Antebellum Awakening (The Network Series #2)(91)

Focus. Focus, I told myself, taking in a deep breath. Find Miss Mabel. The sooner you kill her, the sooner this madness will end.

My eyes frantically studied the floor, locating a few spots bare of glass shards. I pushed through the crowd again, elbowing people to the side when needed to, and hopped from spot to spot, back toward the middle of the room, the bats flapping above me.

I spilled into the center, where every couple had curled down on the dance floor for protection. Merrick’s eyes met mine from across the room, his sword glowing a dark purple hue in his hands.

Viveet!

My heart took courage at the thought of her. I hauled my skirt up, grabbed the sword from her strap against my thigh, and yanked her free just as the bats settled in the rafters. She glowed in my hand, making me feel stronger. A witch curled into a ball at my feet tried to coax me down with them, but I waved her off. Several witches near the doors banged on the wood, attempting incantations to no avail, desperate to get out. Council Member Patrice let out a half-hiccup, half-cry from near the dessert table. Otherwise, the room was silent.

Come on, Miss Mabel. I’m not afraid of you.

The High Priestess, now protected by my father and a small army of Protectors, stood at the top of the room, looking both furious and terrifying.

“Leave!” she commanded the guests. “All of you!”

At the High Priestess’s words, the sound of turning locks reverberated through the near-silent room.

“Not until I say so.”

The alluring, silky voice that haunted my nightmares rang over the crowd, sending chills down my spine. My headache that once hurt now exploded. I fell to my knees with a groan. My gut ached; my heart recoiled.

Miss Mabel is here.





You Underestimate Me

The crunch of Miss Mabel’s shoes clicked toward me, breaking glass with every step. A black silk dress, dark as the night, billowed out behind her. Her blonde hair hung free. Diamonds in their glittering brilliance hung around her neck and dripped off her ears. The tattered Book of Contracts lay in her left arm, held tight to her side.

No, I thought, digging into the power in my chest. You will never bow to Miss Mabel.

I forced myself to my feet, ignoring the pain that rocketed from my head to my neck and back in sharp streaks. Her chilling sapphire eyes provoked the furious dragon in my heart to a roar. I let him rage, feeling it out, using my wrath for Miss Mabel to build my own strength.

“Merry meet, Mildred,” Miss Mabel called, her sensuous lips pulled into a grin. She stopped just in front of me, giving me full view of her perfect profile.

“What exactly are you trying to do here, Mabel?” the High Priestess called. “Dictate the terms of your death?”

“I’m doing well,” Miss Mabel sang. “Thank you for asking.”

“You have business with me and no one else. Let’s settle this in private.”

“Oh, let’s not.”

“You took long enough to arrive, now I get to dictate the terms. We go to my office.”

“Or what?” Miss Mabel asked, her eyebrow lifted in challenge. “You’re going to release your Protectors on me? Do it. I dare you. My little sweethearts will rain from the sky and teach your innocent followers just how serious I am.” Miss Mabel’s sweet, malevolent grin spread.

“If you won’t settle our matter in private, you have three seconds left until I kill you on the spot,” Mildred said in a calm voice.

“I’m in charge here,” Miss Mabel cried with a bright blaze of her eyes. “I came to accept your resignation.”

“You came to accept your own death.”

“Is that a no?”

“This is a no,” the High Priestess said. The massive chandelier where the bats waited, hanging upside down like ghosts from the underworld, burst into white-hot flames. The ghastly animals took off, screeching. Some of them fell to the floor in fiery plumes, dead. Miss Mabel didn’t turn around to look at them, but her eyes had visibly hardened.

“I wish you hadn’t done that, Mildred. Now we can’t bargain at all, can we?”

The bats swooping around the room morphed into flowing ebony wraiths with charcoal black plumes following them until they settled into an almost-human form.

“Clavas," I whispered in shock, recalling the vile painting in the hallway where Mrs. L had caught me.

Clavas transform into humans from their bat-like form. Very powerful fighters. It’s Almorran magic.

Almorran, of course. Miss Mabel’s signature style. My mind sped back to the Almorran Book of Spells with a flash of fear. Had she found it already? Was Antebellum doomed to her wrath? I didn’t have time to dwell on it. Once the Clavas touched the floor, they began an immediate assault.

“Away from the windows!” Merrick jumped on top of the dessert table and bellowed. “Move away!”

Streams of Guardians burst into the ballroom from the already broken windows, swords at the ready. The crowd of witches surged forward, desperate for freedom. A forest dragon bellowed from the outside, followed by a plume of fire and smoke from the southern windows.

Viveet leapt in flame as a half-transformed Clava landed near me. I slashed his outstretched hand. Black blood poured out of his severed limb in globs. He shrieked and morphed back into a bat, flying away on an injured wing. I rushed forward, intent on Miss Mabel, but she disappeared, fading into the hiss and clash of metal on metal.