She was inclined to go with Marek’s theory.
Focusing harder, she funnelled the healing spell into Daimon, thawing the ice in his veins with it as the darker magic pooled around his heart and his brain.
“Think he might come back wrong?” Valen whispered.
“Not helping,” Ares muttered before she could say it.
“Just asking is all. I want him back as much as everyone else, but what if he comes back with a craving for brains?”
Cass frowned but didn’t take her focus away from slowly healing Daimon’s vital organs as she bit out, “He wasn’t dead.”
But he had been close.
His lungs had taken a beating, were slow to respond as she poured the healing spell into them. The darker magic crawled down from his heart, spreading over his lungs, and she did her best to guide it, but it didn’t feel entirely under her control. It was like it had a mind of its own. She could direct the healing spell, but the one intended to revive the dead was doing its own thing.
Cass focused on building a tether between her and the spell.
Something it didn’t like.
She was beginning to understand why the great covens of the world had banned necromancy.
The spell strained against her, attempting to pull away from her. Not good. She narrowed all her focus down to it, releasing her control over the healing spell, and commanded it to return to her. When it didn’t, she worked backwards over the incantation she had used to form it, pulling it apart piece by piece.
Something it really didn’t like.
Daimon jacked up off the floor and roared.
“Brains?” Valen murmured, a worried note in his voice.
Cass shoved her hands against Daimon’s chest to hold him down and pumped another spell into him, one she hoped would contain his ice for at least a few minutes because she couldn’t do this alone. “I’m starting to see why witches avoid necromancy. A little help?”
Marek and Valen moved to pin Daimon down for her.
His eyes shot open, irises pure white ringed with glowing blue.
Cass grabbed the sides of his head and leaned over him, stared into those eyes and commanded the spell to release him.
When it didn’t, she pressed her mouth to his and breathed in, felt it as the treacherous spell that had been seeping into his lungs was drawn towards her.
She broke away from his mouth and exhaled before covering it again and drawing another breath, stealing the air from his lungs.
She tasted blood.
And then ashes.
She kept sucking in air as she pulled her head back.
“What the—” Valen barked, disgust lacing his voice.
Cass snapped Daimon’s mouth closed the moment the twisting black and violet cloud passed his lips and Keras pinched Daimon’s nose as the spell lunged for it.
She closed her hands around the spell and gritted her teeth as it fought her, as she muttered a reversal spell intended to erase it.
“Cass?”
The sound of her name had never been so sweet.
She looked down into Daimon’s ice-blue eyes, tears filling hers as he stared at her.
“What are you doing here?” Daimon croaked.
Valen began quietly singing ‘love is in the air’, earning himself a cuff around the back of his head from Marek.
“Saving your sorry ass,” Ares offered. “I leave you alone for five minutes and you’re off doing heroic shit.”
Daimon’s eyes edged towards his brothers and he pushed out a single word as a shudder wracked him. “Nemesis.”
“We figured as much,” Ares said.
Cass wrestled with the unruly spell, closing her fingers tightly around it and trying to contain it as it attempted to leak out of even the smallest crack.
Daimon looked back at her, his weary blue eyes lowering to her hands. “What’s…”
“Oh, just a little necromancy.” She tried to keep her voice light as she fought it. “It’s not happy to leave you.”
His eyes widened slightly. “That was in me?”
“I refer you back to the part where you were almost dead.” She grunted as she hit the spell with another reversal incantation and relaxed a little as this one was effective, had the ball of dark magic losing enough strength that she could contain it.
It grew docile in her hands and she was quick to finish unpicking the spell she had used to create it.
Daimon tried to push up onto his elbows. Keras helped him, gripping his shoulders and easing him into a sitting position, and then quickly releasing him.
“Don’t rush it,” Cass warned, deeply aware that the healing spell was still at work inside him. “You, ah, this isn’t the only spell that I used, but it is the only one that I removed.”
Daimon pressed a hand to his stomach and paled. “I thought I felt weird.”
“That’s probably the brush with death you had,” Ares growled. “Last time I’m letting you out of my sight.”
“You should rest.” Cass vanquished the spell and sagged as she let her hands fall to her lap. She needed a nice rest too.
Daimon nodded and looked around the apartment, and then at her. “Did you deal with the Erinyes?”
“The Erinyes?” Keras said.
“They were here.” Daimon frowned at all the blood. “You didn’t kill them?”
“Little miss witch here popped two Messengers like they were zits, but no one else was in the building.” Valen flipped one of his knives in his hand, his eyes on Daimon the entire time.
That bad feeling Cass had been having since Keras had announced reaching Daimon had been too easy returned full force.
“We should go.” She placed her hand on Daimon’s arm and looked at Keras.
“But you are exactly where we want you to be.”
The female voice rolled across the room.
“And it appears you do have exactly what we need.”
A second female voice echoed around her.
Cold shot down Cass’s spine.
Marek had been right. It was a trap.
Daimon grabbed Cass, hauling her to him as he growled and bared emerging fangs, his eyes glittering like ice.
Around them, violet-black smoke billowed and twisted, spreading to form five portals that flickered with green and purple lightning.
The two Erinyes stepped from the shadows, melting
