A Touch of Brimstone by McKenzie Hunter
23
Nine days without magic or the Underworld, and my life had slipped easily back to normal. The mundane days of reading, going to work, and the excitement of Emoni’s new life. My guilt about her mind being manipulated had lifted, and Reginald only occasionally gave me a concerned side-eye. Jackson hadn’t been around, and I was fine with that. Torn between checking on him and leaving things as they were, I decided to give it a few days. I didn’t want to encourage him.
Most peculiarly, the supernaturals slipped away. I knew they were around, but the ability to sense their presence, feel their enigmatic energy, faded. I contributed my enhanced senses to the markings. Show me fangs, and I’ll know you’re a vampire. Knowing what a shifter looked like before he was about to go beast mode was something I would always remember.
It was the tenth night of my separation from Dominic and magic when I woke up with a start, pressing my hand to my chest out of habit, to prevent the book from falling to the floor. Only there wasn’t a book, nor was I on my sofa.
I jumped up from the bed, my eyes trying to adjust to the dim light. But I didn’t need light. The flutter of magic against my skin, Dominic’s peppery scent inundating the air, and the frosted glass in front of me. I was in a cage—no, a prison. A prison in the Underworld.
“I’ll be damned, he did it,” said an unfamiliar voice. I assumed it was Roman or Vadim. Although it could’ve been another misbehaving supernatural.
I yelled. It was a rough, heart-wrenching sound of desperation.
No response. I called Dominic’s name, and there was a low female chortle. My scream was so loud it obscured his name. Despair kept me going. I became a siren that no one could ignore. But they did. My vocal cords felt raw.
I was readying to abuse them more when the light brightened in the room. A surprised Anand appeared in front of the prison door.
“Luna,” he said, his eyes wide at the sight of me. He parted his lips, but the words just didn’t flow. A strange understanding moved over his face that made my heart drop to my stomach.
“The human is here.” In the ten days of not seeing me, Helena had conveniently forgotten my name, or my name no longer had value.
I could feel him before he approached, feel the wash of magic and power suffusing the room. And something else. Rage. It was palpable as he got to the cell.
“What the fuck?” His eyes darted around the room, but it was a limited space. “What happened, Luna?” Dominic asked.
“What happened?” Helena taunted. “It is not a coincidence that you found Peter so easily yesterday. It was strategy. He wanted to be caught.”
Helena’s sinuous movements were slow and purposeful as she approached the enclosure. “Tell me, Luna, how have you helped the annoying Dark Caster this time?”
I shook my head and looked at my finger and all my exposed skin for markings or sigils. Nothing.
“I haven’t read any magic books or picked up anything. I’ve been very careful,” I said.
Dominic opened the cell, easing me to him. He started to lift my shirt but stopped. “May I?”
I bobbed my head, too shocked to say much. Just hours before I was on my sofa reading a book and now, I was in a prison in the Perils being physically searched by the Prince of the Underworld. Fear and confusion overshadowed any modesty, so when he asked if he could see my legs, I wasn’t discreet. I just dropped trou, exposing the full length of my legs for him to see. My shirt covered most of my panty-clad ass, so I didn’t care. I needed to figure out how Peter had snared me into the supernatural world again.
“I don’t know what happened,” I admitted, pulling up my pants after he’d completed the body check.
“How could he do a temporalibus with you? He’d need to use a body conduit.”
“Body conduit?”
“Blood, hair, intimate clothing item.”
Suddenly in need of support, I stepped back until I felt the hard, cool glass of the cell against my back. He had it. When we got entangled during Wine-Down Thursday. What I’d thought was an accident had been a carefully orchestrated plan.
“He had it,” I admitted and told them what led to him having both a dab of blood and my hair.
“There’s no need to keep him alive,” Dominic asserted angrily. “No information I can get from him is worth it. He’s too dangerous.”
Helena hadn’t taken her appraising gaze off me. I had the distinct feeling that she considered me a co-conspirator rather than an unknowing accomplice.
“Luna, I think you should stay here for a few days. Call out sick or whatever you need to do. I don’t want you to be placed at risk of any harm,” Dominic said.
Any more harm. Peter had found a way to have me replace him in the Perils—how much more harmed could I get? If he’d done this with such ease, there was more danger out there.
“Let’s get a few of your things and come back here, okay?”
Words didn’t come easy; things had just devolved to me nodding. When he extended his hand, I took it, finding comfort in its warmth.
Dominic’s traveling from the Underworld was always done with such ease. If it took effort, it never showed on his face. This time, there was a slow migration of confusion, concern, and then outrage. He couldn’t leave. Dominic looked at Anand.
Anand attempted to travel from the Underworld. His irritation gave way to fear. His breathing hastened, and it seemed like he was about to have a panic attack. Then they looked at me. Helena couldn’t be tested. Still wearing the marks of her magical restrictions, she no longer had the ability to travel from the Underworld.
Helena’s gaze went to me, slid along the cells in the dungeon, and to her brother. Her eyes were deep with thought. “Every time you encountered a Tenebras Obducit, you returned exhausted and often injured, but not this time,” she pointed out, speculative. “This time was different.”
Dominic frowned. “He was distracted and in the middle of performing a spell.”
“Without putting up a protective field, a trigger to notify him of trespassers, or a magical minefield? A practitioner of his status wouldn’t be so careless. You even admitted his capture was easier than expected,” she said.
Dominic’s teeth gripped his lips. I figured he was either taking in his sister’s observation or reviewing Peter’s capture because he released his hold on his lips. “He’s arrogant,” he offered in explanation. “It caused him to be overconfident and careless.”
Helena shook her head. “I don’t think so. You’re arrogant and often overconfident but never careless. I suspect the same is true for him. I do believe you’ve met your match, brother. I don’t think it was ever about the prisoners,” Helena said thoughtfully, her hard gaze on me. “It was about her. He used your human to release the prisoners. Now he’s used her to escape and imprison us here. The most pressing question is why. Why Luna?”
Good question. Now we were the prisoners in the Underworld.
Luna’s adventure continues. A Hint of Darkness (Magic of the Damned Book 2) is available for preorder. The release date listed on Amazon is a placeholder. The expected release is January/February 2022. For release updates, snippets, book specials, exclusive giveaways, cover reveals or to participate in book discussions join my group.
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When I made a deal with the Prince of the Underworld, I knew a lot of things could go wrong. But I never imagined it would go so epically wrong. Now I find myself bound to the Underworld, warding off assassination attempts, and trying to ignore the blazing chemistry between me and the Dark Prince.
My life is already complicated. The last thing I need is to get entangled in the Prince’s web. Although it might be too late.