Page 74 of A Touch of Brimstone

He made a sound that might have been a laugh. Not much effort was put into it. “I’ll remember that.”

His hand slipped from mine. Once we approached the lit hallway, all humor had left his face. Helena was right: Dominic was concerningly calculating. As I followed him to the office where Madeline was waiting, she must have noticed my concern and my flushed face. I must have looked regretful because she seemed smugly pleased as she gave me a narrow-eyed look of rebuke. As if she was telling me to know my place and not intervene in supernatural business.

In the dungeon, Madeline couldn’t take her eyes off the notebook of spells. “May I?” she asked.

Dominic had made some more changes, numbering the spells he wanted me to try first. He didn’t hide his reluctance. Looking down at the spells, he handed her the notebook but stood close, observing her keenly.

“These aren’t spells I’m familiar with. I’d love to read the source.” Her fingers were running along them as if she could absorb them by touch. Madeline was looking at the spells longingly and furtively, glancing around the room for the spellbooks. I was sure she’d try to take them if she could. Her covetousness was on full display.

“No.”

Her head snapped back at his terse response. She dropped her voice. “You understand my coven’s predicament. We must explore all resources to stop Celeste. If she dies, so does my coven, taking out the strongest of witches. Far too often we’ve helped you. This is your opportunity to return the favor.”

“Perhaps if you spent less time trying to remove my immunity to your magic and restricting my ability to navigate between your world and the Underworld, you would have discovered a way to counter the spell.”

Madeline blanched and swallowed, taking several cautious steps back. “Let us continue,” she said, glancing at me. Anything to ignore the knowing look Dominic was giving her. As she approached me, my anticipation of experiencing active magic overshadowed my fear about it.

“Your hand,” she instructed. Her lips twisted into a rigid moue before taking out a knife. She clasped my hand even more firmly when I tried to jerk it away.

“I need blood, Luna.” My name was said with the same disdain she said human. Why blood? It made me more amenable to having my hair plucked. She pierced the skin with no care for gentleness. The throbbing kept my hypochondriac mind from going into overdrive.

Her hand clasping mine was painful against the cut.

She invoked the spell and its effect was undeniable. A little shock to my finger culminated into a bolt of magic that rampaged through me, knocking the wind out of me. Madeline clenched my hand harder as I struggled to pull away. My ragged breaths filled the room and I closed my eyes, fighting back tears. I opened them only when Madeline released my hand. She’d slumped into herself, her eyes showing the same weariness as her posture.

Magic frenetically coursed through me. My body felt too small for everything that thrived in me. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was human or wasn’t used to having magic. Or maybe it was the way Strata Three magic felt. It was like trying to contain an enraged bull in a backyard.

Dominic moved quickly, handing me the notebook of spells and then placing the vellum in front of the cylinder he’d used to track Peter. I rushed the spells out in a long string of sentences. The marks on my finger glowed, slowly unraveling, reluctantly tearing from my skin. I didn’t care. I ignored the pain and continued.

The black ink spiraled and landed on the paper with each completed spell. Heat wrapped around my finger with the fourth spell; it clung to me and held midfall, resisting its fate before finally dropping to the paper. When the last spell was invoked, Vadim, Celeste, and Roman were enclosed within the newly repaired cells. The sigils on the wall were gone, and the prisoners were glaring at me and Dominic.

The vampire, Roman, slid a finger over his bottom lip, removing the rivulet of blood from whomever he had been feeding from or changing. Dominic stepped closer, a taunting smile on his lips.

“Welcome back.”

Vadim launched at the glass, drawing back his lips and exposing his teeth like a wild animal. Celeste was the only one who held her rage, probably clinging to the fact that imprisonment would be the lesser punishment, since her death would be the end of Madeline’s bloodline. As long as she lived, so did they. It wouldn’t help her with being imprisoned, but it guaranteed her life.

Madeline didn’t even give me a moment of celebration before she had the knife to my hand, ready to do the spell to return her magic.

“Give her a moment,” Dominic demanded. If a moment was five minutes, then that was all she was willing to give. She snatched her magic back with the voracity of a starving person who had just been handed food.

It didn’t bother me; I wanted it gone. My finger was red from the spells being removed, but it was the end. I was done. With the vellum rolled up, Dominic and Madeline left the dungeon with new determination. His was to find Peter; hers seemed to be to gain access to Dominic’s spellbooks.

“I want to go home.”

My home felt more welcoming than I could’ve imagined, even with the Prince of the Underworld in it. I kept looking at my unmarked hand.

He moistened his lips and ran fingers through his hair.

“What happens to Peter?” I asked.

“I find him and he will be imprisoned. Indefinitely. He’s a menace, but I need to find out why he released the prisoners. It makes little sense. Was it just for the chaos?” He considered it again. “Do you want to question him when he’s found?”

I shook my head and searched for the right words. Searching wasn’t really necessary. I knew what I wanted to say. It was figuring out how to say it nicely that was the problem. “It won’t change anything. I’ve learned a valuable lesson. The world of magic isn’t for me. I don’t belong in it. I’m not even equipped to survive in it.”

“You survived fine. I’d even say you are a force—”

“No.” I shook my head. Everything that I had encountered rushed to my mind. “I survived with you protecting me, and luck. It’s a dangerous world, far more than I can handle. More than I want. A simple, non-magic world is what I want. My world.”

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