demon fox fidgeted restlessly next to Cortes. Allow me to intervene, my witch. I cannot sit still while these weaklings attack you!

“No.” Mae’s gaze flicked to the fox. “I need to do this on my own.” She paused. “And don’t let Abraham hear you call Raven a floozie.”

Brimstone drooped. Cortes frowned at the fox. He’d expressly forbidden him from helping her with his demon magic.

Hellreaver sulked in Mae’s hold, equally annoyed. Though she was allowed to wield him as a weapon, he was also banned from aiding her with his powers. According to Anya, the best way for Mae to learn to combat Illusion Sorcery was by relying on her own two cores. Cortes had concurred.

Though neither of them had said the words out loud, Mae knew what Anya and Cortes were afraid of. If Brimstone and Hellreaver were ever incapacitated again, as they were during her last battle against the Dark Council, she would have to rely on her own magic to defend herself against their enemy.

Mae could feel the sources of power that had recently awakened inside her deep within her belly and her chest. They throbbed with the formidable demonic energy she had been born to wield. Entwined around the bright spheres were pulsing threads of white magic.

Now that she was regularly accessing the core in her heart, the legacy Ran Soyun had bequeathed her and Na Ri grew stronger by the day.

Na Ri had been as surprised by this as Mae was. And it had caused Mae to question something that had always troubled her.

Is this what Barquiel was afraid of? That our white magic would thrive under the influence of our second core?

Na Ri had remained silent at her questions.

The Archduke of Hell who had sided with the first Sorcerer King and all who had subsequently filled that position had been keen to rip out the core in her heart whenever they had fought one another. In fact, the demon seemed pretty obsessed with robbing her of her secondary source of magic.

Mae’s thoughts turned to Nikolai Stanisic as she evaded another blistering attack by the bewitched Karin and Derrick. She wondered how he was faring.

Almost a month had passed since the events in Concord, when the white magic sorcerer had fallen under the spell hidden inside the altar of the church where he, Mae, Cortes, and Vlad Vissarion had battled Oscar Beneventi and Barquiel. Though they had managed to free Anya and end the Illusion Sorcery that had seen Mae become the most hated figure in the magic community, they had all ultimately failed to grasp the Sorcerer King and his Dark Council’s secret intention to capture Nikolai.

With his ability to access ley lines and his newly acquired Hellfire Magic, the sorcerer’s power was a crucial key in Vedran Borojevic’s scheme to achieve his goals. Chief among those was unlocking the Book of Shadows so he could get his hands on the soul of the first Sorcerer King. What he intended to do with it no one knew, although Mae had her suspicions on the subject.

That lapse in judgment had cost them one of the most valuable assets they had in the war they would soon have to wage against Vedran, his army of black magic users, and the demonic forces Barquiel commanded.

But Nikolai Stanisic wasn’t just a tool to be used in the upcoming conflict. He was the man Mae had fallen in love with.

Her chest grew heavy with an all too familiar ache as she countered a barrage of spell bombs with Devour. She’d just retracted her magic when Hellreaver shot out of her grasp, startling her. He deflected Derrick’s spear as it crossed her blind spot and let loose an unholy growl.

The voices of the demonic souls that dwelled within him echoed menacingly across the warehouse. Karin and Derrick flinched.

“Don’t get distracted!” Cortes barked.

Mae clenched her jaw. He’s right. Moping over a broken heart isn’t going to help anyone. And it sure won’t give me the satisfaction of punching Barquiel’s lights out the next time we meet.

That’s the spirit, my witch! Brimstone said fervently.

Mae focused her attention on the battle at hand and the presence within her. Are you any closer to figuring out a way to break the spell?

Na Ri replied just as Mae cut down Karin’s whip and Derrick’s spear with Hellreaver and unleashed Wind Fury upon the witch and the sorcerer.

No. And I’ve tried any combination of the spells our father bequeathed us since we started these practice sessions.

They had decided beforehand that Mae would concentrate on the physical aspect of their training sessions, while Na Ri directed their magic at coming up with a way to undo Anya’s illusion.

Mae’s stomach sank at the frustration underscoring her first incarnation’s voice. So, nothing’s working?

I’m afraid not.

WITCH QUEEN SERIES
The Darkest Night
Rites of Passage
Of Flames and Crows
Midnight Witch
A Fury of Shadows
Witch Queen