Page 72 of When Storms Ruin

“So you did have it…and you gave it to Donika?” Hopelessness swelled inside of me.

If Donika had the spell for the key, she had surely destroyed it. If Donika had the spell…there was no hope in gaining control of all of this power. I would be reduced to parlor tricks for the rest of my life, and that type of magic would not help us win this war. I needed to equal Donika’s power, and that meant I needed to draw on a tremendous storm.

“That’s not what I said,” Phineas replied, his smile sinister.

I inclined my head towards him, my eyes narrowing. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, the queen contracted me to steal it. Over a decade ago. I did steal it…but I never said I gave it to her.”

“Then where is it if you never gave it to her, but you also don’t have it?” I asked, my frustration brewing.

I had to ask theexactright question with this man, and his smug demeanor was wearing on me.

“It simply disappeared. That Kotova grimoire has a mind of its own, if you hadn’t noticed. It was with me one moment, then it was gone the next. It was in my jacket pocket right here.” He patted the vest he wore showing the pocket was empty. “It was here, then it wasn’t. Simple as that.”

“That’s just great,” Tess moaned from behind me, throwing her arms up.

I pushed off Phineas with a frustrated grunt and he sat up, rubbing away the trickle of blood on his neck.

“Wish I could be of more help. Truly, I do,” his voice held a mocking edge, and I had half a mind to press the blade back to that same spot again but finish the job this time.

The book of shadows did, indeed, have a mind of its own. How could the spell have simply…disappeared? Someone else must have stolen it. If it was truly gone, why would the grimoire have shown me the vision ofthatparticular spell? Something wasn’t adding up, but I wasn’t sure what, exactly, we were missing.

“Are there any other spells she contracted you to steal?” Nik asked, his arms crossed, brow raised.

“I don’t kiss and tell,” Phineas replied tightly.

“I’m not as nice and forgiving as our true queen, here. Iwillhurt you.” Nik’s gaze was dark as he searched Phineas’.

“I’m not sure she’s niceorforgiving. But Iamsure it’s not in my best interest to answer that question,” Phineas replied with a tight smile.

Before I could even register what Phineas had said, Nik’s arm whipped back, slinging forwards to hit Phineas square in the jaw with a closed fist. Phineas fell back with a grunt, his hand cradling his jaw where Nik had punched him. He spit blood, and what I believed to be a tooth, before fixing Nik with a cold glare.

“That was highly unnecessary,” Phineas spat, his expression cross.

“I think it was quite necessary. Not only did you speak ill of your true queen, but you’re jerking us around. I’m done playing games. What other spells did the queen hire you to steal?”

“Does it matter? The Kotova grimoire hasn’t been seen in over a decade, nobody knows where it is,” Phineas replied.

Little did he know it was currently in my possession and had been for quite some time. I hadn’t noticed any other spells missing or pages ripped out, so I thought it was unlikely he had succeeded in stealing anything else. He would had to have manipulated a Kotova witch to have gained access to the spell in the first place, and deceiving one a second time would be near impossible.

“It matters,” Nik bit out. “Tell me what other spells she wanted you to steal, and I’ll spare the other side of your face.”

Phineas ran a hand through his greying hair and his eyes fell on his feet with a huff. “Only one. But as I said, I told her it was impossible. She asked me to steal a siphoning spell. But the grimoire is missing, and no one knows its location.”

She had wanted both Tyr and Phineas to steal that spell for her, but she had made do, even without it. She had still managed to create her magic siphoning Noctani.

“If I find out that you are lying to us, that the key spell is in your possession, I will not be so kind the next time we meet.” Nik’s voice was hard as he stepped forwards and glared down at Phineas.

“I don’t think you were particularly kind to begin with,” Phineas grumbled, rubbing his jaw.

Phineas Wolfe had been a dead end, so why had Alastir sent us after him?

Hehadstolen the spell, but somehow lost it. Or the spell left on its own…if that’s even possible. If that was the case, why couldn’t the grimoire simply show me its new location?

The visions sent to me from the book of shadows were selective, I could never decipher initially what it meant. What the book was trying to show me. We were still missing a piece of the puzzle, and I prayed that the spell hadn’t ended up in Donika’s hands in the end.

“One last thing—” Phineas started, cut short by Nik’s violent glare. “You’ll want to know this, friend.”

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