Page 21 of Spells of Shadow and Blood

My brows drew together in confusion.Shehad been the one followingme. I took a step back in surprise. Was she…afraid of me?

A long silence fell between us as we held each other’s gazes.

“Persephone, give me the pack—” I moved to step toward her again, but she stepped back once more with a hiss.

“I can’t let you have it.”

“Have what?” I asked, the words slow and measured as they left my mouth.

“The book,” she answered through clenched teeth.

The Grishina grimoire.

Of course…she had come for the grimoire. She was the only other person who knew I had it besides Cirilla, who was dead. What did she want with the book?

“What do you need it for?” I asked, inclining my head toward her, curious.

“Idon’tneed it,” she replied. As if the answer were obvious.

My brows drew together in confusion once more. “I don’t understand.”

“I don’t need it formyself,” she ground out, pressing the pack even tighter against her chest. “But I can’t let you have it, either.”

“Why not?” I took a step forward, and she stepped back.

It became a slow dance between us.

Persephone wasn’t nearly as strong as me. If she were, they never would have needed to bring me that day in order to perform the necromancy spell. Though, I did suspect they needed someone with an untainted heart to perform that particular spell. Back then, I hadn’t yet known the thrill of the dark magic pulsing through my veins.

She stood no chance against me now—she had to have known that.

I suspected if her eyes weren’t black and depthless I might see fear in them.

“I need you to give me the pack, Persephone.” I spoke the words slowly. Measured. As if not to scare her further.

I allowed my magic to simmer to the surface, snaking out toward her in the form of dark shadows beneath the moon. Wewere in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t another house or building for at least a mile, we were protected by the silence of the empty plains here.

The trees would be my only witness.

I couldn’t let her steal the book from me. Iwouldn’t. Ineededit. What would happen to me if I didn’t have it anymore? Couldn’t feed the angry animal that had been awoken inside of me with dark magic?

She slipped her hand into the pack and I took another step forward, my hand outstretched.

“You don’t want to do that,” I warned.

Her hands found the leather binding of the grimoire and she tugged it free, allowing the pack to fall to the dirt beneath us.

“Can’t let you have it, can’t let you have it,” she murmured quickly under her breath as she clutched the grimoire tightly against her chest.

She had dark magic, too. Didn’t she understand why it was important that I kept it? Had the dark magic driven her mad?

“Give it to me, Persephone. I won’t ask again.”

She looked much older than I expected her to be. It had only been what, three years since I had last seen her? It appeared she had aged at least another decade in that short time.

Again I pondered if that was the cost of the darkness. If so…I couldn’t allow that to happen to me. I wouldn’t. I would find a spell to keep me young. Forever.

Maybe immortal, even.

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