Page 36 of Ignited Spirits
Turning to him, I raise my eyebrows. “Yeah, I do. We find Dad faster and with less effort. Two wins make it a win-win.”
Aiden laughs and shakes his head but doesn’t say anything.
“I won’t tell a magicless traitor and wolf slut like you anything,” Steve spits out. “I’d rather die first.”
Well, that’s a new one. I’ve been called many things, but a wolf slut isn’t something I’ve heard before. I’ll give him props for being creative.
At his insult, Cain’s deep, eerie growl vibrates through the room. “That can be arranged,” Cain tells him. He stalks over to the guard and shoves his hand through Levi’s magic. I wonder what he’s doing when I hear an audible snap, and Steve howls in pain. Three more snaps follow, and Steve screams before it dies down to a pathetic whimper.
Getting in Steve’s face, Cain calmly says, “Ever disrespect my mate again, and I will break much more than your fingers. Understood?”
“Yes,” Steve whispers through the pain.
Cain nods and walks back to stand next to me. He pulls me against his side and glares at Steve. “Let’s try this again. Where is Isabel’s father?”
Steve gulps nervously before rallying and staring down Cain defiantly. “You can break every bone in my body, and I won’t tell you shit.”
Sighing, Cain plants a kiss on the top of my head before he unbuttons the cuffs of his navy button-down. He starts rolling up his sleeves, his gaze never leaving the paling guard. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”
Cain soundlessly prowls toward Steve. When he reaches him, Cain shoves his hand through the magic and grabs Steve. Moving his arm like he’s about to break something else of Steve’s, he pauses when the guard shouts, “Wait! Wait! I’ll tell you.”
“I’m waiting.”
Grinding his teeth, Steve seems to debate not answering before he blows out a breath. “If you free one of my hands, I can get my phone out of my pocket. There’s an app on there. I can show you where you need to go.”
“Good try, but you’re not getting free.” Cain instead rummages around in the magic and Steve’s pocket, I assume, before he steps back.
He has the guard’s phone in his hand, which he quickly passes off to Aiden. Out of all of us, Aiden is best suited to breaking into someone’s tech.
There’s no need for that, apparently, because Aiden just holds the phone up to Steve’s face. It unlocks, and Aiden starts searching for the app.
“They have an app for that? Color me impressed.” With how old-school the council is, I’m surprised they even know what a smartphone or application is. I guess you can teach old farts new tricks.
“You’ll never win against the council. They’re more powerful and better equipped than you’ll ever be. Not that avil—” The guard catches himself before insulting me and having more of his bones broken. “Someonewithout magic could comprehend power like that.”
Aiden glances up from the map to give Steve a withering glare. “Bro, I made an app more complicated than that when I was fifteen. Simmer down.”
The cat’s out of the bag, so I don’t have to pretend not to have magic anymore. Letting both types of my magic flow into my palms, I hold my hands up so Steve can see. He gasps, and his wide-eyed gaze flicks up to mine.
“Surprise.” I do jazz hands before letting my magic fade away.
Shaking his head, Steve looks between me and where my magic was, over and over. “That’s… that’s not possible.”
“What’s not possible? That I duped your beloved council for fourteen years? That I have two different types of magic? That was powerful enough to kill Doyle and twenty-five guards single-handedly?”
I’m sure I’m exuding smugness, but I can’t help it. Everyone other than my family is so utterly convinced I’m worthless and can’t accomplish anything, so it feels good to finally let them see what I’ve been hiding this whole time.
Steve’s mouth drops open at that, and he seems to flounder for what to say. I smirk at him, which only infuriates him. He gives me a death glare, like I’d really be intimidated by a guy who crumples after a few broken fingers. I guess you can’t buy loyalty, despite what the council thinks.
“I found what we need,” Aiden announces. He turns around the phone so we can see the black and white map of the prison. He zooms in on what I assume is our location. “We’re here. And we need to go… here.”
I watch as he flips through nineteen different maps of each floor before landing on the last one titled “MAXIMUM SECURITY” in ominous block letters.
It’s great that we have the blueprints, but I still don’t know where we’re going. “How do we get there?”
“We have to go to the west end to reach the stairway.” Aiden points in a direction that I assume is west before gesturing back the way we came. “We went to the south end, which is why we didn’t find anything.”
“Let’s get to it, then.” I walk toward the door before pausing and looking back at Steve. “What are we supposed to do with him? Do I need to just vaporize him? Or rip out his soul?”
