WITCH QUEEN (PAPERBACK)

Nikolai Stanisic stood on a rooftop terrace overlooking Manhattan. He gently rubbed the faded photograph in his hand with a thumb.

It was the picture Mae Jin had found in the palace that once served as the headquarters of the Dark Council, the prison he and his mother had been confined to for years.

The setting sun cast an orange glow on his mother’s pale face where she sat holding him on her lap. His chest grew tight with a wealth of emotions.

Nikolai still remembered Gabriela Stanisic begging one of the few palace attendants who had been tolerant of her presence to take the photograph on the day he’d turned ten. They’d had but an hour in which to enjoy a hastily arranged secret birthday party, one which only his mother and himself had attended.

She had been summoned to Vedran Borojevic’s private chambers shortly afterward, only to return late at night, her face ashen and the fresh bruises the Sorcerer King had inflicted upon her body showing above the neckline of her long-sleeved dress.

By then, Nikolai had been old enough to realize just how his father treated his mother. Even if he hadn’t been, his half-brother Oscar had relished recounting the ways in which their father regularly degraded her.

The rage that had burned in his young heart when he’d grasped the horrors she suffered to keep the two of them alive in that pit of black-hearted snakes was something he still carried to this day.

A haze of Hellfire Magic ignited around him despite his best intentions. Even though Nikolai knew it would not harm anything he cherished, he hastily suppressed his powers, worried they would accidentally scorch the precious memento he clasped.

Alastair rustled his wings and made a worried sound on his shoulder.

“I know.” Nikolai stroked the familiar, remorse a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. “I need to do something about these feelings.”

His breath shuddered out of him. Before they destroy me.

The resentment and fury festering inside him since he’d woken up from the Illusion Sorcery cast upon him had only grown with the passage of time. He still found it hard to swallow all the horrible things he had done to Mae and her bonds in that church in Concord. How he had allowed his father to absorb his and Alastair’s powers and use them against the woman he loved and their friends.

In the aftermath of the battle that had seen Mae free his and Alastair’s minds from their dark shackles and Hellreaver meet his shocking end, Nikolai had focused all of his energy on bringing solace to the witch he had betrayed.

He knew Mae had forgiven him for what he did to her. He just wasn’t ready to acquit himself of his sins yet. Especially since the Hellfire Magic Vedran now possessed gave him a distinctive advantage over them. He now had in his hands the one artifact that could lead him to the soul of the first Sorcerer King: the Book of Light that he had destroyed Hellreaver to obtain.

Dietrich Farago, the Immortal scientist who had worked for Barquiel and Vedran, had theorized that there was a very high chance Fire Magic could open the book. And Hellfire Magic was the most powerful of all Fire Magic.

The rooftop door opened behind Nikolai, distracting him from his grim thoughts. He slipped the photograph into the pocket of his jeans.

Mae Jin crossed the terrace and joined him, Brimstone padding silently beside her. “There you are.”

Alastair fluttered down onto the fox’s head.

Mae stopped next to Nikolai and looked at the scenery spread out before them. “Pretty, isn’t it?”

“If you don’t mind the stink of the river,” he murmured.

Mae rolled her eyes. She turned, propped her elbows on the metal railing, and studied him inquisitively.

“Wanna talk about it?”

Nikolai stiffened a little. “Talk about what?”

Mae pursed her lips. “Stop trying to pretend nothing’s wrong. I know something’s eating at you.” Her expression sobered. “Considering everything you and I have been through, it’s hardly surprising.”

Nikolai clenched his jaw. “It’s not your problem to fix.”

Mae furrowed her brow. “I think you’ll find that it is. You are my consort, after all.”

Nikolai’s breath caught. With everything that had happened in the past few weeks, he kept forgetting the most staggering development of all. Mae had officially chosen him to stand by her side.

That realization warmed his belly and sent heat coiling through his veins.

“Oh.” Nikolai arched an eyebrow, his tone dropping an octave as he twisted to face her. “So, does being your consort mean I have zero privacy now?”

Mae blinked at his gravelly voice. The color that bled into her cheeks and the way her breathing accelerated told Nikolai she wasn’t immune to the attraction sparking between them.

“You are mine.” She caressed his jawline boldly before dancing her fingers down the column of his throat and his chest, her eyes bright with resolve. “Your mind. Your heart. Your body. Your soul. I will claim your everything, sorcerer.”

Nikolai’s pulse spiked. Shit.

He moved, his arms closing tightly around the woman who had bewitched him, his mouth descending upon hers. She responded with a fierceness that made his blood sing, her hands rising to clasp his nape and her body pressing against his like she couldn’t bear the distance between them.

The moan that left her throat ignited the fire smoldering inside him. He skimmed his hands down her back to her butt.

A blast of incubus energy rolled across the rooftop, startling them.

“I knew it!” Vlad Vissarion snarled from where he stood framed in the doorway, his tiger familiar at his side.

Nikolai and Mae reluctantly disentangled themselves.

Vlad glared accusingly at the witch. “I told you to fetch him for dinner, not violate his lips! And you!” The incubus’s slit-like gaze switched to Nikolai. “How about you do me the decency of not making out with her on my property?!”

“Technically, we’re not on your property at the moment,” Nikolai pointed out.

“Really?” Mae said out the corner of her mouth. “You want to go there?”

“I own the damn building, shit-for-brains,” Vlad ground out.

Nikolai smiled. “You mean the Black Devils own it.”

“Wow,” Mae mumbled.

The incubus’s eyes flashed crimson. “She may have chosen you as her consort, but that doesn’t mean I can’t kick your ass, sorcerer boy.”

Nikolai lowered his brows. “I’d like to see you try.”

“Enough.” Mae sighed. “Let’s go in and eat. Tarang looks like he’s about to faint from the lack of calories.”

The familiar had rolled onto his back and was doing his best starved tiger impression. He yowled in agreement.

Nikolai and Vlad grumbled under their breath and followed her down the stairs and into the incubus’s glitzy penthouse. Unease twisted Nikolai’s stomach as he observed the casual way Mae and Vlad set the dining table.

He’d reluctantly agreed to move into the incubus’s apartment after he and Mae had left her family home in Flushing. After all, no one could deny her wish to keep Brimstone and Tarang together. The tiger had proven to be a source of comfort to the demon fox following Hellreaver’s destruction.

Still, Nikolai couldn’t completely quell his misgivings about their circumstances. Nor could he deny the ugly truth that had been gnawing at him since they’d showed up at Vlad’s place.

If I’m being honest with myself, he deserves the role of Mae’s consort more than I do. They both have demonic blood running through their veins. Whereas I am the son of her enemy and the man who betrayed her.

“Nikolai?”

He blinked.

Mae was studying him with a trace of concern. “You haven’t touched your food.”

Nikolai suppressed a wry smile. Mae had already cleared her plate and was on her second serving.

“Sorry, my mind was on…other matters.”

He picked up his knife and fork, sliced a chunk of carrot for Alastair, and dug into his steak. Irritation shot through him at the way the meat melted in his mouth.

He squinted at Vlad. This asshole even cooks perfectly.

Vlad narrowed his eyes. “What’s that look for?”

“You’ll make a good wife,” Nikolai admitted reluctantly.

An expression of utter disgust dawned on the incubus’s face. He shuddered. “Please, the way you said that is giving me chills.”

Nikolai scowled and stabbed his steak viciously.

“Hey, watch the china!” Vlad growled.

Mae’s mouth flattened into a thin line. “Has anyone heard from Cortes? He hasn’t answered my last few messages. I can’t get in touch with Anya either.”

Enrique Cortes and Anya Mendes had left for South America a week ago to talk to their respective covens and for Cortes to have a one-on-one with the Bacatá Cartel boss. As the future head of the Medellin coven and Anya’s fiancé, the sorcerer’s presence in the world of magic needed to be permanent. For that to happen, he needed to cut his ties with the criminal underworld.

According to Vlad, there was only one way for someone like Cortes to leave a cartel. And that was in a coffin.

“They’ve been in the Bacatá Cartel compound for the last two days,” the incubus admitted reluctantly.

Surprise jolted Nikolai. “They?”

Mae sucked in air. “You mean, Anya went with him? Why?!”

Realization struck.

“Oh,” Nikolai muttered. “So, if things don’t pan out the way they want, she’ll cast her Illusion Sorcery on the cartel and they’ll walk out of there unharmed?”

“Bingo.” Vlad made a face. “Better than us waking up to the news that the most powerful criminal gang in South America’s gone up in flames overnight. You can say what you want about the Bacatá Cartel, but they keep a tight leash on the psychopathic cabals in that part of the world.”

“Still, how could Cortes take her there?” Mae protested.

“I know you think Anya is some kind of fragile flower, but she has a pretty strong backbone,” Vlad said. “She did survive the Dark Council’s torture.”

“You’re right.” Mae wrinkled her nose thoughtfully. “And she said some pretty nasty things in that warehouse when the Dark Council attacked us.”

“Yeah, trash talk still doesn’t suit her though,” Vlad muttered.

Nikolai’s cell pinged with an incoming message. He checked the screen and frowned before leveling a wary look at Mae.

“Bryony wants to see us.”

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

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