The Darkest Magic (A Book of Spirits and Thieves) Read Online Free PDF Page B

some cliché of a naive teenage girl falling for a powerful immortal? That I’m
still
that cliché?”
    “Yes, actually. You should write it all down. You could make millions. Those kinds of stories sell like crazy.”
    “How wrong you are. How horribly wrong.”
    Crys flinched at Jackie’s reaction, but she quickly regained her sharp composure. She felt she was close to a truth that hadn’t yet been shared. “When you called him that night, when he had Becca and me, it was like he forgot everything except you,” she said. “He probably forgot his own name. He handed the Codex over to Dad like it was a box of tissues, like it wasn’t important to him at all. If you have that effect on him, all these years later . . . There’s obviously something still there.”
    Jackie’s cheeks flushed bright pink—but not from embarrassment. A look of sheer outrage clouded her face. “That man murdered my grandmother. He murdered my parents. He stole our family’s fortune. And you think I still have a
thing f
or him?”
    Like a threatening storm cloud that had decided to show mercy, Crys lost her bluster. “I’m not saying it isn’t complicated,” she said quietly.
    “He marked me, Crys. I was sixteen years old, and he carved symbols into my flesh with a knife to make sure that I did anything he told me to. I looked at him with awe, this handsome man who made time for
me
. Thousands of years separated us, but he looked no more than five years older than me. He took me into his confidence. And yes, I believed I loved him. Hell, maybe I did, for a time. But our . . . relationship wasn’t natural—it was forged out of magic. Out of coercion. Do you see how messed up that is?” She thrust her forearm, bare and clear of any scars or blemishes, toward Crys. Crys knew how Markus’s magic worked, that he could heal the dagger’s marks as soon as he made them, leaving no trace behind. “I had no choice but to do as he said,” Jackie went on. “Whether I truly believed at the time that I actually wanted him, that I actually loved him, makes no difference. I was under his influence, and he used me. For that, I can never forgive him. For that, I’ll always hate him.”
    “I’m sorry,” Crys said. It was all she could say—even though she did want to congratulate Jackie for making her feel like a complete ass in record time.
    “So am I. Believe me. But I’m not sorry that Becca exists. If there’s one good thing that came out of that twisted relationship, it was her. But he can never know that she’s his daughter. For her own safety.”
    “Agreed.” Crys worked all of this over in her head as she took ashaky sip of her drink. “I know it’s not easy for you to talk about, but . . . Jackie, he was
visibly
distracted when he learned you were on the phone. He still has feelings for you.”
    “Perhaps,” Jackie admitted reluctantly, but in a tone that told Crys she wasn’t surprised. “And perhaps I can use those feelings against him. If I need to.”
    “What did you say to him on that phone call?”
    Jackie blinked, regarding Crys with her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
    “Jackie, please,” Crys said after a short silence.
    “I told him that I know his magic is fading. That he needs the book, this book he’s been obsessing over for years. He thinks it will make him the god his society believes he is. I told him that if he comes anywhere near me or my family, I would tear the pages from it one by one and burn them all. I didn’t know he had it in his possession at the time.”
    “Oh,” Crys said. She was looking at her aunt with growing awe. “I imagined that conversation going a totally different way.”
    “I’m sure you did.” Her aunt’s expression remained uncharacteristically grim. “Luckily, the book is with us now.”
    Julia Hatcher entered the kitchen carrying two plastic bags, interrupting them. “What’s going on in here?” she said, eyeing her sister and daughter