Academy for Courting Curses - Tara West Page 0,3
matters is the cause.”
“And what is your cause?” Gae asked.
“Don’t tell her anything else,” the Fae said.
Black smoke trickled from Gae’s talons. She wanted to choke the life out of that Fae. Instead, she concentrated her energy on Demonique, inwardly chanting the love spell and smiling when the she-cat swayed toward her.
Demonique looked as if she was in a trance, her eyes glazing over into two milky pools. “To kill him,” she murmured, pointing at the decomposing foot.
“He seems dead enough to me.” Gae laughed. “What will your new cause be?” She eyed Demonique with eagerness.
“To ensure shifters are treated fairly by witches.”
Shifters? So was Demonique a shifter? Why was she half a cat? Had a spell locked her in her current body?
“You are not treated fairly now?”
She held up her wrists, chains jangling. “Does it look like it?”
“No.” She bridged the distance between them, releasing her sexual pheromones. “What if I promised to treat you fairly?”
“No, Demonique!” the Fae shrieked.
Gae wanted to cut out his tongue.
Demonique cocked her head. “What is it you want, witch?’
“Oh, dearest,” she cooed, moving forward until they were nearly touching, toe to toe. “I want for nothing.”
The demon cat growled, her eyes narrowing to thin slits. “Liar.”
“Mind your pretty tongue,” Gae said as she came within a breath of the kitten. Oh, she smelled so divine, like earth and fresh rain and the distinct, warm and spicy scent of arousal. She held up the pearl wand, the wand that would restore her to her rightful place as queen. “What else could I possibly want when I have the world in the palm of my hand?”
* * *
Gae stood on the other side of the dark, dank cell, gazing at Demonique with contempt. After disabling the shifter kitten with a sleeping spell, she and Rem had found a cluster of small rooms and cells. The furniture was covered with fine black dust, no doubt from the cave-in, but Gae had already put Rem to work cleaning it. In the process, he’d discovered spell books, herbs, and potions. She planned on reading the spell books cover to cover after she took care of her growing needs.
How fortunate to have found the former master’s possessions. She didn’t believe in coincidences. Fate had placed her here for a reason; it was time to fulfill her rightful place as ruler of Delfi, only she wouldn’t stop there. Rem had told her the wand she held was rare. With such power, she could rule the world. She caressed the wand’s smooth surface. “I will unlock your secrets,” she whispered.
“What have you done with Alexi?” The she-cat rose to her knees and clutched the bars of her cell, her golden eyes still heavy from sleep, tears streaking her ebony skin. Funny how the kitten had lost her claws and fur when Rem put shackles inlaid with Tau stones on her. She looked human, but she still had all the grace and beauty of a feline.
“Alexi?” she spat. Just the mention of him reminded her of the race she loathed more than anything. “The weakling Fae?”
Demonique’s lip pulled back in a snarl. “He’s survived starvation and beatings. He’s anything but weak.”
Pshaw. He hadn’t even put up a fight when Rem imprisoned him. The kitten’s love for this Fae was strong, but Gae loved a challenge. Getting the kitty to turn against her lover would be fun.
She knelt in front of Demonique, stroking a rusty iron bar with a curved talon. “I will tell you his whereabouts, perhaps even let you see him, if you help me.”
Demonique’s cold glare would have unnerved a lesser woman. “With what?”
She slid back up the bars, rubbing her dragon scent on them, claiming her territory. “Tell me the spell that unleashes the fury.”
The kitten arched back. “What?”
Gae looked at her as if she could see into her very soul, watching for any signs of deceit. “The spell that flattens trees and scorches the earth.”
Demonique blinked. “There is no such spell.”
Gae sensed no deception in the she-cat’s eyes. “That stupid griffin was able to discharge that very spell from this wand.” She banged it against the bars with a loud clank. “What do you think collapsed these tunnels?”
“I thought a volcanic eruption had flattened the island.”
“Well, you thought wrong,” Gae snapped.
“I was the leader of the shifter resistance.” Crossing her arms, the kitten flashed a smug grin. “Don’t you think if I’d known such a spell, I would’ve used it on the witches already?”
She repressed a curse. It