Page 87 of The Spell Caster

My ruined shirt smoked, and I slapped out the smoldering fiber. I pulled my lip back in a snarl and whirled to face Grey. “I’ll show you a fucking demon,” I growled, swallowing up the space between us. I was a full head taller and a lot broader than him and pissed that he didn’t look intimidated.

“Try it,” he said, holding up a hand, “and I’ll make sure your little spell caster never sees daylight again.”

That stopped me cold. Ewan twisted my arm behind me to control me, and I let him.

Trembling with rage, I stilled. “What do you want?” I bit out. My burned skin pulsed with agony in time with my heartbeat.

“Tell me why you were sent here,” he seethed.

“Why do you think?” I spit back through clenched teeth. There was no reasoning with this witch.

Grey jabbed a finger into my burned chest and twisted. I forced back a grimace. I wasn’t giving him anything. “Tell your prince to back off. He may be in charge of things in Hell, but I’m in charge here. He thinks he can sneak around behind my back and send his spies? Remind him that it’s only by my goodwill that his demons are allowed out of the pit. Tell him I can make things very unpleasant for our little familiars.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed—a dark, horrible sound. “Next time I see him, I’ll be sure to let him know.”

Grey glared up at me. “You can stay in this prison or go back to that one,” he said before sweeping out of the cell.

Ewan shoved me back and hesitated, glancing at the unconscious caster on the floor. I took a menacing step toward him and he backed up, feeling for the door.

“You know what this is, right? Grey telling you to do stuff, and you doing it? There’s a name for it. Starts with I.”

He held his hands up. “Hey, man, I’m not looking for trouble.”

“You just landed yourself in a whole heap of it if you’re gonna help the angels.”

The guardian grinned weakly. “Come on, Blackthorn. It’s not like that.”

“What’s it like, then? ’Cause from where I’m standing, you look like a traitor.”

“Shut up, asshole. I’m doing my job. You’re the one selling secrets and fucking around with that spell caster.”

I was fast, but he was already slamming the barred door in my face.

“Damnit, take your guy with you!” I yelled after him, kicking the metal and regretting it as pain shot through my body. With a grimace, I carefully lowered myself back to the hard floor next to my new friend, wishing I had been knocked out too.

A demon prince, huh? Every time I thought we’d gotten all of Grey’s dirt, he shoveled up more. What else was he hiding?

I hissed in pain as I brought a hand to my sternum. The caster had hit the opposite side from my heart, thank fate. My owl tattoo was ruined, a three-inch circle seared into my chest where the intricate wing stretched out. Insult to injury.

Injury to injury, if I was being honest. This wasn’t good. My leg and arm were still messed up from the last two times I’d been mauled. This demon thing was a shit deal—all the hate but no handy benefits like instant magical healing.

At least the wound had self-cauterized. It wasn’t bleeding.

Time passed in burning agony, and I was nowhere close to figuring any of this out. My memories before Northern Sea were fuzzy. Blue water. Sun. Love. Nothing that made me think Hell prison full of demons. I tried to remember my mother’s face—any details from my previous life—but it was lost to time.

The caster I’d punched unconscious groaned pathetically. I kicked him viciously awake as he grabbed his head dramatically, curling into a pile of red fabric.

“Took me a minute, but I know who you are.” Ash’s assigned Mountain Circle caster—the one who’d been giving them so much trouble. I hadn’t bothered to learn his name.

“You hit me,” he rasped.

“You cast at me, you bastard. You could’ve killed me.”

He pushed himself gingerly to a seated position, leaning next to me against the white wall. “You’re fine. My control is excellent.”

“Yeah? Well, mine isn’t.”

“Is that a threat?” The caster’s eyes screwed up momentarily and he let out a wail of dismay, scrambling away from me. “What did you do to my familiar? Is this some sort of demon trick? Let me invoke!”

---