“One does not revoke the goddesses without damning themselves.” I stared fiercely.
“Well, your father-in-law here can secure you a nice little toasty pit right next to mine.” Beaumont smacked loudly over a piece of gum as the pious troglodyte next to him grinned, smarm clearly written over his face as if they’d won.
I glanced at Draevus who shook his head once.
A plan began to toil in my mind. Death had gotten me into this situation with Esmeray. Death might be a way to get myself out. I glanced down at Ausmius who boiled at my feet, smaller than he’d been in a while. Stripping myself of my magic very well might strip Esmeray of his blessings and cost him his life.
I knocked a pencil and paper to the floor and, beneath the desk, waved a finger for an animus spell to write. Words scrawled over it as I maintained eye contact with the religious nut and his pet lawyer.
“So, did they promise you an extra nice heated rock in your terrarium for this?” I sneered at the lawyer, who snorted.
“Nice jab coming from a mongrim.” Beaumont popped a bubble as the pen flitted and flicked.
“I will be stripping myself of all my power,” I said, clenching my fists atop the desk as I kept the back of my mind on that letter. Ausmius swirled around me, tendrils crawling up the wall and over my chair. I felt them as much as saw them.
“That’s the point. We don’t want you in The Church, just out of our way,” the cleric said. “Leave you powerless until death.Howisyour mate faring? Our connections in the prison say he’s losing his grip.”
Death had gotten me into this, but death was a way out, though, too. The comment he’d made was a threat, and if my mate died…I didn’t know what I would do.
“I want paperwork drawn up. I want yours, Malarthe’s, and your cleric’s authority on behalf of The Church. I will nullify my powers, strip them from this plane at once. You must agree to immediately drop all charges against the entirety of the Lowell Valley Coven, including myself and Mage Atwood. You must agree to never threaten or pursue legal action against us again. My mate must immediately be released with full dismissal of charges. That judge is in your pocket, and I know he will write the order dead of night if you demand.” I clenched the edge of the desk as Draevus glanced over, and I nodded sharply. “Draevus, please write this up as spoken. And Malarthe Lymmings is to be deemed a vexatious litigant and never to seek suit again without two judges’ approvals.”
“Done,” the cleric said immediately.
Beaumont glanced from him to us and narrowed his gaze. He should have known better than to negotiate with a demon. A tendril of Ausmius wrapped my waist, climbing higher up my body.
Draevus typed with whirlwind speed and read as he did so, adding a few clauses here and there that I approved of. Beaumont seemed to be following and nodded as well. He hit print, and they read the paper together once more as Draevus cast demonic magic over the document and produced a blade-tipped quill. “In blood.”
“Ordinarily, our god does not approve of signing a contract in blood, but this is on behalf of our greater good.” The cleric pricked his finger and signed, as did Beaumont, who signed with authority for Malarthe as they patched him in for a phone call.
I pricked my finger and signed, tensing as my power burned under my skin. I had rejected their blessings on paper, but only two things could strip a mage of his power on the mortal plane.
Revocation of my deities.
Or death.
I closed my eyes as Ausmius wrapped a tendril around my neck and whipped it across my throat with a violent slash not unlike the death Esmeray had been given.
It barely hurt.
Clean, sharp, and the horrified looks on Beaumont and the cleric’s face made my day.
“S-suck it.” I choked over fluid that I refused to look at, which conveniently became impossible as my vision whited out.
Chapter Eighteen
Esmeray
Cold shot through my heart like an arrow and the sigils on my hands glowed. Ausmius clawed up the walls and scrambled, his form unstable, as a very sobering thought made me fall to the floor in tears, violent sobs, and shaking breaths. A single warm line of connection to my mate from the goddesses had snapped. Their blessings were mine. And Gre’s heart no longer beat.
“No! Noo!” I cried aloud and fell onto the floor, my entire body shaking as I fought convulsions of grief and agony. My tail whipped, horns scraping the floor. “Gre!”
My fingers left clawed trails in stone as I wailed and the jingling of keys and running feet told me that people were coming. “Let me out! I need my mate! I need to go to him!”
The volume of my scream echoed back at me with punishing force. “Ausmius! Find him!”
My shadow, which moments before had been rife with punishing energy, sucked into my natural shadow and rippled. In my human form, I’d have seen his presence in the horns of my shadow, but what I was bore my crown of horns, marking me as line of royalty.
Will be okay.The whisper of my shadow trailed off and my baby kicked somewhere inside me, writhing in response to my outburst.
