Chapter 577: Downfall

I stood back, trying to stay out of the way, the horror of the circumstance still weighing on me as I watched Enforcers carry the injured-and the dead-to various parts of the house. More and more fallen Dumonts appeared, from rooms scattered all over the giant mansion. I knew the family was large, hundreds of members, but I had no idea they all lived together in a fortress like this.

No way I could handle having my coven around me 24/7. No. Way.

Quaid stood next to me, head down, face drawn into a tight scowl. I knew he had to be lost in the demand Mia made of him. It took me a little while to break out of my own shock, but once I did, my hand crept into his and he accepted what fraction of comfort I had to offer without question.

Our magic linked, flowed together, his tie to the Hayle coven still as strong as ever, though now buried under his growing Enforcer power. I dreaded the day he accepted his place as a full Enforcer, knowing, despite the fact I'd set him free from me, I'd c