Chapter 26

26

“Surely there are quieter places to read,” I said to Spyne, who sat cross-legged on a tower of practice mats, one of the Vissimo books on demons balanced on his lap.

“Yes,” he agreed. The magus tucked his ink-black hair behind one ear. “I thought my presence may help Huxley after yesterday.”

“Yesterday when every supernatural in Bluff City flirted with you?”

“Three of them, but yes. Huxley has been irritated since but maintains that there’s nothing wrong.” Spyne sighed. “He often needs a cool-down period before he’s able to admit the truth. Maybe battle training will help, and then we can talk it out. Again.”

Again.That was the first weary word from Spyne when it came to Huxley’s moods. “How are you doing with it all?”

Not like Spyne asked to be super cool and make Huxley feel insecure.

His brows drew together. “I’ve seen that there’s an entire world beyond the confines of the coven. Multiple worlds, really. I find myself wondering if I’m meant to spend my whole life on coven lands.” He watched as Huxley blurred at Wild.

I’d already had my turn with that drill.

“Like Endex?” I asked him. “You feel drawn to study the outside too.”

“Perhaps. Or is it that I feel… discontented? I had an idea that Hux and I would’ve found our rhythm by now. We still fight most days, and the pattern is repetitive. For all Huxley’s intelligence, he cannot see it.”

Oh shit.Spyne was having big doubts. Could I blame him? How many times had Huxley snapped about Spyne being unreasonable? Huxley was kind of incredible, and he’d had a tough time of things. He could also be a complete ass.

“He doesn’t feel worthy of you,” I said after a beat.

“I’m starting to understand that only he can convince himself otherwise. I haven’t been able to. There’s his past in the coven, and then what happened with the demon attack embarrassed him a great deal…. He has things to work through, and I’ve begun to wonder if the time isn’t right for us. If I push this relationship to be what I want now, will things go too far and erase the possibility of a second chance later? If we take a break and walk our own paths for a time, maybe we could find that real connection in years to come.”

Spyne wanted to be with Huxley. He didn’t feel Huxley was ready.

Huxley was going to lose the guy he absolutely fucking adored. “That’s heavy stuff, Spyne, and it’s worth discussing everything with Huxley. That could be what he needs to sort his shit out.”

“I don’t want him to do it for me. I want him to do it for him.”

“Yeah, I get that too.” I leaned forward and hugged the grimoire, who patted me awkwardly after a time.

“If you’re done,” Huxley called our way. “We’re here to help you train, not the other way around.”

I winked at Spyne, then replied over my shoulder, “I’m your high esteemed. You’ll do what you’re told.”

Huxley glared and opened his mouth.

Corey and Sven took positions either side of him, and Sven spoke over Huxley. “Most of this is a waste of time for you two. You’re both incredible battle magus. Your advantages are what the mating ritual has given you. Let’s focus on those. Name one.”

Wild shot me a look. “We’re catalysts for each other’s magic.”

When Wild opened his magic to me, and then I used my magic, it was the difference between speaking normally and speaking through a megaphone. Every charm or attack or defensive move was so much easier. “We should explore the limits of that.”

“And how it may have changed with the latest step in the ritual,” Wild added.

Our magic was one now. We each had a magical identity still, but I could see Wild’s power as I could see mine—how much he had left, and whether he was centered and healthy.

Sven circled to stand behind Wild. “How about you both go through your affinities one at a time and launch some of your usual moves to gauge the difference?”

“Want to start?” I asked the hunk-on-legs beside me.

Wild sank into a crouch. “Sure thing, gorgeous.”

I had a moment to regret that I wasn’t in Spyne’s spot watching this fight unravel. Wild was glorious to behold in battle—he preferred a flowing type of defense and attack that used his opponent’s strength and power against them. He made fighting seem effortless, and that daunted those who faced him, and also frustrated them into making costly mistakes as the fight continued.

Sven lunged at Wild, who immediately tapped into his battle magic to inject speed into a dodge.

My magic was always open to Wild now, and as I spun out of Corey’s reach, I marveled at how little magic he’d used for the evasive maneuver—just a speck. Barely noticeable.

I danced back from Corey’s swing and saw that Wild was circling away from me too. I’d expected us to remain together, but we were naturally placing our opponents between us.

Wild rippled the ground with his battle magic to throw Huxley high and then blew a stream of ice toward Sven.

Usually a battle magus with high proven ability—like Wild—would have around seven to ten such attacks available before their magic stores were on the empty side. That was in addition to increasing their speed and strength during a fight too. Yet Wild could have continued this level of attack for hours. Maybe he’d have a better idea of the exact amount, but I was guessing in the high one hundred range, maybe even in the two hundred vicinity.

He moved onto his grimoire affinity, and I earned a ringing blow to the jaw from Huxley as Wild sent a flow of magic to Corey, who froze.

Wild tightened his hands to fists.

Everyone paused for a moment as Corey shouted in pain. Words began to appear on his skin. Wounds. Uncertain past. Hope. Regret. Pain.

“He’s drawing words from Corey’s mind,” Huxley said in awe. He sounded equal parts horrified and excited.

That was kind of horrific to watch. Nicely done. The attack had also drained the largest chunk of magic from us so far.

Wild dropped the magic squeezing Corey’s mind and portaled across the mats, reciting quickly, “And so it was that the Mother birthed her first children, the original magus, to care for the Earth and teach its ways.”

The sentence strung into an oily, black rope that whipped toward Sven and wrapped tight around his body.

“Whoa,” Huxley said.

He wasn’t paying attention to the fight at all.

I punched him in the face.

The grimoire snarled and threw his broken glasses away. “That was fucking low.”

“I’m helping you to be a survivor.” I raised my fists.

Wild had moved to his apothecary affinity, of which he possessed novice levels. He blew a concoction of mine at Huxley as the magus made to charge me.

Huxley sent a gust of magic out, which only managed to blast the liquid nightmare into Corey’s face. He started screaming again. The guy wasn’t faring too well in this fight.

“You’ve been in my kits,” I called to Wild.

“Perhaps.” He tossed out a series of vines to act as a wall between us and the guys. “Are you feeling what I am?”

“Lust?”

He snorted. “Always, my queen. I meant with our magic.”

I listened to Corey’s groans on the other side of the vines. “The volume on our megaphone turns down as we draw from our pool of power?” As magic was used, our amplifying abilities grew less. Instead of having the ability to dial up to ten, we were only able to reach nine, then eight, and so on.

Wild arched a brow. “The walls grow closer.”

I liked my megaphone analogy better. “My turn?”

Portaling behind the guys, who were now on their feet, I was struck again by the fact that Wild and I were naturally opting to divide and conquer. Against the demons, we’d held hands, and I’d expected that to be how our magic wanted us to stand in battle.

Not so.

I tapped into my divination affinity, which I couldn’t recall ever using in battle. What to do with it? Rooke sometimes enlisted the help of her ghosts in a fight, but I hadn’t formed meaningful relationships with any yet.

At a loss, I cast out my divination magic to see what I could sense.

I blinked as the entire room filled with threads attaching to one or more people here. They connected the guys and then individuals to things I couldn’t see. I shook my head, trying to dispel the double vision. What the fuck?

I cut off the energy supply to my divination and then fell on my ass as a cage dropped around me, clanging loudly.

A dark rage rose in me like a cornered animal. I roared, seized by a force that flung me at the bars in its desire to escape the prison. I shook at the cage, and the very walls of the learning center shook.

I’d bring every one of them down to get out of here.

Harsh words streamed out of my mouth that was twisted in rage. I was going to kill and hurt. I was going to destroy.

A roar of war and deadly promises tore from me again.

The cage disappeared, and Wild was suddenly there, crowding over me. The hand I’d raised to plunge into his chest and rip his heart out lowered. Shock warred with rage. If anyone but him had tried that while I was in this state, I might’ve killed them.

Wild gripped my chin and sent me a vision. One of me. Black smoke poured from my skin, and black scales edged my face and the backs of my hands.

Fuck.

I’d just roared words in demon tongue too.

“The cage is gone,” he whispered quickly. “You’re not trapped. No one is going to trap you again. You’re free. You escaped that place.”

He wasn’t talking to me.

He was speaking to my demon—the one who’d been trapped for years and nearly died trying to return to me. My mouth dried. The cage just set her off big time. She’d slumbered since returning to me, and her panic was forceful enough to drag her from that healing sleep.

She’d just freaked out.

I took a deep breath, then another, feeling her curl into a ball within me.

I received another vision of myself from Wild. My scales were gone, as was the black smoke, but soot was smeared across the ceiling of the battle center. I crouched with Wild in a crater I’d carved in the stone.

I took one last breath and plucked up the courage to glance over Wild’s shoulder at the one person who’d seen too much.

Spyne’s eyes were wide. His pulse was rapid and breaths shallow.

As I met his gaze, his focus dropped to the book on his lap. Then, the grimoire lifted his attention to me once more before staring at the ceiling above me. He’d just seen me with scales and black smoke. He’d heard me speak in demon.

“Spyne,” Huxley said quietly from where he stood between us.

“No,” the grimoire replied.

He set the book down, then walked out of the battle center.

I closed my eyes. “Fuck.”

“Whose brilliant idea was it to cage her?” Wild spat, whirling on his friends.

Sven lifted his hands. “I didn’t know that would happen. Better to know now than in the middle of a real battle.”

That was of poor consolation right now.

Huxley ran his hands through his hair, repeating my expletive. “Spyne saw all that. He’ll figure it out.”

There was no future tense about it. Spyne had already done the figuring.

I walked over to the book he’d left. An illustration took up one full page. A picture of a monstrous demon arched back in full roar with smoke pouring from it.

A strange urge to laugh nearly took over my senses. That was as obvious as things could get. My life was a mess again. “Huxley, do you think he’ll tell others?”

The green-eyed magus was still without glasses. He exhaled. “I have no idea. He’s already angry at me, too, which won’t help matters.”

My experience of Spyne made me feel he’d reserve judgment, but this was huge. He’d seen I was a demon. He probably thought I was working withthem. This revelation wasn’t about something trivial like my quipu. This was the real deal.

“We need to speak with him,” Corey said. “Now. He’s most likely to blurt the news in this shocked state. Once he settles down, he’ll be less likely to.”

Huxley nodded. “I’ll find him.”

“We need to speak with him,” Sven repeated. “You find him and let us know where to be.”

I collected the Vissimo book on demons and shut the tome gently.

Corey joined me. “How are you so calm about this? The coven could turn on you by nightfall.”

“Yes,” I replied.

“I don’t understand. You need to do something. You always do something, Tempest.”

For a while now, I’d existed with the feeling of a noose around my neck. That noose just got tighter, and it felt right that it had. There was relief in it. “Truth will prevail,” I told him.

He mouthed my words, then blinked. “I can’t make you out. Do you want people to know, or do you feel unworthy of their understanding because of what you are?”

Before Corey started wearing linen pants, he’d been unnervingly insightful. Now he could center, that insight had grown stronger.

I tilted my chin to meet his gaze and didn’t answer aloud.

“I see,” he replied.

What did he see? That guilt over what I was started crushing me the second I heard my mother’s words in the ravine? That when the relics chose me, the guilt got one hundred times worse and now entered into my every thought and decision? I wanted people to know the truth because then they’d force me out of leadership.

And I wanted that because I knew I shouldn’t be where I was.

That I wasn’t worthy of the authority.

Ty was right. I’d never accepted that seat, and I never would because one day that noose around my neck would tighten all the way. As it should.

“Huxley found him,” Sven said, interrupting the tension between me and Corey. “We gotta go.”

“Where to?” Wild asked.

Sven stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Sorry, man. Just me and Corey this time. Spyne doesn’t want everyone there.”

Everyone. Spyne didn’t want me there and Sven was sparing my feelings by including Wild in my camp. I truly did think Spyne was one of the coolest people I’d ever met. I’d been struck by the grimoire’s calm acceptance of who he was the first time we’d met. His disapproval hit me hard.

I forced a nod through my shame. “Let me know what happens. Wild and I will clean up here.”

Wild rested a hand on my arm. “I’ve got this, my love. You go take care of yourself.”

He knew I was one sympathetic comment away from crying. I nodded, a lump rising in my throat.

Turning away from the sight of soot and cracked stone, I walked out of the battle center alone.