Page 20 of Light Magic

Then it was Levi and me.

He watched me, his eyes intense. “How do I convince you to go to your bedroom?”

“I think you know me better than that.”

He groaned. “Come on.”

I followed him out of the dining room, down the hallway, and through several turns. All the while, Levi stopped at every corner as if the creatures would be waiting on the other side.

I would probably have done the same thing if I was the one leading this party.

We entered a smaller hallway—small compared to the others, because it was still wider and taller than any residential hallway I had ever seen—and he stopped at the second door to the left. Beside it was a keypad. He entered some numbers and the door slid open.

Frowning, I watched as he entered the room and wondered how exactly that battle had gone that the witches had given him the pin number of the secure rooms in their house.

I stepped inside, intent on questioning him, but cut short when I looked around at the large room filled with weapons. Swords, daggers, throwing stars, bows and arrows, bo staffs, handguns, rifles, and even grenades.

“Wow,” I whispered.

“I know. Too much for those witches.”

Which brought me back to my question. “You tricked them too, right? You tried, at least. You fought your father, not because it was the noble thing to do, but because you wanted the Scarlet Hex Blade for yourself.”

His jaw ticked. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“Because I’m right.” Half of my brain told me to stop talking, to go through the motions and get this night over with, but the other half couldn’t contain itself. The latter won. “And they think you’re this angelic demon, who came to their rescue.”

He groaned. “No, I didn’t come for the dagger. I didn’t even know about the dagger until then, sweetheart. But I did come for something else. And Abbie knows why. She gave it to me after I saved them.”

I stared at him incredulously. So, he had had an ulterior motive. “What did you get?”

He clenched his jaw and I thought he wouldn’t answer. “I knew they had the Book of Wishes. I thought that if I could get to the book, I could wish my parents dead. Abbie let me use the book after the battle. I made my wish.” I sucked in a breath. “But it backfired. The book doesn’t deal with death, so it punished me. It bound itself to me, making me a wish-granting demon.”

“That’s how …”

He nodded. “When someone makes a wish and I close my eyes, I’m communicating with the book. It sends me whatever the wisher wants, or if it can’t give it to me right away, it shows me the way to get it.”

“The book showed you where my wings were.”

“The spell around your wings was too great. The book couldn’t get it. So, it showed me their location.”

I let that sink in for a little. He had come with an ulterior motive, but he had helped the witches, and when he went for his reward, he had been punished.

“It sounds like you don’t like being a wish-granting demon.”

“Do you think it’s nice to have stupid supernaturals ask stupid things of you, sweetheart?”

I got it. I wouldn’t like that either. “And the price? Is that you, or the book?”

“The book always has a price.”

“You asked me for my soul. Did the book ask for it? What would the book want with my soul?”

“What is this? An interrogation?”

“Just answer the question!”

Levi worked his jaw. “The book had requested a drop of your blood. The soul was me playing with you.” I stared at him, eyes wide. “Because I knew you would refuse. Remember, I had a plan?”