Page 22 of Spells of Shadow and Blood

Her magic sparked at her fingertips against the book, and the edges singed from the flame.

“Persephone—” I warned, stepping closer ever so slowly.

“Perdere.Perdere.Perdere.”

She whispered the word over and over again as the magic sparked at her fingertips.

I couldn’t allow her to take the book. I lunged for her, grasping one of the arms that was secured around its leather binding. She wrenched free of my grasp with a cry, turning her back toward me.

“The book must be destroyed, the siphoning spell cannot be allowed to exist,” she said through clenched teeth. “You have not seen what I have seen. Heard what I have heard. Alastir said—” Her words were choked off by a sob.

Destroyed? I thought she had simply meant to steal it from me.

I lunged forward, grasping her braid and wrenching her back by her hair. I clasped her shoulder in my other hand, allowing my shadows to wrap around her neck. But before I could grasp the book, she threw it into the air away from us.

It unraveled in slow motion, the book flying away from us in the darkness, her arm outstretching toward it.

“Perdere,”she whispered once more.

The book ignited.

“No!” I cried, pushing her down and leaving her in the dirt, lunging toward the Grishina grimoire. “No, no, no!” I screamed.

The book was a ball of flame, but I grasped it anyway, badly burning the palms of my hands. I ground my teeth against the pain as I brought it to me, trying my hardest to tamp down the fire.

But it was too late.

Whatever spell Persephone had invoked had taken hold, and the grimoire was reduced to ash within my grip. The tattered pages and burned leather fell to the earth beneath me, and I fell to my knees before it.

A tear tracked down my cheek and I moved to wipe it away quickly. I hadn’t even cried when Cirilla had died, why was I crying over a book?

My hands ran over the once delicate material that had been reduced to nothing and I turned slowly, still crouched on the ground. Persephone was propping herself up on one arm, watching the book burn, a smile across her lips.

“You.” My voice was cold. Unrecognizable.

As I moved to stand Persephone laughed. A fully belly laugh that had tears tracing down her dirty cheeks, leaving clean marks trailing in their path.

“How dare you.”

Anger simmered deep within my core, overtaking me. I could sense my shadows snaking out around me, the inky darkness overtaking the entire field. I inclined my head as I watched Persephone laugh, right before my shadows wove themselves around her neck.

“I had to do it,” she said.

There was no pleading tone in her voice, no desperation. She knew what would come next. She knew what needed to happen.

“I couldn’t let that spell live. It wasevil.”

“Unlikeeverything elsewe have done?” I asked, incredulous. How could she draw a line there? We had surely done just as bad if not worse. She didn’t earn her obsidian eyes by idly sitting by. No…she was as guilty as I was.

“It doesn’t matter, none of it does. The Grishina grimoire is gone, and you’ll never get it back.”

I didn’t have a grimoire any longer.

The thought left an emptiness deep within my gut. In that moment, I vowed that someday I would have the Kotova grimoire. I would reap all of its spells. I knew there was dark magic in that grimoire, too. Even if it hadn’t chosen me, I could sense the energy humming within it.

Spells Annelise had hidden from me.

I would make sure the Kotova grimoire chose me as its next ward. Even if I needed to kill Annelise and every other Kotova to do it.

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