Kaecilius scrambled to explain. "I've had some insights in my practice lately. Your influence, actually — I wanted to read more."
As he spoke, he subtly shifted the Book of Cagliostro behind his back.
Hermione crossed her arms, tilted her head, and looked at him with a half-smile. "I have zero interest in becoming a follower of Dormammu. Don't you dare pin that on me."
Kaecilius's pupils shrank. Then he flung his hand out.
The world around them twisted and folded in on itself.
His eyes went cold. "This is the Mirror Dimension. Nothing from the real world can reach us here."
His voice dropped low. "I have no grudge against you. I didn't want to make you an enemy."
"But since you've stumbled onto my secret — don't blame me for what comes next."
As the Mirror Dimension shifted around them, the mark of the Dark Dimension surfaced on Kaecilius's forehead.
He had spent years at Kamar-Taj, deliberately blind to the outside world , but even he knew this girl was nothing like she appeared. Anyone the Ancient One chose was no ordinary person.
Still, he had drawn power from Dormammu. Confidence flooded through him, almost intoxicating.
In his mind, no one in this world could touch him. No one except the Ancient One. Even something as advanced as the Mirror Dimension bent easily to his will when the dark power flowed through him.
What Kaecilius didn't realize was this: every time he borrowed from Dormammu, the darkness ate a little more of his soul. Bit by bit. Until there would be nothing left , and he would be Dormammu's slave in every sense of the word.
He condensed a transparent blade in his hand and drove it toward Hermione, already picturing her falling.
"Petrificus Totalus."
The next instant, he snapped to rigid attention and toppled straight to the floor.
"Why do all you sorcerers love getting up close and personal," Hermione muttered, then fished an alchemy hammer out of her pocket. "You want close combat? Fine."
She walked over to Kaecilius , who still hadn't worked out what had happened to him , and went to work on his face with the little hammer, muttering with every swing: "Close combat, you said. Close combat. Close combat. Close combat..."
She only stopped once his face was thoroughly bruised and swollen.
A light flick of her wand, and the twisted, folded space collapsed.
CRACK ,
They were back in the Kamar-Taj library.
The backlash from having his spell forcibly broken hit Kaecilius all at once. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, swayed, and went down.
He pressed a hand to his chest and stared up at Hermione. Disbelief. And beneath it, unmistakably, fear.
"You , you —"
He couldn't finish. He kept starting the word and getting nowhere.
He couldn't wrap his mind around it. His dark power , the power he'd staked everything on , had crumbled like paper. And this was power borrowed directly from Dormammu, Lord of the Dark Dimension. Shattered by a girl.
It overturned everything he thought he knew.
Hermione looked at his expression , the face of a man who'd just seen a ghost , and laughed despite herself.
She stepped closer and looked down at him, something faintly mocking in her eyes. "What's the matter, great follower of Dormammu? Already done?"
Kaecilius gritted his teeth against the pain in his chest and tried to push himself up.
"Your power." His voice came out raw. "What is it? Where did you borrow it from?"
In his mind, there was no other explanation. She had to be drawing from some dimension, same as him. Nothing else could account for it.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You know, I've noticed something about you dimension sorcerers , is 'borrowing power' really the only concept you have room for up there?"
"Borrowing from this one, borrowing from that one, all day long. What is this, a competition for who can run up the biggest tab?"
She reached into her pocket, pulled out a hard candy, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
"So what," she said, words slightly muffled around the candy, "Dormammu told you 'hand over your phone, I'll cover the upgrade,' and you actually thought the power was yours?"
"Borrowed things have to be paid back. With compound interest."
Even she had to earn her magic the hard way, through her own painstaking Dark Harvest...
Kaecilius stared at her. Unwillingness and disbelief warred in his eyes.
"Impossible!" The word tore out of him. "Without dimensional power, how could you have this kind of strength? That is impossible!"
"I'm different." Hermione put her hands on her hips, and there was genuine pride in her voice. "I'm a witch. I cultivate my own magic. I'm not a middleman like you lot."
Then she noticed the black-purple spreading across his face between the mouthfuls of blood, and her tone shifted , not soft, but serious.
"Don't get too attached to power someone else lent you. You can feel it already, can't you? The darkness has been eating into your soul."
"You didn't notice before because you were healthy , you could still make the payments. But now you're badly hurt, and the ban , Dormammu isn't going to just let that slide. He's calling in the debt right now. Siphoning your soul."
Kaecilius's face went the color of ash.
He could feel it. His life force draining away like sand through an hourglass, fast and unstoppable. And worse than that: a tearing sensation from somewhere deep inside him. An invisible hand, reaching into the core of him, dragging his soul toward a darkness with no bottom.
"You're right..."
His voice was barely a rasp. Trembling. The despair in it was real.
He knew she wasn't lying.
Dormammu , the one he had worshipped, the dark lord he had given everything for , was devouring him. Mercilessly. Right now.
"Why..." The words came out ragged. "Why does the Ancient One draw so much dark power... and nothing happens to her?"
He couldn't make sense of it. The same borrowed power. Why did she walk away untouched while he paid for it with everything?
Hermione gave him a look. The kind that said are you actually serious right now.
"The Ancient One? She's a professional deadbeat. She has the skill to never pay it back. Do you?"
The despair in his eyes settled into something final.
He understood.
The Ancient One could wield dark power because she was strong enough to break Dormammu's rules entirely. She was beyond his reach. And Kaecilius , Kaecilius had always been just a pawn. Something to be used and discarded.
"Am I... going to die..."
His voice had gone thin. His eyes were losing focus.
He knew the answer. The backlash from the broken spell had already done its work. He didn't have long.
"No." The word came out desperate. "I don't want to die."
He struggled, reaching for something to hold onto, but his body was lead and his thoughts were dissolving.
"I followed Dormammu... for this... for immortality..."
The words came in fragments. His eyes were full of it , the rage of being cheated, the grief of having no one to blame but himself.
He had betrayed Kamar-Taj. He had given himself to the Dark Dimension. All of it, every sacrifice, every line he crossed , for the promise of living forever.
And Dormammu had been a lie from the beginning.
"Immortality?"
Hermione spoke, cutting through his spiral.
"You should have said something sooner." She walked over, crouched down in front of him, and looked at him with a calm, easy smile. "If immortality is what you want, why go all the way to Dormammu for it?"
She tilted her head.
"I know how."
➤ Next: Kidnapping