Page 17 of Magic of the Damned

“No, you’re not. You’re far worse.” With narrowed eyes and a hard jaw he regarded me.

Fire blazed and encircled me. Heat licked at my skin.

“Reveal yourself,” he ordered.

My arms tucked to the sides and my hands shot up to protect my face. I pressed my thighs together, trying to minimize myself to prevent further injury as the flames inched closer and closer. He was going to burn me alive.

I wailed each time the flames brushed my skin. Pain rampaged through me, tears blurring my vision. I couldn’t die like this. I refused to die like this. Squatting down, I readied to spring through the flames in a manner that would only cause minimal damage.

Before I could act, Dominic made a sharp command and the flames disappeared. It was as if they’d never existed, leaving the ground unmarred. But they were real; my blistering skin was proof of that.

“You’re not a witch—not a Dark Caster,” he said, stepping closer to me.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”

He reached for one of my burned arms. I jerked it away. Tears spilled. I was so close to a torturous death. Anger rampaged through me, tumultuous and unfettered.

When he reached for my arm again, I punched him. Hard. His head snapped back. Not bad for my first punch. But I wasn’t expecting it to hurt my hand as much as it did. There must be an art to it. And I planned to learn it. Despite the pain, my burned skin hurt more.

Punching him felt good until a smile feathered across his lips. His amber eyes lit up with amusement, the flecks of gold dancing with delight.

Oh, you want another? I put more power behind the next strike. It evoked a bark of laughter from him. I never thought punching people better would ever be a life goal, but here I was, making it one.

Maybe he was a lifelike robot. Vampires, shapeshifters, witches, seers. Why not impeccably lifelike robots? No one laughed when their crotch was being kneed. Before I could execute it, his finger sliced through the air and a strong force smacked into my leg, collapsing me to the floor with a thud. Dominic knelt next to me; his hands covered my red, blistered arms. His uncompromising eyes held mine.

Coolness crept up the length of my fingers, hands, and arms. The pain receded along with my anger and anxiety. Coaxed into calmness, my body relaxed and I lay back on the floor, my head dropped to the side. Was it my imagination or could I smell lavender and vanilla? I was lulled into a somnolent state as my body healed. Peace. The world didn’t seem so overwhelming, my life not a calamitous crapshow.

This is not real.

Yanking my arms from his hold, I jumped up, looked at my healed arms and then at Dominic who was on his feet, too, just a few inches from me. He was giving me a knowing look, baleful delight curling the corners of his lips.

“What the fuck did you do to me?” I spat out.

“You needed to be calmed and healed. I didn’t have time to deal with your petulance.”

“I wouldn’t have needed healing if you hadn’t tried to burn me alive,” I shot back.

“Yet you stand here, alive and well, in all your tedious insolence.” All emotion had drained from his expression. His cool indifference spiked my anger even more.

“Believe me, I’m more than happy to take my insolence elsewhere and get the hell away from you.” I backed away, watching him carefully to make sure he wasn’t moving closer. When he stayed put, I quickened my pace toward the exit.

“That is your choice. I predict your death will be within the next day. Hopefully it will be painless and quick.”

I scowled. “Is that a threat?”

His dark chuckle eased through the room. “You have no idea who I am, do you, and what I’m capable of. I can assure you, if I wanted you dead, it would be as I wished.”

Not something to brag about.

“Then who?”

“Luna.” There was a musical note to the way he said my name. A rich, sultry drawl. “The seers have connected you to this situation. Desperation to return the prisoners to the Perils will cause people to react to the slimmest of leads. You are the face of the spell right now. Their only lead. They’re convinced that getting rid of you is the only way to break the spell. The only thing standing between you and death is me. What you saw upstairs is nothing. How will you survive it?”

He inched toward me, slowly, taking in how attentive I was to his words. How would I handle people who could perform magic, shift into animals, teleport—or zone or whatever—and effortlessly call on fire?

The slow breath I took had little effect on my panic.

“Tell me, Luna, what is your role in this?” This time my name was said with the disdain of a curse.

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