“I don’t mean with lust. I mean my skin was literally charring, and so were the trees. My body was blistering with flames.”

He arched an eyebrow. “When you were on top of me?”

“No, before that. I was angry. Enraged. And everything was aflame. And then when I—when the mage jumped on you, I guess she felt something else. The pain subsided, and it felt calm again.”

“See? I’m magic.” He rose, pulling a stray leaf from his hair. “Maybe the flames were a vision of your future if you give yourself back to the Brotherhood. I don’t know what else it would be. Your spirit isn’t a fire mage. Ambrose said you tasted of hawthorns.”

Rosalind nodded. “She’s a forest mage. That explains all the tree stuff. I should have felt it through her aura, but it’s too intense for me to even think straight.”

“My spirit worshipped Nyxobas. Yours was aligned with Druloch, the god who lurks in the woods’ dark shadows.”

“The mage was drawn to the darkness. Something about the cycle of life and death. But the flames were so strong. She must be using fire magic.”

“It’s not possible. There are three shadow gods—sea, night, and forest. They’ve been warring with the gods of fire and light for millennia. That means there’s no way you’re connected to fire magic.”

The sea god. A chill whispered over her skin. She’d scented a sea-witch on the Thorndike Campus. Could that mage be connected to all this? Something told her not to mention it to Caine. It was entirely possible that Rosalind was responsible for yet another mage’s capture, and she had no way of knowing if that mage had been evil or just another poor idiot caught up in things beyond her control. She wanted to change the subject. “I’m not well versed in the shadow gods and fire gods. I’ve only been taught about Blodrial, the one true god.”

“Blodrial fell from heaven after the celestial wars, just like the others. The only thing that sets him apart is that he doesn’t believe humans should speak Angelic.”

Of course they shouldn’t. She’d just seen evidence of what the Angelic language could do to a human mind. “Right. Because it’s evil in human bodies, and it screws people up. Blodrial is right.”

“He’s against it because the gift of magic to human kind was the original sin that banished our gods from heaven. The gods are all trying to free themselves from their punishment.”

She’d never heard this version before. “And what is their punishment?”

“The celestial gods—those who won the war, trapped them in matter. The shadow and fire gods are trying to gain freedom by collecting human souls, competing with each other. But Blodrial thinks he can repent by stamping out magic on earth. Erasing the original sin. None of them can accept their punishment, and we all lost something. Even humans.”

“What did we lose?” She was grateful for the temporary reprieve from thinking about the flames.