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“I’m a demon. I’m an asshole.” I’m not even apologetic about it. “And at least now you’re actually looking at me. And you still haven’t answered the question.”
“About my underwear? Sorry to disappoint but I’m not into pink all that much.”
“The witch, Sin.Dammit. Do I have to hurt you to get an answer out of you?”
“Who says you’re the only one who’s into pain?” he says.
I blink. “Will you stop circling the topic and avoiding my question? Sin—”
“We need a witch to help curb our elemental magic.”
I blink again and realize I’ve stopped walking. “Curb? As in diminish?”
“Yes. Absorb or diffuse part of it.”
“Why?”
“Because the spell in the arrows that grazed us curbs out demonblood magic, the one we’ve been using all our lives,” he explains. “Demonblood magic is reliable. Manageable. It requires not only the demonic blood in our veins but also blood spilled and spells uttered, and it has a limit. We have a limit to how much we can use before passing out or even dying. But elemental magic…”
“What? What about it?”
“It’s older. Wilder.” He swallows, looks away. “It draws on the lines of the earth, on the four elements, and it’s… without limits.”
“But that’s good, right?”
“It can break you, Rys. Break your mind. Break the world. Why do you think the races came out of hiding once the demonblood took over? We weren’t so dangerous anymore. We were manageable.”
It makes some sort of twisted sense. “So you want Mia to,what, put a spell on us to limit our limitless elemental powers?”
“Yes. Our elemental powers have been flaring since the demonblood was suppressed by the spell. It could take over us. It could cause—”
“Goddamn.” I suppress a shiver. “Shifting.”
“Shifting,” he agrees. “We who have such magic would struggle to control it. Hell, I’m struggling already. We might not be able to control our shifts and turn into beasts with the full moon or when we’re angry or what have you. And we might unleash magic without knowing how to hold it back.”
“But a witch can control this elemental magic.”
“She should be able to.” Sindri looks pensive. “To a degree. If she is powerful enough.”
I rub at the back of my neck. It’s so tense it aches. I long for the pills on my nightstand, hoping, like every night, that they’ll help me get to sleep without nightmares for once.
“How did it happen?” I mutter.
“How didwhathappen?”
“How did demonblood spread, take over the elemental magic?”
He smirks. “Didn’t they teach you that when you were little cute chubby-cheeked demonling?”
“You think demons care much about teaching their kids history?” I growl. “They have other priorities, like stepping on their necks to teach them lessons.”
His brows draw together again as if he’s trying to figure me out, to read between the lines. I don’t know what he’s hoping to find there. I’m not speaking figuratively. Demons are as literal as it gets, perhaps with the exception of werewolves. Earth and fire. We kind of understand each other.
“Elemental magic has been around forever,” he says. “Demonblood is much younger. It came with the Fall and the visit of the fallen angels on the daughters of men. It took a long time to spread. Killed a lot of humans before certain bloodlines proved strong enough to carry it. Not surprisingly, they were bloodlines that already carried magic, elemental magic. We were primed to receive it. Didn’t know that it would suppress the older magic. Or maybe our ancestors didn’t care, since in exchange they received a kind of magic they could finally control.”
“Even if it cost our souls,” I whisper.
“Too late for that. Hey…” He lifts a hand and points. “Isn’t that Mia? And one of Zoey’s lackeys?”
