by Ashley Meira
“Of course, Councilor Pierce,” a male voice said. One of the Inquisitors, I assumed. “However, it is still possible she is hiding her magic. Due diligence is required.”
“And by ‘due diligence,’ you mean throwing her in the Black Citadel to torture her until you’re satisfied,” Adam spat. “Is this what you do, father? Sit on your gilded throne and condemn people to pain and misery? She’s an innocent woman. One who just saved your daughter’s life at the near expense of her own.”
“He’s right,” Fiona cried. She’d crossed the threshold into hysterical, and her words came out in fevered, near unintelligible, pitch. “She’s just a mercenary. She has no magic. None at all. She can’t be Fireborn. Please, leave her alone!”
“Ma’am,” another male voice said, sounding closer than the last. “You need to step aside.”
“No,” she said, her voice quivering. “She’s innocent. I won’t let you take her.”
Fiona’s grasp left my arm, and the sounds of a scuffle hit my ears. Were they hurting her? My fingers twitched at the thought, and I was able to push myself up with minimal effort. We were outside. I was sitting on a stone table in Mr. Pierce’s courtyard, near the stairs.
“Stay away from her,” I rasped out.
The Inquisitors turned to me, apprehension in their gaze. One of the men was pale, with short brown hair that reminded me of Ollie’s. The other was black and had his head shaved. They both wore the purple robes with royal blue accents that comprised the Inquisitor’s uniform. The brunette had a hand on Fiona’s shoulder, but he quickly released her so he could deal with me.
“Enough!” Mr. Pierce stepped forward. A cool hand glanced against mine as he stood by me. “I hired this young lady and can personally vouch for her.”
“Councilor—”
“I understand the law,” he continued, giving the brunette Inquisitor a sharp look. “However, understand my predicament. It would be terrible for a man of my reputation to be rumored of cavorting with a Fireborn, suspected or otherwise.”
“We will try our best to keep things quiet—”
“You will keep things quiet. And you will conduct your investigation with the utmost haste.” Mr. Pierce cast a stern look over both Inquisitors, who shrunk under his gaze. “No harm is to come to this girl. Inquisitors are meant to be protectors, not tyrants. Am I understood?”
“Yes, Councilor Pierce,” the black man said. “We have no desire to keep Ms. Sinclair incarcerated any longer than necessary. However, we must take her to the Black Citadel for mandatory questioning and testing.”
I tensed at the thought. I knew what happened when Fireborns were convicted, but I didn’t know what they did to them beforehand. Normal criminals were questioned at the local Guild or Inquisitor office, sent to trial, then put in the Black Citadel if convicted. Why couldn’t they question me here? And what ‘tests’ were they going to run? Unease slithered through my veins, turning my blood to ice.
It was nice to know I could still feel something after having the very essence of my soul ripped away.
To my surprise, Mr. Pierce placed his hand over mine and leaned forward to whisper in my ear. “This is the best I can do, Ms. Sinclair. The laws are clear. Even I can’t change them to my whims.”
I nodded, too numb to protest. This was awful. The moment I began to feel again, the hole inside me sapped what energy I had.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around me. I let out a gasp at the heat. Adam was warm, warmer than I could ever remember. Being Fireborn must have muted the feel of him. My grip was weak, but I clung to him, taking in the scent of his cologne with a frown. I knew he wore it — I’d seen the bottle in his bathroom — but the small amount he used was drowned out by the evergreen scent of his magic.
Magic I could no longer sense.
Even Fiona’s cotton candy scent was absent. My throat constricted. Pain and numbness fought for dominance in my body, leaving me cold and miserable. I wanted all of this to be over.
“I’m sorry,” Adam said, his voice cracking. “So, so sorry. If I had any idea what was going to happen, I never would have used the gem to bring you here.”
The Inquisitors stepped forward. “Mr. Pierce—”
Adam whipped around. “Back. Off.”
The look he gave them must have been terrifying, because the brunette stepped back and the other man bowed his head.
“I’ll keep Fiona and the others out of this,” Adam whispered into my hair. “I’ll keep them safe, and I will do everything I can to get you out of there as quickly as possible. Sophia, I am so sorry—”
“Not your fault,” I whispered. “Never.”
He didn’t reply, and I tried really hard to pretend the moisture sliding down my neck was his sweat.
The Inquisitors gave us another minute before stepping forward. The brunette stood behind his partner, cowed by Adam’s presence. Though the other man was also affected, he didn’t let it interfere with his job. He walked up to me and held out a thin golden band. I held my arm out wordlessly, jolting as the cold metal of the inhibitor bangle clamped onto my wrist. Since they completely blocked a mage’s magic, they were supposed to feel like death around my wrist. Joke was on them. My magic was gone. I felt like death even without the bangle
Forever. The word echoed in my mind, pushing tears from my eyes. I held them at bay. The last thing I needed was the Inquisitors thinking I was crying because the bangle had done something.
My feet hit the ground silently as the Inquisitors moved to stand on either side of me. The bald man kept a steady grip on my shoulder as he led me downstairs toward their car.
A few days ago, I’d have fallen to my knees and emptied my lunch at the sight of an Inquisitor. Today, I just stared blankly ahead. I was still apprehensive about being taken to the Black Citadel and what would happen once we were there, but it was muted — white noise in the back of my mind that couldn’t filter through the hole in my gut. I looked down to make sure my insides were intact, but I knew they weren’t. My body looked whole, but there was a cavernous pit where my Fire should have been.
And yet, through the profound emptiness, I felt a sense of something else. Peace? Hope? It took me a few more steps to realize it was both.
I looked over my shoulder to see Adam and Fiona staring after me. They were safe. Charlotte was safe. We’d stopped Trixie and killed Gadot. Those were good things.
A thought had come to me when I was healing Charlotte. It was a long shot, nearly impossible, but it wouldn’t leave my mind. Bane said Fireborn parents would sacrifice their Fire to save their children. Maybe, just maybe, my parents had done that. Maybe they’d lost their powers and couldn’t find us because Nicholas had hidden us away. It wasn’t like they could ask for help finding Fireborn, nor could they track our magic themselves. Maybe they were out there. Maybe they were still looking. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
The hollowness remained around my soul, but I was alive. I was here, standing on my own two feet, living a life I was never supposed to have. Fiona’s eyes were brimming with tears as she clung to Adam, looking like the lost girl I’d seen eight years ago. Adam wasn’t crying, but his eyes were reddened and his jaw was tense.
It felt impossible, but I managed to give them a small smile. He said he would get me out. The reassurance buoyed me, but I knew it wasn’t truly necessary. Sure, it was wonderful to know I had a hero who’d do anything to rescue me, but as I took in the chill of England’s winter winds and felt the Inquisitor’s firm grip on my shoulder, I knew I’d be okay.
After all I’d been through, I was sure that I could be my own hero.
Thank you!
I really hope you enjoyed Magic Lost! Word of mouth and reviews are vital for any author to succeed. As an independent author who does it all on their own, these reviews are twice as important. If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review wherever you purchased it. Even a few lines sharing your thoughts on this story would be extremely helpful for both other rea
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Author’s Note
Hi there! I hope you enjoyed reading Magic Lost — I had a lot of fun writing it. Magic Unbound is the second to last book in this series, and I hope this book has done a good job of setting the stage. The support I’ve been receiving for this series has blown me away. I put a lot of myself into these books. It’s heartwarming to know people are enjoying them.
Hopefully, the ending to this book hasn’t driven you up the wall. The next book will be coming out mid to late April, so you won’t have to wait very long to see what happens next.
A lot of connections were made in Magic Lost — and a lot of new loose ends were created. Answers to those questions will come in the final two books, along with more mysteries. Sophia and her friends have some big hurdles to overcome, but they have each other to lean on.
I mentioned in Hidden Magic how characters are what keep me reading a book. The same is true for keeping me writing. I love Sophia and her sister. Adam, Ollie…. They’re all a part of me, and I’d spend the rest of my life writing about them if I could. But I won’t, because they’d probably reach through the screen and kill me if I tortured them for that long ;)
Following the final two books in this series, I’ll be working on Fiona’s story. Some of the groundwork for that has been laid out here, and I want to make sure it lives up to the hype. Fiona’s series will be able to stand on its own, but there will be connections to Sophia’s series, so it’ll be the best of both worlds for past and new readers.
Before we say goodbye, I want to thank you one more time. As of today, there are 42 five-star reviews for Hidden Magic and 24 five-start reviews for Smoke and Magic! That’s so amazing to me. Hidden Magic itself has 60 reviews, and I hope we can work together to reach 100 soon!
So, thank you for reading my books and supporting me. I’ll see you in the next book!
Also by Ashley Meira
The Spire Chronicles
Hunter, Hunted
Ties That Bind
King’s Gambit
Shadowlands
Lay Me Down (Coming soon)
My Soul To Keep (Coming soon)
Touched By Magic: Dragon
Hidden Magic
Smoke and Magic
Magic Lost
Magic Unbound (Coming soon)
Magic Rising (Coming soon)
Touched By Magic: Fae
Coming soon
