the huntress 04 - eternal magic Read Online Free PDF Page B

not working and the demons with fire swords, I hadn’t had a postcard-worthy experience here.
    Though it was weird that more demons hadn’t shown up this time around once I’d started fussing with the treasure. I didn’t like that at all. Not one little bit. 
    Were they supposed to be guarding the treasure, or had my nullification powers made my concealment charm fail? Because if it was the latter…
    The monster could find me. And the last person I wanted to run into was Victor Orriodor.

    “Yeah, it’s a dud.” Nix turned the dampening cuff over in her hands, then looked at me, sorrow in her green eyes. “For you, at least. It’s not strong enough.”
    “Damn.” I leaned back on the couch and stared at the ceiling of my apartment, my chest feeling empty. 
    Del and I had made the slow journey back across the desert, returned the camels to their owners, and transported to our shop, Ancient Magic, where we’d dropped off the artifacts.
    By the time we’d gotten back, it’d been after five. Nix, who normally watched the front counter, had been cooped up in the shop all day, so she’d insisted we get the hell out of there. She’d wanted to go to Potions & Pastille’s, our friends’ coffee shop/whiskey bar, but I’d insisted on a shower first.
    I had sand everywhere. And demon blood. And sweat. Basically, I was a nightmare. If it were Halloween, I wouldn’t need a costume.
    And we had an evening memorial service to attend at seven, so showing up covered in blood was not a great idea. 
    While I’d showered, Nix had fished a Pabst Blue Ribbon—my hillbilly hipster beer of choice—out of the fridge and handed it to me through the curtain.
    “You’re a lifesaver,” I’d said. 
    And she was, quite literally. Nix, Del, and I were sisters by choice. Deirfiúr , in our native Irish. We’d awoken in a field at fifteen with no memories except that we were FireSouls on the run from someone who wanted to hurt us. We’d called him the Monster, though we’d recently learned he was named Victor Orriodor. In the ten years we’d hidden from him, we’d saved each other countless times.
     “So you’re telling me it could work,” I said. “Just that the nullification power I’m saddled with is too strong for the dampening charm to have much effect.” 
    “Yep. There are a few dampening charms out there of different strengths. There’s one at the Museum for Magical History that’s super strong.” She made an explosion motion with her hands.
    “Yeah?” Hope flared in my chest.
    “Too strong. As in, obliterate-all-your-magic strong. It’s actually a pretty terrifying piece of magic. What you need is a Goldilocks dampener—just strong enough.”
    “Yeah.” But I took the golden cuff back from her and slipped it on my wrist. She gave me a look, but I ignored it.
    “It was a long shot anyway,” Nix said. “Dampening the nullification enough to allow your normal powers to shine through wasn’t all that likely to begin with.”
    “I know, but I’m desperate. Aethelred the Shade hasn’t been seen in a week.” Last week, the old seer had recognized a necklace I’d had since childhood and promised to tell me more, though there hadn’t been time at that moment. “He was my only link to information about my past, and maybe getting my power back, but he’s hiding out like a mole.”
    Nix reached over and gripped my hand. Her green gaze was intense as she said, “We’ll find him. We have plenty of people looking, and Aidan is following up on a lead right now.”
    Aidan was my friend. Possibly my boyfriend also, if you could call a giant of a man who was the most powerful Shifter in the world something as juvenile as boyfriend . We’d spent almost two months together, trying to keep our heads above water as Victor Orriodor had thrown challenge after challenge at me. 
    “Yeah. I know. I’m determined to fix this. It’s just that I’m not handling things well at all.” In the past week, I’d