Buoyed by the bountiful flood of Power Molly offered, he drove at the enemy coven like a sledgehammer. Steven, Henry, Anson and Richard fought at his side while Maria freed the other women. Josiah coated both fists with a telekinesis spell, and those he struck didn’t rise up again.

One guy, a lightning-fast son of a bitch, slammed a hard foot into his bad thigh. Gasping from the hot, stabbing pain, Josiah staggered back and almost fell. Then Steven body-slammed the enemy witch, and Henry angled in fast to land a brutal uppercut that lifted the other man off his feet and then left him crumpled on the ground.

At that point, Josiah looked up, across the narrow battlefield the road had become, and into a familiar dark gaze set into unfamiliar, handsome features. Grigori had done what Josiah had always suspected he might—he had changed his face.

The man looked thoughtful and stroked his chin where he had once worn a beard. He said, “My ukhodim seychas.”

We are leaving now.

“No.” Josiah roared, “NO!”

Even as he drove forward, determined to engage, a tangled wall of thorns sprang up between them. It grew rapidly to twenty feet in height. Richard screamed in agony. His body was wrapped in the wall.

Josiah could either batter through the wall with another massive magic blast, or he could free Richard. He couldn’t do both, not at the same time.

He hesitated only for a fraction of a second. Then he ran to the trapped man and began coating the wall around him with dissipation spells. As he worked, he heard engines start from the other side of the wall. Some of the vehicles had remained drivable.

Furiously, he worked faster. The wall kept regenerating, but he kept recasting until enough of the sorcerous thorns melted for Richard to break free and collapse to the ground. Steven ran over to kneel beside him.

As soon as Richard was free, Josiah whirled to slam the wall of thorns with all the force of his and Molly’s Power combined. Even as he did it, he already knew.

Rasputin, along with those of his coven who had survived, was already gone.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The rest of the wall of thorns fell apart and dissipated into thin air.

The fury that had driven Josiah forward dissipated as well. He looked around at the devastation on the road. Vehicles had been knocked at crazy angles, the beams from their headlights slicing through the scene at random.

Molly was safe. She crouched where he had last seen her while three unknown women surrounded her. The women had placed their hands on her shoulders and arms, their faces etched with concentration, supporting her as she fed him energy and Power.

Bodies lay strewn on the pavement. Turning, he counted six…

Anson.