Yew Queen Trilogy, стр. 26

Whoa. A lot to unpack right there. “But we don’t have any shifter blood, so I have to actually just do the magic.”

Lucus nodded.

“And you realize I have no idea how to do that.”

He tilted his head, and the light from the high windows painted his horns gold. “You have the innate ability. Now you must learn how to cast.”

I rubbed my eyes, feeling super overwhelmed. “You say it like it’ll be simple. What if I can’t?” I met his gaze. “What if I refuse?” The question felt a little bit like jumping off a cliff.

Lucus’s nostrils flared. “All I have to do is tell my brothers what you are and they will—”

I waved a hand. “End me. Yes, yes. I know.”

His jaw worked, and his gaze flicked to the magestone, which sat on its side near the new crack in the casting room floor. “Please, Coren. Help me find a way to break the curse.”

I was his enemy now, a mage. He’d promised to protect me before he’d found out my blood’s secret, but now? Would he really let his brothers kill me? Thinking of the hatred burning in his eyes when he’d first realized I was a mage, I thought perhaps he would. I rubbed my temples. It wasn’t like I really had a choice here. I had to pretend to try and find a way to break this curse, to go along with all of this until I figured out how to get the F out of here and trap them inside.

“I’ll do it.” I walked to the magestone and bent to pick it up, pausing with my fingers above the multifaceted surface. “Will it freak out again if I touch it?”

“I don’t believe so. Once it…meets you, it bonds you to the strength of this room and aids your casting.”

“Bonds me?” This was a reminder of the bond between us. Surely it didn’t really matter. If I ended the immortals’ misery by trapping them in the castle and allowing the curse to kill them all, the fated mate bond would die too, right? I hated thinking like this. I wasn’t a killer. But was it really killing if the magic did the deed? Magic I had zero to do with?

“It is nothing to worry over. Mages can link their magic to as many casting rooms as they see fit. And can detach the bond when they choose.”

Bad deed or not, I had to bring them down. I couldn’t actually help them break this curse. Could I? Would Lucus truly be able to control the rest of them? I imagined Titus at his MMA gym, helping a class of teens learn how to do a front kick. In my head, Baccio blasted through the windows and shoved Titus to the mats. What if Kaippa ran free in Franklin? I imagined him sinking his fangs into Ami’s neck, blood spraying across the cash register. My mind churned up a daymare of Hekla in the kitchen, Aurelio stalking her from the shadows, hunger overwhelming any moral call to keep her alive.

I shivered hard.

“Two things. How do you know so much about the inner workings of the mages, your enemy? And what happens if I manage to break this curse?”

Lucus ran the strip of red silk he kept on his belt between his fingers. Lucus might have been a fae, but he sure seemed human sometimes. “The Mage Duke feuded with us for years. Months upon months, I battled with the mages and vampires, spying, killing, working strategies against their combined forces. The night the Mage Duke cast the curse was the night my brothers and I came here to assassinate him. Someone betrayed us. Possibly even one of our own. As for your second question, the one with the hidden question beneath it… All I can say is that I intend to keep my promise to protect the humans who interact with us if you break the curse. I don’t want more death on my hands, and neither does Aurelio.”

“But Baccio is okay with it.”

“Most likely.” Lucus sighed and raised his chin to let the sunlight drift over his face. I tried not to enjoy how pretty he was.

“What about Kaippa?” I asked. “What happens to him?”

“We will fight. I’d say I will be able to kill him, but vampires are very fast.”

“Great.”

Lucus made a sort of hmm sound. Perhaps he found the thought of quick and evil bloodsuckers as distasteful as I did.

I had to stop them. Even if Lucus and Aurelio weren’t so bad. I had to.

Did they ever rest? Maybe I could find a way out if they did. Then I could maybe use some of this new power of mine to bar the castle door. Ha. Like I had any clue how to do anything.

I was still plotting when Kaippa slid into the room, followed by Baccio and Aurelio.

The vampire actually looked a little shaken. For once, he wasn’t wearing his smirk.

“I have some badass shapeshifter blood, boys, so watch out.” I had zero idea what I was talking about, but I didn’t want to leave the lie up to Lucus.

They all looked to him. “I will begin working blood sorcery with her now. We will need quiet and—”

Kaippa licked his ruby lips, and his bat-like wings unfurled. I’d only seen them once, so the sight of them, so different from fae wings, was a bit of a shocker. They were fleshy and dark gray. I wondered why he bothered to hide them at all considering his general I give no shits attitude. Maybe it was just part of the immortal culture to keep the wings and horns and whatnot hidden away unless anger or excitement came into play.

“Wait, my fae lord,” Kaippa sneered. “I’m the one who watched the Mage Duke work his spells in this very room. I should be here to help.”

I gave him a flat stare. “I’m thinking you want to do less helping