"Ever heard of the Aphrodite spell?"
"Yeah. It's a love spell. A complicated love spell most can't successfully cast."
He nods slowly. "Do you know what happens when you use that spell on someone who is in love with someone else?"
I think hard about it. Love spells always seemed juvenile to me, so I never really studied up on them.
"No."
He takes another sharp turn, and then we level out on the interstate, heading far away from Pine Shore.
"If you cast the Aphrodite spell on someone who's already in love, the spell can't work properly. Instead, it heightens the feeling of lust, which is an emotion that can easily be confused for love when thrown out in strong doses. Not to mention, you almost lose control over your body and desires. You wouldn't notice it at all unless you had a reason to need to deny that person but couldn't. Have you by chance ever been with Gage even though you really didn't want to?"
My mind flashes back to the night I caught Gage cheating on me. I couldn't refuse him. I wanted him even though I didn't want him, almost as if I had no control over my actions. I wipe my tears away. I knew something was wrong then, but I never sought the answers because of the far worse chain of events that were in play at the time.
"Yes," I almost whisper. "Are you sure it's a spell?"
His jaw tenses as he stares straight ahead. "I'm positive it's a spell. Your succubus is giving it away. It makes so much sense now. What does a succubus feed off of?"
"Lust," I murmur in a nearly muted tone, getting sicker.
"Exactly. So when you feel the extreme feelings of lust, your succubus rises to the surface. The closer you get to your change, the more it leaks. You don't feel any differently, but you secrete the scent, making everyone around you feel the heat, so to speak."
"But who—"
"Gage. Your lust is targeted toward him. The spell probably started while the two of you were dating, from what I've gathered from the books I've been reading today. It died down when you and Kane got back together—well, it died down for you. For him—it's starting to drive him crazy. The spell can't work at all if one of the two people isn't already in love. The problem is—if the other person finds love in another, then the caster is the only one to suffer. He's been suffering alone. With Kane out of the picture, he's not suffering by himself anymore because the spell is dragging you back down. It's probably why your creature goddess freaked out when you were alone with him that day at the widows."
I swallow hard, trying to digest everything. Gage wouldn't do this. He couldn't.
"If I'm meant to be with Gage, and he did cast this spell, why would my creature goddess half of me freak out then but not this time?"
He purses his lips for a second. "Freya wasn't like you," he says randomly, or at least I think it's random. "She held back. She buried her powers, but no one knows how. She never accepted who or what she was. Maybe you're starting to do that. Your creature goddess doesn't like being controlled, though. Hers never did, and in the end, she wasn't stronger because she held back; she was weaker."
How am I holding back? I basically begged the devil inside me to come out last night when Kane needed me. I was pointless without it. My darkness didn't stir, but—
"How did I do that? Last night. The scream. How did I know to do that? That was the only bit of stir my dark side would offer. I'm usually fighting to restrain it, not to release it."
He shakes his head. "I don't know. But—you don't have your phone, do you?"
My eyes widen and I start rifling through my bag, desperate to find it before Gage finds me. As soon as I do, I toss it out the window. I'm not scared of Gage, but until I know what's really going on, I can't be around him.
Chaz breathes out in relief, and he kicks the car into a higher speed to propel us far away from the dark user. I hope he's wrong. I hope Gage didn't do this.
"Where are we?" I ask as I climb out of the car in front of an old home.
"Mom's safe house," Chaz says as he joins me, grabbing our bags from the car. "We'll strategize about how to get Kane out of prison while we're here. I'll call Mom and see if she can meet us and help out. Then I'll call Drackus and Calypso."
I nod while letting out a ragged breath of exhaustion and disbelief. There's always chaos. Always. If anything happens to Kane, I don't know if I'll care what my crazy half does to the ones who hurt him.
Chapter 15
Kane
"Night stalker," a girl sings, waking me up from some pain in the ass sleeper spell cast by a fucking chanter instead of a witch. They knew I was immune to witch powers. They know a lot about me.
The little girl giggles and smiles as she ducks behind the wall of her cell, just barely staying out of sight. She can't be more than seven. What's she doing in here?
I don't have to ask where I am. I know the council wouldn't take us anywhere but their conjoined prison where the worst offenders go. Fucking politics.