Free The Angel's Fall (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 6) by Katherine Sparrow

shifted in his throne and looked at the scuffed leather bag in his hand. “I have seen the wizard pull a great many things from this bag. But such an object? It is rare. Exceedingly rare. I never heard him mention it was an infinity bag.”
    “Who else would own one of the great treasures of the world than an immortal wizard?” I said and took a step toward Diego. “And Merlin would hardly advertise the fact of owning. He is not fool enough to want the unders of the world attacking him for his possessions.”
    “Permission to speak freely?” Lila asked.
    “Yes,” Maria snapped.
    “It’s totally definitely a bag of holding. Um, I mean, a ‘huger on the inside’ bag. I have seen him take out ridiculous things from it. Like this one time he took out a set of bagpipes and a bagpiper who was also maybe a leprechaun who Merlin was helping out. And the leprechaun said his whole family lived in one of the side branches of that thing and—”
    “Silence,” Maria ordered.
    Lila’s mouth snapped shut.
    Diego tugged on the bag’s zipper. It wouldn’t open. He tugged harder. It didn’t budge. “Convenient that we can’t look into it,” he said and raised one eyebrow.
    “I can open it,” I said, and smiled as innocently as an ancient witch could. “We did not bring it to you to have you steal it from us. There are safeguards upon it that I will lift when you are ready to make the trade. It is currently spelled so that I can open it and let you peer inside, if you wish.”
    “Marid, open the bag,” Maria ordered.
    Lila looked miserable.
    I nodded at her. “Not to worry. Do your best.”
    She snapped her fingers, and a bright bolt of magic hit the bag. She snapped them again and again, and the bag shook and rocked from the onslaught of powerful magic.
    I kept an impassive look on my face while I silently thought, please hold. Please don’t break open. Please hold. Merlin and I had worked together to cast the spells on the bag that would keep it from being opened by anyone. Lila, of course, was not just anyone.
    She kept up her offense. Tiny cracks began to grow along the bag on the far corner facing away from Diego.
    Lila paused. Her hands clenched and I could tell it took an effort to stop obeying the Queen for a moment. “You want me to keep going?” she asked. “Merlin’s really good with spells, I doubt I can—”
    “Enough,” Maria said.
    Lila smiled and lowered her hands.
    I let out a long breath.
    “May I?” I asked.
    “Marid, if the witch Morgan le Fay attempts any magic at all, remove her head from her body forcibly and quickly.”
    Lila bit her lip and nodded.
    “Not to worry, Lila,” I said. “I’m quite fond of my head where it is. I will do no magic.”
    “Meaningless,” Diego said. “Never trust Morgan’s words, only her deeds.”
    He held the bag out to me. Our eyes locked.
    “Did you know she was evil all along?” I murmured to my old friend. “Did you know she was a murderer when the two of you lived together on Earth? And did you know, Maria,” I said, glancing at the Queen, “that he never once questioned what you had done to get into Hell in the first place?”
    Diego’s face paled.
    Maria’s went red.
    “She was tricked into coming here,” Diego said.
    “Spaniard, you are too intelligent to live in this realm and believe such a thing,” I said and took Merlin’s bag from him. “None come here who do not deserve this fate. None come here who have not done some great cruelty upon the Earth.”
    Diego held my gaze. “Yet I am here.”
    “And your way would have been barred, except moments before you stood on Hell’s threshold, you tricked a young girl, a friend, into swearing her allegiance to the Queen. That is plenty evil enough to get you here.”
    Maria’s lips peeled back into a grimace. Her eyes glittered. “Who have you been speaking to, Morgan? It seems someone has filled your head with strange ideas.”
    The world pulsed and went crooked with the