Page 154 of Magic of the Damned

Dominic’s dark gaze bored into me, and when I met them the spark of fire blazed in them. I returned his sharp look, trying to convey that no good could come from his mother’s creatures surviving and coming here.

Oh look, a bipedal panther! A congressional hearing and military action were definitely in the future if that occurred.

So much time passed while Peter deliberated, I expected him to make the death by claw request again. “It’s not the innocuous supernaturals who are the problem,” he finally said. “I believe they’ll be safe from consequences. Those who rival their power are the ones they want to destroy.” Dominic and Peter held each other’s gaze. “They rightfully want to return the damage that was done to our kind.”

“My actions are supported by the situation we’re faced with now. Your kind chose to be unreasonable and indiscriminately dangerous. It needed to be done, so I did it. You’re more rational and biddable because there are too few of you. But must I remind you of your plans when you thought you had Luna and the third Caster? You didn’t expect the betrayal, nor your magic being stripped away.”

Peter scoffed. “The people ruthless enough to rid the world of one danger have the audacity to label others too dangerous to exist?”

He’s not wrong.

“You will help us? I’ll do what I can to make things right,” I promised, releasing any pretense that this was no longer my fight. It had fallen at my feet and something needed to be done about it.

Once again, the room plunged into an uncomfortable silence. “I want my magic back.”

“No way in hell,” Dominic retorted.

“We’ll do what we can,” I assured at the same time. Confusion moved over Peter’s face as it became clear that Dominic and I didn’t have a united front. When Dominic’s steely eyes turned to me, I hoped he could figure out my intentions somehow. How could I tell him to agree but not make it a priority? It wasn’t a no but fell squarely in my promise to do what we could.

“We will do what we can,” he finally said, keeping his eyes on me. Either he was very perceptive or did what I hadn’t and demonstrated our united front.

Peter’s desolation transmuted into optimism. “I’ll help you find the Dark Caster who stole our magic.” That was his only priority now that there was the promise of having his magic restored.

Dominic pressed his hand into my back and guided me out the door.

“Where are we going?” I asked, getting into the vehicle.

“You’re going home and I’m going hunting for shades. I will not allow them to be used as an army.”

CHAPTER 5

In a rush to get me home, Dominic was barreling through the traffic, taking speed limits as a suggestion, when he received an urgent call from Helena. With a hard set in his jaw, he made a U-turn in the middle of the street. I gathered from their back and forth that there had been an attack and the building where the Conventicle once met was no longer standing.

An entire building gone. Demolished. How the hell were they going to clean that up in a manner that wouldn’t lead to a wave of wild speculation and think pieces that could possibly include magic? Convince the world the building had never existed? That was an unlikely solution. With the sighting of a werewolf on social media, and people who already believed in some variations of magic, the discovery of supernaturals seemed inevitable.

Helena directed us to a gray brick building. Dominic’s eyes swept over the open space as he made his way to his sister and father who kept their distance from the occupants and maintained proximity to one of the two exits from the room. The abandoned warehouse that reminded me of a bunker was a decisive downgrade from the substantial space where the members of the Conventicle used to sit behind a semicircular table, the backdrop of the city visible from the floor-to-ceiling windows that took up the back wall. Now, they were in a large dank space with utilitarian metal tables, boxy complementing metal chairs, and simple recessed white lights that made the room look harsher. Since it was dusk, the room didn’t have the assistance of the sun that could shine through the small, high, circular windows. Strewn throughout the room were an assortment of tools, as if the original occupants had left in a hurry. Bulk boxes that had been opened were in one corner.

Sometimes there’s a miniscule silver lining to a disaster. The destruction of their building had unified the Conventicle and New Conventicle without any intervention from the royals. And based on the scowls directed at a small group of people whose heads were slightly bowed as if they’d been chastised, the disaster had led to changes in conviction. I recognized many of them although I didn’t know their names. My attention was drawn to the Conventicle and New Conventicle members. I paid close attention to the one I was most familiar with, Emory, whose face remained impassive as he scanned the meeting area. The insolent dhole shifter made everyone cautious. It wasn’t just the command he had over his shifting ability. Now, I was more wary of him because he’d survived a fight with Helena, during which she had slashed his neck with her claws. Dominic had warned us of who the tenacious shifters were, and the level of difficulty involved in killing one. Emory was proof of that resilience. Perhaps it was just him. It was hard to kill Emory.

His keen eyes turned to me, and my fight or flight instinct had me taking several steps back.

It might have been the destruction of the building that brought them together, but their mutual hatred of Dominic, Helena, and Areleus bonded them even more.

“What happened?” Dominic asked.

After being prompted, a man a few feet away spoke from where he huddled in a small cluster of people who were wearing similar looks of abject defeat. I assumed he was part of the Awakeners, which was confirmed once he spoke. His low, scratchy voice informed us that they had been approached by the Dark Caster, a woman who had no qualms about telling them her intention to destroy the Underworld and its occupants.

The tremble in his voice settled and evened out and he looked from Madeline to the trio of royals. “We had no problem with that. You have outlived your usefulness. I never felt you all should dictate how we live.”

When I had been approached by one of the Awakeners, she’d made it very clear that by revealing their existence they would put in place plans for a hierarchical system where humans would be on the lowest rung. Once Dominic explained how their magic could do that with ease, I believed that could be our fate. Now, with the Awakeners aligned with the others, the Dark Caster’s plans had to be worse than that.

“But you wanted to dictate how others lived,” Dominic pointed out with a sneer.

It seemed that after the Dark Caster had stolen the magic from me and Peter, her first order of business was to destroy the Conventicle’s meeting place. The second was to threaten the Awakeners into compliance.

Each breath I took was a struggle. Hopelessness crept in and none of the unsubstantiated confidence the people in the room were showing eased it. Coaxing myself into several measured breaths, I managed to control my brewing anxiety.

The best way to fix things was a plan that worked.

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