The wheels turned over in my adrenaline-pumped brain. “Does the amount of power a mage has correlate to how much fae magic they have before?”
Questions tumbled in my mind and I stepped toward him, still turning the information over.
“What is the process? If they don’t know if they have fae blood wouldn’t an attempt to turn be a death sentence?”
Fin nodded slowly. “It’s considered a sacrifice. They sacrifice the purest parts of themselves to embrace the taint of Magus magic. It’s a disturbing macabre process with bloodletting and often death.”
“But why risk it?”
“Would you risk your life to have access to magic?”
I considered his question. Would I risk my life to have enough power to avenge my parents’ death? I didn’t even need to consider the answer; of course I would.
I would give my life for the revenge I’d craved for years, power or not. Which is why I stood here, arm probably broken, a fae at my side. I came to get revenge, and I’d almost walked out without it. Let my anger and pride impede my goals.
I took a step toward Fin and met his eyes. “If fae people were transforming themselves into something else, where does that fit in with your life? Why would you feel the need to get involved?
His slight smile turned brittle, and he reached for my hand. “You’re right. If it were simply people transforming themselves, I wouldn’t pay any attention to it. I wouldn’t care. Except someone, and I believe it was the Black Mage himself, who discovered during the sacrifice, that fae power can be transferred to another mage.”
His thumb traced the ridge of my knuckles and I focused on not reacting. After all, I was still supposed to be angry with him. If they’d caught him...
“I assume they have ways of incapacitating a fae? Especially those with minimal power.”
He nodded and watched our entwined hands. “Yes, they do. Various means and methods they’d developed over years of catching and killing my people.”
I let out a long sigh and lifted his chin so I could meet his eyes. “If I were considering this new information, that you could be caught and your power stripped, I might, maybe, understand why you’d leave me to fend for myself so you could focus your energy on catching Esteban. I’m not saying I forgive you for it, nor that you won’t be paying a long time for it, but I understand a little better where your head work was at.”
He nodded. “This matters to me. I’ve watched the Black Mage destroy my people. Women, children, even babies swallowed up to his sacrifices before they could discover the extent of their power. Mages live by one code—to build their magic to its pinnacle. Some reach it. After all, it takes a powerful mind to control magic, and the more magic the stronger a person needs to be. Others take too much and die. The Black Mage sucks in the souls of my people and he has yet to falter.”
I dropped his hand and straightened my shoulders the best I could. “Then I guess we better go get this asshole before he has the chance to take anyone else.”
“Are you well enough to continue?”
I snorted. “Of course, now that I’ve agreed to follow you into hell, you check on me. Smooth.”
His forehead crumpled as he stared down at me. “Well, if we want to get into the nitty gritty, how about you explain why you let that blood-sucking fiend kiss you? Kiss you!”
I crossed my arms to steady myself. “I didn’t let him kiss me. He pressed his lips to my skin. I didn’t agree to it, nor did I like it. If you were watching, you would have seen he wanted to do much more than kiss me. If he’d had his way, I’d have been bent over his desk.”
Fin’s mouth flopped open, and it satisfied me until he spoke. “You’d have let him touch you that way?”
I smacked him halfheartedly. He barely twitched.
“You dick. The only reason I let him touch me at all was for you. So cut the bullshit so we can finish this and I can go home.”
More words, mostly curses, piled up in my mind, and if we weren’t about to face down the strongest mage in the world, I would have let them fly. But I didn’t.
I gave Fin one last punctuating glare and waved at the doorway. “Do you have a plan, oh sanctimonious one?”
“I had a plan when we started the night. This house is impossible to navigate, so now the plan seems to be open all the doors until we find the right one.”
“You mean the one with a bunch of mages inside who mean to sacrifice you and steal all your mind-melding magic?”
He blinked. “When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound like a great idea at all.”
Just like a man... never stop for directions.
I poked at my shoulder. “Can you cut off any more pain here? I’m going to need to actually fight if we are getting out of here in one piece. I won’t be any help to you if you get nabbed. Then I think we need to strip the weapons off