The magick was mostly of earth and felt like bottomless earthen fissures and high mountain peaks. It felt rich and fathomless and so, so powerful.

The sound of the chanting grew louder and became one long drone in her mind, each word no longer separate. The prickling discomfort became actual pain. All of the witches in the circle gasped. Mira's spine arched and her head snapped back as she tried to endure the sensation in her near paralysis.

The magick caught her, caught all of them and held them in thrall. The expressions of everyone in the room appeared rapturous as the chanting intensified. It grew louder, fading into one long hum of power.

Vibration filled her body, gentle at first and then stronger and stronger until she hurt. It wasn't any ordinary kind of hurt, it was hurt with a capital H. It infiltrated every pore of her body and her mind with an intensity that made her wish to pass out, but apparently she would not be allowed that luxury.

It was the feeling of her magick being extracted from her.

She was dying.

Images of her life flashed before her eyes, just like they always said happened at the moment a person died. They flickered through her mind so fast she could only focus on a few of them.

She saw Annie smiling at her as she picked out library books when she'd been a child. The small burst of rain in Annie's backyard. She saw images from high school, prom night, and graduation. She saw Ben, their wedding, the day their divorce was final.

Then flashes of Jack. Jack smiling at her. Jack leaning in to kiss her. Waking up in the morning and turning over to find Jack tangled half naked in the sheets beside her.

The hurt flared brilliantly through her body, and all the images disappeared.

Everything disappeared.

TWENTY-FOUR

TWENTY-THREE

Jack tried to open: the frosted double glass doors of Duskoff International and found them locked. The warding was broken, so he knew Mira and Thomas were inside and the alarm system was likely off thanks to the Coven, not that he cared if it wasn't. He waited until no one was near him on the street and used his magick to melt the outside of the door where the lock and bolt were located, and cautiously stepped inside.

Bodies lay strewn on the marble floor of the lobby, the grisly result of a magickal fight. The windows fronting the building were also frosted, shielding the interior from normal eyes, but it wouldn't be a good thing for a non-magickal to wander in through the doors from the street, so Jack welded the lock shut from the inside.

He made his way through the lobby, searching for Thomas, Mira, or a conscious Coven witch, but aside from already fallen bodies, he could find no sign of anyone. Clearly, he was late to the party.