Nathan stepped forward, catching one fist and forcing it behind his back. “None of that now. It’s just rude.”
Power gathered in the air. Nathan hauled his arm higher. A pained whimper escaped Peter and the power dissipated.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Liam said. “Nathan can snap your arm and then your neck before you can draw enough magic to do more than tickle us.”
Peter glared at us, uncowed by the threat.
I remained crouched right in front of him. The need to punch him, kick him or do something equally violent coursed along my veins just under the skin. I didn’t like feeling helpless. I tended to react with extreme aggression whenever it happened, and Peter had brought that feeling out in abundance.
“I thought we had a deal, Petey,” I said. “I release the genie cuff and you help me find my friend.”
“That’s what I was doing,” he snarled.
“Really? Because to me it felt like you were exacting a little revenge.”
He gave me a nasty smile, one at odds with his boyish face. “That was just an unexpected benefit.”
Nathan twisted his arm harder and Peter screamed as his elbow contorted in an unnatural angle. With just a slight flex to his arm, Nathan could break the elbow, doing extensive damage to the tendons and ligaments that connected to it. On a human, it would be an injury that could take months or even years to heal, if it ever healed all the way. As a sorcerer, he’d probably only need a few days.
“I say we just get rid of him,” Nathan said.
“You hear that, Petey. There’s already one vote for your death,” I said, ducking my head to meet his eyes.
He gritted his teeth. “You need me.”
Nathan scoffed behind him.
“You do,” he yelled. “You kill me and my death will rebound through the mark, likely dragging her with me.”
“Which is why we’ll break the mark before we take your head and burn your body,” Liam said calmly.
Peter stared at him in shock. “You’re bluffing.”
Liam gave him a taunting smile. “I never bluff.”
I contained my snort, but barely. Right. I doubted that. At least Peter seemed to believe it.
“The shock will drive her insane.”
Liam grasped my arm, turning it to show him the twin marks of the lion and the oak tree. “Maybe if she only carried your mark. The additional mark should take some of the stress of the break away. She’s one of the most stubborn women I’ve ever met. I doubt her sanity will be affected.”
I pulled my arm away, not sure how I felt about his talk of breaking the sorcerer’s mark. I was betting that’s why he’d forced the mark on me in the first place.
“Your chances of surviving intact are only fifty percent at best,” Peter told me.
“Better than my chances of surviving you for the next hundred years,” I said in a quiet voice.
His face closed, and he looked away from me.
“I wasn’t lying. It wasn’t for revenge.”
Nathan tightened his grip enough to let him know his lie had been heard.
“It wasn’t. Not entirely. The spell needed the vision of someone who walks the line between life and death.”
“If that’s true and we still don’t know where she is, that would mean it didn’t work.”
Nathan glanced at me. “Are you really believing his lies? He is a sorcerer, you know? Adept at the art of deceit and subterfuge.”
