For a Few Demons More

symbolism and intent. If you don't draw it from start to finish, then I'll be the one who gets all the incoming calls— and, Rachel, I like you, but I'm not going to do that.'

I winced. 'Sorry.'

She smiled, but I caught a grimace when she didn't realize I was watching. Ceri was the nicest person I knew, giving treats to children and squirrels and being polite to door-to-door solicitors, but she had little patience when it came to teaching. Her abrupt temper didn't mix well with my scattered concentration and haphazard study habits.

Flushing, I set my plate aside and slid the cool, sinking-into-my-legs feeling of my scrying mirror onto, my lap. I wasn't hungry anymore, and Ceri's impatience was making me feel stupid. I reached for my magnetic chalk, nervous. 'I'm not very good at this,' I muttered.

'Which is why you're doing it in chalk, then etching it in,' she said. 'Go on, let's see it.'

I hesitated, looking at the big blank expanse of glass. Crap.

'Come on, Rache!' Jenks coaxed, dropping down to land on the mirror. 'Just follow me.' Wings going full tilt, he started to pace in a wide circle.

I arranged myself to follow his lead, and Ceri said, 'Pentagram first.'

I jerked my hand from the glass. 'Right.'

Jenks looked up at me as if in direction, and I felt a sinking sensation.

Ceri set her plate down, her disgust obvious. 'You don't know a thing about this, do you?'

'Jeez, Ceri,' I complained, watching Jenks flit furtively to steal the smear of honey on Ceri's spoon. 'I haven't actually finished any ley-line classes. I know my pentagrams suck dishwater, and I have no idea what those symbols mean or how to draw them.' Feeling dumb, I grabbed my wineglass—the white wine, not the red Ceri had brought out—and took a sip.

'You shouldn't drink when you work magic,' Ceri said.

Frustrated, I set the glass down almost hard enough to spill. 'Then why is it out here?' I said, a shade too loudly.

Jenks eyed me in warning, and I puffed my air out. I didn't like feeling stupid.

'Rachel,' the woman said softly, and I grimaced at the chagrin in her voice. 'I'm sorry. I shouldn't expect you to have the skills of a master when you're only starting out. It's just…'

'… a stupid pentagram,' I finished for her, trying to find the humor in it.

She reddened. 'Actually, it's merely that I wanted to get this done tonight.'

'Oh.' Embarrassed, I looked at the blank mirror, my reflection a gray shadow peering back at me. It was going to look like crap. I knew it.

'The wine is a carrier for the invocation blood, also washing the salt off the mirror when you're done,' Ceri said, and my gaze went to the bucket, now understanding why she'd brought it out. 'The salt acts as a leveler, removing the excess intent in the lines you scribe in the glass as well as bringing the acidic content of the yew back to a neutral state.'

'Yew is toxic, not acidic,' I said, and she nodded apologetically.

'But it will etch the glass once you coat it in your aura.'

Euwie. It was one of those curses. Great. 'I'm sorry for barking at you,' I said softly, my gaze flicking to her and away. 'I don't know what I'm doing, and I don't like it.'

She smiled and leaned across the table between us. 'Would you like to know the meaning behind the symbols?'

I nodded, feeling my tension ease. If I was going to do this, I really ought to.

'They are pictorial representations of ley line gestures,' she said, her hand moving as if signing in American Sign Language. 'See?'

She made a fist, her thumb tight to her curled index finger, angling her hand so that her thumb pointed to the ceiling. 'This is the first one,' she added, then pointed to the first symbol on the cheat sheet lying on the table. It was a circle bisected by a vertical line. 'The thumb's position is indicated by the line,' she added.

I looked from the figure to my fist, turning my hand until they matched. Okay.

'This is the second one,' she said, making the 'okay' sign, angling her hand so the back of it was parallel with the floor.

I mimicked her, feeling a stirring of understanding as I looked at the circle with three lines coming out the right side. My thumb and index finger made a circle, my three fingers stretching out like the lines fanned out from the figure's right side. I glanced at the next figure of a circle with a horizontal line, and before she could shift her fingers, I made a fist, turning my hand so my thumb was parallel to the floor.

'Yes!' Ceri said, following the gesture with her own. 'And the next would be…?'

Thinking, I compressed my lips and stared at the symbol. It looked like the previous one, with a finger coming out one side. 'Index finger?' I guessed, and when she nodded, I stuck a finger out, earning a smile.

'Exactly. Try making the gesture with your pinkie, and you can see how wrong it feels.'

I tucked my index finger back and stuck out my pinkie. It did feel wrong, so I went back to the proper gesture. 'And this one?' I asked as I looked at the figure in the last space. There was a circle, so I knew that something was touching my thumb, but which finger?

'Middle one,' Ceri offered, and I made the gesture, grinning.

She leaned back, still smiling. 'Let's see them.'

More confident now, I made the five gestures, reading them as I traveled around the pentagram clockwise. This wasn't so hard.

'And this middle figure?' I asked, looking at the long baseline with three rays coming up from the center equidistant from each other. It was where my hand had been when I contacted Minias earlier, and by the looks of it, my fingertips would hit the ends of the lines.

'That's the symbol for an open connection,' she said. 'As if an open hand. The inner circle touching the pentagram is our reality, and the outer circle is the ever-after. You're bridging the gap with your open hand. There is an alternate pattern with a series of symbols scribed between the two circles that will hide your location and identity, but it's more difficult.'

Jenks snickered, still trying to scrape honey off Ceri's spoon. 'I bet it's harder, too,' he said. 'And we do want to finish before the sun comes up.'

I ignored him, feeling like I might be starting to understand this.

'And the pentagram is simply to give structure to the curse,' Ceri added, trashing my good mood. Oh, yeah. I forgot it was a curse. Mmmm, goody.

Seeing my grimace, Ceri leaned over the table and touched my arm. 'It is a very small curse,' she said, her attempt to console me making things worse. 'It's not evil. You're disturbing reality, and it leaves a mark, but truly, Rachel, this is a small thing.'

It's going to lead to worse, I thought, then forced a smile. Ceri didn't have to help me with this. I should be thankful. 'Okay, pentagram first.'

Wings clattering, Jenks landed on the glass, shivering once before he put his hands on his hips and peered up at me. 'Start here,' he said, walking away, 'and just follow me.'

I looked at Ceri to see if this was allowed, and she nodded. My shoulders eased, then tightened. The chalk felt almost slippery as it skated over the mirror, like a wax pencil on hot stone. I held my breath waiting for a tingling of rising power, but there was nothing.

'Now over here,' Jenks said when he lifted into the air and dropped down at a new spot.

I played connect the dots, my lip finding its way between my teeth until a pentagram took up nearly the entire mirror. My back was feeling the strain, and I straightened. 'Thanks, Jenks,' I said, and he lifted up, his complexion red.

'No prob,' he said as he went to sit on Ceri's shoulder.

'Now the symbols,' Ceri prompted, and I reached for the top triangle, being careful not to smear my other lines. 'Not that one!' she exclaimed before the chalk could touch the glass, and I jumped. 'The lower left,' she added, smiling to soften her voice. 'When you scribe, you want to rise clockwise.' She made a fist, her eyes going to the cheat sheet. 'This one first.'

I glanced at the diagram, then the pentagram. Taking a breath, I held the chalk tighter.

'Just draw it, Rache,' Jenks complained, and as the hush of cars shushing against wet pavement soothed