Read Online Cast in Hellfire: An Urban Fantasy Romance (The Mage Craft Series Book 2) by S.M. Reine - Free Book Online Page B

flicked between the people in the living room. Her skin was green, her eyes flat brown, her underbite accented by tusks. She was something gaean that Marion hadn’t seen before.
    When the green woman realized that Marion was looking at her, she popped back into the bedroom and shut the door.
    “I don’t do favors for anyone, even Dad’s acquaintances.” Dana plopped onto the couch, unlaced her boots, and kicked them off. She was wearing striped ankle socks with holes in the left big toe and bumblebees on the heels. “If I did, I’d owe something to thousands of people. He was too popular. And a hell of a lot more personable than I am.”
    “That’s Brianna’s work.” Seth pointed at the breastplate.
    Dana dropped her boots with a thud . “You know Brianna?”
    “They dated for a week,” Marion said before she could stop herself.
    “I had no idea Brianna was a cougar,” Dana said. “Nice.”
    “Brianna sent us to you,” Seth said. “She said you’d be able to help us track down the Canope. I’m Seth Wilder, by the way. This is Marion Garin. We have reason to believe that the Canope is holding memories stolen from Marion.”
    “ You’re Seth Wilder?” Dana gave Seth another once-over and grunted. “Huh. Sorry.”
    “For what?”
    “I should have been expecting you, I guess.” Her jaw clenched. “Both of you.”
    “I’m sorry, do we know each other?” Marion asked. “You look very…angry.”
    “Do you remember me?” Dana asked.
    The specific phrasing of the question made Marion inclined to think the answer was yes. They did know each other. The relationship didn’t seem to be friendly, though. “I might remember you if we could get the Canope from Sheol.”
    Dana rolled her eyes. “I guess that’s the point, isn’t it?”
    “I’m not following you,” Seth said. “The point of what?”
    She grumbled as she pulled herself off of the couch. Without the gauntlets and with her bumblebee socks exposed, Dana looked less like a warrior from the days of yore and more like a disgruntled cashier from Hot Topic. “Hey! Penny!”
    The bedroom door opened again. The green woman emerged hesitantly. She was taller than Marion had first realized, tall enough that her coarse brown curls brushed the top of the doorway. She was also broad-shouldered and as muscular as Dana, though she had less body fat, and also seemed to prefer flannel and pajama pants to leather.
    “What’s up?” Penny asked. She spoke surprisingly clearly around those tusks.
    “Go find my maps of the Nether Worlds,” Dana said.
    Penny shot a shy smile at Marion, slipping into a second bedroom.
    Dana waved Seth and Marion over to her kitchen island. “The buyer’s a guy named Arawn. He’s one of the Lords of Sheol. The other big one is Nyx, who rules from a palace called Duat. Are you following?”
    “I’m following.” Seth sat on one of the bar stools.
    Penny returned with a thick piece of folded paper. She weighed its corners down with a barbecue spatula on one side and an empty snifter on the other. “There you go, sweetums.” She kissed Dana before shuffling back into the bedroom.
    “Here’s Sheol,” Dana said. “This here’s the hive.” She pointed to a mess of streets on the left side of the map. “Arawn’s got a place there, but he also shares space in Duat, over on the other side of the Dead Forest. It’s easier to get into the hive. You can start out looking there. Stay out of the forest. The Hounds roam there, and you don’t wanna deal with the Hounds.”
    “What makes the hive a hive?” Seth asked.
    “Buggy-type demons chewed tunnels into the rock, and it’s big enough that it’s basically become a city of its own. Believe it or not, the hive’s the safest place to start off. Most of those demons only eat smaller demons of the same persuasion.”
    The idea of going anywhere near so-called “buggy-type demons” made Marion feel queasy. “And you think that Arawn will have the Canope in his