“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.”
He nodded slowly, understanding showing on his face. Whatever existed between us, I didn’t want to explore. A relationship with him was a relationship with magic and the Underworld. While magic was being pulled from my skin and different magic was coursing through my body, it hit me harder than ever how much I wanted to be removed from it. Look at it from the rearview mirror and give it a well-deserved middle finger.
His eyes dropped to my lips as I moistened them. They lingered, and when he looked back at me, fiery eyes revealed his thoughts. He wanted to explore things—me. I didn’t. The complications he came with weren’t worth it to me.
“Luna.” It was a low, sultry entreat. “It doesn’t have to be complicated.”
“But it would be. I don’t want that. The magic, violence, clandestine meetings, complicated politics. I like my human existence.”
“I know how to separate the two worlds. I’ve done it all my life.”
“Yes, two worlds of the supernatural. Not my world—exclusively.”
Without needing further explanation, he knew. His wasn’t a human world. He lived in the parallel world that existed with the supernaturals. They were just mirror images of one another.
He leaned down, his lips pressing lightly against mine in a chaste kiss. He cut it off abruptly, as if he feared it would heighten into more.
“Bye, Little Luna,” he whispered against my lips. Then he left before I could respond, which was just as well because that simple kiss had me rapidly rethinking my decision.
This was for the best.
CHAPTER 23
Nine days without magic or the Underworld, and my life had slipped easily back to normal. The mundane days of reading, going to work, and the excitement of Emoni’s new life. My guilt about her mind being manipulated had lifted, and Reginald only occasionally gave me a concerned side-eye. Jackson hadn’t been around, and I was fine with that. Torn between checking on him and leaving things as they were, I decided to give it a few days. I didn’t want to encourage him.
Most peculiarly, the supernaturals slipped away. I knew they were around, but the ability to sense their presence, feel their enigmatic energy, faded. I contributed my enhanced senses to the markings. Show me fangs, and I’ll know you’re a vampire. Knowing what a shifter looked like before he was about to go beast mode was something I would always remember.
It was the tenth night of my separation from Dominic and magic when I woke up with a start, pressing my hand to my chest out of habit, to prevent the book from falling to the floor. Only there wasn’t a book, nor was I on my sofa.
I jumped up from the bed, my eyes trying to adjust to the dim light. But I didn’t need light. The flutter of magic against my skin, Dominic’s peppery scent inundating the air, and the frosted glass in front of me. I was in a cage—no, a prison. A prison in the Underworld.
“I’ll be damned, he did it,” said an unfamiliar voice. I assumed it was Roman or Vadim. Although it could’ve been another misbehaving supernatural.
I yelled. It was a rough, heart-wrenching sound of desperation.
No response. I called Dominic’s name, and there was a low female chortle. My scream was so loud it obscured his name. Despair kept me going. I became a siren that no one could ignore. But they did. My vocal cords felt raw.
I was readying to abuse them more when the light brightened in the room. A surprised Anand appeared in front of the prison door.
“Luna,” he said, his eyes wide at the sight of me. He parted his lips, but the words just didn’t flow. A strange understanding moved over his face that made my heart drop to my stomach.