Gray witch, p.4
Gray Witch, page 4
As much as I based my ideal better self on those who embodied the qualities I wanted to share, I viewed those people as innately good. I wanted to copy them, yes, but I wasn’t sure I could be them. For Aedan, who had known kindness only from his younger siblings, to model his ideals after me in any small way…
Before my emotional allergies got involved, I crushed him in a hug. “My family is your family.”
Aedan buried his face in my neck and held on for just a moment before awkwardly stepping back.
“I wouldn’t want Asa to get jealous.” He cleared his throat. “I also don’t want to get my butt kicked.”
These days, he got tossed around by Asa on the regular, but it was all in service to the greater good.
The guys’ self-defense classes were wildly popular in town, especially with teenage girls, which I’m sure had nothing to do with the hot instructors. It made me glad Asa intimidated people. I don’t think, at this point in our fascination, I would handle him handling another woman well.
Considering how Arden was hit-or-miss in her attendance, she must have felt the same about Aedan.
Goddess bless, I did not want to think about what a catastrophe that pairing would be.
“I’ll call the girls and give them a chance to yell at me instead of you.”
More and more often, they were shouldering the burden of running Hollis Apothecary on their own.
“I’ll keep an eye on them,” he promised. “And the shop.”
From his tone, I heard he would watch over the town too, which was a weight off my mind. I don’t know how I ever did this without him. If I hadn’t known he was here, I couldn’t have left Samford half as often.
“Keep an eye out for yourself too,” I warned him. “You are not expendable.” I honed my glare. “Got it?”
“Got it,” he said softly, ducking his head to conceal the vulnerability he couldn’t quite hide.
Back at the house, the guys had finished packing. Colby was mostly done too. She had gotten distracted by turning her dragon eggs in their incubation cave, which was apparently a time-sensitive deal and part of the reason why no one wanted to raise their own dragon horde when they could buy hatched adults.
One good thing about frequent deployments? We always kept a half-packed suitcase on standby.
All the last-minute items were perishable. Fresh pollen granules or bottles of sugar water. To prevent container theft—cough, Clay, cough—I started leaving the set I used to transport moth grub in the luggage between jaunts. As I grabbed for them, I discovered they had made an unwelcome friend.
Lounging on top of my bras, the grimoire lazed in my suitcase as if it had every right to be there.
“Will you bring it?”
Never taking his welcome for granted, Asa leaned against the doorframe.
A quick shower had left his silky hair too damp for his shirt, but he already wore his Bureau-issued pants and shoes. His piercings from the challenges matched nicely, so he left those in. The black stud in his ear tempted me to nibble his lobe until he made that rumble low in his throat that never failed to melt my knees.
“The wards on the house would keep it safe from the average threat, but from someone like Dad? From one of the other authors?” I hated to admit it. “They could peel back the layers like onion skin.”
“Then you should take it.” Asa noted the book’s nest and cocked an eyebrow. “How will you secure it?”
A finger pressed to my lips, I rose and dragged him into my room then shut the door behind him.
With Asa and I splitting time between each other’s bedrooms, I had magically soundproofed both.
One way only.
Little moths had no business hearing about the birds and the bees, but I had to keep an ear out for her. And Clay. Honestly? Mostly Clay. She might be the instigator, but he was her willing partner in chaos.
“I have a nasty pendant that belonged to a djinn once upon a time.” I pushed Asa down on the bed then knelt before my open closet door. “It’s a classic case of bigger on the inside than on the outside.” I cracked open the safe where I kept my dark artifacts hidden. “The djinn had an entire estate in there. It’s empty now, of course. He’s dead.”
“You killed him?”
“Me? No. I found the necklace in evidence and added it to my collection. He murdered his masters by shrinking them to the height of a pencil, cramming them into a mason jar, then letting them suffocate.”
Jewelry on my mind, I removed the mistletoe necklace Asa had given me and placed it on my dresser.
“What about the three wishes lore?”
“A trick to lure the unwitting to their dooms, as far as I can tell.” I held up a ruby the size of my pinky nail set in a gaudy baroque-style frame that added ounces to its already hefty weight. “However, djinns have a rare and peculiar type of magic. What they desire, they can manifest. That’s how they trick people into believing they have the control. The ‘master’ asks for a thing, and the djinn gives them the thing.”
“Thus the lore is proven correct in their victims’ eyes.”
“A djinn is confined to its chosen vessel for life, so it gets bored. They play with people to break up the monotony of their existence, and to get fresh air, until they decide they’ve extroverted enough for one decade and kill their ‘master’ in the gruesome fashion that most of them spent the last ten years devising for giggles.”
Those were the cases that had slid across my desk, anyway.
“How does the pendant work?”
“In theory, I read this inscription backwards, and it banishes the book inside the stone.” I showed him on the chain how the spell was written across the links, glossing over how the clasp fused after I latched it. I might also have skipped over how decapitation of the wearer was the only method of removal for the pendant, should the wearer refuse to relinquish ownership of it. “Then I read the incantation forward to release it. The big question is whether the banished object must be alive. The grimoire has some degree of sentience. So does the pendant. I can’t guarantee it’ll work, but I’ve got a hunch they’ll be BFFs.”
No black magic artifact would refuse a chance to grow in power, even if it meant combining its power.
“Worst-case scenario?”
“The book will be bound to the pendant. Forever. Or until we destroy them both.”
“Do you think it’s worth the risk?”
“The book is a knowledge-hoarding brat. I’m happy to let it decay in there. Alone. Unused. Forgotten.”
That last part I said while staring at the book, ensuring it heard the threat.
Which proved it was getting under my skin.
Books don’t have ears.
“The important thing is,” he pitched in with me, “it would keep the grimoire out of the wrong hands.”
“I’m not thrilled with the solution, but it’s not like I can call Dad to get a second opinion. The message in a bottle schtick is cute, but we don’t have time to test how long it takes for him to receive and reply. We must verify that he’s receiving as well. Until then, I can’t risk more than the same niceties he sent me.”
I ought to write him before I left, to confirm receipt if nothing else, but I wasn’t sure what to say.
“What if the pendant decides it would rather have you for a new guest?”
“Then you better get ready to rub until I pop.” I cut him a sly smile. “Out of the stone, I mean.”
“Oh,” he breathed, his voice soft, “I knew what you meant.”
On my knees, I walked to him, rested my chin on his thigh, and gazed up at him.
“It’s not too late to run.” I locked my arms around his calf. “I would hold on, so it would be awkward, but you could try, and I would fully support that.” Then I sat on his foot, wrapping my legs around his ankles. “The thing is, I love you. So, it’s kind of your fault we’re in this situation. I want the best for you, and I’m not sure that’s me, but I’m also pretty sure I would viciously murder anyone who tried to take you, so…”
“It’s my fault that your affection manifests as veiled murder threats?”
“What veil?” I grew my fingertips into talons I raked down his bare chest. “There was no veil.”
“Forgive me,” Asa murmured, eyes twinkling. “I interpreted pretty sure as wiggle room.”
“The only wiggling in this room will be me, on top of you.” I rubbed my cheek along his inner thigh. “Or you, on top of me.” I nipped him. “Any variation that involves you, me, and wiggling is okay in my book.”
“It was too late to run—” he speared his fingers through my hair, “—the moment I saw you.”
He lowered his head, his gaze intent on my lips, and kissed me slowly.
Melting at his feet, I was inching my hands down his waist when his tongue clinked against my teeth.
Desire muddying my senses, I wrote it off as my imagination.
Until the next sweep of his tongue clacked hard enough I couldn’t ignore the sensation.
“What is that?” I drew back to examine him. “What did you do?”
“Nothing.” A flush warmed his skin under my fingers. “It was done to me.”
“You’re blushing.” I cupped his jaw and pressed my thumb inside his mouth. “Show me.”
Cheeks pink verging on red, he stuck out his tongue, and it glinted at me.
“A new piercing?” I pried his jaw wider. “Is that…an actual diamond?”
Lifting his tongue, I examined the bottom of the barbell, but it was a simple daub of platinum.
“Yeth.”
“Oh.” I retreated with a sheepish grimace. “Sorry about playing dentist.”
“I don’t mind you in my mouth.”
Now it was my turn for heat to flood my face, and other areas, and my gaze dropped to his parted lips.
“When?” I fished my brain out of the gutter. “I’ve been with you all day.”
This morning, prior to the arena, he hadn’t been sporting new oral jewelry.
I would have, ahem, noticed it.
I swore I heard the splash as my brain jumped off the high dive right back into the gutter where I found it.
“I have no memory of it,” he confessed. “It must have happened prior to the challenges.”
“You expected this?” I wasn’t sure what to make of it. “I just…” I tilted my head. “Why?”
Had Asa not anticipated it, the daemon wouldn’t have sought it out. He wasn’t vain. Much.
“Rite of passage.” He tugged on an earring. “The stone is mined from the cavern under the throne room. It symbolizes my sexual awakening and increases my libido. It stimulates my sensuality, ramps my desire, and lowers my inhibitions in bed.”
“As opposed to out of bed?”
The flat look he shot me forced a chuckle out of me.
“Does it work?” I couldn’t hide my grin. “Will you spontaneously ravage me now?”
“You’re always in danger of spontaneous ravaging. This changes nothing.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” I bit my lower lip. “I wonder how it will feel when you—?”
“Rue,” Clay yelled through the door. “I know you’re in there being a pervert.”
“How does he do that?” I kicked my feet. “Just when we were getting to the good stuff.”
Laughing at my tantrum, Asa captured my mouth with his in a bruising kiss that left me tingling.
Walking my fingers up his thighs, I tapped the waistband of his pants in invitation, willing to ignore Clay.
“Ace.” Clay pounded on the door. “Be the responsible one. Put your pants back on.”
Defeated by responsibility yet again, I thumped my head into Asa’s lap, and he grunted, which, yeah.
Oops.
“How is it that the more I have you,” Asa murmured, “the more I want?”
“Easy.” I raised my head, ignoring the bulge in his pants. “You have a lot of making up to do.”
“If sex was what I wanted, I could have had it.” He smoothed his thumb over my bottom lip. “No, it’s you I can’t get enough of.”
“I’m going to write down all the sweet things you say and publish it as A Witch’s Guide to Taming Dae.” I chuckled darkly. “I might even release an illustrated edition with a chapter titled ‘Twine and You: It’s Not Just for Turkeys.’”
“I’m counting down from five,” Clay bellowed down the hall. “Then I’m coming in, ready or not.”
Bracing my palms on Asa’s knees, I pushed to my feet with an evil grin.
“Five.”
I moseyed over to the door and leaned against the wall beside it.
“Four.”
Quietly, I flipped the lock.
“Three.”
Careful not to rattle it, I gripped the doorknob.
“Two.”
I twisted hard…
“One.”
…and threw it open wide.
Shoulder braced to smash the wood, Clay sailed across the room and pinged off the opposite wall.
“Can we help you?” Asa leaned forward, elbows on knees, hiding the tent in his lap. “You look to be in a hurry.”
“Jeez, Clay.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Learn to knock.”
Clay, who had left a dent in the drywall, faced us with a thunderous scowl. “I know you heard me.”
After dusting off his shoulder, he paused to check the shaggy brown wig replacing his mohawk then resumed his huff.
“I was otherwise occupied.” I made goo-goo eyes at Asa. “All I heard was my name on his lips.”
“You are a dirty liar who lies.” He jabbed the air in front of me. “Know how I know?”
Willing to play along, I asked, “How?”
Clay set his index fingers to either side of his head. “No horns, no horny daemon.”
Thanks to a nifty spell I sourced through an old contact, Asa was managing that condition, but Clay didn’t need to know that. “Maybe they shrink when—”
“Let’s leave my horns out of this.” Asa rose, my attention slid to the front of his pants, then he sat again. “Rue is packing.” He shifted his weight on the bed. “We’ll be out in fifteen minutes. Then we can go.”
“I’m setting a timer,” Clay warned, “and I’m leaving the door cracked one inch.”
Tempted as I was to ignore his ultimatum and climb Asa like a tree, I couldn’t risk Colby flying in on us.
After Clay left, I checked with Asa. “Care to play lookout while I work my magic?”
That accomplished two goals.
It secured the book for the trip.
And, most importantly, it took Asa out of range of my grabby hands.
“With pleasure.”
Even the word pleasure from his lips made dirty thoughts pole dance in my head.
I had it bad.
So bad.
Goddess, it was terrifying.
A measure of understanding for the animus vow Dad struck after Mom died trickled through me and left me with the certainty that not only were feelings dumb.
They were downright lethal.
3
For better or worse, the grimoire had change of address labels to order.
The book came to me when called from the pendant, and it returned to its static oasis when banished.
Both of which made me highly suspicious.
The grimoire wasn’t known for doing what it was told, and I hadn’t had luck forcing my will on it either.
“Are you going to spend the whole trip scowling at your boobs, Dollface?”
A moth-sized cackle reached me as Clay’s fan club of one encouraged his bad behavior.
Hand rising to my throat, I touched the pendant through my tee. “I’m not scowling at my boobs.”
A loud sigh told me he had plugged Colby in so he could broach more adult topics.
“Now you’re fondling yourself. Ace not doing it often enough for you?” Scooting forward, he pressed lips to my ear. “P.S. That’s not the problem, and we both know it. I’ve got permanent blind spots seared onto my retinas from walking in on you two lust birds in the kitchen. With the twine. So, spill. What’s wrong? You’ve been twitchy ever since we left.”
Guilt thickened my tongue, but I couldn’t admit the whole truth to Clay. Anything he knew, the director could compel him to confess. As a servant, he had no choice but to answer his master. Bad enough he knew about Dad and the grimoire, but that I couldn’t help. All my grandfather needed to learn was that I possessed contraband dark artifacts. Let alone that they could amplify one another.
“I brought the grimoire.” I lifted the necklace, ready to skate the truth. “I spelled it into this pendant.”
Better to give up the grimoire’s location than to confess to my stash of dark artifacts.
“That’s a neat trick.” His eyebrows winged higher. “You must have been working on that for a while.”
“That’s what Asa and I were doing earlier.” Skate, skate, skate. “I needed a second set of hands.”
“From what I’ve seen, that’s the last thing either of you need. You’re already like octopuses. Octopi? Whatever.” He flicked my earlobe. “Eight-armed grope machines that leave suction cup marks all over each other.”
“I’m not thrilled to have a new accessory, but it seems prudent.”
“You’re worried your dad isn’t being transparent about his reasons for visiting you.”
“No one is worried about Calixta breaking out of the swamp, which is weird, but okay. I get that the only way out for her is through the self-sacrifice of a relative, which leaves Dad and me. It’s a safe bet neither of us will off ourselves to set a total stranger free to wreak havoc, but I expected more than a solid eh across the board. It makes me wonder, you know?”
Out of everyone, I was the most concerned about her future potential for mayhem. Maybe the only one.
“Perhaps it was an excuse,” Asa offered. “Given the lethal nature of the animus vow, he knew it was cruel to show himself when he couldn’t survive the confrontation with his father. Perhaps he allowed himself to be swayed into visiting you, by telling himself someone ought to warn you off Calixta.”
