“You won’t touch them!” I shriek, lunging for his knees.
It was an emotional mistake to put myself so near his boots, one that becomes abundantly clear when they connect with my sternum and I go flying backward.
My magic roils inside me, wanting to be let out. But it feels like my flame has been smothered. I cannot command it to come to the surface to save me.
The Banisher steps outside of the bubble and cocks his shrouded head to the side as he regards me. “Please, demon. You may be powerful, but you are untrained. You cannot best me.”
I throw myself against the bubble, screaming and pounding on it. I do everything possible to command my magic to get me out of here, but it’s as if I haven’t fed in years.
He is draining me, somehow.
I can feel my body weakening, my magic abandoning me.
I watch in horror as the Banisher uses purple magic to restrain my men and Flint in the air. They’re thrashing and shouting, fighting against his restraints but failing to get anywhere. I can barely hear their voices and Flint’s mournful howls.
The Banisher then whips some magic towards them both, wrapping their heads with a sparking cage of stars and silencing them. He empties the contents of a waist pouch on the floor and arranges them in an artful symbol.
The Duke and his wife are still, their eyes closed as they recline against the headboard of the large bed.
Did he put them to sleep?
I don’t have time to contemplate it because the Banisher stomps on the symbol, and my loves - Gods, I never told them I loved them - fall to the ground in crumpled heaps. The Banisher turns his attention to the writhing magic mass of red, green, and purple, and with a wave of his hand, the red extracts itself from the purple and green.
It must be easy to undo your own curse. Somehow, she must have purchased this curse from my Banisher.
Tears fall from my eyes as I look at my men and Flint in sleeping piles on the floor.
If I’m lucky, the worst thing that will happen to them when they wake up is they won’t remember me.
All the fight drains out of my body.
I melt into a puddle of tears and curl into a ball on the floor. The bubble around me pops with a soft sound, and my Banisher scoops me up in his arms.
“Shush now, little demon, let’s get you home.”
Chapter22
I Love You, I’m sorry
GERRIT
My stomach hurts.
I stretch out, back cracking, eyes crusted over with sleep.
Where the fuck am I?
It takes several tries to get my eyes unstuck as I blink, trying to make sense of my surroundings.
Why am I asleep on the floor of my parent’s bedroom?
Movement next to me has my eyes landing on Hans. He looks equally wrecked.
“What happened last night?” I ask, my voice rough. “Why are we on the floor?”
“I don’t know,” my stepbrother answers, rubbing his eyes with his fists. “Last I remember is finding out father was getting sicker.”
“Did we go out drinking?” I ask as I stumble to my feet. “Why do I feel so fucked?”
