CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
So that’s what Dex did.
Gave me just enough magic so my cat could find me. But why?
Chicken kneaded the fleece blanket, the expensive, hand-sewn, shearling wool blanket. The extravagance of Dexigator’s gift was lost on me in the dark, but now, under the light of Chicken’s orb….
It didn’t matter.
I had to think of the next step. What was my next move?
Chicken, having finished making biscuits, turned herself around and plopped down in the center of the cot, nestled neatly in Dex’s blanket. “This blanket smells like that being from the other place.”
“Which one?”
“The one with layers of magic surrounding him. How long are we staying here? This room stinks like dead things. And it’s cold.”
I snorted. “Who are you telling?”
“You. I’m telling you.”
“Of course. My mistake. Unfortunately, we can’t leave. That is, I can’t leave. You’re free to poof out whenever you like though.”
Chicken shook her head. “What is this nonsense you’re spouting? Why can’t you leave?”
“I don’t have any magic.”
“Yes, you do. I used your magic to find you.”
“Fair. But I don’t have enough to get me out.”
“Don’t be daft. You certainly do.”
“No. The Blood King reclaimed it when I arrived here. His stupid heir gave me enough to call to you, but nothing more.”
“Who’s fed you such lies? I sense every bit of your magic and then some, now that we’re in this place. You’re steeped in magic like never before.”
“What?”
“What have I said that’s unclear, sweet but stupid girl?”
“Well, if that’s true, why can’t I feel or reach it?”
“I don’t know. But your magic is there.”
The Blood King said he’d stuffed me full of power to get me and my horde here, then taken it away.
He’d convinced me he’d concocted the prophecy for his own needs.
But was that the lie?
My hands trembled at the thought.
Had my power been here all this time?
Had I been locked in this awful hole for six days with the means to get myself out the whole time?
Instead of thinking that awful thought, I reached within, deeper than ever before, digging until there was no place left to search, until my head pounded with the effort. I came up empty. No powers. Not hidden, not blocked, just nothing.
I tried again, digging so deep it hurt, searching within for a shred, an inkling of what must be there. I only found pain, needling into me like when I’d tried too hard to connect with Emma.
“Your magic is there,” Chicken repeated, eyes closing as she settled in for a snooze. “Keep trying. But not so hard. You’re shaking the cot.”
I scrunched my nose at my know-it-all cat and tried once more.
“I’ve told you already. Don’t try so hard. You’re wrapped in magic, steeped in it through and through. Reach out and take what’s yours.”
“I’m trying! There’s nothing there.”
“Well, then reach better.”
Resisting the urge to accidentally-on-purpose push Chicken off the cot took a great deal of willpower. I refocused, after a thinking a few choice words in her unhelpful direction.
But it was Chicken’s choice of words that struck me.
Reach out.
Well, it was worth a shot, right?
Instead of turning within for magic, I looked to the surrounding space. The air, however damp and mold-ridden, should be full of magic, right? Magic should be spilling from the overfull hold and into the very fabric of this realm.
Yes.
It should.
And that’s why I was down here, alone and in the dark with my magic suppressed. To drive me mad and keep me from discovering how much power I had at my disposal.
I had to admit, it would have worked. If Dex hadn’t lifted the spell enough to let Chicken in, I would have gone mad.
I moved on. I wasn’t fond of wasting time thinking about shit that didn’t matter.
“Steeped in magic, you say?”
Chicken nodded.
I felt like an idiot reaching with my physical hand for something decidedly not physical. Doubly so when I came back empty.
I tried again, this time reaching with whatever it was I used when reaching within.
Still nothing.
I flopped back into the cot, earning me an evil glare from Chicken. She yawned, licked her paw and closed her eyes. “I told you already. You’re trying too hard.”
“Yeah? Well, I don’t know what that means.”
My cat sighed and opened one eye. “You’re grappling around like a teenager about to mate. Magic is no conquest. It’s not an object to be possessed.”
“This is what I’ve always done.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Habit doesn’t make it right.”
Okay, she had me there. I shook my limbs, trying to release the coiled lumps of tension and frustration in my muscles, took a deep breath, and closed my eyes.
“There,” whispered my feline friend. “Now do you see?”
No. I saw the inside of my eyelids. About to say as much, I cracked an eye open to find the cell illuminated in red-gold light.
“Holy fuck.” The words, scarcely more than breath, danced through the air, creating ripples and shivers in the light.
My gaze fell to my lap, my dirty leathers, and the two inches separating my body from the light, the magic of the hold. I glanced at Chicken, staring at me with a satisfied smirk. The red-gold light of Blood Realm magic surrounded her as well, but unlike me, it floated in and out of her body, swirling through her like watercolors. I peered closer at the space around me where magic didn’t flow, touching it, not with my hand but with my mind.
A delighted smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth. “I see you.”
Dex hadn’t removed the spell but he’d let enough magic in for Chicken to track. And for that I’d be forever grateful.
Woven into the ether surrounding my body, an exemplary bit of mind magic sang its song—its edges shaded the same red-gold of this realm’s power. “Hello there, aren’t you a beauty?”
The spell hummed back at me.
“Tell me your secrets,” I whispered.
I commanded nothing of the spell. I didn’t force it to yield. Instead, I caressed it with my thoughts, asking it, much like a lover, to give itself to me.
The magic shivered at the attention and then opened just enough to let me peer at its inner workings.
“Tricky, tricky,” I cooed as I spotted a trap the Blood King twisted into the spell. Set to alert him of any tampering, the curving thread of blood-red magic spun itself around the initial spell like a spider web, its tendrils extending in every direction.
I had no experience with blood magic, and dared not seduce this trap as I had before. I took a moment to consider my options.
Intricate and deadly, the spell reeked of Blood Realm power, of Lucifer himself. One wrong move, one misstep and the spell would immediately alert him that I’d figured out his trick.
And I didn’t want that.
Unless....
“Chicken, I need you to stay here. Don’t come poofing after me, okay?”
She shrugged. “I’m my own cat. I go where I please.”
“I’m serious.”
“Order sushi from that shop by the grocer and I’ll think about it.”
“Yeah, fine. All the sushi you want forever.”
“Sashimi. None of that Nigiri bullshit.”
“I will buy you a truckload of raw fish if you stay here and out of harm’s way.”
She grinned at me. “And where will you be?”
I glanced at my hands, bathed in red-gold light, filthy, and about to be stained in blood.
“Digging the heart out of a demon,” I said.