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  “I’d bring you for helping Roman like that. He’d still be under Rathmore’s spell if it wasn’t for you. What are you in for, anyway?”

  “I’m not innocent, and I wasn’t framed. I was very close to my father. When he died, I used necromancy to bring him back. It’s forbidden, and the magic is tricky. He didn’t come back right. They put me on trial for all the people he killed, and I’m down here for life.”

  “Well, that’s fucking stupid. It’s not like you’re a repeat offender. You just missed your dad. It’s settled. When we leave, you’re coming with us if you want to get out of here.”

  “How exactly do you plan to get out of here, and furthermore, how do you plan not to get caught when you are topside?” Charley asked.

  “We’re still figuring that bit out, but I have a lovely castle in Hell we could stay in. It’s not a fiery inferno like they teach you. I would have to claim you, Charley, but I wouldn’t act like your owner. Your behavior would reflect on me,” Amduscias said.

  Charley just sat there gaping.

  “Let’s focus on figuring out what they did to Serafina first. I can safely scan her to see if they have done any warlock magic on her without having the spell fight back. It’s more like a peep hole and less like a full-frontal assault. The spell won’t even know I’m there.”

  Serafina just flopped on her back. “It’s Fae or warlock because I don’t remember a fucking thing about last night.”

  Charley held her palms over Serafina.

  “You know more than the rest of us. I didn’t know they gassed me in my sleep until you came to get me. I’m pretty fucking pissed about it. They could have killed someone. I will find out what they did to you, Serafina. I’ll help you bring them down. Necromancy is not the only forbidden magic I know, and some witches and warlocks here trade spells for hooch, socks, and cigarettes.”

  I think we were all crowding poor Charley trying to peer over her shoulder. It was like we thought we could somehow see what she was sensing if we got close enough to her. Charley was a sweet witch with a mean sense of humor, but she didn’t tell us to back off because she knew we cared about Serafina. I had no idea if she knew about the whole mate thing, but Charley knew we were very protective of this fire elemental.

  Charley finally sat back and put her hands in her lap.

  “Yeah, it’s a warlock spell, and it’s like what they did to Roman. Serafina has the same control spell on her, and her memories of that night have been locked in a deep corner in her mind.”

  My wolf clawed to the surface. Someone was trying to control my Serafina, and she was just the type of woman who would hate to be controlled by anyone. We needed to undo this and get the fuck out of here. We had Charley here who could undo warlock magic, but Rathmore also used Fae magic on her. Fergus was the only one who knew how to do that, and it wasn’t like he could appear here in person and walk us through it. And from what I was gathering based on what had happened since I’d woken up, Fae magic required ingredients we could only get in the Fae realm. Amduscias might have ideas about something in Hell that could undo it, but it limited us to weeds, mold, and moss that grew in this shitty prison.

  “You mean I’ve got a fucking trigger word too?”

  “They tortured me when they were giving me mine,” Roman growled. “If they did to you what they did to me, I’ll kill every last one of them.”

  Serafina just shook her head.

  “I’m fucked pissed Rathmore went in there and stuck a spell in my brain. I don’t remember a single thing about what happened, but aside from cutting my implant out, they didn’t torture me. Fergus said my father left Rathmore orders I’m not to be harmed or they would know. Elementals don’t have super healing like Vampires do, and we can’t shift like shifters do to heal.”

  “A first generation halfling that called a guardian probably has unique abilities than regular elementals, Serafina,” Amduscias pointed out.

  “Yeah, I know, but I know my own body. PMS is a bitch, and I get a headache if I drink too much. If I cut my finger, it’s ointment and Band-aids until it heals. Even if halflings have some way to trigger super healing, I don’t know what it is. Fergus would have told me if there was a way.”

  There was still this niggling thought in the back of my head that despite orders, a sick fuck like Rathmore still would have tortured her a little, and if he was being given Fae magic, maybe he had healed her before he brought her out. I needed Fergus for this, but it wasn’t like I could just up and ask him.

  “Ask Fergus how the Fae heal themselves.”

  She got that far away look on her face like she was talking to him. I knew it might get crowded in there, but I couldn’t wait until I marked her, and she got that distracted look on her face because she was talking to me.

  “Fae magic is controlling the elements,” she said. “There are Light Fae and Dark Fae, but it’s not good and evil. They live side by side in peace. It’s determined by birth, and it dictates the kind of magic they teach you. The Light Fae are mostly healers, and they use herbs and tonics to make remedies. The Dark Fae are more like scientists. They try to figure out why the herbs do what they do and turn them into other things.

  “Fergus says my father is Dark Fae and the reason he was topside when he got my mother pregnant was because he was meeting with human doctors hoping to bring some human science back to the Fae realm. Since the Dark Fae control the throne, they control the portal. The only time they ever really open the portal now is for Dark Fae to come through to bring back science to the Fae realm, and it’s always controlled. The Dark Fae are working on a specific project, and they come topside with a purpose to see if there is a solution outside the Fae realm that they can change and fit into their society. Even with Light Fae healers and Dark Fae scientists, they haven’t produced a means of rapid healing like Vampires and shifters. If Rathmore had tortured me, it wouldn’t be healed yet.”

  My wolf wasn’t satisfied with that. It was small, but there was a tiny incision on her upper arm where Rathmore cut a magical device out. He may not have tortured her, but he cut into her. I didn’t know everything else he did to her, but he fucking cut Serafina and pulled magical protection out of her arm. He only would have cut that device out of her arm if it was a weapon and could hurt him.

  “He cut your magical enchantment out of your arm, and he deserves to die.”

  Serafina snorted.

  “It’s just plastic, and it keeps me from getting pregnant. There’s nothing magical about it unless you count the fact that my cramps are less. We’ve established he didn’t torture me. I want him out of my head. Amduscias, can you get a moss in here we can use to make a paste to draw a ward? Charley, I promise I cannot hurt you with this ward up, but I’m also trusting you not to use it to hurt any elementals.”

  “Not even Jasmine if they bring her back?” Charley asked with an impish grin.

  Serafina broke into an evil grin. “If Jasmine comes back, it’s a free for all with everyone who owes her payback.”

  Amduscias was already halfway out the door. He tossed his hair over his shoulder and batted his eyelashes at Serafina.

  “Leave a little for me. I’m not done fucking with her head yet.”

  Chapter 6

  Serafina

  O

  kay, now I was just pissed off. A warlock cut out my birth control implant without my consent and put some spell on my brain to make sure I did whatever my father wanted. If Daddy Dearest had a request for me, he could bring his Dark Fae ass down to this filthy prison and ask me himself. The answer would be a big fucking hell no right before I broke his nose. Like I owed him anything after what he put me through. From what Fergus told me, I could have grown up with my mother instead of with those nasty nuns who thought I was demon spawn if he had just stuck around when she gave birth.

  He had a lot of fucking nerve having a mad warlock experiment on me. Why couldn’t I have a father who just came and got me out of here when he realized he’d framed
his own daughter? Why couldn’t we have some tearful reunion where he told me how sorry he was, and he just didn’t know about me, then he realized the error of his ways and got his fingers out of Scorchwood?

  I already knew getting Rathmore out of my head would be painful. It was so bad, Roman wouldn’t even let me be in the room and didn’t tell me when it was happening. But I was in the room when Charley was breaking the trigger word spell. Roman’s entire body seemed to convulse with pain, and then he passed out. I wasn’t a Vampire. I would not bounce right back from that, taking a nip of someone’s blood. Fergus wouldn’t be able to get me a Fae remedy, and Charley couldn’t brew up a witch potion to clear up all the adverse effects of removing this spell.

  I didn’t care. I knew it would hurt and would probably fuck me up for a few days. Better that than having someone control me. I didn’t know what my trigger word was, and I didn’t care. I needed this spell removed so I wouldn’t hear it and do something against my nature.

  If Rathmore and my father really wanted a hybrid baby, and he cut my implant out, I’m sure whatever my trigger word was, it would make me fuck someone in this nasty ass prison and become some sort of breeding cow for them. Yeah, I wasn’t doing that. If I ever had kids, it would be when I knew I could give them a fit home. And I only ever had sex on my terms, not anyone else’s. If someone got pushy about it, and I wasn’t into it, they would not like my reaction.

  This? I didn’t even have the full picture, but what I knew so far was just gross. They violated me, and it was under my father’s orders. I guess that niggling little dream of mine of meeting my family one day and having a tearful reunion was out. My father was a madman and an asshole. I didn’t care if he was Fae royalty and I was just some street urchin. I would kill him.

  Amduscias finally came back with a cup full of prison moss. Honestly, moss or mold was growing on every surface of this prison. It wasn’t like they gave anyone work duty to keep the place clean, and if you happened not to want to get respiratory disease, no one was handing out cleaning supplies.

  Amduscias started mixing the red moss with water from the sink to make a paste. I knew I would have to touch it to draw that ward, or I would burn everyone in my cell when Charley started rooting around in my brain. I couldn’t believe I was about to draw something to take away my power with my own hand.

  “That moss will not give me cooties, will it?”

  “What is a cootie?” Amduscias asked.

  “Is it going to get me sick?”

  “This? This is what we used to wake you up. People in Hell use it to make tea when they want a jolt of energy. It’s quite potent, but touching it won’t do anything.”

  I wrinkled my nose. I drank that shit earlier?

  “You make tea from moss in Hell?”

  Amduscias just winked at me. “They make tea from moss topside too.”

  “It’s true,” Charley said. “Irish Sea Moss tea is quite lovely and cleansing. I hope Amduscias will teach me what else you can do with the things growing in this prison.”

  “I’m helping you get out of here, not helping you get high, Charley.”

  “No shit, you can get high off some moss and mold in here? Do you know how many socks and hooch I could get with that knowledge?”

  “I have matching socks and fine wine at my castle, Charley. Stop thinking like a prisoner. Once we break this spell on Serafina, we are planning a breakout, and we’re bringing you with us.”

  “Deal. You might want to paint whatever you’re drawing under the bed in case anyone comes in. If it can take away an elemental’s powers, we don’t want gen pop knowing that.”

  I didn’t want anyone knowing this symbol, and I didn’t want to draw it. I hated the fact that it existed in the first place.

  “Fergus, why does this symbol exist?”

  “It wasn’t just created for halflings and elementals. The Fae usually only kill if they have to. I’m not sure why Scorchwood was built instead of just letting the Fae that didn’t want to return home be. It’s normally used in Fae prisons. It would have been all over this prison when Fae were being kept here, but someone made it a point to sand them off the walls before they handed it over to the supernatural community. The Sunshadows don’t want anyone to know the Fae used to be held here, or those wards would still be in the holding cells.”

  “Are there other wards I need to know about?”

  “Yes, but now is not the time. We don’t know what your trigger word is, and I suggest we don’t find out. Let Charley do the spell, my Ena.”

  I grumbled and took the cup of red paste from Amduscias. I was about to reveal my most significant weakness to an entire cell of people. I trusted everyone in the room not to use this ward against me. I only trusted Charley because she helped Roman, and the guys trusted her.

  Still, this ward was my kryptonite, and I didn’t want it falling into the wrong hands.

  “Can you all turn around while I paint this under the bed?”

  Yeah, I trusted them, but I wasn’t fucking stupid.

  Chapter 7

  Serafina

  I

  drew that ward under the bed like I was a fourteen-year-old boy watching porn when his mom was home. I’m sure I looked fucking ridiculous, but still. This swirling symbol could take away all my powers, and I was pissed it had been used on me once. And I was enraged there was another ward that could separate Fergus and I. Fergus was a part of me and the fact that they could just take him away like that was fucking scary.

  I crawled into my bed and gripped the metal railing of the headboard. My fire might have been taken away from me, but I could still hurt Charley with my fists. She had to be the smallest person in this prison, and I didn’t want to break her nose when she was trying to help me.

  “Best tie me up like you did Roman.”

  Amduscias had already prepared for that. While he was gathering moss, he got the strips of shirt from Roman’s cell from when Skoll donated one of his shirts when we did this the first time. Even though Skoll preferred walking around this icy ass prison with no shirt on, they only gave us so many, and one day, he might eventually not want to show his sexy chest off.

  This was bullshit. I was getting tied to the bed by three sexy guys, and it wasn’t even kinky. They weren’t tying me down for bedroom play. It was for my safety and Charley’s safety. There was nothing sexy about it, even though I wanted to explore this later if we ever found a safe place to hide outside this prison.

  Once I was secured, Charley sat on the side of the bed.

  “Okay, this will be awful and painful. Removing dark magic always is. But you’ll be able to remember most of what happened last night, and they won’t be able to control you anymore. If you will break out of here, best do it soon. It’s only a matter of time before they realize you aren’t under a spell anymore and they gas the entire prison again to take you.”

  “Do it. I can deal with the pain.”

  Charley placed her hands over my chest and started chanted. Okay, when I said I could deal with the pain, I wasn’t quite expecting to feel like I was being electrocuted and being eaten alive by a million tiny little monsters with rows of razor-sharp teeth. This is what I imagined your brain felt like when you were getting electroshock therapy. What I wouldn’t give for some magical anesthesia if that were a thing. Why hadn’t someone figured out magical morphine for removing dark magic? It wasn’t like I could get it here, but maybe Amduscias knew something growing on the walls that would substitute if Charley said it existed.

  Images were flashing through my head faster than I could hold on to them. I saw myself in a sterile room, strapped to a chair. I saw Rathmore’s weaselly face as he came at me with a needle. He knew I was a first-generation halfling, and he said he would run tests on me I wouldn’t remember. That was when he injected me with that sedative.

  I was passed out after that. What I saw after that was like I was floating over my body instead of looking through my own eyes. I saw Rathmore dra
w vial after vial of blood. I didn’t see him do anything with them. He just put them in a caddy in his lab. He pressed on my entire body, and that was when he found my birth control implant.

  Someone must teach him modern science down here. He removed it with expert precision. Oh, I was going to fucking kill him. I watched as a nurse came in, and they stripped me of my clothes. He gave me a full exam like it was my annual at the gynecologist. He took swabs and everything. He didn’t dress me again until he had done an ultrasound on my abdomen.

  Something happened after that. Something that drew his attention off of me. A guard came into the room and said something to him. That must have been when Roman woke up, and they gassed the prison a second time. Rathmore looked pissed, but he also looked worried.

  I knew my father’s plan involved elementals, but they didn’t want anyone in the prison population to die. I had a feeling Rathmore and my father had a sperm donor picked for me, and they didn’t want to take the chance of gassing him to death. I was quickly dressed and put into a wheelchair like I was precious cargo.

  I finally felt whole again when they wheeled me out of that medical room, and I knew why. Fergus was with me now. He didn’t burn them. I knew why. He was more concerned about me. He would have been checking me for Fae magic.

  That was where my memories stopped, and the pain got a million times worse. It was like someone cut the top of my skull off and was poking my brain with red-hot needles. Fergus was trying to soothe me in my head, but I couldn’t hear him over the sounds of my own screams.

  It was like the pain never stopped or lessened. It only got worse. Thankfully, the body had its own way of dealing with pain, even when it was dark magic being removed. Just when I felt like there was no imaginable way I could take any more of this, I blissfully blacked out and felt no pain.