A Touch of Brimstone by McKenzie Hunter

12

No, death would not be the end of this journey. I refused to accept that fate. But Nailah wasn’t going to give me a definite answer and seemed content with us remaining silent. I’d change whatever was necessary to give myself a new fate. I returned to my task of going through the books with a renewed determination and had finished all but three books by the time Dominic quietly returned.

Sliding into the chair next to me, he had a hard etch to his features. The deep brood in his eyes made holding his gaze much harder, and I was about to return to the books when I felt Nailah’s eyes boring into me. Even without seeing her do it, I would have known. The weight of it flowed over me like I was standing under a waterfall. It couldn’t be ignored. Her lips curved into a reassuring smile, uncoiling the tension in my chest at her evading my question.

“I don’t see your death,” she announced, standing. She and Dominic exchanged meaningful looks.

Even in my relief, I fixated on the ambiguity of her divination. She didn’t see my death today? Tomorrow? Seven days from now? What was the timeframe of this sight?

She gave Dominic’s arm a squeeze and exited before I could question her further. How did Dominic change my future?

“How far are you?” he asked.

“Just three more books.”

With quiet determination, he reviewed the spells I’d highlighted and transferred them to the notebook he’d used the other day. After he finished, he hastily scribbled spells on a separate page.

Ignoring me, he continued to work with the strained silence he exhibited earlier. He was focused, on a mission. An hour later he walked to the corner of the room, retrieved a cylindrical container, and opened it, spreading out an aged piece of vellum on the table.

“This will contain the spell here and hopefully direct me to its caster,” he told me.

Dominic had requested Nailah’s return after the second failed spell. Her presence did nothing to ease his tension or improve our success. By the fifteenth spell, Dominic was pushing the invocations out through clenched teeth.

“I’m about to do this spell,” he told her, pointing to a new spell.

“Like the other one, I don’t see anything.” She made another attempt to see the future success of the spell, then shook her head.

He nodded.

“I think there’s a protection spell entwined in the markings,” she informed him.

“I think so, too.”

The next spell he invoked caused lines to illuminate in a cycle of pale colors that eventually changed to bright orange. My finger felt like it was in a vice. I sucked in a ragged breath, convinced this was the one.

“Keep going,” I said in a strained voice when he hesitated. He continued. I’d never experienced acid being thrown on me, but I was sure it felt similar to this. Doubled over, I balled the other hand into a fist, waiting for the pain to subside.

It didn’t, but the spell fizzled like the others and I remained marked.

My breathing was rapid and my finger stung. I cradled my hand against my chest, the slightest movement sending sharp pain as if there was a strain in the joint or a break in the bone.

Dominic’s eyes lost some their intensity as he searched my face. His touch was featherlight as he took my hand into his. Coolness wrapped around my hand, and the pain lifted and receded. Tranquility overtook me, relaxing me to the point I could have slipped easily into sleep. The room no longer felt sentient. It felt comforting, airy, and cloudlike. I loved this easiness. The tension that had plagued me had uncoiled.

“You’re okay?” he inquired in a hushed voice. He’d moved closer and I resisted the urge to rest my forehead against his.

I nodded.

“Want to continue?”

Why not? The pain before wasn’t that bad. Before I could agree, Nailah intervened.

“No, that’s enough for today.”

I heard her but kept my eyes trained on Dominic.

“Luna, look at me,” Nailah requested.

I dragged my eyes from Dominic’s. The pain was gone. I was still feeling relaxed, although a smidge of tension resurfaced as the room’s nudge of defiance returned.

“Good. I think you should take a break.” Her eyes flicked to Dominic and narrowed.

“She agreed to continue,” Dominic argued.

“Take a break.” The assertion in her tone made Mr. Prince-y sit up taller. Definitely not used to being commanded. He wore that aversion profoundly on his face and the defiance of it in his posture.

“It will be best for you both,” she continued, warmth eking into her tone.

“She’s fine.” He pulled the tablet to him and marked off another spell.

“Dominic.” She snapped at him with the sharpness of a mother chastising a child. It left me trying to figure out the dynamics between them. Nailah looked younger, late twenties, early thirties. Dominic appeared to be mid- to late thirties. Despite her initial sharpness, there was a hint of deference in the way she looked at him, a request for understanding and compliance in her expression. The disapproval lingered in her frown.

There were so many unspoken words and displays of emotions that I went from thinking there was a mentorship-type relationship, emissary, or maybe she was his moral compass and he was rejecting it. There was something else that passed between them. Compassion? Caring? Were they in a relationship? So many things passed between them, it became a rollercoaster ride that I was ready to get off.

The adage leads us to believe there’s a thin line between love and hate. But there isn’t. They are both intense emotions brought by feelings. Indifference is a thorn in the side. The killer of all things. The snuffing out of the fire in any relationship. Indifference was nowhere to be found in their exchange. If the dagger-sharp looks they exchanged were an indicator, hate seemed to be flickering to ignite. Or at least contempt.

“Her acquiescence was coaxed,” Nailah pointed out. Coaxed by the man able to manipulate thoughts by looking at them. And moments ago, I was drowning in his eyes.

Faux relaxation and a feeling of peace. The room’s abatement from poking and prodding me out of the door was an implanted thought, a manipulation.

Seething, I stood. “We’re done for today and maybe… maybe forever because you’re a venomous snake.” I snatched my bag up and rushed toward the door. It smacked me back into the room. You go to hell, too, I thought, rummaging through my bag for whatever made the room prevent me from leaving. After finding a book, I tossed it, aiming for the table but secretly wishing I put too much power into the throw and that it would hit Dominic.

Aimless, I stood in the hallway without a strategy for the next step. My day off was meant to be in the Underworld, with the ambitious goal to unravel the spell and never return. With anger and Dominic’s deception raining over me, I just wanted to leave. Dominic wouldn’t take me and I didn’t want to ask.

Should I search for Anand? Desperation had me calling his name, my voice carrying through the massive hallways.

Minutes passed with no response from him. I didn’t really expect him to answer. I wasn’t sure he was even in the house. Was the Underworld his home? If so, if he was easily hidden in our small store, could he be found in this ridiculously huge place?

“Yes?” Anand’s mild voice spoke from behind me. Turning, I found him with one shoulder leaning against the wall, hands shoved in pockets. Disheveled hair, loose-fitting shirt, and jeans that hung low on his waist. He looked confused.

“Do you live here?” I asked.

He nodded once. A small confirmation, but the confusion remained.

“You heard me calling you?” If he had been close, I wanted to know where. Was one of the rooms on this floor his bedroom? I needed to know how to get to him.

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Yes.” A flush rose over my cheeks.

“I was in my room,” he offered, putting me out of my misery.

“Is your room close?” I nudged my thumb toward the closed rooms I’d passed the other day.

“No, it’s in the west wing. It took me a while to get here when I heard you call me.” This place was huge enough to have wings and he heard me call him. He was on the other side of the house and: He. Heard. Me. Call. Him. Nope, not terrifying at all.

His curiosity had turned to irritation. “Luna, what do you want?”

“Take me home,” I blurted.

Pushing up from the wall, he appeared reluctant as he looked past me.

“No,” Dominic responded. “You’ll honor your agreement to stay until tomorrow.” His tone was strident and unyielding, as if he’d made a monumental concession by just letting me leave at all to resume my life.

My patience was frayed and my tolerance worn thin. Nailah eased out behind Dominic and looked between the two of us, taking in the tension. No matter how I tried to force my breathing to be calm and measured, it came out in short, sharp clips.

I held Dominic's hard-edged gaze as I marched up to him. “Don’t you ever do that to me again! Do you understand?”

Dark amusement replaced his hauteur. His smirk reached his eyes as he relaxed into it. “Got it. When you are writhing in pain, I should let you be. Apparently, you enjoy it.” Closing the few inches of space I had left between us, he leaned in. “That’s a very interesting bit of information to know about you.” He moistened his lips. “Perhaps there’s more to you than just your petulance.”

There was no denying the salacious innuendo. That wasn’t the draw; it was the way his eyes roved over me, taking me in. Raw hunger. I piqued his interest and the darkness that dwelled in the prince.

“If you don’t move, I’m going to knee you in your prince peas,” I told him through clenched teeth. The challenge in his smirk made me want to act on it, but knowing that guards were just a call away and Anand probably would not tolerate me doing it, I squashed the urge.

“You know damn well what I’m talking about. You ever manipulate my mind for any reason, I’m done with you and done with helping.” I shoved his chest to give me more space. He didn’t move. It was like pushing a concrete wall.

Nailah watched our exchange with censure, Anand with curiosity.

“Of course. Your rules. May they serve your life’s interest well,” he agreed. The devil was in the details and I had missed something; that was evident in Dominic’s face. A tacit agreement had been made and I had missed some critical specifics of it.

Responding to Nailah softly calling his name, he turned away and strode toward her with the smooth easy confidence worthy of his position in the Underworld and his command among the supernaturals. The comfortable arrogance was likely the root of their resentment and her strained alliance with him as well.

Several minutes passed in a restless quiet. So much unspoken between them, leading me to wonder about their relationship again. It was strained and it showed.

His hand slipped to her waist and he pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. Was that an apology? An appeal for understanding? The end of an impasse or the acceptance of it?

Anand’s impassive face offered nothing.

Dominic whispered something in Nailah’s ear. He was so close to her, and even if his back wasn’t to me, I wouldn’t be able to read his lips. Aware that Anand could probably hear it, I looked to him to see if it prompted a response. Nothing.

Nailah’s look was more expressive than any words. Disappointment and frustration, but with whom or what remained a mystery.

“Anand, take me home, please,” Nailah requested, stepping away from Dominic and giving me another sweeping look before turning away without another word. Had Dominic just sent his conscience away, or was it her decision to leave? I needed her tempered presence and didn’t want her to leave.

Once she left, Dominic turned to me. “Let me show you to the room where you will be staying.”

There was a moment of internal debate, of trying to forcibly hitch a ride back to my world. Then I heaved a sigh and followed him.