Page 17 of Wrongfully Magicked
Yet, weirdly, I somehow expected better of them.
That foolish sentimentality will only get me killed. I’m not ready to die yet, not until I’ve exacted my revenge on my family, and the best way to do that is by living long enough to claim my fortune.
CHAPTER FIVE
SOREN
Agrowl rumbles from my beast at the thought of turning her over to her family. It’s not happening on my watch. While we’re the ones called beasts, mages are the ones who are often inhumane.
Mages treat beastlings no better than servants, but I would take that over the way they tear down their own kind and rebuild them into little zombies to do their bidding. Only those with power are allowed to keep it.
Any rebellions are stamped out before they can take root.
No one is allowed to challenge their rule.
Even though I’m no longer touching her, I can still feel the near mortal wounds to her soul. They tried to break her, and my beast releases a nasty snarl in my head that they would dare hurt her, the sound both mournful and so full of yearning that a shiver goes down my spine.
Thank fuck they didn’t succeed.
I remain standing in the doorway, not daring to step farther into the room. My hellhound is so desperate to soothe her thatI’m barely holding my human form. Flames lick over my fingers, and I quickly cross my arms to put out the fire before they frighten her off.
I’m not as good at flirting as the others. If I want something, I take it. Unfortunately, I suspect that approach won’t work with her. She’s too headstrong and slippery. One wrong move, and I fear she will vanish forever.
I can’t allow that.
So I keep my distance, showing off my body and letting her know I’m interested. Though I can see hunger flare in her eyes, unlike most girls, she keeps her hands to herself, and my beast whimpers at the rejection.
It’s only when we smell the sweet and spicy scent of her arousal that my beast perks back up, practically salivating with the need to taste her.
I shift and discreetly adjust my cock. When she follows the movement then licks her lips, my chest puffs up, and I pull my shoulders back, allowing her to look her fill. My voice is gravelly and harsh when I speak again. “No one is going to hand you over. If they want to take you, they’ll have to go through me.”
Instead of being pleased at the offer of protection, she looks sad, and my beast doesn’t like it. We want to see that naughty gleam back in her eye when she was looking at us like a side of beef.
“Unfortunately, that’s exactly what will happen, and the results will be the same. No sense in both of us dying.” She pulls the sheet around her and stands. She should look like she’s drowning in it, but with the regal lift of her chin and the defiance in her eyes, she looks like a queen. “If you give me a head start, I should be able to slip away. It would give me a fighting chance.”
Cassius just shakes his head. “Your logic is flawed. They already caught you once. You would be safer here. MID can?—”
“Do nothing, and you know it.” I click my tongue in derision and roll my eyes at his naivete. “MID is run by a bunch of mages. If one of the founding families makes a demand of them, they’d bend over backward to give them what they want just to curry favor.”
Claws slice through the tips of my fingers at the thought of her leaving here without protection.
Without me to guard her back.
As much as I want to protect her, the second I abandon my post as an MID agent, a bounty will be pinned on my head. Once they sink their claws into you, there’s no escape.
“She could stay,” Darby offers, stepping around me to enter the room. Something about his stiff posture raises the ruff on the back of my hellhound’s neck. Though the tech wizard’s expression remains impassive, something almost hostile burns in his eyes.
While I would normally trust him with my life, I’m not so trusting with hers. “What do you mean?”
He doesn’t remove his gaze from Anita, who is standing in the middle of the room. “In the mage world, you’re not an adult until you turn twenty-five. Legally, we have to turn her over to her guardians. There is a small loophole. Sign up and become an MID agent, then you’ll become a ward of the agency and protected from your family. Once you serve your term, you can resign and take your pension.”
“No, absolutely fucking not,” Cassius hisses, and the aggressive way he moves his shoulders tells me his basilisk is in charge. “They are more likely to kill her than her family. No one pressed into service ever gets out alive.”
“That’s the beauty of it,” Darby argues. “She doesn’t have a criminal record. Whoever removed her file deleted everything. All evidence she was ever at the scene of the crime is gone. She would be a full agent with all the protections that comewith it. She’s also a mage, which will automatically give her an extra layer of protection. It will also give her time to look into the bombing herself. She’ll have plenty of time to figure out if someone was out to kill her or frame her for the crime.”
“I agree with Cassius,” I snarl, a rumble filling my chest at the thought of her leaving. “It’s too dangerous. MID is almost as corrupt as the mage families. It’s exchanging one tyrant for another. There is no guarantee that she’ll be safe if she joins.”
Darby turns toward me, and I can practically see the cogs turning in his head. “Are you saying she wouldn’t be safer here with you to protect her than out there on her own?”
