Page 36 of Captured in Love
I look her over, only now realizing that she doesn’t seem to be hurt. “So it didn’t affect you?”
She shrugs. “Maybe it knows I’m just the battery for your curse-breaking.”
We face the portal once more. Isak Einarsson is still suspended in midair, but the spell that had been torturing him is gone. Some residual burning magic floats around like tattered cloth in the wind, but it’s the innermost spell that holds him up.
“You’re up,” I tell Raphaël. “Let’s get him down.”
He approaches the columns warily, which gives me hope that he might be learning something about treacherous magic after all. I tell him when to stop so he doesn’t get sucked into the trap, and he braces himself.
Nora offers me a small smile and places her warm hand in mine. “Once more?”
I reach for her magic and start the complex process of undoing this last spell. It’s different from the first two layers, well anchored in the portal as it’s the base of the entire magical construction. I marvel again at how intricate it is, with runes of power written on the stone in glowing, gooey stuff.Somethingnags at me, the sense that it’s actually similar to the spell we encountered on the hidden doorway in Egypt.
Maybe the witch who created this trap studied the one in Egypt?
“Levi,” Nora gasps beside me.
I glance down at her. She’s panting, swaying slightly as she stands. Her grip on my hand has become slack, and I hadn’t even noticed.
“Shit!” I drop her hand immediately, then grab her by the shoulders. “Are you okay? I took too much, didn’t I?”
I have no idea how much time has passed since the spell catapulted me backward, but judging by how faint Nora seems, I was lost in my working trance and didn’t even feel how much I was draining her.
“It’s fine. I’ll just, um, sit right here for a sec.” She shakes me off and shuffles from the bridge. “You have to go on. Save him. Just be careful.”
Raphaël and I exchange a look. Now that we’re here, there’s no way we can leave Einarsson hanging there. Never mind the competition. A death trap like this is inhumane, and if nothing else, I want to end the poor guy’s suffering. We also have no way of going forward as long as the spell is active—the bridge is the only path leading to the volcano.
I face the portal without drawing on my magic and study it, trying to see it with fresh eyes. The glowing letters traced in some magical ink. The web of power strong enough to hold up two hundred pounds of muscle and bone.
That’s when an idea clicks in my head.
I bark out a surprised laugh.
“What?” Raphaël asks, his voice terse.
“We need to wash it off,” I say, pointing at the runes.
He blinks. “Seriously?”
Nora struggles up and comes to stand beside me. “Brilliant. Most witches would try to magic their way through and exhaust themselves.”
I grimace at her. “Which is what I nearly did to you. I’m sorry.”
“I’m okay,” she says, “but how are we going to wash this shit off without burning ourselves? That moat is boiling hot.”
Raphaël straightens his back. “Give me a minute.”
Then he zips off at supernatural speed, jumps from the moat wall instead of taking the stairs, and disappears between two houses.
Nora blinks. “Did he just jump off the wall or am I still woozy?”
“Nope,” I say. “He definitely did.”
True to his word, Raphaël returns minutes later with something large clasped in his hands.
“Is that a shield?” Nora gapes.
Raphaël turns it around and shows it to us. “The wood’s a bit rotted, but the metal holds it together. I thought I might find a bowl or something in one of the houses, but this will do. We can splash water up at the columns.”
