Page 20 of Fallen Angel

“My aim was not to stop magic. It was to stop Mara. Ineededto stop her.”

“Who is this Mara you keep mentioning?” Hannah quickened her pace to keep up with him.

“Have you heard of a creature called the Devil, in this time?”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Hannah stopped. “The personification of all evil? The monster who lives in Hell and prays on hostility and destruction? The representation of sin in nearly every religion or popular media?”

“Time truly does distort truth,” Callan said.

Hannah sighed with relief.

“A close depiction, however,” he said against his long strides.

Hannah jolted forward to keep up.

“She is a witch who possesses an affinity for dark magic. Feeds on the fear of her victims. And is gifted beyond any witch a soul has ever encountered.”

Perhaps that was what Hannah had—an affinity for dark magic. Maybe that was why reading from the grimoire made her feel so good. Maybe that was why her parents died.She shook the thoughts from her mind.

“You’re talking about her in the present tense,” Hannah said.

“I could not kill her. No one could. She is far too powerful. Therefore, I did the only thing I could think. I cast a spell to seal all magic away in stone—a spell that could only be broken by magic. If I succeeded in trapping all magic, then it could never be reawakened, or so was the plan. ’Twas the closest thing to death I could inflict.”

It sounded like he was describing a horror movie, not reality. “Then how was I able to release you?”

“Only after I cast the spell, you must have been reborn. Your magic was not bound to a witch, therefore, it would not have been affected by my spell.”

Hannah stopped again and drank in the information he delivered, trying to get the facts straight in her mind. “So, Raven died? Is that why you wanted to stop Mara? She killed Raven?”

Callan turned, his expression tense with frustration. “You are Raven. You may not possess the memory, but you are she. Mara killedyou. You…” Callan bit down on his lip. “I apologize,” he said. “My only wish is that you remember.”

It made Hannah uncomfortable that this familiar stranger knew more about her supposed past life than she did. She wished she could remember too, if only to appease Callan’s frustration and the blindness she had to her own life. A matter of hours ago, magic was a thing of fairy tales and popular TV shows—not something that actually existed or lived inside of her.

“Maybe I could remember,” Hannah said. “Is there some kind of spell that you could…”

“I know of only one book that possesses such a spell, and it shall never be opened again.”

Hannah gripped her bag, the corner of the leather binding pressed to her chest. “You never answered my question.” Hannah chased after him, still resisting the spell book’s lure and the self-blame she felt. Despite her fatigue, she kept up with this quickened pace.

“There is not time.”

“Where are we going?”

“We must find Mara’s grimoire and destroy it,” Callan said, clenching his fists. “We’ve wasted enough time already.”

Hannah paused, knowing full well that they didn’t need to return to the cave to retrieve the spell book.

“Why must it be destroyed?” She tightened her grip around her bag. Even though Hannah heeded Callan’s warning, she didn’t want to be parted from the book.

“The longer we delay, the better chance she has of locating it,” Callan said. “I should have taken it when you first revived me, but my mind was lost in a fog.” He focused on the path ahead. “It is bound to her blood. Once it is destroyed, Mara shall be vulnerable. She may be tracking it at present.”

“What happens if Mara finds it?” Hannah could tell that she was frustrating Callan with all of her questions, but she needed to know. Was she going to be responsible for even more deaths by reawakening magic and leading the Devil to Bellcliff? Hannah focused on the sound of the waves below.

“She shall continue to use her dark magic to seduce witches, turn them wicked, and tip the scale toward evil. Before I sealed myself away, she created a horde of magical creatures to strengthen their magic and do her bidding. She will continue to do the same now.”

Hannah’s jaw fell. She stumbled over the jagged ground. She had only just started to absorb the revelation of witches, and now she was being bombarded with other magical creatures? But if witches existed, then why wouldn’t other supernatural beings?

As her mind debated with itself, she concentrated on turning her thoughts into words. “What kind of creatures? How do you know all of this?” The pitch of her voice rose.

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