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Skye slowly nodded. “In a very bad way.”
Maya hesitated. For the first time since Skye had arrived at the Witch’s Brew, she regretted her decree that the mage wasn’t allowed to share her visions if they had anything to do with Maya or Peri.
“Is it something you can talk about?”
“I think it’s Peri.”
“You’ve had a vision?” she cautiously demanded.
“Yes, but it’s not the future,” Skye clarified, her voice husky as she struggled to contain her fear. “It’s now. She’s in danger.”
Frustration pulsed through Maya like a corrosive acid. She wanted nothing more than to jump on a plane and head out west. Even if she didn’t know Peri’s precise location, she had full faith in her ability to track her down. But she couldn’t risk creating the very disaster she wanted to avoid.
She had to trust that Peri could take care of herself.
“You know we can’t help her.” She squeezed Skye’s arm. “I’m sorry.”
Skye’s lips parted, as if she was going to insist they do something, but no words came out. Instead she stiffened in shock and her beautiful black eyes were suddenly an incandescent white. As if she’d been lit from a searing fire inside her.
“Peri!” Skye screamed, falling to the floor, her hands reaching for something Maya couldn’t see.
Terror drove Maya to her knees, her arms wrapping around her friend, who continued to scream in horror.
“Skye, come back to me.”
Skye’s head fell back, her eyes flaring with the blinding light. “Stop. Peri, please stop.”
“Skye.”
Cradling the young mage tightly in her arms, Maya was suddenly hit by a crushing wave of power. Turning her head, she was more resigned than shocked to discover Joe standing in the open doorway to the bakery. She had no idea how he’d gotten past the lock and her expensive security system, and at the moment she didn’t care.
“Stay back,” she hissed, fully prepared to blast him with a spell. She didn’t know his true story, or if he was a friend or an enemy, but with Skye writhing in her arms she wasn’t taking any chances.
As if sensing she was on edge, Joe lifted his hands in a gesture of peace. “I’m not here to interfere.”
“Then why are you here?”
His eyes shimmered like emeralds as he studied the screaming Skye. “To witness the beginning of a new world.” His gaze shifted to Maya, his expression unreadable. “Or the end.”
Chapter 28
Valen remained crouched on the ground, his gaze locked on Peri. In the two thousand years of his current life he’d never seen anything so glorious.
Standing in the center of the cabin, Peri spread her arms wide, a dazzling display of lightning dancing through the air. Her hair floated around her face, caught in the sheer power that sizzled around her, her beautiful features set in grim lines. She looked like Astrape, Goddess of Lightning, as she battled the churning red mist. Raw female power at its most primitive.
Stepping forward, she sent shockwaves of magic into the miasma, ruthlessly striking over and over until Destiny was curled on the ground, the flames dying from her eyes.
The smell of sulfur blasted through the air before abruptly fading. As if a doorway had been opened and shut. The retreat of the miasma? That would be his guess.
Slowly rising to his feet, he watched as Peri moved toward the statues at the back of the cabin, the lightning striking them with shattering force. His brows lifted as the marble was disintegrated with unnerving ease, small shards lodging in the wooden walls.
As a vampire, he was one of the most powerful creatures in the world. At least since the dragons had retreated. But watching Peri, he realized that he’d just witnessed a magic that went beyond anything he’d ever seen before. Or ever wanted to see again.
The last of the statues was ground to dust, and Valen waited for Peri to turn off the lightning. It had to be consuming an enormous amount of her magic. The fact that she’d continuedfor this long was amazing. But a minute passed, and then another while the power continued to dance around her, creating a vortex of chaos.
Was there an unseen enemy that she was battling?
Valen shook his head. No. If there was something in the cabin, he would sense it. It was almost as if she’d become lost in some sort of inner battle.
