“I don’t know. I’d offer you security footage, but that camera doesn’t work.”

My shield cracked. Power began to slide from me as I trembled, blind with fury. He had promised. Promised he wouldn’t sell it. He had dared lie to me.

“Daddy I’m scared!”

Gary had two kids. Young boys who constantly caused havoc. Last time I was here, I’d played hide and seek with them.

Now, Ziprick was clutching his dad’s leg, staring at me like I was a monster. His brother scampered close, practically climbing up his dad’s leg as he stared at me, white-faced. I glanced around at the thick, dark purple power that had leaked from me, filling the store like smoke.

I was a monster.

Gary held Ziprick to him, glowering at me. “Get out.”

Words escaped me. My throat ached and my power disappeared back beneath my shield as if it’d never been there.

Oh, how I wished it had never been there. I stumbled to the gutter outside Gary’s store and heaved, bile creeping up my throat as tears pricked my eyes.

I’d been excited to chip away at the suppression spell when I found out about it. After rejecting the tiny ember of power I’d had my entire life, I’d thought I could finally use my power to keep myself safe.

Instead, it constantly slipped through when it was least convenient. Samael’s words ran through my mind on a loop. “That suppression spell would’ve crumbled eventually. Likely at the most inconvenient time possible. And you would’ve been all alone, with no idea what was happening to you, and no way to regain control. Your magic flares with great emotion. Who brings that emotion out in you, hmm?”

I hated that he was right. And I lived in terror that I’d invertedly use my power on my sister. I needed help. But the world would burn before I’d voluntarily ask Samael for it.

Every time I thought about the demon, I had to restrain the urge to go to him. Some days, it was because I dreamed of stabbing him in the gut and watching him bleed out. Other days, it was because I longed for the feeling of safety I’d briefly had in his arms.

I was losing it. And I needed to head to the Mage Council to file the paperwork for my last bounty. I glanced back at Gary’s store and my chest clenched. The look on his face. The terror in his kids’ eyes. If this was what my power did, I didn’t want it.