Thrall of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 4) by Bella Klaus (elon musk reading list .txt) 📕

It would probably hurt, leave me punctured or with an air bubble that traveled through my system and ruptured something. By the time Valentine returned from his assignment, I might have already risen a soulless preternatural, a bloodsucking equivalent of Brother David.

As he reached the top of the stairs, desperation made the words tumble from my lips. “You’re looking for missing magic?”

Kresnik turned around and stared down at me with wide eyes. “Have you thought of something?”

“Yes.” I licked my lips. “My aunt sent me a firestone bracelet that soaked into my skin and absorbed my magic.”

“What?”

I nodded, my pulse thrumming an excited beat. “She intended for it to suppress my power and lock it away. Each stone was supposed to hold the magic of four mages, but my power kept leaking through.”

“Which was why she put the firestone in your blood?” Before I could nod, he asked, “Where is this bracelet now?”

“My body rejected it after I got arrested and tried to escape, then the enforcers caught me and took it away. Someone must have analyzed its magic, which was why the kings created that ambush and—”

Kresnik roared and punched his fist into his palm. “You should have mentioned this before.”

I flinched and had to hold on to the wall to stop myself from tumbling down the steps. “Sorry. I didn’t think—”

“Silence.” Kresnik bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

I followed after him, staring up through the door he’d disappeared into and hoping that it would be enough for him to cancel his plot to rupture my fifth chamber.

“Martika,” he bellowed.

“Good thinking, Miss Griffin,” Hades whispered into my ear. “And kudos for not letting Kresnik see the truth in your mind. While he’s organizing his forces to storm the Supernatural Council in search of your missing magic, I want you to steal the ash from the jar he’s keeping in his bathroom cabinet.”

Chapter Nineteen

I placed a hand on the rough wall, trying not to stumble on the darkened stairwell. The door swung shut, encasing me in darkness, and muffling Kresnik’s continued orders to Martika.

With a hand over my mouth to stop my voice from echoing, I whispered, “What did you just say?”

“Kresnik is keeping one of my jars on his bookshelf,” Hades murmured into my ear. “You need to release my ashes.”

“And put them where?” I crept up the stairs, hoping Kresnik would be gone by the time I reached the top.

One pocket already contained the ashes I’d gathered earlier from the pyre, and the other contained a bunch of stuff I didn’t care to get soiled, such as Istabelle’s leather-bound book and the reaper knife.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m capable of shifting my own bodily remains,” Hades said, sounding affronted.

“I’m only trying to be thorough.” At the top of the stairs, I pushed the door open to find Kresnik missing from his study. I turned in a circle, getting my first chance to take in our surroundings. Floor-to-ceiling shelves covered all the walls, without a door in sight.

A shocked breath heaved out of my lungs. Had they just forgotten about me in the excitement to retrieve the firestone bracelet? “Father?” I said out loud. “Martika?”

“They already left,” Hades said.

“How the hell am I going to get out of here without the ability to flicker?” I asked.

“I’ll show you the way out, as soon as you free my ashes.” Hades led me to the only shelf that didn’t contain books.

Bottles and gourds and metallic objects filled the space, along with ominous-looking stones that radiated dark magic. My insides crawled toward my spine, trying to put as much distance between themselves and those objects as possible. Some of these things had to be ancient, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Kresnik had used them in the past to commit murder.

“It’s behind the chimera,” Hades said.

My gaze dropped to a human skull with a row of six-inch horns over its brow. Instead of teeth, fangs protruded from its maw in all directions, creating a jagged mess. The magic radiating off it pulsed.

I gulped. “That’s real?”

“Don’t worry about the transference malediction. This one isn’t permanent.”

My stomach tightened. Some enchanted beings cursed whoever touched them to take on their characteristics. For example, a cursed frog might infect a person unlucky enough to touch it with their bare hands with slimy skin. I hadn’t known it was possible to become a chimera until Hades just brought up the subject, and I wasn’t about to trust that the skull was safe to remove.

If I were Kresnik, I would ensure that the item protecting the ashes of my worst enemy contained a curse that would make anyone tampering with it easy to identify and punish. Covering my hands with the fabric of my reaper cloak, I picked up the skull and set it on the floor.

“Now, will you release my ashes?” Hades asked, his voice rough with impatience.

My lips formed a tight line. “Maybe a mouthful of overlapping teeth is an asset in Hell, but up in this realm, it’s not a good look.”

Straightening, I peered deep within the recess of the space that the skull had occupied and found a glass jar half-full of ashes. I hovered my fingers over the object, feeling for dark or ominous magic, but only remnants of Kresnik’s power brushed against my senses.

I pulled it out and tried to twist off the top, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Put more effort into it,” Hades said.

“Alright.” I set it down again, dabbed my hands on the reaper cloak to remove all the moisture from my palms, and returned to the jar.

Clenching my teeth, I gripped its lid, and tried twisting off the cap with every ounce of strength. My biceps quivered from the effort, and the metal heated beneath my hands. After several moments of straining, I released the pressure, and my shoulders sagged. “It’s stuck.”

“You’ll have to smash it.”

“Then he’ll find broken pieces of glass and know I released you.”

“How else will