Page 35 of Captured in Love
Nora’s inner source shines brighter, pulsing with light, and even though she doesn’t respond with words, I know she heard me.
Which makes it even more horrible that I’m still keeping secrets from her.
The thought grounds me and forces me out of that beautiful, pure place where our energies meld together. We have work to do, but I promise myself I’ll tell her after this task is over, no matter what. She needs to know, and I can’t build a life with her while this hangs over us.
I take a deep breath and send my senses out to the web of magic in front of us. A moment later, I recoil, my nerves stinging.
“Fuck, that hurt.”
Raphaël shuffles beside us, and even though I can’t see him, I know he’s watching over us. Which is weird, but I like it. A protector of our own. I don’t care as much for myself, but I’m grateful he’s here to support Nora.
“Let’s try again,” I murmur, then carefully feel for the edges of the spell.
It’s tethered to the portal with strong filaments of magic, so much like a spiderweb. I pour more of our magic into it, and it reveals its layers to me slowly, as if I’m peeling back an onion.
“Gods,” I breathe. “It’s incredible.”
The Ballendial coven have access to the most powerful magical knowledge in the world, and it shows. This spell was created by a master curse-weaver, and I can only hope I’m a match for them.
First, I need to make sure the man caught in the web doesn’t burn to death. It might already be too late for him, but no one should suffer like that. I carefully pry apart the separate layers. The topmost layer is there mostly for visual effect, giving the red flames their color. It’s like Nora said, these witches like drama, and they weren’t about to create an invisible spell, even though it would have been just as deadly. No, they created this monstrosity to sow fear and panic. Any team would freak out if one of their own got caught in these infernal flames.
Since this layer is the easiest layer to undo, I tug at the threads tying it to the larger web until the flames wink out of existence.
“Oh,” Raphaël says from beside me. “Well, you work fast. I’ll just grab him—”
“No!” I shout, snapping my eyes open.
He stares at me, confused, but luckily doesn’t step forward. “What?”
I grit my teeth against the strain of holding on to the fabric of the spell and carrying out a conversation at the same time.
“It’s still there. Just invisible.” My words come out harsher than I intended, but I have no strength left for niceties. “Wait for my signal.”
He frowns at me but remains in his place.
I close my eyes again and focus on the magic in front of me. I siphon a bit more power from Nora, careful not to take too much, and poke at the second layer. That’s the one hurting Einarsson, and I need to snip it quickly. His hoarse breathing has quieted to an occasional rattle, and he hasn’t screamed in a while. I never thought I’d miss the gods-awful sounds we heard from him before, but at least I knew he had the strength to yell. Now he’s just hanging there like a chunk of charred meat, barely alive.
“Nora,” I murmur. “This might hurt. I don’t know how strong it is, so it might recoil. If you want me to do this on my own, you need to let go now.”
She doesn’t. Instead, her fingers interlace with mine, and she squeezes me tighter.
Okay, then.
I spread my magic out to each of the anchor points of the spell. I mutter words of unbinding, of release, and I raise my free hand in front of me to help me direct the magic. Then I pull on Nora’s reserves and mine and send out a pulse of pure, laser-focused destruction, smashing through the web.
It snaps, then lets out a blast of scorching heat. It throws me off my feet, and my grip on Nora’s fingers slips. My back smacks onto the rough stone floor. Pain blooms in my head, and the burns on my hand—the one that was closest to the explosion—sting like hell.
“Levi!”
Nora’s voice echoes in the cavern, even though I don’t remember the space echoing like that before. Or maybe it’s just my head that’s filled with fuzzy reverberations. I groan and roll to my side, then slowly push myself up to a seated position.
Nora kneels next to me, her face creased in worry. “Are you okay? What happened?”
Raphaël takes my singed palm and runs his cool fingertips around the edges of the burn. “My blood should take care of this within minutes.”
Still dizzy, I watch the reddened flesh slowly heal, the angry blisters receding. The ringing in my head also diminishes, and I stagger to my feet and dust off my diving suit.
“That was terrifying,” Nora says. “You just flew away from me.”
