Read Online Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic by Meghan Ciana Doidge - Free Book Online Page B

as this would not hold me, Drake, or Kett for very long. But we would be terribly angered by its use.”
    Blackwell nodded. I was fairly certain he was barely listening to me. He was just waiting for the punch line.
    “It’s a dampener,” I finally said, not looking at Blackwell as I spoke. Kett stiffened — though I wouldn’t have thought that possible — beside me. “A magical suppressor, as far as I can tell.”
    Blackwell expelled a breath. Then, smiling to himself, he carefully placed the circlet back in the chest.
    “It drains magic?” Kett asked.
    “No. Is that even possible? I think it just holds it in place.”
    “Rendering the Adept human,” Blackwell said. I really didn’t like the barely contained glee evident in his tone.
    “Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe it simply stops them from using their magic, which is why it wouldn’t hold a vampire for long.” Vampires were made of magic, or at least Kett was to my eyes. The dampener — placed on a vampire — would have nothing specific to grab a hold of and then restrict.
    Blackwell turned to look at me. His hand was placed possessively on the lid of the wooden box. “And why is that, dowser?” the sorcerer asked.
    I smiled. “That information isn’t part of our deal, sorcerer.”
    Blackwell inclined his head.
    “Now for your part,” Kett said.
    Blackwell nodded. “We’ll need to go to the library.”
    “Lead the way,” I said.
    Blackwell tucked the wooden box underneath his arm and headed back the way we came.
    I tried to not worry about the information I’d just traded. I tried to not worry about what was behind all the curtained alcoves. The treasures contained in this room no longer dazzled me. I just hoped that Blackwell was so careful and jealous that those treasures never left the confines of their wards and these stone walls.
    Though, honestly, for a moment, I did think about pulling out my sword and destroying everything in my path. It was a silly but compelling thought.
    Instead, I laced my fingers through Kett’s cool ones and stared at the midpoint of Blackwell’s back. The familiar peppermint taste of the vampire’s magic filled my senses, clearing my sinuses of all the other magic in the gallery.
    This wasn’t the worst thing I was going to have to do to get through this Sienna debacle. But it saddened me to think about how Blackwell might use that circlet.
    I freed myself from Kett’s fingers and stepped from the gallery. Drake, Kandy, and Blackwell had already exited before Kett and me. Blackwell raised the ward over the door as I passed. Stupid sorcerer. I’d already tasted this magic, and it wouldn’t hold me at bay anymore if I wanted in.
    I’d be back, I promised myself. When and why and how, I didn’t know. Except that the circlet didn’t belong in Blackwell’s collection.
    ∞
    Blackwell led us diagonally across the main entrance and then up a twist of circular stone stairs that were way too narrow and confining for my taste. McGrowly would have had to walk at an angle to get his shoulders through. Coming down was totally going to be worse.
    As immediately as he sprung to mind, I determinedly avoided thinking about Desmond Charles Llewelyn, Lord and Alpha of the West Coast North American Pack. I hadn’t even heard his voice in the last three and a half months, because I hadn’t called him. I didn’t like the way the life debt bond I owed him compelled our so-called relationship. And magic or no magic, I didn’t need any of it interfering with finding Mory and stopping Sienna.
    Instead of thinking of my would-be shapeshifter lover, I imagined how Kett would be full of information about the narrow stairs making it easier to defend the castle. Forcing intruders into single file would mean that a single sorcerer on the top landing could pick them off one by one. But would Adepts who could scale walls or tear down doors ever be stupid enough to get trapped like this? Castle living was so not for me.
    Neither