Page 7 of What The Hex (The Family Spells)
It wasn’t enough—not even close.
I grabbed both Spectre’s and Caine’s hands, yanking their magic out through their palms as they screamed. They might be cursing me now, but they’d thank me later. One doesn’t live as long as I have without picking up a few tricks along the way.
Using our combined magic, I threw raw energy against the spot in the spell where the ley line met the circle, but it was like throwing a bandage over a hole in a dam. It was a very, very temporary sort of thing.
Both Spec and Caine collapsed, and I released their hands, turning and drawing several glowing sigils in the air while that girl Vy-oh-let watched me. She was surprised, but she hid it well for someone so young.
I wondered if she might hide her pain when I was tearing her limb from limb?
That would be interesting to see.
“Well now, this is getting exciting, isn’t it?” she asked as I smiled at her, reached out, and opened a small split in the circle. The demon girl thrust her hand against the magic, trying to take control. The problem was: she already had control. I’d just temporarily pushed aside the molecules of magic that made up the spell circle, creating a hole just large enough for me to escape through.
“I hope you brought backup,” I growled, listening for echoes of Graceley out in the woods. I could still feel her, so Monster hadn’t gone far. Good for me, too bad for him. As soon as I got a hold of that psycho, I was going to rearrange him until his insides were on the out.
I grabbed Spec and Caine, throwing the former over one shoulder and dragging the other by the ankle behind me. Stepping out of the spell circle, I tossed my soulmates onto the forest floor, and cracked my knuckles as I faced the demon-witch girl. It wasn’t a show of force, not grandstanding—I had curses embedded in the joints of my hands. Cracking them like that activated and released the magic, filling my palms with metaphysical weapons.
Well, damn.
Might have to use all the tricks up my sleeve, but at least I’d be able to get us out of this mess.
How … infuriating.
Violet stared at me from silver eyes before taking a step back and opening a pair of white, leathery wings. With a snap of my fingers, I sent the first of the curses in my hand her way. She expected me to throw something at her, but what she didn’t anticipate was the level of power in that curse.
The fae queen—my mother—had brewed that for me with the blood of the entire royal family.
Good luck blocking it, demon bitch.
The magic slammed into her personal shield, cut it in half, and hooked right into her heart.
Violet screamed, clutching at her chest as the curse wormed its way into her blood, poisoning her. It wouldn’t kill her, but it would make her want to die. Sometimes, that’s an even better solution. Torture can be so much worse than death, and in that moment, I very much wanted to hurt someone. What could I say? I was fae. We’re a cruel, cruel race.
The woman stumbled back, lifting her hand up to brace herself against one of the awful trees. Another mistake. The limbs reached out and wrapped around her, lifting her off the ground as she created noises made of nightmares. The poison curse in her blood was attacking every nerve ending in her body with white-hot pinpricks of pain.
If she could see past it, I had twenty-seven more stored in my fingers.
“The cocksucking hell …” Caine grumbled, sitting up and rolling Spectre over in the process. If he were undead, Spectre would be up and kicking ass already. But in his current state, he was slightly less powerful than Caine. I kept telling Graceley that we should kill him, but apparently murdering our spouse wasn’t something she was interested in.
Such a shame.
“Wake up, you bloodsuckin’ son of a bitch,” Caine snarled, shoving to his feet and flashing a lot of bare ass, still naked from his recent shift into wolf form. Huh. I turned away and focused on Violet as she thrashed and clawed at her skin with her nails, shredding flesh and drawing blood. She was tearing into the tree at the same time, and just a few seconds later, it decided it was done with her and dropped her to the dirt.
She came right at me.
I flicked another spell in her direction, a blinding curse that would steal her vision indefinitely. Unless she knew a category nine demon or had an in with the Three of her coven, she wasn’t likely to break it anytime soon.
“Stop resisting, and I can stop destroying you,” I said coolly, crossing my arms over my chest. Violet paused, tears streaming from her sightless eyes, and then ran her foot across the dirt, activating another spell circle. As soon as she’d done that, she stepped back into a third circle, activating the magic and dropping through the ground.
