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Valen folded his arms over his chest. “Eternity.”
“Banishment?” Elias shook his head, barely capable of accepting that this was his life. Just days ago he’d been a wealthy, highly respected male who indulged his desires with reckless abandon. Now he’d been stripped of his fortune, humiliated, and banished. “Where will I go?” he rasped.
Valen’s power pressed against Elias until he cried out in pain. “I suggest somewhere far away,” the vampire warned. “If I see you again I’ll kill you.”
Chapter 7
It was just past five that evening when Peri joined Maya and Skye in the office at the Witch’s Brew. The shard had been safely stored in a warded safe with her mother’s spell books, and she’d spent an hour in the shower scrubbing off the stench of Elias Mitchell.
The shower hadn’t gotten rid of the bruises the furious demon had left on her arms, but Peri had more important matters on her mind. She could handle the petulant Elias. She wasn’t so confident about the spell that had attacked her in the playroom.
Maya paced from one end of the office to the other, her Louboutin stilettos clicking on the floor as she considered what Peri had revealed. At last she spun around, her green eyes shadowed with concern. The same concern was written on Skye’s face as she leaned against the desk, her summer dress floating in the breeze from the AC.
Peri was the only one seated. She’d expended a lot of magic. First in the playroom, then again battling the demon. It would be a few hours before she was fully recovered.
“Was the red glow created by the shard?” Maya abruptly asked.
“I don’t think so. It felt as if it was a…” Peri shivered as she forced herself to dredge through the memory of the nasty mist that had attacked her. “A residue left behind by my mother’s spell. Or maybe it was a residue of whatever was inside the statue.”
“And it was draining your magic?”
“Yes.” That was the one thing Peri knew beyond a doubt. “If I didn’t have the power of a mage it would have sucked me dry. Just like it did to the coven.”
Maya clicked her tongue in frustration. “I’ve never heard of a spell that consumes magic.”
It was Skye who answered the question hanging in the air. “Miasma,” she breathed.
Peri glanced toward the younger woman. “What?”
“It’s a miasma.” Skye wrinkled her nose as Maya and Peri stared at her in confusion. “I read about it when I was…young.”
Peri leaned forward. Skye rarely talked about her childhood. Or what she’d suffered. All they knew was that she’d been held captive by demons until she’d managed to escape and find her way to the Witch’s Brew.
“Tell us,” Maya commanded.
“In the earliest days of the Gyres, the magic was a lot stronger,” Skye answered. “Sometimes too strong.”
Peri blinked. She’d been born long after the Gyres had lost power, but she’d heard the complaints from demons at the loss of the ancient magic.
“How could magic be too strong?”
“It would react to its surroundings. Usually that meant creating lush swamps or arid deserts.” Skye shuddered. “But during wars or times of plague it could turn toxic.”
“It poisoned the earth?”
“Yes. And worse.” Skye reached up to shove her fingers through her thick curls. Was she disturbed by the thought of the miasma? Or the fact that she was forced to remember her early life? Hard to say. “It was manipulated by demons to use as a weapon.”
“How could they use it as a weapon?” Peri asked.
“They would lure a mage into the quagmire of miasma until they were drained. It would be easy to kill them after that.”
Maya slowly nodded. “I’ve never seen one, but I’ve heard rumors that they once existed. In the Dark Ages it was called mage’s bane.”
Peri frowned, trying not to imagine poor women being caught in such a nasty bog.
“How did my mother summon an ancient power? Even with the addition of her coven they didn’t have the magic necessary to create more than a rudimentary spell.”
“I don’t think she did,” Skye said. “From what I read, the mages began searching out the miasmas and trapping them in vessels that were eventually destroyed. Or at least, most of them were destroyed. It’s possible that a few survived.”
