Page 75 of A Touch of Brimstone

He nodded slowly, understanding showing on his face. Whatever existed between us, I didn’t want to explore. A relationship with him was a relationship with magic and the Underworld. While magic was being pulled from my skin and different magic was coursing through my body, it hit me harder than ever how much I wanted to be removed from it. Look at it from the rearview mirror and give it a well-deserved middle finger.

His eyes dropped to my lips as I moistened them. They lingered, and when he looked back at me, fiery eyes revealed his thoughts. He wanted to explore things—me. I didn’t. The complications he came with weren’t worth it to me.

“Luna.” It was a low, sultry entreat. “It doesn’t have to be complicated.”

“But it would be. I don’t want that. The magic, violence, clandestine meetings, complicated politics. I like my human existence.”

“I know how to separate the two worlds. I’ve done it all my life.”

“Yes, two worlds of the supernatural. Not my world—exclusively.”

Without needing further explanation, he knew. His wasn’t a human world. He lived in the parallel world that existed with the supernaturals. They were just mirror images of one another.

He leaned down, his lips pressing lightly against mine in a chaste kiss. He cut it off abruptly, as if he feared it would heighten into more.

“Bye, Little Luna,” he whispered against my lips. Then he left before I could respond, which was just as well because that simple kiss had me rapidly rethinking my decision.

This was for the best.

23

Nine days without magic or the Underworld, and my life had slipped easily back to normal. The mundane days of reading, going to work, and the excitement of Emoni’s new life. My guilt about her mind being manipulated had lifted, and Reginald only occasionally gave me a concerned side-eye. Jackson hadn’t been around, and I was fine with that. Torn between checking on him and leaving things as they were, I decided to give it a few days. I didn’t want to encourage him.

Most peculiarly, the supernaturals slipped away. I knew they were around, but the ability to sense their presence, feel their enigmatic energy, faded. I contributed my enhanced senses to the markings. Show me fangs, and I’ll know you’re a vampire. Knowing what a shifter looked like before he was about to go beast mode was something I would always remember.

It was the tenth night of my separation from Dominic and magic when I woke up with a start, pressing my hand to my chest out of habit, to prevent the book from falling to the floor. Only there wasn’t a book, nor was I on my sofa.

I jumped up from the bed, my eyes trying to adjust to the dim light. But I didn’t need light. The flutter of magic against my skin, Dominic’s peppery scent inundating the air, and the frosted glass in front of me. I was in a cage—no, a prison. A prison in the Underworld.

“I’ll be damned, he did it,” said an unfamiliar voice. I assumed it was Roman or Vadim. Although it could’ve been another misbehaving supernatural.

I yelled. It was a rough, heart-wrenching sound of desperation.

No response. I called Dominic’s name, and there was a low female chortle. My scream was so loud it obscured his name. Despair kept me going. I became a siren that no one could ignore. But they did. My vocal cords felt raw.

I was readying to abuse them more when the light brightened in the room. A surprised Anand appeared in front of the prison door.

“Luna,” he said, his eyes wide at the sight of me. He parted his lips, but the words just didn’t flow. A strange understanding moved over his face that made my heart drop to my stomach.

“The human is here.” In the ten days of not seeing me, Helena had conveniently forgotten my name, or my name no longer had value.

I could feel him before he approached, feel the wash of magic and power suffusing the room. And something else. Rage. It was palpable as he got to the cell.

“What the fuck?” His eyes darted around the room, but it was a limited space. “What happened, Luna?” Dominic asked.

“What happened?” Helena taunted. “It is not a coincidence that you found Peter so easily yesterday. It was strategy. He wanted to be caught.”

Helena’s sinuous movements were slow and purposeful as she approached the enclosure. “Tell me, Luna, how have you helped the annoying Dark Caster this time?”

I shook my head and looked at my finger and all my exposed skin for markings or sigils. Nothing.

“I haven’t read any magic books or picked up anything. I’ve been very careful,” I said.

Dominic opened the cell, easing me to him. He started to lift my shirt but stopped. “May I?”

I bobbed my head, too shocked to say much. Just hours before I was on my sofa reading a book and now, I was in a prison in the Perils being physically searched by the Prince of the Underworld. Fear and confusion overshadowed any modesty, so when he asked if he could see my legs, I wasn’t discreet. I just dropped trou, exposing the full length of my legs for him to see. My shirt covered most of my panty-clad ass, so I didn’t care. I needed to figure out how Peter had snared me into the supernatural world again.

“I don’t know what happened,” I admitted, pulling up my pants after he’d completed the body check.

---