Page 90 of Fallen Heirs

He pushed some of our equipment aside and put it down in the space he’d made.

And then he was flipping through it rapidly, searching.

I took in the title on the spine of the book as he did. “Sacrificial magic,” I breathed.

“Venturing into very dark territory,” Vanessa stated, her worry mirroring mine.

“I don’t disagree,” my dad responded, distractedly.

He finally found the page that he wanted and slapped his hand down on it. “When I was looking into finding a way to return your magic to you, I came across this spell. It involves the transference of lifeforces.”

“Some really fucked-up magic.”

“Yes. I wasn’t looking at it for the lifeforce aspect, but for the permanent transference aspect, so I could give you my magic permanently with a transfusion.” He folded his arms across his chest, frowning in deep thinking mode as he went on, “We know that Constantine has achieved a magical transfusion with Lenora Hart, but he used black magic to achieve that. These sorcerers who were wielding his magic can only be doing so temporarily without black magic accessible anymore.UnlessConstantine has found another external power source. With him the one performing the spells, there’s no way he could use his own power. The same thing would have been the case for me. And even then, in my case, Light magic operates differently from dark. It hates any threat to the balance of nature, so the chances of me being able to perform such a spell successfully and have it be permanent were minimal.”

“What are you saying? You think Constantine is planning to use sacrificial magic to reverse my vampire turning?” I asked, incredulous.

“He had your magic taken from the site of the tattoo I imbued you with. He didn’tjusttake your magic as we’d thought. He took mine along with it, what was running through that tattoo. He took them while they were in a combined, cohesive state, albeit on a very small scale.”

“Fuck me, he’s planning to useyou,Dad.”

He nodded. “My lifeforce exchanged for yours. Theoretically speaking, to undo such a thing as a turning, he’d need to reverse the death aspect. That could possibly be accomplished by exchanging my lifeforce for yours. But there’s also the dark magic that facilitates the turning itself from Light being to demon. That could be accomplished by transferring all of my power into you in a sort of transfusion.”

“This is insanity,” Vanessa uttered.

“It’s fucking demented,” I spat. “Why would he even want to do this? What’s his endgame here?”

“To take me out of play. Permanently. With how unstableExemplaris in the wake of Abigail’s death,Exemplarcould also fall. Both are the greatest obstacles to his plan to subjugate the supernatural world. He’s made it clear that he wants an heir by his side. He could rework the sire link during the spell to fashion a tether to control you in order to enforce your compliance, to make you into his heir.” He stepped back from the book and began pacing.

“He’d still need a major power source to do any of this, though.”

“A celestial object. AHellborn. Angel magic,” my dad mused.

“El, you said those sorcerers were able to breach the ward around Electi Academy using Alena’s blood that Constantine saved from when she was in captivity?” Vanessa asked.

“Yes, but he’d only be able to extract trace amounts of her magic from that.”

“He had the opportunity to try to lock onto angel magic when he attacked Electi Academy and Alena, but he didn’t take it. Nor did he even try to take her again. Nothing like that,” I pointed out.

“He just tookherout of play,” Vanessa said. “By revealing her ability to destroy dark magic.”

“Exactly,” I spoke. “Something’s not adding up.”

My dad stilled and spun toward us. “He already has the power source.”

“How? TheHellbornwas buried.Exemplar, Saryan, the King of the Light Fae, the Dragon Emperor, are all over that, ensuring no further nightmare weapons are unearthed, and the same goes for celestial objects.”

“Something Constantine would have been able to predict if his plans had failed, like they did the night Abigail rid him ofblack magic and stopped him from enacting the spell with the Orb of Vorlav. He’s a talented strategist, he would have prepared for all eventualities, including defeat. Also, the way Abigail was able to track Alena and Talon so easily that night… he could have done more than merely anticipate that.”

“You think he led her there?” I asked. “Knowing the damage she would do to him and his plans?”

“Ithinkshe showed up earlier than he’d foreseen. But, yes, he could have wanted her there.”

“So that he could take some of her magic during a vulnerable point in battle,” Vanessa said.

“And there turned out to be more than just a vulnerable point with her taking her own life.”

“Constantine couldn’t have done it at that point, she’d already rendered him incapacitated, according to Talon’s recollection of events,” I pointed out.

---