Page 145 of Demon's Bluff
“My life back.”
Head shaking, I sipped my bottled water. “You ruin Elyse’s future, and you expect me to break your curse?” But in truth, it was a good time. The sun had just risen and the moon was about to set, the two balancing the world between them. “Sure. I can do that,” I said, gaze flicking to him. “But I want Elyse reinstated as the coven’s lead and for you all to apologize to her.”
Scott smiled, the conniving expression utterly wrong on his baby face. “Not happening.”
And yet he had brought my book. “Elyse—” I started.
“Elyse wouldn’t return to the coven now even if we offered it to her,” he said. “You untwist my curse, you get your book. That’s it.”
Arms over my middle, I bobbed my foot. It was my book. I shouldn’t have to bargain for it even if I had left it behind. “What if it takes a curse to free you? I want assurances that there will be no repercussions.”
Scott confidently shook his head. “There will be no repercussions using an illicit curse to break another on a coven member.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “Which you are?” I asked, having dealt with demons before.
“Yes. Potential standing lead.”
Of course you are.“Your position contingent, I expect, on me untwisting the curse?” I added, and a flicker of annoyance crossed him. “It must be embarrassing having a ten-year-old tell you what you can and can’t do.”
Red-faced, he waited, already knowing the outcome. I hated being a foregone conclusion, and brow furrowed, I reached out and drew my book across the table. Little rills of power snaked up from the friction, and the ley line pressure sparkled when I took it in hand and flipped it open, the pages humming as it rested on my lap.Hi, sweetheart. I missed you, too.
“You’ll do it?” Scott said breathlessly. “Now?”
I glanced at the growing light past the black-painted windows. “Yeah, why not? Ah, can you confirm that trying to follow us was the first magic you did after we vanished?”
Scott frowned in annoyance. “I have no idea,” he said, and then his expression cleared. “You know what? It is. I mean, was.” His perfect, smooth face furrowed in anger, and he turned to the north as if able to see through walls. “At the morgue,” he whispered as things fell into place. “That third spell you hit me with. I thought it fizzled. Nothing happened.”
I shrugged, head down over the pages as he made an angry huff. “What did you spell me with?” he demanded. “You said,‘Parvus pendetur fur, magnus abire videtur.’The petty thief is hanged, the big thief gets away. What is that? What did you do to me?”
I laid a light thought into the demon collective, relishing the feeling of connection. Sure, they didn’t like me, but I belonged. “I didn’t do anything. You did it to yourself. They are just words.”
Scott’s suspicion tightened about him. “Tell me.”
It wasn’t as if he could do the spell just by knowing the invocation phrase. He’d have to have access to the vault. “It twists your next spell against you,” I said, feeling like a demon. “So the big thief gets hanged, too.” I rested my fingers on the book, feeling the spell under it wanting to be used.Not now, little one. Later maybe.“A modern translation might be ‘Go big or go home,’ ” I added. “Okay, you need to say the words. My slate is clean if I do this. No repercussions.”
“Clean slate,” he echoed sourly, and I frowned. Not at him but at the faint scent of…cinnamon and wine?
It had to be Trent, and my thoughts darted to Laker parked downstairs, the wizard suffering the sight of tomatoes in his drive to find Trent. Which meant Trent might be here, even if I didn’t see him. Some might take offense that their boyfriend was checking up on them, but it only made me feel loved.
“Hold on to your gonads,” I said sarcastically, looking for Trent even as I pulled heavier on the ley line. “If she’s in a mood, I might only make things worse, but it’s your nickel.” Actually, now that I thought about it, that Trent was here might be a good thing—especially if I messed up. The Goddess loved to leave mischief in her wake.
“What?” he barked, sitting up. “She who?”
“Your full name?” I asked, suddenly nervous. “I don’t want it to affect me.”
“Um, Scott Silvus Sandearo,” he said, and I nodded. If he was lying, we would both suffer. One did not call upon the Goddess and leave her a loophole to do mischief.
Rhombus,I thought, settling us both in a circle. “Little pinch,” I said as my pulse quickened. He had tried to twist the curse to go through time. It had gone sideways, thanks to the last spell I’d put on him. Repeating the curse as if returning through time wouldn’t work. I’d have to call on the Goddess to untangle him. Putting us in a space apart from reality seemed appropriate, and I drew heavier on the line.Ab aeterno,I thought, relieved when the thumping from downstairs cut off mid-beat.
“Wait. The curse tangled while I was twisting it,” Scott said, gaze fixed on the black smut skating across the circle enclosing us. “You can’t just wish it away.”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” I said, and he went white. “I bet the Goddess is laughing her ass off.”
“The Goddess? Morgan, no!” He stood, his ten-year-old self looking scared.
Deal with it,I thought as I felt my hair lift when the mystics found us.I could almost see them if I concentrated, and I let them play in my fingertips, lighting my aura into a brilliant gold and red, my new coating of smut giving it a nice patina. Both real and unreal, the mystics passed through the book in my arms as if it was water, darting in and out, learning the spells, reminding the Goddess of when she had written them.Dangerous fire, Rachel.
I closed my hand into a fist, hoping I wasn’t overstepping my bond with her.