Chapter 20
“ S top fucking around and tell me how to use blood to cast a spell.”
“What the—no!” I was so poleaxed by the command I jerked my head off the wall and sat upright. I winced at the pain gonging through my skull and tried not to throw up.
Mason’s agonized gaze met mine. “ Now .”
“No. Y-You’re not even a magical. You wouldn’t know how to approach it.”
“Consider me a learned witch. Teach me how to do it.”
“You want me to teach you blood magic? No, and I reiterate, in case you missed it, no.”
“Okay, teach me to use death in spells then.”
“Why would you think that was a step down from blood magic?”
“Not like I know how this works.” His breath whooshed out in a low groan. “I have no problem risking the wrath of some imaginary god, if that makes a difference.”
“It’s not only the god stuff,” I hiss-whispered. “There’s a reason not everyone is a learned witch. It takes years of practice to do the smallest of spells. Bronwyn’s likely been practicing since she was a toddler.”
Mason let out a long, tired sigh. “We have to do something.”
“I won’t kill or drain blood from anyone to cast a spell. Not even you. Not even Floyd.”
A laugh wheezed from Mason’s chest. “Bullshit. You’d kill the alpha leader if you had the chance.”
“I have had the chance. Several chances, in fact, and last time I checked, the bastard’s still kicking. I won’t kill for magic—not even that monster. I’d die myself first.” I tried to take a deep breath, but the chains kept my chest from expanding enough. “Let it be known, though, I’d murder Floyd in a heartbeat if he hurt someone I loved. I’m mindful of the goddesses, but I’m not a saint.”
“Don’t tell me shit like that, witch. I’m the pack second.” Sweat dripped from his nose and splashed onto the tile floor.
“Chalk it up to temporary insanity brought on by my current circumstances if anyone asks.” I scooted closer to him, doing my best to keep the dampening chains quiet and failing.
“Stop making noise,” Mason said.
“Is the curse talker even in the house with us? Seems dumb to lock two paranormals in a room alone and leave.”
“You’ve been here for less than half an hour. He probably expected you to be out longer.”
“How do you know how long I’ve been here?”
“I watched him bring you in and counted the minutes.”
“If you’re so good at counting minutes, why’d you ask me what day it was?”
His head drooped, and the puddle of sweat expanded. “I lost consciousness at one point. It’s taking a lot of energy to keep healing these wounds.”
“How are you doing that? Doesn’t the silver take away your shifter abilities? Aren’t you pretty much a human now?”
He cocked his head to the side. “Willpower.” The look I gave him must’ve conveyed my doubt, because he said, “It won’t allow me to shift. I can heal, but it’s slower. Far faster than a human, but nothing like my usual. Also, it’s using up all my strength to heal the burns. I don’t have anything left over.” He grunted, and more sweat splashed into the puddle. “If he were to stab me right now, I’d die, same as you.”
If I didn’t figure out a way to get him out of those chains, he was going to die, and so was my best shot at escaping. I scooted closer.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to try something.” I didn’t speak again until I was so close to him I could lean over and touch the chains.
His handsome face contorted with pain—and confusion. “What happened to your eyebrows?”
“Leave me alone. One of my partners blew up Justice’s car. Singed brows was the price I paid.”
“Fair trade.” One side of his mouth went up. “Too bad your partner didn’t kill him when they had the chance.”
“I try not to allow Cecil to murder people. He’s already an environmental anarchist with a penchant for magic explosives. Wouldn’t be good for him to add murder to his repertoire.” I tugged on the shifter’s chains as I spoke, blowing on the weeping skin I exposed. I doubt it helped cool the burning, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do.
Blood dribbled from the revealed wound onto my hand. I stared at it, so tempted to chant the spell into it that would save us both. Blood spells wouldn’t be encumbered by the chains because dampening chains were just that—dampening. They diminished magic, but nothing could destroy it completely.
Dark magic was powerful. More powerful than white when it came to brute-force spells. The thing white magic had going for it was nuance. It was sleek and clever. It wielded a surgeon’s scalpel when dark magic brandished a caveman’s club.
It was a line not to be crossed. Generations of Lennox witches had taught their daughters the perils of drifting to the dark side of magic. The grimoire had stories of those who’d used it and had their ability to connect with the earth ripped away. It had, eventually, driven them insane.
I shook away the blood. Felt for the massive padlock that secured the chains. It was steel plated with silver, probably hand-forged; the thing looked like something you’d find connected to an anchor on the bottom of the ocean.
Mason, who hadn’t been in good shape before, drooped. His eyes slid closed, and he fell against me.
“Wake up,” I whisper-yelled. “Don’t pass out. I’m going to find a way to get us out of here, okay?”
“Us?” He managed to sit back up. “Why would you help me?”
“Don’t read too much into it. My reasons are purely selfish.” I wriggled my right hand until all five fingers were free. It put my arm in an uncomfortable position, but seeing as how it was already numb, it wasn’t in any worse shape than before. “See, I collect favors. Call it a hobby, if you like. If I save you, you’re going to owe me the king of favors.”
“I won’t betray my alpha leader.”
“ Pfft . I already know that. The favor won’t have anything to do with Floyd’s impending comeuppance—at least, not directly. Nothing that would impugn your honor, second alpha. I might call on you to help me kick some ass in a shifter bar one night. Who knows?”
“That sounds like fun, not a favor,” he said, on a chuckle. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to hold your hand. It’s our first date, so that’s as far as we go. No kissing or over-the-clothes stuff.”
He laughed, his shoulders twitching as he fell against me again. “You. Are. Exhausting. No wonder that wolf likes you. You’re just like him.”
“Hey, now. I’m not like anyone. You’re working with an original here.” I wiggled numb fingers under the topmost chain and rolled it up, cringing when he hissed in pain. “Sorry. I know this sucks. There’s nothing I can do about it here, but I’ve got charms for the pain at home.”
“Never mind my pain. Keep going,” he said.
The bones in my shins and knees crunched against the tile as I dragged the chain over the cup of his muscled shoulder. Cooked skin fell away from it—raw, oozing flesh clung to it.
He grunted, and I apologized, and it was in this way—grunt, apology, grunt, apology—that I managed to get one loop of the chain over his head, in the process burning the only skin that hadn’t been sloughed away—that of his throat and face.
“How much of this needs to be removed for you to find the strength to shift?” I whispered.
“More,” he said.
With numb fingers, I tried another loop. It snagged on the top of his head, and he breathed through my fumbles like a mother during childbirth. I dropped the chain and took a closer look at the links.
“Gods damn him.” I slumped down beside him. “He’s locked the chain in several places. Even if I’m able to get this part off you, the next one won’t budge.”
“I didn’t s-see them.”
“They’re buried under the chains. I’m sorry, Mason. I don’t know what else to do.”
He shuddered. “You’ve given me relief. Thank you.”
“Relief isn’t freedom.” I walked to the window on my knees, the tile cold on my kneecaps even through my jeans. I had to find something I could use. It was our only chance.
“What are you,” he huffed, “doing?”
I ignored him and kept searching. On the windowsill, on the floor, on me. Nothing. I’d flopped over in the middle of a dusty street, been thrown into the trunk of a car, and I was perfectly, annoyingly clean.
“What kind of psychotic freak doesn’t have dust on their tile floor? Doesn’t he know this is the godsdamn desert?” I kept my voice at a whisper though I wanted to scream.
“Vacuum, mop.” Mason gestured to a grate above the door with his chin. “Filtration system.”
“How do you know that?”
“Saw the vacuum and mop, heard the filter.” His head flopped forward. “He was ready for you. Probably vacuumed your clothes, too.”
“But not you,” I said. “He wasn’t ready for you, was he?”
“No. Silver chains came later. Commands came first.”
Mason’s head lolled.
“Are you okay?” I said, as loudly as I dared.
“Fine. Just now… you were looking for … dirt?”
“Yeah. The chains might not work if I could get my hands on my element. It’s why air witches are so hard to contain. Earth witches like me are easier, but, I mean, Mom and I played the odds by moving to the desert. You have a ninety-nine percent chance of encountering soil anywhere in this county. Except for a stupid clean room.” I grumbled the last then sank onto my butt, chains clanging, and shut my eyes.
I’d narrowly stopped myself from adding, “ I’m not sure it would work anyway, since my magic’s been so unpredictable. ”
Giving Mason information about my magical shortcomings was tantamount to gift-wrapping and presenting it directly to Floyd. On the off chance we survived this, I’d eventually live to regret opening my big mouth.
“Why did the curse talker bring you here?” I asked. “Really.”
“Best guess? Shitty timing,” he said.
My eyes flew open. “It’s because you were following me, isn’t it? You ended up caught in the curse talker’s net because you were casting one of your own.”
“Had to watch you. My job.”
“Well, I hope you’ve learned a lesson from all this,” I said.
He tried to lift his head. “Lesson?”
“Floyd Pallás gets his wolves killed. Period. He won’t care that you’re dead, either—except that it might inconvenience him to have to find another second.” Impatience bled into my voice. “A true alpha leader doesn’t abuse his pack. What’ll it take for you shifters to see that he’s not a leader?”
Mason didn’t reply. Dropping by stuttering jerks, he collapsed on his side, unconscious. His dark brown skin was gray where it wasn’t bloody or raw. His breathing was labored, and he periodically groaned.
Because there was nothing I could do to help him, I let the wolf rest.
“ Do not move .”
The voice was irritating, nauseating, and brimming with power.
Brilliant light flooded the room from the fixture on the ceiling. Justice, Vengeance, or whoever he was, slammed the door behind him. He twirled my bone dagger in his long, skinny fingers.
So that was where it had gone.
I blinked, adjusting to the bright light.
How long was I asleep?
I didn’t recall closing my eyes, and I didn’t recall removing the dampening chains.
“Chains,” I mumbled.
“We don’t need them. I can control you without them.” His condescending tone grated. “ You may breathe. You may move your facial muscles, including your eyes. You may speak when told to. You may not use magic. ”
The command hit me like a fist to the gut.
What time was it? The last thing I remembered was talking to…
Mason .
He was gone. Two piles of chains lay in a heap. His, mine.
“Looking for your stalker?” he asked.
More like looking at my stalker.
Three stalkers. Wasn’t I the popular one?
“What did you do with him?”
“Cut a deal with the local pack. They let me off the hook for kidnapping the wolf—it was an accident, after all. How was I supposed to know he was your enemy? I assumed he was an obstacle, not an ally.”
Something told me Alpha Pallás might let the curse talker off the hook, but Mason was going to keep his hook sharpened. He’d nearly been killed in the most painful way it’s possible to kill a wolf. That wasn’t something a person was likely to let slide.
“In exchange for returning him alive, they agreed to keep your whereabouts to themselves.” Justice bent to one knee and laughed directly in my face. Dragged the dagger down the front of my shirt.
It wasn’t sharp enough to slice fabric, but it didn’t have to be sharp to puncture flesh. Not if there was enough force behind the stab.
“Those wolves hate you. The alpha and his second told me they’d not only forget about what I did, they’d pay me if I could supply them with information. Seems you’ve got some blackmail material on Alpha Pallás, and he wants it back.”
Guess Mason was going to let it slide.
I was stupid to think for one second that Mason would defy his alpha’s command for his own revenge. And he certainly wouldn’t do it to save me.
The wolf had betrayed me.
Of course he had.
It stunned me that I’d even had the capacity to hope he wasn’t shit scraped off the bottom of the same shoe as his leader. That was what came from helping one of Floyd’s wolves. Damn me for hoping.
“Give me the password to your cloud storage program. I assume it’s the app you had on the cell phone I handed over to the alpha? Oh, and I’ll need the cell phone code, too.” His gaze flickered over me. “ You may speak. ” The power in his voice rolled through me. “ Tell me the password. ”
I narrowed my eyes and stared directly into his. “Stick a cactus up your culo.”
The curse talker’s jaw fell open. The dagger dropped to the floor at my feet. So close and yet so far away.
“How did you defy me, witch? You may not use magic , I command it. ”
I huffed through the pain his words provoked. “G-Guess I’m just more p-powerful than you are.”
He grabbed my hair and wrenched my head back. I hissed in pain. On top of my other injuries, I probably had a concussion.
“ Tell me the password .”
“Stick a cactus up your culo, Mr. Justice,” I repeated, with a grin I forced to my lips. “Sideways, if it suits you better.”
“You can’t do magic. I commanded you not to. There’s no soil in here—not as much as a speck of dust. You can’t use your element to bypass the command. I’ve accounted for everything .” His eyes darted from me to the fingers he was ticking off, to the ceiling, door, and floor. The term “madman” had been created for people who looked like this. “What kind of dark magic have you bitches been up to?”
He released my head and heaved himself up against the wall to my left.
“ Bitches ? Uh, I’m only one person. A singular bitch. Also, I hate that word with the power of a thousand suns, so stop calling me that, you creepy little bastard.”
“I was talking about you and your bitch mother.”
Fear splashed me like cold water. I shivered as much as I could, considering he’d commanded me not to move.
“My mother is dead.” I forced the words out.
“And not a moment too soon.” His eyes were slashes in his sweating face. His color, already pale, went practically translucent, and he pulsated with rage. “She robbed me of my revenge. My only solace is she had a daughter I could avenge myself on—you.”
In a shifter-fast move, he scooped up the dagger and stabbed it into the wall. Dust blossomed from it, but none reached me, and I was unable to reach for it, so it was useless.
“What did my mom ever do to you?”
“Destroyed my mother. Robbed her of her power, relegated her to mortal status, and eventually caused her death.”
Holy goddess, Mom. What did you do?
“And now she gets to simply dance off this reviled mortal coil and enjoy her afterlife unbothered, while my suffering grows with each passing day.”
Several emotions gripped me at once. Fear, because this man had a grudge I doubted anything less than blood would satisfy. Anger at my mom for not warning me about him. And a trace of empathetic grief because he was clearly in pain.
Then I remembered what he’d put Mason Hartman through for simply being in the wrong place at the worst time, and any empathy I had for him vanished. Not that I gave a rip about Mason, but if he was willing to torture someone he didn’t even know, what else was he capable of?
“Your pain doesn’t give you the right to hurt others,” I said. “Your grievance was with my mom, not me. Not the wolf you tortured, either.”
“That wolf is content to watch you die,” he said. “Don’t waste any sympathy on him.”
“It’s not sympathy, trust me. I might kill him for what he’s done to me, and I’d be justified in doing it. You had no right to your cruelty.”
He barked a laugh. “Are you lecturing me on honor? After what your bitch mother did?”
The word was like nails on a chalkboard. “What did she do?”
“I told you. She destroyed my mother.”
“Why did she do it? Who was your mother to her?”
“If you want to know that, you’ll have to ask your grandfather. I’ve neither the time nor the inclination to educate you.” His head turned in jerks and shudders, until he finally set his full focus on me. “Or maybe I’ll let Lila explain it to you in the afterlife—if you can find her malicious, blood-soaked soul.”
Blood-soaked ?
I pictured my Mom—long, black hair flowing over delicate shoulders, her soft eyes, the brown shade of leaves in fall. The way she’d knotted her filmy skirt high on her thigh as she worked compost into the soil in front of her cottage by hand. Her gentle, lilting voice as she sang to the cactus pollinators, finding joy in the way bumblebees and white-winged doves lighted on the spines and rustled in the flowers crowning the majestic saguaros.
Then I recalled the way she’d begged me to stay close to home, to continue serving her local customers, to never travel so far she couldn’t get to me in an hour. When I refused, she’d become demanding and angry, every phone conversation driving an ever-widening wedge between us.
Yet, she’d never been cruel. As powerful as she was, she never tried to spell me to stay home. She’d only begged, yelled, cajoled, bargained, and guilted me.
“My mother was a lot of things, but she wasn’t malicious. Is it possible you have the wrong witch?”
He sprang away from the wall and loomed over me. He was taller than I’d previously thought—my face was in line with the middle of his thigh.
“Why don’t you ask the gravedigger if I have the wrong witch?”
“Sexton’s involved in this?”
Justice dropped to his haunches, gripped my hair, and brought my face to his. Power surrounded him like an aura. “Don’t say that demon’s godsdamned name in my presence, witch. He doesn’t get a proper name. He’s a gravedigger demon, no more, no less.” He yanked my head back until the joints in my neck crackled. Pain streaked down my spine and my breathing sped up.
I clenched my teeth to stop from crying out. “You didn’t make that a command. Why n-not?”
“Because the next command I give you cancels out all the others.” He pulled back enough for me to see his dilated pupils.
“ Stop breathing, witch. Die. ”