Page 66 of A Touch of Brimstone

I grabbed Emoni’s hand, pulling her closer to me. And once she was next to me, I moved to put my body in front of hers. Peter wouldn’t kill me, but I wasn’t sure what he’d do to her.

The footsteps were barely audible. It was the whip of the sword through the air that announced Anand’s arrival. Peter grimaced, turned, and hurled a string of white illuminated magic at Anand. It smashed into him, sending him careening back several feet. Peter concentrated. The magic wove around Anand. His body relaxed to the ground, his breathing noticeably shallower. He was killing him.

Dominic’s claws were exposed on one hand, so he used the other to toss fire at Peter, ending with a rapid fire of magic pelts. Peter responded with disinterest, his hand reaching up and snuffing out the magic as if it were merely a nuisance.

Something pulled his focus. He grumbled his disdain, turned in my direction, smiled, and vanished. Reappearing behind Emoni, he whispered something, pressing his hand to her throat. She choked out a gasp before collapsing to the ground.

Flashing Dominic a taunting smile, he said, “You can’t save her and come after me.” Then he disappeared again.

Anand rolled to his side, lethargic but alive. He’d lost his grace of movement as he lumbered to his feet. “The repellent has been broken. It needs to be restored,” he told Dominic.

“It’s up again,” Madeline said from a few feet away, showing her dissatisfaction at the sight of me and Dominic.

Dominic didn’t care about her displeasure; he was debating whether to go after Peter and he wore the indecision on his face.

Cradling Emoni in my arms, I called out to him. “Help her,” I demanded, my words sharpened by my anger and his clinical assessment. He’d found the Dark Caster; he could go after him. She was one life lost to catch the big bad. “Now,” I snapped.

Reluctantly, he kneeled next to her. He examined her and frowned. Shaking his head, rage flooded from him.

“A necri,” he explained to Madeline.

Her face contorted to the same look of disgust and contempt. “It is used to simulate death. A difficult spell to perform and one of the few that are illegal with no exception.”

Peter wasn’t abiding by any of their rules, the very thing the Awakeners wanted the freedom to do.

Watching the unhurried and measured way in which Dominic undid the spell, I knew it was dangerous. Like defusing a bomb. I wasn’t sure how long it took. It felt like hours although it might have been minutes. My heart was beating so fast it had to be distracting.

When the veil of death lifted from Emoni, a silver light unwinding around her, she sat up. Apprehension filled her eyes. She attempted to scoot back away from us when Dominic called her name. It was an unearthly, captivating sound. Melodic. It wasn’t just Emoni being urged to hear its lure and respond.

Madeline stepped back, preoccupying herself with removing all signs of the assassination attempt. Her efficiency was a reminder that they did this all the time. Too many times.

Tears formed in my eyes, watching Emoni be bespelled, as Dominic manipulated her memories to make her believe she saw me today and we had coffee in Books and Brew. She then followed him to Café Intermezzo, where I was sure he’d manipulate more thoughts to explain her standing in front of the café.

The only solace I could find was that at least we knew the identity of the Dark Caster.

20

Dominic watched me pace back and forth in the ridiculously sterile apartment that felt like a luxurious hospital. It lacked the warmth of a home. The gray wood floors, lifeless neutral walls, and light streaming in from the window all seemed so much harsher now. I knew the room hadn’t changed; I had. The world looked irreparably different.

“It had to be done,” he assured me for the third time, but it was more than just Emoni that bothered me; it was speculation about Peter. The Dark Caster had been under our noses the entire time. Watching me, commenting about the ring that covered my markings, knowing damn well why it looked different. He had chosen me, out of all the people he had encountered, and I wanted to know why.

Dominic finally blocked my pacing, looking down at me. “What is this helping?”

“Thinking. It’s helping me think.” It wasn’t. Moving was just giving me a distraction.

“In less than an hour, we’ll meet with Emmanuel, get the magic you need, and then this will be over for you, Luna.”

“Will it?” I challenged, putting all my frustration and anger into it. “Assassins came after me. Once the prisoners are recaptured, I’ll no longer be at risk of assassination, but what's to stop you all from using magic against me—against us? From where I stand, the enforcement of the law against using magic against humans seems really lax. And the level of magic allowed to protect you all from being discovered is awfully broad. How do we stop being compelled by vampires?”

“Don’t look them in the eyes.”

Well, thanks. That was the same information Anand had given me, which simply infuriated me.

“If we don’t know they exist, we can’t even take that simple measure.”

The Awakeners had a valid argument: Supernaturals needed to be revealed. Give humans a fighting chance to protect ourselves. But they wanted to be elevated to some royal status. Not live as equals but our betters. The Conventicle and their acolytes wanted to cling to the shadows, but from what I could see, they weren’t sufficiently enforcing supernaturals’ limits of magic on humans.

“And the attack yesterday. Who are they? What’s their ideology? What are their goals? How can you enforce your rules on them when they don’t seem to have any allegiance to anyone?”

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