"Imprison?" I repeated sharply. "So I was right? We're trapped. Sarina tricked us."
"No, no. You misunderstand." Lust traced the knuckle of his forefinger against my jaw with an indulgent smile, as if petting a cat. I hated it... yet the caress of his heat along my skin calmed my heart that had just lurched into a feverish pounding. The spark of panic evaporated. "These are just the outer talismans that stabilize the trap, like weighted stones around the edge of a net. You would find that if you try to leave this place carrying one of these, it will slip out your hands and remain here. These talismans are bound to this site, but harmless to us. Rather, it means... that something else has been caught. I would guess that the true center of the prison is actually far below our feet."
He looked down, and so did I. We stared at the unassuming floor for a moment.
"A prison below our feet," I said slowly. "Okay... and would Sarina know this? That something's trapped inside it, wherever it is?"
"Without a doubt. She is the Grand Master, after all. It would be difficult to conceal something of that magnitude from a lord of the estate. She lives right here on the fringes of it, after all."
"My mom never mentioned any of that."
"Then perhaps it's not her work entirely. Other witches could have come and gone. Or perhaps the Grand Master herself is scheming something. Functionally, she's the same as any Coven Grand Witch, with magic of her own even if it looks dissimilar to the kind you know. With the right tools and knowledge, along with skill and talent, she could do something like this."
"Okay. Fine." I glanced back at the entrance. We were far enough from it that I doubted anyone could hear us from the hallway if they eavesdropped, but I lowered my voice a little more anyway. "So this prison. How do we know what's inside it? Is there a way to tell?"
"No. Well... we could guess. The talismans like this one should be a hint, the stronger ones closer to the heart of the trap even more so. The strength of the markings would hint how powerful the imprisoned one is. It's Enochian, after all. They grow and change according to resistance. So if these little trinkets on the very outermost fringes" — he tapped my hand, the one closed around the golden talisman — "have grown considerably, then we can infer that the resistance is great. Therefore, the prisoner is strong. But pity. The symbols are Enochian. Even if I weren't weakened now, there's no telling how much of it I could decipher."
"Enochian?" I loosened my fist and inspected the talisman again. As before, the engraved markings shimmered and appeared to move, but now that I looked more closely, there were far more than I'd first noticed. No, wait. Those in the corner... They definitely hadn't been there before. "It's changing right now," I said, urgency creeping into my voice. "Look. This is a new one. Infiltrate. And this one, it just popped up. I saw it form just now. So I wasn't imagining it — they're moving. See? This one appeared just now while I was talking. The symbol for strength."
Lust raised one eyebrow. "You can read them?"
"Yes?"
"What a surprise... and a delight." He uncurled my fingers the rest of the way so the talisman lay flat on my palm. "Tell me, how much of it can you read?"
His especially pleased and intrigued tone made me nervous, especially when he didn't explain himself. Anything that could make him so happy had a moderate chance of meaning bad news for me, if it affected our contract Dominance in any way. But for now, I had no choice but to cooperate. Wasting time demanding more explanations could cost me dearly.
"I can't read all of it," I admitted. "But maybe half? And look. There are more symbols coming out, but these ones look embossed, not engraved. Are these things supposed to change that quickly? Is that what you meant by 'adapting'? I thought magic artifacts were supposed to be stable. The more fluid they are, the weaker they are."
"Yes, with some uncommon relics being the exception. But Enochian is the First Language, and it has a power that other tongues don't. All other languages are transient in nature and can disappear if the last speaker of them dies, but Enochian was never invented. It already existed, and has permanence. Unfortunately, almost no one can read it, much less exercise its power. The gifted few who not only read the language but wield it are very, very special, so this talisman is a curiosity. Your mother even managed to inscribe living Enochian symbols in here by hand, so she was very special indeed. And evidently, so are you."
"Must be just a Solaria thing, or a scholar thing. I don't know. I could read it from when I was small... I think. I don't remember ever learning it, but at some point they must have taught me. How else would I know it?"
"The Solaria bloodline has always been closer to the First Language than others, but it's no guarantee of inheriting the gift of comprehending it. Enochian cannot simply be taught. Mundane knowledge alone isn't enough. At best, a privileged few can recite a limited, memorized vocabulary to produce powerful spells, but it's rare to find anyone who can truly read and understand it. Even rarer to find one who can fluently speak the tongue. Rarest of all are the ones who can write it and engineer spells like this one."
He tapped the talisman, and I frowned, skeptical. "If you can both read and speak it fluently, why wouldn't you be able to write it too? You already know the symbols if you're capable of reading them, and you know the lingual structure if you can speak it. Nothing's stopping you from writing it, too."
"True for man-made languages, as every one of them is but a shadow of the First. But not true for Enochian. It has a power all its own and demands the same of any who partake. I knew you were unmatched from the moment I first saw you, but this is beyond even my expectations." He licked his lips, crimson eyes gleaming. "A queen of queens. Truly worthy."
This again. Whatever. Moving on. "So this thing. What does it specifically mean for us? Is it possible it's containing the Shard you mentioned?"
"Yes. Very likely, in fact."
"Then what should be our next move? I can ask Sarina about it, but if she's not in our camp, then it's just giving her fuel to act against us. She could report me to the Coven at any time, and you keep saying you're not at your best, so I don't want to bet on our chances if they decide to restrain us after all. There's got to be more than a hundred of them. And you can't teleport us away again like you did with the hunters, can you?"
"I might be able to muster up the strength... with your help." His eyes raked down my body, half-hooded. "But it would be futile. With the Shard's existence attracting me to this area by force, we wouldn't get very far. A meter or two, maybe."
"That won't work then." I clenched my jaw, frustration building. "I don't know if Sarina's a friend or an enemy. Why would she willingly trap a demonic presence under her temple? Demon summoning alone is off-limits unless you have proper rank and clearance, and you can't bind one without a permit from your country's Coven. I don't even know what the requirements would be to indefinitely imprison one." I turned the talisman over in my palm. "Unless whichever Coven has authority over this area allowed it and just kept it quiet all this time. Maybe my mom was sworn to secrecy, too. We have no way of knowing unless we ask Sarina directly, and she might lie anyway. I would never know. So what do we do?"
When Lust remained silent, I looked up, searching his face for a hint. What I found was a terrifyingly pleased smile as he burned holes in me with his stare, locking my gaze in place with his.
A streak of ice-cold alarm bolted through me, shocking the common sense back into my brain. Shit!
"I'm not asking for your permission to do anything!" I snapped, the words tumbling out in a rush like seashells dumped on sharp rocks. "Don't misunderstand! I'm asking for your input, nothing else. I still have the final say on what we do and how we do it. Got it?"
I waited for him to brush me off with a little chuckle like he always did. No big deal. I had caught myself just in time, so no harm done. My state of mind was as in-control as ever. A little slip-up like that was nothing. The contract still upheld my mastery and that was that—
I started when Lust slipped his fingers into my hair. My reaction was too slow. His thumb skimmed the shell of my ear as he raked my tresses back, and the grin he wore shrank with no warning. The pleasure on his face was no less obvious, though. He practically glowed with sinister light as he leaned in, fingertips tracing down to the side of my neck. I stepped back in a hurry when I realized what he was searching for, but it was too late. His hand snaked around in a flash, cupping the back of my neck and anchoring me in place with dangerous strength.
His thumb slid up, found my pulse... rested on it.
There was no way he wouldn't feel how fast it drummed against my skin.
"Fluttering like a little bird," he murmured. "Oh, Sable. I'd love to cage you. Imagine all the things I could do to you. And you would learn to beg me for it, night and day."
"Don't kid yourself. Won't happen."
His smile widened, betraying the slightest gleam of white teeth. "I can be patient. For my little queen, I've waited this long. I can wait a little longer. It is inevitable."
The heat flowing through me from his palm — from everywhere — was definitely his aura, but to demand he stop touching me would only prove I couldn't resist it. Hell, no. He thought he was so clever, or maybe he thought I was stupid just because I never had a complete witch's education. He had another thing coming. Sable Solaria was not an idiot. Nor was I a weakling.
I relaxed and let out a stealthy exhale to steady myself. With a burst of willpower, I finally managed to lift my chin and fix him with a defiantly flat glare. "How about we stay on topic? The trap, and Sarina. How would you advise me?"
He chuckled. His soft laughter imprinted itself on my brain a little more each time I heard it. If only I could arbitrarily order him to never do it again.
"Why, my Sable. The answer is obvious. We should go investigate the trap and its prisoner ourselves."