Page 103 of Magic of the Damned

His. The Prince of the Underworld.

CHAPTER 10

When Dominic sat up, so did I. We’d had our sexy distraction; now work needed to be done. His hand running through his mussed hair, disheveling it more, was a reminder of the shambolic situation.

He got out of bed and snatched up his underwear and put them on. I did a quick scan of the room for my discarded clothing before remembering some were somewhere in his office.

“There has to be another way to nullify that magic. Pulling it from you to do so needs to be the last resort,” he said, holding up his hand to stop my response. “I know you said you could handle it, and if there aren’t any other options, then we will try it again. But if it felt as torturous as you looked during the spell, I question how likely you are to survive it. Those spells always come at a cost and often they’re not worth the benefit. We have no idea how entwined the magic is to your existence, so finding an alternative is best.”

The thought that I might die had crossed my mind as the spell ravaged through me, but I thought the pain had made things seem worse than they were. Dominic was looking at me again, with a strange, considering probe. “How did you go unnoticed for so long?” he mused.

He knew the answer to that; the question he really wanted answered was how did Peter resist using me for that long? I could only speculate that all the times I considered Peter just a peculiar, observant patron, he was watching me to see if I was the type of person who’d unwittingly help him. Knowing that my predictability aided him was annoying. If I’d left the ring or never picked up the book. Ignored him at Wine Down Thursdays. Or at the very least known to check the ring for things or body conduits, then I could have stopped this. But Peter likely had plenty of backup plans.

“He’s doing this because he feels wronged. You ‘got rid of them.’” Their innocuous-sounding word for hunting down and destroying a population. “This is him retaliating.”

“They were destroyed because they were ruthless, violent, powerful, and unable to be reasoned with. Their demise was inevitable,” Dominic said with a brutal edge in his voice.

“And could he say the same of you?”

He didn’t give my question a lot of consideration before answering. “Perhaps. If I’m driven by violence and ruthlessness without the ability to see reason. Or become so single sighted in my thirst for power that I need to be handled. So be it. That will be my fall.”

Should I be impressed or repulsed by his candor? I was mostly confused by the welcoming acceptance of violence and death. The only thing I could do was make sure their casual use of it remained in the confines of the supernaturals’ world and didn’t spill into ours—and we become victims of it. I felt that was my duty, despite the revelation that had me oscillating between human and other. It was a precarious place to be.

“You aren’t concerned about my relationship to the shades?” I asked, trying to get more information about my otherness, especially since Dominic hadn’t taken his probing eyes off me.

He shook his head. “The attack was to see if your magic could be used to free them. In their shadow form, they are ineffectual.” That anger he demonstrated when he demanded to know the assailant of the attack resurfaced, forcing his lips into a rigid frown. “To prevent them making another attempt to free themselves. You’ll stay away from them from now on, and on your return visits, we’ll have to erect a ward.”

Return visits? I had no intention of returning to the underworld like it was a vacation destination. Vessel or not, I would divest myself of this world. I just didn’t know how to do that and keep Dominic in my life. But that was a discussion for another time. Despite the heaviness of the topic, it wasn’t chasing away my post-sex calm. My body pliant, mood somnolent.

Dominic headed for the bathroom, and I lay back on the bed, giving in to all the thoughts that came racing back into my mind.

“Now that he’s fucked you, I hope it has assuaged whatever drew him to you. Hopefully he can see what I’ve known all along. There’s nothing exceptional about you and absolutely no reason to continue to protect you,” Helena sneered from the bedroom door. I shot up with a start, securing the comforter to me, in time to see her toss my panties and bra in my direction, landing them next to the bed.

My eyes went to her exposed claws as they tapped lightly against her leg. She approached me slowly, each step measured and intentional. A predator assessing a prey, as a wrathful frown bracketed her mouth. Her turbulent emotions stifling the air had my chest pounding.

“Helena,” I said in a voice soft and nonthreatening while I scanned the room for a weapon I could get to quickly. The bedside lamp was an option. Warily, I watched her approach. If I was going to defend myself, I had one shot. I’d use the lamp to pummel her and then go for the eyes.

“Dominic and I protect each other,” she said in a hushed, rough voice. “I won’t deny that the protection has been one-sided in my favor more often. In the end, we protect our family and, indirectly, you trivial, ignorant humans with your blatant and nauseating unearned confidence and self-importance. You’re all so unaware of how quickly we could bend you to our will. Wipe you out if we chose to do so.” Her advance swallowed the distance between us. I’d have to react soon.

Despite none of the spells I’d tried earlier working, I was frantically whispering them, hoping for a fluke that would lead to one working. Toss her on her ass where I wanted her. Nothing.

“He always forgives me, covers for me. He gets irritated about it, but I’m always forgiven,” she said with a smirk.

“Seems like he’s pretty damn tired of forgiving your bad behavior and wants you to take accountability. After all, it took you running to Daddy to get your magic back,” I snipped, foolishly poking the Princess of the Underworld.

For a moment, her beautiful features were twisted into a disfiguring scowl. The reality of her fading impunity for her actions lingered in her expression and the tense curl of her fingers at her side, the lift of her chin, and the darkening of her eyes. My comment had landed. Landed hard. More effective than any punch I could have delivered.

Her head snapped to the bathroom door where Dominic stood with a towel draped haphazardly around his waist, water dripping on the floor, his hair wet and messy.

Pools of amber submerged the flames, but there was still heat in his glare. It bored into her. Helena directed all her attention to her brother. His expression was indecipherable.

“What are you going to do, kill her?” he asked.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Make me the villain because you don’t want to break your little human toy.”

“My decision is sound. If I handle this, us being in captivity like this will never be something we have to worry about again. You kill Luna, what happens then, Helena?”

She blinked but didn’t offer a plan. It was highly unlikely she had one other than killing me: the short-term solution. Although I wasn’t sure how much I could offer toward a long-term solution.

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