A Taste of Mercy (A Recipe for Disaster Novel 2)

A sharp, brittle edge

I was going to Hell, again. And I had just escaped from there not even a whole day ago too. Even worse, I hadn’t even done anything to deserve it. Other than survive a Demon Lord capturing me, torturing me and trying to dominate my will, and then I tried to burn him alive with Wild Magic. I also managed to kill his protégé and I may have killed his current blood slave. He had kidnapped my sister and wanted to add me to his collection for some reason so I'm going to be gunning for him in a big way, but I wasn’t going to Hell with Marcus. Another Demon Lord named Sebastian was taking me to his territory, all in an attempt to protect me and everyone around me because in my attempts to gain my freedom and survival, my magic had gone rogue.

                 I’m Callahan Orenda and back when my life made sense, things were a lot less like a soap opera. I worked as a fitness instructor doing nothing much that really mattered and in my free time I danced at a club called Faerie Tales, which was owned and operated by my friend Amanda and her husband Dominic. I had liked my nice, quiet, responsibility free life and the only things that used to give me trouble were all related to my family, and the Power Floods, but everyone gets bugged by those. My identical twin sister is named Cassandra and in our modern world of magic, she’s a very important person; she’s a Healer with no peer. The Council of Casters; a nameless, faceless body of crotchety old men and women, decided that having a Caster like Cassie be a spokesperson for the Ontario Caster Community would be a good way to convince the larger majority of Normal humans that we Casters are relatively harmless. Because about fifty years prior to my birth, the parallel worlds opened into each other and suddenly myths, legends and magic were real. Now we humans get to play nice with angels and demons, and all the creatures of Faery and in return humans developed latent magical skills.

                I, for example, used to be able to manipulate the four elements. I could pour Power into manifestations of the elements and use them to my purpose but while I was in Marcus’ possession, he forced my guardian Edward to torture me. Cassie and I are orphans and Edward was close with our father so when we were born and our father did a disappearing act, Edward was stuck raising us. But it turned out that our father hadn't just disappeared, he had been kidnapped by the Demon Lord Marcus for some villainous, unknown reason. And this year Marcus came for Cassie too, but instead had capture me by turning Edward into a blood slave. Being betrayed by my guardian wasn't bad enough though; because I wasn't the twin Marcus had originally wanted Edward used a pain crop to torture me for Cassie's location. The pain crop is a magical tool that damages both flesh and magic. Eventually I was able to escape, after almost dying and I was reunited with my twin Cassie.

                Before I could even recover from what had happened to me though, Marcus and Edward were able to follow me to Cassie. They were trying to capture her all along, but now Marcus wanted us both. During the exchange of bargaining positions, I was forced into a blood bond with Marcus and he tried to take my mind like he had with Edward. However, with the help of my friends Alex and Nikka, I resisted and then I retaliated. I struck out with everything I had in my magical arsenal but unfortunately I was still damaged by the torture and my magic went Wild. It would be bad enough on its own if I could only just call the elements but to make matters worse, I have a very unique second Gift. I can hook into anyone and borrow their gifts, as long as they are in reach. As a Sensate, I can see all magical energies around me, with a little Wild Magic added to that it wouldn't be so bad. However, adding Wild Magic to my ability to hook into others and suddenly my Magic was trying to hook into everyone around me and cause them to go Wild too. Even with my best efforts I failed to stop Marcus and Edward from taking Cassie and now I was a danger to those who were left that I cared about.

                “You expect me to just let you take Callahan with you to the Granite Realms?” Alex, the shape Changer leader of Ottawa scoffed. Although I wasn't sure what it was between him and me now, I knew that at best it was complicated.