Page 79 of Ignited Spirits
My mates are unamused by the novel insult if their growling is anything to go by.
I let both types of my magic wind around my arms and reach out to the councilman. My magic dances around him playfully as he stares at it with disbelief. “It’s definitely possible. Turns out, I have two different kinds of magic. I’m starting to wonder if any of the mages of Hawthorne Grove are actually all that powerful, because how did all of you miss that a seven-year-old had magic?”
That’s the question, isn’t it? Shouldn’t these supposedly super powerful mages have noticed that a literal child had magic she struggled to control? I know I would notice if someone had a massive amount of power, especially if they insisted they had zero magic.
Whether it was a lack of care or just plain incompetence, I’m grateful that no one picked up on my magic before now.
Giles opens and closes his mouth in complete shock as he watches my magic. Eventually he gets over his shock and glares at me so hard, I’m surprised I’m not incinerated by laser beams from his eyeballs. “You’re lying! This is a trick. St. James is just making it seem like you have magic. I am too smart to fall for your desperate attempt to make it seem like you’re anything other than a magicless whore.”
I just blink at him for a moment.
How is that the conclusion he arrives at? He’s so desperate to believe I’m the magicless reject he always thought I was that he has to do mental gymnastics to justify it.
Shaking my head at him, I shrug. “Whatever you wanna think, my dude. It doesn’t really matter if you believe me. Back to the point, how does Lua drain mages?”
He puffs out his chest as he stares me down. “You can torture me for decades. I will never reveal her secret.”
Cain shrugs. “That’s fine by me. You might want to look away for this part, angel. It can get messy.”
Casually rolling up the sleeves of his forest green button-down, Cain slowly walks over to the councilman. Giles gulps as my sweet wolf mate approaches him looking anything but. Like with the guard, Cain reaches into Levi’s magic and grabs something. A sickening crunch sounds in the office before Giles screams in pain.
Rolling his eyes, Cain says, “It’s just a broken wrist. I dealt with worse when I was ten.” He lets Giles sob for a few moments. “Still think torture is your best option?”
Giles takes a deep breath and tries to look like he wasn’t just sobbing. “You will never get anything out of me, you useless mutt.”
Generally, I’d think it would be inadvisable to insult someone torturing you. But what do I know? I’m just a magicless nobody who’s banged my way here, apparently.
Cain gives him a chilling smile that has Giles gulping. Pulling out a knife from somewhere, Cain moves so fast I don’t even see it. I just hear Giles screaming and see a stripe of blood across his cheek.
After adding matching cuts all over the councilman’s face, Cain shoves the blade into the cloud of Levi’s magic. He hit his target, if the hollering from Giles is any indication. Cain continues cutting up the councilman, all without asking a single question.
After watching the gruesome show for a while, I remember something. “Cain?”
“Yes, angel?”
“Why, exactly, are you torturing Giles? Levi can just look through his mind and find the info we need.”
Cain gives me a half-smile. “Because it’s fun. And he deserves it.”
“I mean, I can’t argue with that, I guess.” Giles is definitely someone who deserves a little torture. Not for what he told his sons to do to me but for his role in draining lower mage kids and whatever other atrocities he perpetrated as a councilman. “But I would like to get out of here sooner rather than later.”
I could go my whole life without ever setting foot in this building again and be perfectly content. In fact, I’d be way happier if I never saw it again.
“Still think he’s sweet, sunshine?” Archer asks me through a smile.
I huff a laugh. “Yep. He’s still the sweetest and gentlest of all of you.”
Even with his penchant for torture, Cain has still always been nothing but sweet to me. He may reserve his quiet and gentle side for me, but that just makes me think he’s even more of a teddy bear on the inside.
Archer looks at me like I have two heads. “What the fuck did he do to convince you of this?”
Just to mess with him, I stand on my tiptoes to whisper in his ear, “If I told you, he’d have to kill you.”
He stares at me with wide eyes. “I can’t tell if you’re joking or if you’re dead serious and know some secret about him. It’s freaking me out.”
I snort but don’t say anything either way. I’m sure the giant grin on my face gives me away, but I don’t care, because it feels too good to genuinely laugh and smile.
Archer shakes his head at me but can’t keep the grin off his face either.
