Page 20 of Ignited Spirits (Haunted Magic #3)
Steve gulps nervously before rallying and staring down Cain defiantly. “You can break every bone in my body, and I won’t tell you shit.”
Sighing, Cain plants a kiss on the top of my head before he unbuttons the cuffs of his navy button-down. He starts rolling up his sleeves, his gaze never leaving the paling guard. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”
Cain soundlessly prowls toward Steve. When he reaches him, Cain shoves his hand through the magic and grabs Steve. Moving his arm like he’s about to break something else of Steve’s, he pauses when the guard shouts, “Wait! Wait! I’ll tell you.”
“I’m waiting.”
Grinding his teeth, Steve seems to debate not answering before he blows out a breath. “If you free one of my hands, I can get my phone out of my pocket. There’s an app on there. I can show you where you need to go.”
“Good try, but you’re not getting free.” Cain instead rummages around in the magic and Steve’s pocket, I assume, before he steps back.
He has the guard’s phone in his hand, which he quickly passes off to Aiden. Out of all of us, Aiden is best suited to breaking into someone’s tech.
There’s no need for that, apparently, because Aiden just holds the phone up to Steve’s face. It unlocks, and Aiden starts searching for the app.
“They have an app for that? Color me impressed.” With how old-school the council is, I’m surprised they even know what a smartphone or application is. I guess you can teach old farts new tricks.
“You’ll never win against the council. They’re more powerful and better equipped than you’ll ever be. Not that a vil —” The guard catches himself before insulting me and having more of his bones broken. “ Someone without magic could comprehend power like that.”
Aiden glances up from the map to give Steve a withering glare. “Bro, I made an app more complicated than that when I was fifteen. Simmer down.”
The cat’s out of the bag, so I don’t have to pretend not to have magic anymore. Letting both types of my magic flow into my palms, I hold my hands up so Steve can see. He gasps, and his wide-eyed gaze flicks up to mine.
“Surprise.” I do jazz hands before letting my magic fade away.
Shaking his head, Steve looks between me and where my magic was, over and over. “That’s… that’s not possible.”
“What’s not possible? That I duped your beloved council for fourteen years? That I have two different types of magic? That was powerful enough to kill Doyle and twenty-five guards single-handedly?”
I’m sure I’m exuding smugness, but I can’t help it. Everyone other than my family is so utterly convinced I’m worthless and can’t accomplish anything, so it feels good to finally let them see what I’ve been hiding this whole time.
Steve’s mouth drops open at that, and he seems to flounder for what to say. I smirk at him, which only infuriates him. He gives me a death glare, like I’d really be intimidated by a guy who crumples after a few broken fingers. I guess you can’t buy loyalty, despite what the council thinks.
“I found what we need,” Aiden announces. He turns around the phone so we can see the black and white map of the prison. He zooms in on what I assume is our location. “We’re here. And we need to go… here.”
I watch as he flips through nineteen different maps of each floor before landing on the last one titled “MAXIMUM SECURITY” in ominous block letters.
It’s great that we have the blueprints, but I still don’t know where we’re going. “How do we get there?”
“We have to go to the west end to reach the stairway.” Aiden points in a direction that I assume is west before gesturing back the way we came. “We went to the south end, which is why we didn’t find anything.”
“Let’s get to it, then.” I walk toward the door before pausing and looking back at Steve. “What are we supposed to do with him? Do I need to just vaporize him? Or rip out his soul?”
At my words, Steve starts struggling against the magic holding him in place. He’s clearly not in favor of me murdering him, but I wasn’t really asking him.
“It’d be easier and less messy to just knock him out and stash him somewhere.” Bishop mutters a spell under his breath, and a bolt of blue magic shoots straight for the guard.
Steve braces himself for the impact, but it doesn’t make much difference. As soon as the magic hits him, Steve seizes before his eyes roll back into his head and he goes limp. Levi lets his power fade away, so Steve falls to the ground in a heap.
I wince as he hits the floor hard, but I don’t feel too bad, because he’s a council guard after all.
Rhys reaches into one of the pockets in his black cargo pants and pulls out some zip ties. I blink at him because it’s pretty strange to casually carry restraints around, but I guess they come in handy sometimes.
Once he’s done tying up Steve, Rhys stashes him in a corner behind some furniture. After Aiden shoves the phone in his pocket, we make our way to the door. He’s the first through, and the rest of us follow him like lost little ducklings.
Only occasionally consulting the council app, we finally find the stairs. Unlike the rest of this wing so far, the stairs aren’t brightly painted or well lit. Instead, they’re a deep black abyss that leads to who knows where. It could be my dad, our doom, or a council lemonade stand. Who knows?
Taking a deep breath, and hoping I’m not leading everyone to their deaths, I follow my mates down the stairs and into what’s probably a council trap.