Page 16 of Ignited Spirits (Haunted Magic #3)

IZZY

“ L anguage,” my mom chides half-heartedly. She’s too worried about my being here to really care about my swearing.

“Why is there an arrest warrant for me?” I ask, even though I can think of quite a few things that would make the council want to arrest me, not the least of which was accidentally killing a councilman.

“They found out you killed Doyle. Your father is currently in prison for aiding and abetting you. Rhys and Aiden are both trying to get him out.”

My stomach drops to the floor at hearing that my dad is behind bars. “What? I leave for five days, and this is what happens? Fuck, we have to break him out.”

This is so not good.

People arrested by the council rarely live long enough to make it to trial. No wonder my mom has been stress cooking up a storm. There’s not a whole lot she can do for Dad. Me, on the other hand, there’s a lot I can—and will—do for him.

My mom is already shaking her head before I can even finish. “Isabel, no. You can’t break your father out.”

“Oh, but I can.” I give my mom what’s probably an unhinged smile because I’m feeling a little violent at the threat to my dad.

“I have a hellhound, a full-blooded cura , a wolf with unknown extra magic, a super powerful mage, and an alpha wolf on my side. Oh, and I have some of the strongest cura magic Hades has ever seen. We can absolutely break him out.”

I’m so tired of the council and how their word is absolute law. No one challenges the rules, practices, or arbitrary decrees from the council. Instead, everyone blindly follows what they say without ever questioning whether it’s the right thing to do, and I’m sick of it.

“Hades?” Mom asks in confusion.

I shrug. “It’s a long story, but that’s Levi’s brother. He’s… interesting.” I have no idea how to even begin to explain Hades to my mom. He’s a character, that’s for sure.

The front door slams and multiple sets of footsteps sound as people walk straight toward us. I want to scream in frustration, because how the hell did the council already find me? They must be getting help from someone like Lua to have already realized I’m in town.

My wide eyes find my mom’s as we both panic about the situation, and my mind races with what to do. Before I can figure it out, Rhys and Aiden walk through the doorway, looking almost as burned out as I feel.

Rhys has circles under his hazel eyes, and his dark brown hair is sticking up in all directions, like he’s been running his hands through it.

Aiden’s normally smiling gray eyes are pinched at the corners, and his posture is slumped in defeat.

Attempting to smile at my mom, Rhys is the first one to notice me. When he does, he stops in his tracks and blinks a few times, like he’s not sure I’m real. “Izzy? What are you doing here?”

“We need Anya’s help and came here before trying to find her, just in case anything was going on.

Good thing, too, because apparently everything has gone wrong.

The whole town is hunting for me.” Which is awesome.

It’s not like I had any other problems on my plate or anything.

I can just use my abundance of free time to find some way to free Dad.

It’s still weird to think of Anya and Gran as the same person. I’m not ready to deal with all of it yet, so I’m going to keep calling her Anya.

“Not the whole town,” Rhys says, trying to be helpful.

“Just most of it!” Aiden tacks on joyfully, apparently finding the humor in this situation. “Especially your classmates. Boy, are they mad that a magicless nobody was able to kill the head of the council.”

“They still haven’t figured out that I have spirit magic? Really?” I ask incredulously.

How else would I have been able to kill Doyle, other than with magic? The people of Hawthorne Grove aren’t the sharpest lightbulbs in the crayon box.

Rhys shakes his head, a small smile breaking through his exhaustion and defeat. “No. They think you had help from Dad and from someone else.”

I scoff. “I’m genuinely offended at this point. They want to execute me but don’t think I have the power to kill Doyle on my own?”

How does that even make sense?

My guess is that the council figured out I have spirit magic. They want me captured, but they don’t want people too afraid of me and my magic to go after me. So, they make the whole town believe I’m still powerless, hoping someone gets lucky and can capture me.

Not that they’d ever attempt to bring me in themselves. Those old men are allergic to work of any sort and prefer to have their underlings do it for them.

“The audacity of them, am I right?” Aiden holds his hand up for a high five. I just stare at him until he rolls his eyes and lowers his hand.

“Have you made any progress on breaking Dad out?” I ask Rhys because he’s the strategist out of the two of them. He’s awesome at making plans, keeping organized, and all the other administrative stuff Aiden and I suck at.

Rhys gapes at me. “No, because we weren’t trying to break him out. Where the fuck did you get that crazy idea?”

I glance worriedly at my mom when she doesn’t even try to chastise Rhys for his language. This whole thing with Dad and the council is taking its toll on her too.

I run a hand through my hair. “I came up with it all by myself.”

“You’re not breaking him out, Izzy.” Rhys crosses his arms and stares me down, daring me to argue with him.

Unfortunately for him, I’m always up for arguing with people.

“So you say. Have you made any progress with freeing him, then?” I really hope the answer is yes because I so don’t want to have to stage a jailbreak right now. No one has ever broken out of the council’s prison before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.

“No,” Rhys reluctantly admits.

“Then I am absolutely breaking him out. I’m not letting Dad get executed for something he didn’t even do. If they want to execute someone, then they can try to go after me. I wish them luck because they’re going to fucking need it.”

The council can mess with me all they want, but the moment they touch someone I care about, all bets are off.

“Izzy…” Rhys trails off, and I can see his resolve weakening.

“You know as well as I do what happens to council prisoners, Rhys. I am not letting Dad meet that same fate.” I clench my hands into fists at my side, anger at the council temporarily taking the place of the worry and hopelessness that’s been trying to creep in.

Rhys pinches the bridge of his nose in exasperation, either with me or with the whole situation. “Where’s Dad going to go once you break him out? He’ll be a fugitive for the rest of his life. Is that really what you want?”

Rhys raises some good points, but anything is better than sitting back and letting something happen to my dad.

“At least he’ll have a life. And I don’t know. We can take him and Mom to Infernus , I guess. The council will have a hell of a time finding him there.”

As powerful as the council thinks they are, they don’t stand a chance against curae .

Once Mom and Dad are safe, we have to do something about the council. Even without Doyle, they’re still a huge problem that’s going to make stopping Lua even harder. And Lua might still be getting magic from the council, so we need to cut off her supply before she can get even stronger.

Wiping her hands on her apron, my mom braces her arms on the countertop. “I don’t want to live in another realm forever, Izzy. I like my life here.”

“I know. And you won’t have to live there forever.

I’ll take care of the council, and you’ll be able to go back to your life.

Plus, I know your grandma and grandpas will be super excited to meet you.

At your next book club, you can brag to everyone that you met Hades.

There are lots of positives to my plan, Mom. ”

She sighs at me, which is pretty normal for how our conversations go, but she doesn’t say anything more. I think she knows as well as I do that we don’t have a whole lot of options right now.

Breaking the silence, Aiden says, “As far as plans go, it’s not the worst one I’ve ever heard.”

I roll my eyes at the backhanded compliment. “Gee, thanks, Aiden. That’s what I aim for. Not the worst.”

He winks at me and flashes a smile. “Always happy to help, baby sis.”

“Let’s say I’m even on board with your insane plan. How are we going to get Mom to another realm? And how are we going to get Dad out?” Rhys arches an eyebrow at me like he doesn’t expect me to have the answers.

Joke’s on him. I totally have the answer to at least one of those questions.

“For the first one, Levi or I will open a rift. It’s an interdimensional portal thingy that comes in super handy. If Mom doesn’t want to walk five hours, I can try opening a portal directly into Hades’s throne room, but no promises. For getting Dad out, I’m still working on that part,” I admit.

Rhys sighs at me, and I throw up my hands in exasperation. It’s not like I’ve ever done something like this before.

“I feel confident we can figure out how to free your dad, little raven.”

I appreciate Levi’s vote of confidence. I could really use the boost right now. I feel like I’m drowning in problems that I have no idea how to solve.

“Yeah, sunshine. Luca, Cain, and I have done tons of things way more illegal than breaking someone out of jail,” Archer supplies, trying to be helpful.

Luca and Cain give him what the fuck looks for admitting that in front of my mom.

Archer is oblivious to their stares, and I can’t help but smile at my super sweet mate who lifts me up regardless of what’s going on.

Luckily for Luca and Cain, my mom isn’t fazed by that. She knows generally what Rhys and Aiden get up to at Elemental, so she won’t judge my wolves.

“We specialize in extraction at Elemental, so I know we can figure something out,” Bishop chimes in. “It’s not all up to you, sweetheart.”