Page 123 of Demon's Bluff
“Exactly,” I affirmed. Amulet in one hand, I used the other to physically draw my aura off my fingertips, pushing it up past my elbow. The naked flesh ached, sort of like having the flu, and I wondered if I should have put myself in a protection circle. An aura was a person’s first line of defense, and I had just bared myself to whatever psychic ill might be stuck to the underside of the table. But it was a Waffle House, and I figured I’d be okay.
“Ah, did you just…” Elyse started, and I nodded.
“You’ll get more out of this if you use your second sight.” And with that, I shifted my entire aura to a clear red.
I knew she was watching when Elyse exhaled with a soft sound. “Oh, wow.”
Holding everything as it was, I glanced up at her. “You know how to separate your aura into its shells?” I asked, and she bobbed her head, her attention riveted to the amulet perched in my fingertips. The old metal felt colder, and I stifled a shudder as I allowed a thin trace of my all-red aura to spill down my arm and puddle in my hand just under the metal circle. It wasn’t touching it yet, but I could feel the metal wanting to join with it. Which was a relief. If I had a light enough touch, I could rekindle it. Until just that moment, I hadn’t been sure.
“Yes, I’ve done that,” Elyse said, attention fixed to the amulet. “Not what you’re doing,” she quickly added. “But I’ve used auras in a few spells. Yeah.”
Annoyance flickered through me. A few spells, she said. Probably ones that were illegal for the rest of us. “Okay. Well, every artifact holds a memory of the maker’s aura,” I said, feeling like Al as my words found an instructive patter. “If you can ease that energy back into it, a layer at a time, it might rekindle. Red is the first color, and you follow the chakras on up.”
Breath held, I allowed the aura in the cup of my hand to rise, bathing the amulet perched on my fingertips. The thin trace enveloped the old metal, the single wavelength of energy setting it to ring a beautiful, very much subliminal chime. My breath eased out. Pierce had taught me this. And then he had died trying to kill Ku’Sox. The guilt was old and not warranted. I had told him not to. The pain that Ceri, Ray’s mother, had died along with him…That was harder to let go.
“It takes a fine touch,” I said as I shifted the red puddling in my palm to orange. “Too little won’t invoke the charm.” A second tone joined the first as almost all the red in the amulet shifted to orange, leaving only a thin trace of the original color remaining.
“Too much, and it will break.” I shifted my aura to yellow, frowningwhen the new tone rang with a discordant harshness. I had only applied three shells and the amulet was full. I had begun with too much red and would have to start over.
Frustrated, I pushed all the energy off my hand and set the amulet down.
Elyse stared at it on the faded Formica table, wisely not reaching for it. “Why did you stop? You want me to do it?”
“No!” I barked, then softer, “No. I was just getting a feel for how much energy it will take to reinvoke it. I started with too much, and those three shells had reached its carrying capacity. Any more, and it would have broken completely.”
Elyse cocked her head, studying it. “How many shells does it take?”
“Six or seven, depending on the finesse of who made it.”
Her brow furrowed. “If you don’t want to tell me, fine.”
“Elyse, it’s an art, not a science,” I protested, and her frown deepened as she fiddled with her drink. “Whoever made this had a very light touch. I had assumed it was a demon, seeing as it’s a demon charm, but now I think it was an elf.” I picked it up, studying the invocation words engraved on the outer rim. “An enslaved elf,” I added, setting it down again. “This needs more concentration than I can probably find at a Waffle House.”
Across the street, a black shape flew straight down the road, Scott in hot pursuit.
“But I can try,” I added.Good bird.
“I’m not some kind of wannabe dilettante,” Elyse said, clearly insulted. “I have practiced dividing my aura into its separate components since I was ten. I am not a kid.”
My eye twitched. “Have you ever done this?” I said, angry. “Anything at all like this? You tell me you’re not a kid. Well, you certainly aren’t acting like an adult.”
Elyse’s lips parted. “Did I not drive off a high member of the council without him realizing who either of us were?”
“You caused severe structural damage to two buildings and a parking lot. You couldn’t wait to use your big guns to impress me.”
“I was trying to cow Scott!” she barked. “How does that make me a child?”
I leaned in close, annoyed. “It’s not what you did that’s the problem. I’m saying only a child would think that what you did was okay.” Because she clearly thought it was.
“Well, what would you have done?”
I picked up the amulet, worried she might make a go for it. “Other than what I did? Circle him, maybe? Knock him out with a kick? Make him temporarily blind? Give him bad luck? You, in your infinite wisdom, decided to damage two buildings and a parking lot. Fine. It’s a choice. But only a child doesn’t acknowledge that you stomped all over everyone who works or lives in those buildings, then went on with your life as if their pain and monetary interests don’t matter.”
Elyse stared at me. “You think I should have let him catch us? It’s just a couple of buildings and a parking lot!”
I rubbed my chin, exasperated. “You are not listening,” I said, feeling like a demon as I pitched my voice low. “You are so privileged that you can’t comprehend the chaos you leave in your wake. Most people who do crap like this are reminded with jail time or fines or restitution.The Turn knows I am.But not the coven, no,” I added bitterly, and maybe a little enviously. “Under the auspices of protecting us, you are allowed to create havoc with no consequences. None.”
A little chuckle eased from her, and her anger vanished. “Oh, my God. You’re jealous.”