Seized: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Thrice Cursed Mage Book 4) by J.A. Cipriano

gravestones that stretched like reaching, gaping monsters.
    “You may pass through,” the toad said, retracting its tongue and allowing the lock to fall from the gate. It hit the dead earth with a thud and lay there like a corpse as the gate creaked open, inch by torturous inch. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, and I was forced to look away. Even still, the sound grated on my brain.
    “Well, it worked,” Marvin said solemnly fingering the straight razor his sister had used to slit her own throat. “Looks like we get a bonus.” Then he rolled up his sleeves and sliced open his dead sister’s stomach.
     

Chapter 11
    “Oh, come on, don’t look at me like that,” Marvin said, running one bloody hand through his hair so it left streaks of glistening red clinging to his spikes. “It’s a thing we do.” He pointed the Wendy doll he’d torn from his sister’s stomach at us. “Come on, sis, tell ‘em.”
    “It’s a thing we do,” Wendy said, looking at each of us with dull, wooden eyes. It was weird because even though I’d seen Marvin do the same thing, and been told he was inhabited by Wendy’s brother, I’d never really put it together. Now, looking at Wendy trapped within the body of a wooden ventriloquist doll, something in me felt cold and empty. I couldn’t imagine living like that under any circumstance, and yet they did, in their own weird way. It was almost enough to make me feel sorry for them. Almost.
    “See,” Marvin replied, gesturing at us with the doll triumphantly before shoving her violently into the backpack and slinging it over his shoulders. “So who’s hungry? I could definitely go for some tacos and beer.”
    I won’t say that my stomach lurched at the thought of food while looking at the bleeding corpse of Wendy upon the scale, but it was a near thing. Still, the idea of a drink or seven sounded pretty good. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure that was going to be on the table until after we’d gotten out of Hell.
    “I didn’t sign up for this shit,” Jenna said, glaring daggers at Vitaly who looked pale, even for him. “This was supposed to be a simple in and out job.”
    “I am in agreement.” The big man rubbed his bald head with one hand. “Let us finish quickly.”
    “Come on guys, don’t be like that. We’re a team, remember? T-E-A-M,” Marvin said, spelling out the word while marching toward the gate. “Now, let’s get this show on the road. Tacos are waiting, and I haven’t eaten since football season ended.”
    “Well, next time don’t break your neck trying to jump your motorcycle over a ravine like a dumbass,” Wendy said with a shrug. “Do you think it was fun waking up in the trunk of your car and having to break into a morgue and dig you out of your own cold, dead body?”
    “You loved it,” Marvin said, reaching back and zipping the backpack closed.
    “That’s it. I’m going to shoot him,” Jenna snapped, pulling her gun and sighting it on him. “That’ll bring Wendy back, right?”
    “I think I liked your sister better,” I said, moving between him and Jenna so she wouldn’t shoot him. I had no idea what’d happen if she did, but from the look on her face, it was totally going to happen. While I didn’t like Marvin very much, I had no desire to see him lying on the ground dead. At least, you know, while Wendy was inside the backpack.
    “If you shoot me, my sister will take my place. That’s true,” Marvin said, spinning to face us just shy of the gate. “But that would also render her sacrifice moot. Her body would vanish from the scale and the gate would close.” He hopped backward past the gate. “And here I am on the other side of the gate.”
    “Is this where you suggest I just wound him?” Jenna asked, flashing me a sly grin as Vitaly walked past the both of us and disappeared through the gate after the teen.
    “Not really, no,” I said, slightly irked that I hadn’t thought of that. “I’m just glad there was a