I had known dark magic was essentially treated like devil's magic. From what Gus had told me and what little I heard (no one talked about dark magic if they didn't have to), many liked to pretend it didn't exist, even while not denying that it did. Because of that, I'd never actually seen what happens to someone who others find out use black magic. I knew it couldn't be pretty. I just had to use the Salem witch trials from my world and I probably wouldn't be far off.+
But the idea that Hal could make such a threat and the image of his warm smile that always made me feel so wanted didn't seem to mesh right in my head.
"Hal adores you," Gus continued, taking my silence as doubt. "To the point he'd let you take in a dying, red-eyed son of the devil, just because you called it your baby."