Lucus took his knife from the belt of his dark jeans and held out a hand. Hekla swallowed but gave him her arm. With a nod from her, Lucus dragged the blade over the top of her forearm. It wasn’t a deep cut, but it had to hurt. The muscles around Hekla’s jaw moved, and her face went a little pale, but she stayed standing.
“You’re amazing,” I said to her.
“Thanks, bro.”
“I think you should work the spell this time, Lucus,” I said. “I need to use that epic Bow I have, so I think you’ll need to be the one working the magic to distract the demon.”
After collecting two small vials of Hekla’s gold-flecked blood, we arranged more herbs in the mortar and poured in a teaspoon.
The updated mix emitted a strange energy. “Can y’all feel that?”
Lucus’s green gaze traveled across my face. “What is it?”
“The blend has some serious vibes now.”
Hekla grinned viciously. “My blood rocks.”
Nodding, I used a towel from the cabinet to clean my hands, then turned to watch Lucus have his turn at this magic.
Lucus coated his palms in the herbs and blood, then, with his fingers slightly cupped, he pointed his hands at the demon flesh in the same manner he did when he raised vines from the ground.
The glittery gray skin immediately began to smoke.
“Ooo.” I rubbed my hands together. “That’s working way better.”
Hekla crouched. “It’s black around the edges.”
“I’m glad it works,” I said, “but I don’t know if this is enough to succeed. I’m going to look for another spell.”
With Lucus and Hekla discussing possible strategies behind me, I closed the spell book and placed my hand on the snakes that decorated the cover. They spun underneath my fingers, sending a shiver through my bones. I opened the book with a light touch, wanting the spells to come to me, urging the book to help us out.
The spell book stopped on a casting about three-fourths of the way through. Wine-colored runes swirled in lazy circles as I waited for them to become clear to me. Some morphed into the language of the caster—in this case, English—while others continued swirling but conveyed their meaning to my mage brain. The top three runes told me this spell didn’t require herbs, only shifter blood.
The edges of the central runes twisted and curled like snakes, then reconfigured themselves into English, and I could read the spell as easily as any recipe from my old cookbook at the bakery. I uncorked the vial of Hekla’s blood and held it out to Lucus.
Lucus smeared the blood along his palms and fingers. “I once watched my cousin use shifter blood to cast a spell of protection around his children.”
The metallic scent turned my stomach, and I tried to ignore the pain that tightened the skin around Lucus’s eyes.
“Was that during the war with the Mage Duke?” I asked.
“Yes. During the last of our battles,” he said.
“Repeat after me,” I instructed.
He bowed his head and watched the demon flesh.
“Blood to block
Golden bright
All to cast
Demon to fright
Just a moment
Maybe more
Beware the light
It burns the core.”
His voice was a thundering echo to mine, and the casting chamber vibrated with power. The runes set on the floor and the ley line running under it tugged at my feet, grounding me.
Hekla watched from a few feet away. “Nothing’s happening.”
A bright light washed across the chamber, amethyst like my lightning, then blazing green like Lucus’s magic, then a deep golden red like Hekla’s shifter blood.
I shut my eyes, but the light was gone almost immediately. Blinking spots from my vision, I looked for the demon flesh. It was gone.
Lucus knelt and pointed under the table.
I bent down to look. “Whoa. What the hell?” The flesh had flown back against the wall. I reached in and picked it up. It felt like a slug.
Hekla’s face appeared at my shoulder. “Is it damaged any more than it was?”
“I don’t think so.” I turned it around. The same black marks from the heating spell were there, but that was it. “What’s the story?”
Lucus pursed his lips. “It fled from the light.”
“But it’s just a chunk of demon,” I said. “It has no brain.”
“And still.” Lucus shrugged. “The spell repelled the small portion of spirit remaining in this…sample.”
Hekla was under the table rooting around. “Hey! The thing dug out part of the stone wall!”
I joined her and ran a hand around the area she indicated. “Yeah, the freakish demon chunk crumbled the rock away.” I crawled backwards, then stood. “What would that kind of reaction look like in the full-scale version of the demon?”
Lucus’s eyes narrowed. Revenge flickered in the dark green depths of his distant gaze. “Deadly.”
Although I completely understood his need to annihilate the demon, the ferocity of his stare didn’t put me at ease. There was recklessness in that look. I hoped he’d remember that I needed him to live through this, revenge or not.
20 Hekla
While the rest of the castle rested, Hekla found an abandoned chamber in the northern side. She needed to play with her ability to shift and see if she could learn to control it. A dusty sideboard with intricately painted cabinets stood along the wall under a faded tapestry that showed a field of white flowers. Two sturdy-looking wooden chairs guarded a window that looked out on the river flowing at the back of the hill. Though blanketed in dust, it was a nice room, quiet and seemingly untouched for ages.
Hekla rubbed her temples, her brain wild with images of Kaippa’s grin, Sebastian dead on the street, Oliver’s tear-streaked cheeks, and Coren’s face lit purple beside her drawn bow and magic arrow. Breathing out, she forced all her worries and thoughts into an imaginary box and shut the lid firmly.
“Later,” she told all of it. “Right now, I have to focus.”
Closing her eyes, she recalled the feeling of the snow, the
