Page 31 of Ignited Spirits
IZZY
“Are they holding Dad at the council headquarters?” I ask once everyone’s through the portal.
Rhys has his elbows braced on the counter and his head in his hands, his dark hair hanging down. He looks up at my question in surprise, like he didn’t hear us arrive.
Scrubbing a hand over his face, he straightens to his full height. “Yep. In maximum security solitary confinement. ‘For his own safety.’”
“Bull-fucking-shit.” I let out a bitter laugh. “They just want to make him as miserable as possible.” That’s what the council’s best at—making everyone else miserable.
I walk around to give Rhys a side hug because he seems like he needs it. He squeezes me against him for a moment. Aiden slams into my other side and wraps his arms around both Rhys and me.
Letting out anoofat the collision, I try to turn to glare at Aiden, but I’m very firmly squished between my two massive older brothers. I wiggle around a bit, trying to get free, but don’t get very far.
Huffing, I resort to the only thing that ever works with Aiden and jam my fingers into his side. He giggles like a little kid and dances around to avoid my tickling, freeing me from his hold.
When I dart away, Aiden levels me with a look that promises retribution. I just give him a shit-eating grin, knowing he can’t touch me right now with my mates here.
Bishop steps up behind me and pulls me back against him, whether to offer me comfort or stop me from causing any more trouble, I don’t know. “They’re also probably anticipating you attempting to break him out. They can control all the variables when they have him alone, and it’s the perfect place to set a trap for what they really want—you.”
“I figured we’d be walking into a trap, but I don’t see any other options right now, St. James.” My voice comes out almost as weary as I feel.
I really didn’t need another problem, on top of the whole Lua thing, but there’s nothing I can do about it now other than deal with it.
Packing away all the exhaustion, fear, and worries about whether I’m enough, I clear my mind so I can focus on what really matters—keeping the people I love safe.
“I don’t either,” Bishop reluctantly admits. “As much as I hate you being in the middle of it, I think it’s the right call, sweetheart.”
“It’s weird—you agreeing with me,” I mutter.
He snorts behind me. “I can argue if you’d prefer. I’m sure Luca would be happy to disagree, too, if that’s what you want.”
Luca snorts and opens his mouth, probably to disagree with me.
I shake my head vigorously. “Nope, I’m good.”
Once we all fall quiet, Rhys says, “We need to come up with a plan and move on this as quickly as we can. The longer they haveDad, the more time they have to lay a trap. And the longer you’re here, the more likely it is that they’ll find you.”
Aiden nods in agreement with him. “I think the first question is, how are we getting into council HQ? I think even Rhys and I arepersona non grataright now.”
“We’ll open a rift.” It’s pretty handy being partcura. It feels like I have a cheat code for dealing with mages. The only problem is when they havecuramagic on their side, too, like Doyle did. Then my fledgling magic isn’t much help.
“A what now?” Aiden asks.
I huff a laugh. “A rift, like the one you went through to get toInfernus.It’s an interdimensional portal that bypasses council security, since they don’t really know that another realm exists.”
“Sucks for them,” Aiden comments dryly.
“Indeed. But it’s great for us. Does anyone have a picture of where Dad’s being held? To my knowledge, rifts require that the caster has seen the place. So I need to know where we’re going.” I actually don’t know a ton about how mycuramagic works. Like with my spirit magic, I’m just making it up as I go.
Levi nods. “You’re correct. Depending on the specialty of magic, somecuraecan transport themselves to places they’ve never seen before. But that’s a very specific type of magic and not the same thing as opening a rift.”
“That’s so cool.” I grin at him. “Some other time, when the fate of my dad and the world aren’t hanging in the balance, you’ll need to teach me about all the different types ofcurae.”
“I’d love to,” Levi tells me with a soft smile.
“I think you’re just going to have to get us as close as you can,” Aiden chimes in, tearing my focus away from Levi. “Neither of us has pics of where they’re keeping Dad, because we haven’t been allowed to see him.”
“Okay. After we get there, what’s the plan? Open a can of whoop-ass on them? Hope they let us in? Kill them with kindness?” I ask.
