He met my gaze, his eyes daring me. “Would you like to do it again?”
I started to answer, but my knees went weak. “I feel lightheaded.”
Lucus ushered me to a chair by the door. “Your aura is fading. You look pale. Perhaps you should work the first energy spell again before trying this one?”
“Not a bad idea.”
While I rested and marveled over that shield, he gathered the henbane from the cabinet. Had my instinct truly shown me which spell to practice? I wasn’t sure. I still felt like I had no clue on the magic thing.
With henbane in hand, I worked that first spell for the second time.
Energy surged within me, my palms at my heart. But then the room spun, and I caught myself on the table before falling. The pitcher we’d been using for the fog spell canted and fell, shattering glass and spilling water all over the floor. Before Lucus could grab me, I followed said water, my legs going out. Thankfully, Lucus’s big hand cradled my skull before I could crack open like the pitcher.
“I’m going to be sick.” I’d had surgery once when I was a kid, something about a hernia, and I remembered the feel of my blood pressure dropping. “My heart isn’t working right.” But before I could puke, my sight blurred and my limbs fell limp.
Then my magic hit me while I was down.
Chapter 28
Pain knifed through me in waves as I gripped Lucus’s shirt, sweat pouring down my face. I could move again, but honestly, I would’ve preferred going back to the limp body thing. Lucus’s wrinkled brow and fevered expression did nothing to calm me.
“I have to get you to another mage, Coren.” He ran a cool hand over my forehead. “I don’t know how to help. Do you have any intuition on how I can help you?”
“Kaippa, maybe?” Another wave of agony cut me off, and I panted, trying to will the pain away so I could finish my thought. “He was with the Mage Duke. He might know what to do.”
The silhouette of a man filled the doorway. But it wasn’t Kaippa.
“Brother.” Baccio’s eyes glinted as he strolled in like I wasn’t dying right in front of him. “You allowed her to deceive us.”
Lucus glanced at me, then at his brother.
Baccio held up a hand. “No. Don’t bother attempting to arrange more deception, Lucus. She is no shapeshifter.” Baccio’s glare was nearly as sharp as my pain.
“Yeah, yeah.” My chest burned, and I squeezed my eyes shut to fight the agony. “I’m a mage. If I die, your chances at breaking this curse are nada, so I suggest you get over it, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Annoying.”
Baccio stared at Lucus. “No mage will ever help us. You know that. They are the enemy. Now and forever. It is our duty to kill her. Has this woman ensorcelled you?”
If I hadn’t been dealing with pain that was like a thousand grizzly bears gnawing my insides out, I’d have laughed my ass off. “Dying here. Not ensorcelling at the moment,” I coughed out.
Behind my eyelids, I saw memories of Hekla snorting a laugh and smacking me on the arm, of Titus grinning and chucking a target at me during a drill at his gym, of Mom pressing her fingers to my lips as she tucked me in at night so many years ago.
I really was dying. This was the whole life-flashing-in-front-of-the-eyes-thing!
“No!” I shouted. Lucus jolted in surprise as I sat up, forcing my body to comply even as the pain roared in my ears and ripped my ribs apart. “I’m not going down like this!”
A blast sounded from the doorway, and as dust and rock fell from the ceiling, I looked up to see Hekla with a smoking shotgun. “Get your damn hands off my friend.”
My heart swelled, but there was no time to say a word.
The room erupted into action.
Baccio raised vines from the walls, and they curled around my middle, lifting me off the floor and away from Lucus. Lucus shouted in the fae language, and his hands sparked bright emerald green. The vines drew away from me, and I dropped to the ground as Aurelio stumbled into the room, looking like he was next in line to die after me. Between the brothers, leafy vines and newly sprouted trees crawled from the floor and whipped at heads and legs, their tapered ends snapping with their speed, one knocking Baccio against the wall and another capturing Hekla. The shotgun clattered to the floor.
I scrambled to my feet and raised my palms like I might be able to do magic similar to what I’d seen the Mage Duke do in Lucus’s memory.
Kaippa ducked around the chaos of the fighting and gripped me, steadying me. “No, no, no, infant mage. You will definitely perish if you try fighting magic in your state.”
“How did you get out of your tomb?”
“I guess Lucus’s power was distracted. The vines let go. Now, take this.” Holding me up with one hand while the others fought around us, he grabbed the spell book and shoved it against my chest. Then he dragged me into the corner, and I collapsed in a heap, the book in my lap. “Open it. Find a Protection spell. If you don’t get a shield up quick, Baccio will murder you.”
The snakes on the cover twined and slithered and hissed under my hand. “I spelled a shield earlier. But that will only protect me, right? And it nearly killed me doing it.”
“In about one second, Baccio and Aurelio will defeat Lucus. Aurelio is still strong despite his state of health. Lucus doesn’t truly want to hurt them, and his brothers are enraged with hunger and fear of you. You must do this. Just protect yourself for now, and then you can help the rest once we get them calmed down.” Kaippa’s eyes were devoid of his usual taunting sarcasm. The depths
