Page 32 of Ignited Spirits (Haunted Magic #3)
IZZY
G rowls sound from all my mates, but my focus is on the being who can probably kill all of us with just a thought.
I’m pretty sure I hear the guy who called me a whore mumble, “Oh fuck,” but I don’t pay it much attention.
I lunge for Legion’s arm as he tries to stalk over to the cura who should really be careful who he insults. A part of me delights in how pale the tall, buff dude has gone in the face of Legion’s anger.
Legion pauses and turns his glowing amethyst eyes on me. “Do you require something, mate?”
“Yeah. Please don’t kill that guy.” My plea sounds half-assed even to my own ears. While I don’t particularly care about the guy’s life, I don’t really want to start any problems for Hades or derail the meeting about how to take down Lua. I need all the help I can get at this point.
He tilts his head, his serpentine eyes assessing me. “Why?”
“I don’t wanna start anything with Hades’s advisors.” After thinking for a moment, I tack on, “And if anyone should get to kill the douche canoe, it should be me.”
A mildly terrifying grin stretches across Archer’s face, and his eyes light with approval. Or is it Legion’s face now? I don’t know, and I’m too tired to figure it out.
“Mmm, good point, mate,” Legion rumbles. “He is all yours. I can show you ways to kill him that are excruciating and will extend his suffering if you wish.”
The guy gulps, and I can’t help my laugh at Legion’s proposal. “I’m not going to kill him right now, but I will take you up on that offer sometime.”
His glowing gaze bounces around my face before he reluctantly asks, “Are you sure?”
I huff a laugh. “Positive. No killing is needed right now.”
“As you wish, mate.” Legion brushes a strand of hair off my forehead before he relinquishes control to Archer. My usually smiley mate looks just as pissed off as Legion was as he glares at the man over my shoulder.
I hear the thud of a fist hitting flesh behind me and whirl around to see what happened.
When I do, I spot Levi standing over the man who’s now sprawled out on the ground with a bloody nose.
“Ever fucking say anything like that again about my mate, and the anguis will be the least of your worries. Do you understand me?”
The guy mutely nods his head before scrambling to his feet and taking a seat as far away from us as possible.
I don’t blame him.
When I look around the room, I see a bunch of unfamiliar faces who must’ve witnessed the whole encounter.
I fight not to let my embarrassment and unease show on my face as I stand taller and throw my shoulders back. Hawthorne Grove prepared me well for this moment because I know exactly how to stuff my feelings down and appear unruffled.
Fake it ’til I make it has always been my life motto, so let’s hope it works with curae too.
“Are you going to take your seat or just stand, surveying everyone, forever, Isabel?” Hades asks in a bored tone.
When I turn to look at him, he pulls out a chair to his right, opposite Seph.
I hear gasps sound from the assembled cura , so I know something about what Hades said is significant. But I’m not sure what part. I resist the urge to look at him like he’s grown two heads because it’s weird hearing him call me anything other than earthling at this point.
Deciding it’s best not to argue with him right now, I silently stride over to the indicated seat and try to lower myself into it gracefully. While I definitely don’t achieve the graceful part, I don’t face-plant or fall off, so I’m going to count that as a win.
As soon as I’m seated, Hades turns to the room. “As Morgan here found out, do not insult Isabel. She is Persephone’s great-granddaughter and Leviathan’s mate. She is under my protection, and any insult or attack on her or her family will be taken as an attack on me. Do you understand?”
The cura around the room mutely nod. Satisfied with the response, Hades turns to my family and mates. “Take your seats.”
Levi is the first one to comply and takes the open seat next to me. My mates and family follow his lead and fill in the seats closest to me and Hades. I have a pretty significant buffer between me and the rest of the cura , with my mates on one side and my family on the other.
Once we’re all seated, Zeus and Poseidon stroll into the room and sit next to my family, separating them from the curae .
I stare at them as I wonder how they and the rest of Hades’s advisors even knew about this meeting. He never stopped to talk to anyone or said anything about the gathering out loud. It must just be another part of his king abilities.
Hades surveys the now-quiet and visibly nervous curae before sitting down at the head of the table. “Everyone else, find your seats.”
I expect his advisors to fight for the seats, based on the behavior I’ve seen from them so far. They don’t. Instead, everyone already seems to have an assigned place that they fill in an orderly manner.
I’m pretty sure my mates and family are in some of their usual seats, based on the dirty looks they get, but none of us pay much attention to it.
“So, why are we here?” a woman with olive skin and light pink hair asks from where she sits almost at the end of the table. Her pale pink eyes are locked on me and brimming with distrust.
I guess they don’t like outsiders here.
Hades leans back in his chair and is silent for a moment before turning to me. “Isabel, care to fill them in?”
I resist the urge to strangle Hades because I so don’t want to talk to a group of beings from another realm who are probably super powerful and influential. But he didn’t leave me much choice, so I put on my big-girl panties.
“Lua Mater escaped Tartarus and has been increasing her magic by draining mages on Earth for hundreds of years.” Gasps and hushed whispers sound around the table.
I let them die down before I continue. “Now she’s gathering what she needs to drain the magic from the Earth’s core before continuing on to conquer or drain the remaining realms.”
The last part is pure speculation, but I think it makes sense. I’m also not sure that the curae will be all that motivated by the destruction of Earth, so I’m trying to raise the stakes for them.
It works because the room erupts into shouts as everyone tries to talk over each other. I have the urge to cover my ears as the volume increases as tempers flare.
“Quiet!” Hades barks, instantly silencing the room. “Ask questions one at a time like the adults you’re supposed to be.”
It’s interesting how different Hades is in this setting than the other times I’ve seen him. He’s poised, well-spoken, and very put together, which is a change from the sarcastic, witty, and unhinged persona he usually wears. It makes me wonder which is the real him, and if either of them even is.
The first one to speak up is a cura with skin so pale she almost looks translucent. She brushes a strand of her light blue hair behind her pointed ear before turning her icy eyes on me. “How do you know this? And how do we know we can trust your information?”
That’s a fantastic question. I wouldn’t trust me either, but I don’t really know how to convince her.
While I flounder for a response, Levi chimes in, “You can trust the information because I was there to verify it. Along with Isabel and the rest of her mates, I engaged in a battle with Lua and have seen her on Earth on multiple occasions. Her power is much stronger than it was before she was imprisoned, and she told us some of her plans for the realms. You can trust Isabel because she is the one fated to take down Lua Mater .”
Gasps and whispered words of disbelief sound throughout the room. I’m used to the lack of faith in my abilities, so it doesn’t bother me. It irritates my mates, who glare daggers around the room.
“According to who?” a dude with a massive pair of black, leathery wings asks from his spot in the middle of the table. He seems less accusatory than the previous people who have chimed in, but he still doesn’t look like he’s buying what I’m selling.
“ Angerona ,” Levi answers after a beat.
More surprised murmurs sound before a man with flaming red hair and bronze skin pipes up. “What does Angerona have to say about how to defeat her?”
“She’s unable to tell me much more than the basics about it.” My words are lined with frustration. “I have a compass necklace that helps me locate Lua and the knowledge that the fates believe in me for some unknown reason, and that’s it.”
I wish I had more to go on, but here we are.
“So what do you need our help with?” a short dude with red skin and twin horns protruding from his forehead asks. He crosses his arms over his barrel chest and narrows his beady eyes on me. “You’re the one who’s supposed to defeat her.”
I roll my eyes so hard it’s a wonder they don’t get stuck.
“I’m aware. I’m also a twenty-one-year-old mage who just learned of the existence of Infernus like a month ago.
I also just found out that I’m half cura , Persephone is my great-grandma, and Hades is my brother-in-law.
I’m not exactly who I would choose to save the entire universe, but the fates disagree, apparently.
If I’m going to defeat Lua, I’m going to need help from people who actually have a clue.
So how the fuck do I stop Lua from draining the Earth’s magic? ”
My speech stuns the room into silence. I’m pretty sure it’s not the wow, she’s awesome type of silence. I’m guessing it’s more the we’re all doomed if that’s who’s supposed to save us kind.
After a moment, the curae seem to recover. A willowy woman with delicate features and a flowing green dress asks, “Can you imprison her again?”
Levi shakes his head and answers before I can. “She’s too strong at this point. She has roughly doubled her magic from the last time she was captured and locked up.”
Gasps fill the air as Hades’s advisors start to realize just how completely and totally fucked we are.