Page 87 of Magic of the Damned

“I’m an enigma that would unsettle them. I chose to live here because knowledge of my lineage stays here. They speculate but nothing is ever confirmed. They just consider me a product of the underworld. It offers me a level of security and prevents challenges to force me to reveal my abilities, to be studied or judged whether I could be detrimental to them. This family are the only ones who know everything about me.”

It could have been my imagination, but I heard hesitation. Perhaps they didn’t know everything about him but rather what he wanted them to know. He turned to look at me. I knew that whether the family of the underworld knew everything or just a fraction of his ability, the information didn’t need to go any further.

Giving him an understanding smile, I said, “It’s already forgotten.”

He exhaled, which I mistook as relief until his posture changed. His head swiveled to the right where Helena stepped into view. Her glacial eyes swept over Anand and moved to me. A knowing look overtook her expression.

“Helena,” Anand said in a voice softened to a gentle lilt. A lilt that could soothe the most hostile of beasts, and there was no mistake, behind the low-heeled sandals with wounding leg straps, and the expensive-looking patterned t-shirt dress displaying her magic-restricting markings with contempt, and the flawless makeup, there lurked a beautiful beast.

Anand approached her but her eyes remained fixed on me. It wasn’t until he was just a hair’s breadth from her that she dragged her attention to him. Removing the expression from her face, she became a blank landscape.

“I saw it all,” she said. “It needs to be addressed.” The threat of violence was heavy in her voice. She lunged for me and he drew her closer to him, his fingers threading through the ends of her loose curls, his touch familiar but not intimate. There was an obvious connection that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I hoped I wasn’t witnessing a budding relationship. Anand, you can do better than the psycho-princess of the underworld.

“Don’t,” he urged. “Your impulsivity hasn’t worked to your advantage in the past.” Releasing his hold on her hair, he gently gathered her hands in his and looked at the markings on her arms.

She looked at them as well. “Speak to my brother. Show him the errors of this.”

My heart was pounding at the prospect of being confined with a Helena with access to her magic and claws.

He shook his head. “I won’t because I agree with his decision,” he admitted.

Helena’s eyes sharpened to daggers. There wasn’t any doubt that if she had access to her claws, he would have been introduced to them. Her lips drew back in a sneer and she yanked her hands from him, ripping away any tenderness that existed between them.

“I get things done!” she snapped.

“Yes, you get a lot of things done. You managed to get entire covens to turn against you because of your inability to choose any other option than violence when you feel the tiniest insult. You had the uncanny ability to leave a pack in shambles because you couldn’t handle being cheated on. So, your over-the-top response was to kill anyone in that pack you suspected was the culprit. Do you understand the problem you caused with that tantrum? The situation should have been handled differently and left between you and the man you were involved with. I say this not out of cruelty but compassion. You have become your worst enemy because you’ve lived too long with impunity. This is just punishment. And if your magic is never returned to you, it is a punishment long overdue.”

“I reacted to us having a fight. His response was an overreaction,” she challenged.

“No, his response was holding you accountable and letting you suffer the consequences. It only looks like an overreaction when you aren’t used to being held to such things.”

Turning away from her, he started back in my direction. It was a display of bravery I didn’t possess. An angered Helena who hadn’t gotten her wishes was a person I would want to keep an eye on. Jerking her sharp glare from Anand, she placed it on me, sending a shiver of fear up my spine. Straightening, I made a show of bravado that I didn’t actually possess.

Helena shuddered with the effort to not react. She was reduced to seething with her hands clenched at her sides. Probably a first for her and a duplicitous attempt to demonstrate restraint and prove Anand wrong about her magic.

“You saw the way the shades responded to her,” Helena called after him once we were heading toward the house.

He halted briefly but remained silent. He was just as concerned as she was.

“It will be addressed.”

“With the exception of you, Father has no tolerance for magical anomalies,” she threatened.

He’d surely learn about me being an anomaly. I was going to meet the Lord of the Underworld. I reined in the fear, but it became my single focus as I made my way back to the bedroom.

CHAPTER 5

After removing the claw-ripped shirt, I discovered Anand hadn’t been attempting to keep me from panicking by minimizing the severity of the cut. It really wasn’t that bad. Once I applied pressure to stop the bleeding and cleaned it off, there was just a red line on my stomach. If Anand hadn’t intervened, it could have been so much worse. I knew that. Thoughts of the danger were constant as I navigated through the house to the main library and the magic room, where I could review the spells. The only way to chase the thoughts away was to be proactive. I had to do something.

Despite my attempts to not think about the shades, I fixated on their enigmatic pull to me and what had them swarming around me, maintaining a form that they typically weren’t able to maintain.

My belief that there was nothing magical about me was renewed by the ache from my injury. If magic existed in me, it would ease my pain, surely. But there was no use applying logic to an illogical world.

The shades were drawn to me for my lack of magic in the same way the magic room in the library repelled me. I felt the room’s rejection as soon as I neared it. It was a nudge, shooing me away. For a moment, I considered taking the hint. I could stay in the main library and appreciate the many first editions, take in the beauty of the leatherbound books and peruse the vast selection, inhale the scent of vellum and run my fingers over the gilded emboss on some of the books I’d passed. But that wasn’t going to get me out of the underworld.

Determined to be allowed entry, I pushed against the repelling magic until my hand reached the door handle. The handle turned, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“Please,” I whispered to the door. That’s about right. I’m pleading with a room to grant me entrance. Not weird at all.

---