3. Rissa

3

RISSA

I tapped my fingers impatiently against my thigh as I paced the small, curved room again. Looking for weakness in the walls had proven useless. Only an hour had passed in prison in Luce's company, but boredom was already setting in.

"To hell with this," I muttered. I'd told myself I would examine the situation more before attempting an escape, but annoyance got the better of me. Stopping in the center of the room, I rolled up my sleeves and focused, gathering my magic. Tendrils of power swirled around my hands, crackling with emerald light.

I thrust my hands forward, sending the magic lancing toward the curved walls. It struck the surface and splintered, spreading out in glowing fissures as I attempted to shatter the containment spell and its vessel. The magic held fast, the cracks sealing themselves as quickly as they formed.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed harder, pouring more energy into my efforts. The air hummed with strain. Sweat beaded on my brow. Just as I hit a tipping point, a blinding jolt of energy exploded from the walls. It slammed into me like a sledgehammer, sending me flying to the side.

I hit the floor hard, rolling into the entertainment chest, pain lancing through my body. Every nerve ending felt like it was on fire, crackling with residual magical energy. I groaned and rolled to my side, my muscles twitching involuntarily.

"Damn it," I hissed through clenched teeth. Apparently, this containment spell wasn't going to be easy to break. But that had never stopped me before. I wasn't about to let some glorified wine bottle beat me.

Especially one bought by wine snobs.

"All right, bottle of dubious provenance," I growled as I climbed unsteadily to my feet. "Round one to you. But we're just getting started."

A wineglass appeared next to me. I sighed, accepted it, and took a small sip. It was actually tasty.

"I told you, Halo. I've tried countless times. This blasted bottle won't budge." Luce stood next to me.

I narrowed my gaze at him, my jaw tightening. "And you expect me to just take your word for it? Please." I scoffed, shaking my head. "I'm not some helpless damsel. I'll figure this out and rescue you. And then you'll owe me."

Luce shrugged, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. "Sounds interesting. I look forward to paying you off. But in the meantime, don't say I didn't warn you."

I rolled my shoulders, trying to shake off the lingering ache from the magical backlash. Luce had no idea what I was capable of. Even at a fraction of my full strength, I was a force to be reckoned with.

I'd enjoy collecting from him, starting with him doing a command performance of ‘I'm a little teapot' for the monster kings.

Closing my eyes, I drew in a deep breath, centering myself. Reaching inward, I grasped the power that always shimmered just beneath the surface of my body. It responded eagerly, surging through my veins like liquid fire.

Refusing its exit, the magic built and grew until my entire body hummed with barely contained energy. Sparks danced along my hands, skimming the surface of my skin, and I could feel my hair lifting gently from my scalp.

This time, I wouldn't fail. I wanted out.

My eyes snapped open. I raised my hands once more, the air around me shimmering with green light.

Luce regarded me with interested eyes and that smile. I smiled back at him, matching him edge for edge.

"Let's dance." With those words, I unleashed a torrent of raw, unfiltered magic directly at the curved wall of the bottle. The sheer force of it sent ripples through the air, distorting the space around me like a mirage.

The magic slammed into the invisible barrier with a deafening crack, sending shockwaves reverberating through the confined space. I gritted my teeth, pouring every ounce of strength I had into the assault.

For one sweet moment, the containment spell rippled. Then it firmed up again, absorbing the brunt of my attack. The energy rebounded back at me, slamming into my chest.

I wheezed and staggered. Every nerve in my body burned, screaming in protest. My knees buckled and I hit the floor hard, barely catching myself on my hands.

"Halo!" Luce's hands steadied me. "Are you okay?"

I couldn't respond, too focused on simply drawing air into my lungs. My muscles spasmed and twitched, aftershocks of the backlash still coursing through me. It was like being struck by lightning, every cell in my body overloaded and short-circuiting.

Frustration and anger welled up inside me, white-hot and all-consuming. A low growl tore from my throat as I shook Luce's hands off and forced myself back to my feet, swaying unsteadily.

"I'm fine," I bit out through clenched teeth, even as my body screamed otherwise. "Break!"

My jaw set against the pain, I lifted my hands again, summoning every last ounce of power I could muster. The air around me crackled and sizzled, charged with arcane energy.

"Halo, stop!" Luce shouted, but I was already unleashing the spell, a blinding bolt of raw force that slammed into the enchanted glass with concussive impact.

For one breathless moment, I thought I'd done it. Cracking noises filled the air, hairline fractures spider webbing across the bottle's interior. Then, with an almost audible snap, the containment spell reasserted itself and the cracks vanished as if they'd never been.

This time the backlash hit me like a tidal wave. Luce caught me before I crashed into the far wall. Pain exploded through every inch of my body, and I gasped for breath.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results," Luce said dryly, cradling me against his body.

Snarling, I lashed out with a blast of power, catching him square in the chest. Luce yelped in surprise, staggering back a step.

Then, to my utter disbelief, he started laughing. "That's all you've got? Do it again!"

He snorted, patting the scorched spot on his shirt where my magic had struck him.

I gaped at him, momentarily speechless. The smug daemon was mocking me! Fury boiled up inside me, hot and vicious, and I was sorely tempted to blast that infuriating grin right off his face.

With effort, I swallowed my anger and rolled my eyes skyward. Let the overconfident twit act like it was nothing more than a love tap. No sense in arguing when I had a splitting headache.

Exhaustion settled over me like a leaden shroud. I dragged myself over to the soft looking bed and flopped down face-first onto the pretty quilt.

For the moment, we were well and truly trapped.

Frustration made my head hurt more. One minute I was going about my business, kicking butt and running the shifters, same as always. Next, I'd been dumped into this bizarre snow globe from hell with only a hot daemon for company.

And yes, he was hot, and that made the entire situation that bit more infuriating.

I wanted to scream. Or break something. Above all, I wanted out of this blasted bottle so I could track down whoever or whatever was responsible and make them regret the moment they'd come up with this idea.

But I couldn't. Because apparently the reserves of mystical energy currently at my command were no match for the magic of whoever—or whoevers—had bound Luce and me into this bottle.

The bed shifted as Luce lowered himself down on the opposite side. "I get it. I feel the same way."

I turned my head to squint at him balefully, head pounding. "Do you? Do you really?" The words came out sharp and laced with venom. "Because from where I'm lying, it doesn't look like you're doing anything to get us out of here."

Luce met my gaze steadily, unfazed by my hostility. "Halo, I want out of this cage every bit as much as you do. But raw power won't cut it. I know because I already tried throwing everything I had at the wall to break out. We need to be smart about this."

I pushed myself up on my elbows, suddenly energized by a flash of inspiration. "What if we combined our powers and tried it together? Synchronized our efforts, focused everything we have on one point?"

Luce's brow furrowed as he considered the idea. I could practically see the gears turning behind those dark, calculating eyes. "A longer, concentrated blast might work."

"Great, let's do it." I started to rise, eager to put the plan into action, but Luce's hand on my arm stopped me.

"Hold on, kitten. We can't just go off half-cocked. This will take careful timing and coordination." His grip tightened fractionally. "And trust. Do you trust me in this?"

For a long moment, I just stared at him. I extended a clawed fingertip and tapped his lower lip, just shy of breaking skin. "First, don't call me kitten."

Luce wasn't even slightly a person that I wanted to rely on. But what choice did I have?

"Second, I trust you about as far as I can throw you. But that's actually a fair distance. So it'll have to be enough."

Luce shifted my claw off his lip before he spoke. Smart man, he'd have been bleeding otherwise. My claws were sharper than razors. "Fair enough. I've got more experience and training when it comes to magic, so I'll take the lead on this. You focus on channeling your power into me, and I'll handle the nitty-gritty of directing it."

I nodded, trying to ignore the flicker of unease in my gut at the thought of opening myself up to him like that. "Tell me what you need."

He positioned himself cross-legged on the bed, hands resting palm-up on his knees. "Sit facing me and take my hands. Then visualize your magic. Imagine it flowing through you, from your seat of power to your fingertips."

I mirrored his posture, reaching out to clasp his hands in mine. His skin was warm, almost feverish, and his pulse thrummed beneath my fingers. Taking a deep breath, I turned my attention inward, directing my magic down my arms.

It came eagerly to my call, a flood of energy that raced along my veins like a gulp of espresso. I relaxed into the flow. "Okay," I said softly, "I've got it. Now what?"

"Now," Luce said, his low voice intense, "push that power, slowly and steadily, into me through our joined hands. Ready?"

"Ready," I said, though instinct said to keep my magic to myself, since trusting a daemon with power was stupidity of the highest order. Ignoring it, I channeled the raging torrent into a smooth flow, directing it across the fragile bridge of our clasped hands.

The moment my power made contact with Luce's, I inhaled and almost broke my grip. The shock raced up my arms and set every nerve alight in a very pleasant way. I could feel him drawing my magic in, shaping it, a sensation that was both alien and strangely intimate.

The power flowed between us, a pulsing, living thing. With each passing second, the connection deepened, until I could no longer tell where my magic ended and his began.

Exhilarating. Terrifying. A moment like standing on the edge of a cliff, poised to jump.

Every point of contact between us—the press of his fingers against mine, the heat of his skin, the steady thrum of his heartbeat–was like fire. Too much, too close, too real, and I wanted to pull away. The overwhelming rush of sensation swept over me, but I kept my hands linked with his.

Over the drum of my heartbeat, Luce inhaled sharply and shuddered. "Halo…this is... I've never..."

"Me neither," I said, my words coming out ragged and strained. "Is this normal for sharing power?"

"No," he breathed. "I've shared power before, but never anything like this."

This. This addictive consuming pull drawing us together. I should worry about it, be wary of the way it tempted me to lose control. But beneath the sensible caution something else flickered, an unknown sparking and smoldering with heat.

I tried to focus on the task at hand, but it was impossible. Every fiber of my being reached out to Luce, to the dark allure of his power as it twined with mine. The attraction was wrong, dangerous, a bad line to cross, but just for this moment, I wanted to.

Most of me wanted to dive headlong into strange and rapturous oblivion, consequences be damned. It had been far too long since I felt anything like this.

From the way Luce's breath caught, the way his grip tightened almost painfully on my hands, he felt it too.

We balanced on a knife's edge for a long moment, then Luce's jaw clenched as he directed our combined power at the unyielding walls of our glass prison. He channeled the maelstrom of energy with intense focus, his essence interwoven with mine as he sought to unravel the complex containment spell thread by meticulous thread.

The air crackled and thrummed. Sweat rolled down his face from the strain, but he pushed on relentlessly, hurling the force of our joined abilities against the invisible barrier again and again.

I gritted my teeth, fighting the urge to wrench away as the power sharing grew even more raw and primal, revealing parts of myself I'd suppressed long ago. As much as it unnerved me, some part of me reveled in the freedom it offered.

Time crawled by, but the spell remained stubbornly intact no matter how Luce threw his considerable skill and strength against it. Finally, with a frustrated growl, he severed the flow of energy and caught the rebound expertly, feeding that power into us as well.

He slumped back onto the bed in defeat, making the mattress dip under his weight.

"Blast," he barked, dragging a hand over his face. "This thing is locked up tighter than a —"

"My power," I interrupted sharply, still reeling from the abrupt loss of our connection. I felt strangely bereft without it, unmoored and aching for something I couldn't name. "You still have it. Give it back."

His eyes widened fractionally, as if he'd forgotten, before a ghost of a smirk tugged at his lips. "What's the matter, Halo? Don't trust me to take good care of it for you?"

I shot him a withering glare. "About as far as I could throw you, daemon . Now give it back before I take it back."

He raised his hands in mock surrender, but I didn't miss the way his fingers trembled slightly as he returned my power to my own body. The rush of it flooding my veins was both a relief and a disappointment. The absence of our essences mixing was an odd emptiness.

I smacked that thought down. What the hell was wrong with me? This was Luce, for gods' sake, an arrogant, untrustworthy pain in my butt. I couldn't afford to let myself get sucked into a romantic game, even if we weren't trapped in the bottle together.

Luce's deep voice was almost a physical caress. "There it is, Halo. No worse for wear, I hope."

I huffed out a tired breath, flopping back to join him reclining. "Just peachy. Remind me never to share my essence with a daemon again. That was weird."

"You wound me." Confident amusement laced his words. "Here I thought we established a real connection."

I eyed him sideways. "In your dreams, maybe."

"Mmm, undoubtedly." His tone dripped with insinuation, making my cheeks flush. Damn, he got me with that one.

Desperate to change the subject, I sat back up and stretched, grimacing as my back popped. "Well, I don't know about you, but I could use a drink after all that."

Luce propped himself up on one elbow, arching a brow at me, face winsome and hopeful. "Halo, are you propositioning me?"

"Ha, you wish." I rolled my eyes, suppressing laughter. "I mean a nightcap, lord daemon. You know, to take the edge off before we attempt to get some shut-eye in this gods-forsaken bottle."

His teeth flashed in a grin, eyes glinting with something I couldn't quite decipher. "I think that can be arranged. One nightcap, coming right up."

As he rolled off the bed and sauntered over to the mini bar, I flopped back against the pillows with a sigh. This whole situation was testing the limits of my sanity. Trapped in close quarters with an attractive daemon with an actual sense of humor...it was a recipe for disaster.

Luce opened the mini bar and glanced over his shoulder at me with a smirk. "Looks like we have the makings for just about anything here. What's your poison?"

I pursed my lips, considering. I could go for something simple, like a whiskey neat or a vodka tonic. But where was the fun in that? Make him work for it. We'd see just how skilled Mr. Tall, snarky and Daemonic was at mixology.

"A mudslide," I said. "Think you can handle that?"

Luce's smirk widened into a full-blown grin, eyes glinting with mischief and an unspoken challenge. "Oh, I can handle it. One mudslide, coming right up."

He turned back to the mini bar, hands moving with practiced ease as he pulled out bottles of Kahlúa, vodka, and Irish cream. I watched, fascinated despite myself, as he filled a shaker with ice and measured out generous portions of each liquor.

Luce moved with a fluid grace that was almost mesmerizing, his broad shoulders flexing beneath his shirt as he shook the concoction vigorously. The sound of ice rattling against metal filled the room, blending with the low, rich timbre of his humming.

I tore my gaze away. Calm down, woman. The last thing you need is to start ogling the daemon like you want to take him for a ride.

But I couldn't quite suppress the little shiver that raced down my spine as Luce poured the creamy mixture into a glass, topping it off with a sprinkle of grated chocolate. He turned toward me, holding out the drink with a flourish and a wicked glint in his gaze that set my pulse racing.

"As you desired, kitten," he purred, his fingertips brushing mine as I reached out to take the glass. "I hope it meets your...expectations."

Luce set the mudslide in front of me with a smirk. I took a sip, the creamy chocolate and liquor blending perfectly on my tongue. Damn, it was delicious.

"Not bad," I allowed, trying to keep my expression neutral. "And don't call me kitten."

Luce poured himself a snifter of cognac. "High praise, coming from you, Halo."

We settled to relax before going to bed, Luce chatting and starting a surprisingly easy back-and-forth. The topic drifted as the liquid level in our glasses lowered, settling on pet peeves.

Luce couldn't stand the sound of chewing.

"Misophonia," he said with a shrug. "Crunching, slurping, smacking lips...drives me up the wall."

I snorted and took a long sip. "Good to know. I'll be sure to chew with my mouth open from now on."

"You're a real peach, you know that?"

"Part of my charm. Are there any new annoying habits I should be aware of, seeing as we're stuck in this bottle together for at least a few more hours?"

Luce took a sip of his cognac, considering. "I've been told I snore. Loudly."

I raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like I'm in for a sleepless night then."

"Hey, I can't help it! Not all of us can be perfect, ..."

"If you say kitten you'll regret it. Me, perfect? Hardly. You want to know my pet peeve? People who talk during movies. It's recent, but it's real."

Luce laughed, a warm, rich sound that seemed to fill the space between us. "Noted. I promise to keep my trap shut during our inevitable movie marathons."

Despite myself, I found my lips twitching into a small smile. Maybe being stuck with Luce wouldn't be complete torture after all. At least the conversation wasn't half bad.

And the mudslide...I took another sip, savoring the decadent flavors. The mudslide was pretty damn perfect.

After draining the last of my drink, I stifled a yawn. The exhaustion of the day rolled over me like a truck.

Luce noticed, setting his empty glass aside. "Looks like it's time to hit the hay. Big day of trying to bust out of this joint tomorrow."

The thought of sharing a bed with Luce made my pulse quicken and my palms turn clammy. Damn daemon and his stupid, perfect face.

"You'd better stick to your side," I grumbled, claiming the left half of the bed and burrowing under the silky sheets. They were cool against my skin, a small comfort in this bizarre situation.

Luce slid in beside me, the mattress dipping under his weight. Heat radiated off his body, mere inches from mine. It took every ounce of self-control not to inch closer, to soak in his warmth.

Lovely. Why my subconscious had decided it wanted him I'd never know, but being this close to Luce, breathing in his spicy, masculine scent, was doing things to me.

Rolling over so my back was to him, I screwed my eyes shut and willed sleep to come. But it was futile. I was turned on and not happy about it. The source of my frustration was lying right beside me, tantalizingly out of reach.

It was going to be a long night. Exhaustion would claim me before I did something stupid like give in to temptation and jump Luce's bones.

Damn daemon. Damn bottle. Damn it all to hell.

With a quiet, frustrated huff, I buried my face in the pillow. My dreams, when they finally came, were filled with heated caresses and sinful whispers in a deep velvet voice.