The Boston coven caught up, forming a semi-circle around us, led by their manic High Priest.
“Nowhere left to run,” Adrian said, descending to the ground. The grass withered beneath his boots, unable to withstand the necrotic energy leaking from him.
“We aren’t running,” Chaos said. He stood next to Ash, his hand on her shoulder.
Ash’s eyes sparked with a terrifying clarity. No longer the crazed victim of a centuries-old curse, she raised a hand, and the energy around three of the Boston witches thickened.
“Sit,” she commanded, and they dropped to their knees, paralyzed by the sheer weight of her will, amplified by my brother’s control.
“Kill them!” Adrian shrieked at his remaining followers.
The grove erupted into utter chaos.
Shade and Miles fought back-to-back, using the salt and iron supplies to ward off hexes while Patrice threw vials of sleeping potion at anyone who got too close.
I focused on Adrian, the head of the snake. Remove him, and the body would die.
He lashed out with a whip of compressed air, aiming for Cinder’s neck. I caught the solidified element in my bare hand, the wind slicing my palm, but I didn’t let go.
“You stole power you do not understand,” I growled, yanking him toward me.
He stumbled, shock registering on his face, but he recovered quickly, blasting me with a wave of force that sent me skidding backward, my boots carving deep trenches into the earth.
“I understand it perfectly.” He laughed, his skin glowing brighter, cracks appearing on his cheeks like a porcelain doll about to shatter. “It demands to be used!”
He drew magic from the very air, sucking the oxygen from the grove. My lungs burned. Beside me, Cinder gasped, clutching her throat.
“Not this trick again,” she choked out.
Everyone froze, his own coven included. Eyes bulged. Chests attempted to heave in breaths, but Adrian had thinned the atmosphere until it nearly became a vacuum.
“He is a parasite,” I snarled.
I focused on the bond I shared with my witch—the love, the truth, the fire, the absolute certainty of our union. “Cinder, with me.”
She wheezed, grabbing my hand, and our magic merged. Her elemental fire mixed with my demonic resonance, creating a flame that wasn’t orange or red, but a blinding, pure white.
“Now!” I shouted.
We thrust our joined hands forward, and a stream of fire, the combined forces of Hell and Earth, slammed into Adrian’s chest.
He screamed, trying to deflect it with a shield of wind, but the fire ate through the air itself, consuming the remaining oxygen and intensifying in strength.
“Mayhem, Chaos,” I said.
My brothers understood and abandoned their skirmishes, adding their power to ours. Mayhem threw a ball of violet destruction that hit Adrian from the left. Chaos sent a pulse of crushing flames that hit him from the right.
Pinned by the triad of demonic power, Adrian froze. The golden light beneath his skin pulsed violently, faster and faster.
“I am the High Priest!” he wailed, his voice distorting, becoming a cacophony of every spark of magic he had stolen to get here. “I am?—”
“You are finished,” I said.
Cinder squeezed my hand. “Burn.”
We pushed harder, Ember and Ash adding their element to the inferno until the white fire engulfed him. An agonizing wail ripped from his chest, but he didn’t crumble into ash.
He exploded.
