Chapter 32

Ifitwasn"tone fucking thing, it was another. I felt like my magic never got a rest these days, like a constantly overworked muscle that never got to recover. And let"s be honest, my poor body and mind weren"t much better. Everyone else"s energy felt gross too—just as dampened and bogged-down as my own. Though, I thought the recent trauma-by-boogeyman was probably to blame for most of that.

I had managed to get half an hour to myself after my interrupted interlude with Aahil and Hasumi. I used it to go to my own room, lock everyone out, and take a nice, long, hot shower. I wanted to think about what this new development meant for the three of us. Was this a regular thing now? Would Niamh, or Zhong, or Elijah care? They hadn"t seemed to, when they all came to harangue us out of bed. But maybe that was because there were more important things to deal with at the moment.

Which…yeah, there were more important things to deal with at the moment.

So, me being me, of course I shoved aside all the messy relationship bullshit and focused on the whole boogeyman trapped in my house thing. The absolute last thing I needed was for the creep to get bored or decide he needed to feed on all of us again. One round of living a literal nightmare was enough for me, thank you.

So, I toweled off roughly, tossed on the first mostly-clean t-shirt and jeans I found, finger-combed my damp green waves and headed off to put out yet another fire. A breather would be nice in between paranormal complications. A nap that wasn"t due to magical exhaustion or injury. Maybe a nice week"s vacation somewhere without magic at all….

I left my room and made my way down the hall toward the stairs. Niamh and Zhong were leaning against the wall partway down the hall, whispering to each other in hushed tones. They stopped talking when they saw me, both of them straightening and giving me their own version of a concerned look. Zhong"s was a soft, sad smile. Niamh"s was a wry twist of the lips and one raised eyebrow.

Niamh lifted a hand and waved me over. Her fingertips were stained with green, and I could sense the earth clinging to her. She"d been outside, working in one of the many courtyard gardens. She was always there, when she wasn"t pestering me. I was hit with a surge of longing. I was an earth witch. I drew my power and strength from mother earth and her growing things. But I hadn"t spent any time at all refilling my well since I got here and started working on the damned bestiary. I was surrounded by ancestral grounds and neglected gardens, but they had no appeal to me. The earth here had always felt vaguely repulsive to me. I longed for my tiny, over-stuffed little herb garden back on earth.

"Andy?" Zhong said, his deep voice full of concern. "Are you okay? What is it?" His eyes narrowed as he reached for me. "Did those two…do something you weren"t okay with?"

I shook my head adamantly to prevent him from working up a good defensive rage over my imagined abuse. A manic laugh wanted to bubble up out of me. If he knew how much I"d enjoyed that little bit of rough treatment, the ridiculously sweet, kind guardian would probably run away. "It"s not that," I assured him. "I"m just tired. This bullshit never ends. And now I have to figure out how to unwork yet another family spell. And because it"s a family spell, that probably means it"s nasty in some way, shape, or form." My voice rose to an annoying note. "I just wanted a nap." I whined.

Zhong"s big, strong arms wrapped around me, pulling me in against his rock-hard chest, his wings curling forward around us slightly. "I"m sorry, Andy."

Niamh brushed her green-stained fingers through my hair as she moved to stand behind me, her other hand rubbing my back, below Zhong"s arms. "You have had quite a lot on your plate," she commiserated. But she wasn"t about to let me wallow and complain for long. "But you"re a strong witch. A survivor and a defender. A warrior in your own way." She leaned in to whisper in my ear, her voice teasing. "Surely you"re not giving up so soon? What happened to all that indignant anger we all know and love so well?"

I huffed against Zhong"s solid chest. "Oh, piss off. I can be pathetic for a minute. I"ve earned it."

Zhong chuckled, the sound rumbling through me as he moved one hand to the back of my neck, his big thumb lying along my jaw. He tilted my head up, forcing me to look into his yellow eyes, and his smile was sweet, even with the hint of fang. "You"re not pathetic, Andy. And no matter what the fae says, it"s okay to be weak sometimes. I"ll always shelter you when you need a place to rest."

I opened my mouth to argue with his cheesy statement, but he didn"t let me interrupt. "No. I"m supposed to serve you. To be a guardian. It"s in my nature. Let me have this."

I sighed, but relaxed in his arms and was rewarded with a soft, slow kiss that made me forget what I was even upset about in the first place. Niamh brushed my hair aside and planted a lingering kiss on my neck, pressing her tall, lithe body against my back as her arms came around my waist.

Mmm…fae-gargoyle sandwich and I was the filling. What had I been worried about again?

A skitter of fear danced through me, and I pulled away from Zhong"s kiss, my eyes fluttering open as a smoky black mist began to form beside us. Oh. Right. Boogey man trapped in my house.

The black smoke coalesced and drew inward as the boogeyman"s tall, lean, black-clad form stepped out of the darkness. "Oh," he said in that upper-crust tone. "I see how it is. Lusty little Lovell, are you shagging them all, then? Is that the price for freedom these days?" He waved an elegant, long-fingered hand impatiently. "Well, come on then. If I have to fuck you to get out of this place, then let"s get to it. I"ve got things to do once I"m free."

I let my head thump against Zhong"s chest and tried my best not to let the asshole bait me. I should be good at ignoring annoying creatures by now. I"d dealt with Aahil"s bitchiness for weeks. But I still wanted to strangle the guy.

Sucking in a deep, bracing breath, I disentangled myself from my lovers and brushed past the boogeyman, ignoring the way his misty black aura called to something dark inside me. "I"m not sleeping with you, creepo. Come on."

I led the way down the sweeping staircase to the entryway, where the others were gathered. I found myself having trouble meeting Aahil or Hasumi"s eyes. But I told myself it was just because I had to focus on important things. That was all.

I tilted my head back and called on my magic as I studied the complex, barely-visible-if-I-looked-at-it-just-right grid of wards that arched over the tall ceilings and trailed down the walls. The magic protections in this place had been built over hundreds of years, with each generation of Lovell crazies adding to them and strengthening them. Most magic users warded their houses to keep things out. I should be surprised that my family had also warded ours to keep things in. But at this point, nothing would surprise me.

The ward hadn"t prevented Niamh, or Zhong, or Aahil from leaving the premises. It also hadn"t prevented me from taking Elijah with me to the market or to the Planus realm. So, it must be crafted specifically for non-corporeal entities. Since Elijah didn"t seem to count, that meant it was designed to contain living non-corporeal entities.

And you know where I"m going with this. Lovells were a bunch of creepy, sadistic motherfuckers. If they had a whole ward in place, then that probably meant the boogeyman wasn"t the only creature of his kind to be held inside the walls of the Lovell mansion against his will.

Ugh.

"It allows me through," Elijah said, coming to hover at my side as he confirmed my thoughts. "But most magic disregards the dead. There"s not much reason for a witch to contain a ghost."

I swallowed uncomfortably, hoping the ghost angel couldn"t see the guilt in my aura. Because I could definitely think of at least one reason for a witch to want to set a ward to keep ghosts contained. But I sure as shit wasn"t fessing up to that now, not to Elijah. I was pretty sure he wouldn"t appreciate the lengths I had gone to in order to rid the house of dead Lovells.

"Well," I sighed, dropping my second sight as I looked back down at my feet. "This is going to be a shitty job." I glanced at the boogeyman, who was standing near the stairs with his hands clasped behind his back and his posture upright, like some dark, silent butler watching from the wings. "Unless you"d let me bind you to an object and try to carry you through?"

The red part of his eyes grew larger, overtaking the black. "No offense, witchy darling, but fuck no."

I nodded. Hadn"t really expected the stranger I had just freed from years of imprisonment in a book to let me turn around and bind him to a locket or something. But it was worth a try.

"This is way beyond my skill level," I said, glancing around me. And way beyond my pay grade. Which was zilch. Living life as a human had been so much easier. "So," I said with a cheery smile. "Who"s gonna help me figure out how to tease that ward apart without tearing down the whole damned protection grid?"

Because I was not going to sit here with no wards in place. There were way too many people out there who would just love to lob something nasty my way and get rid of the last living Lovell, wipe us out for good. Not that I blamed them. But I still didn"t want to end up a puddle of charred goo.

Elijah hovered closer, his cool, misty aura brushing my own. "I"d help you if I could, Andy."

I sighed. "It"s the thought that counts, right?"

"I"ll assist," Niamh said, sharing a look between me and the boogeyman that said she"d do just about anything to get the creep out of the house for good.

"You know I"ll help you, Andy," Zhong pitched in. "I don"t have a lot of magic, but what I have is yours."

Hasumi was busy examining the way a ray of light from the window had lit up one of the decorative stones that lined the arched doorframe. But they waved a hand at me without looking up. "I will assist."

I licked my lips and nodded. It was still going to be a headache to figure out how to untangle just that one ward. But if they were willing to lend me their magic, at least I"d have enough raw power to achieve something. Aahil was conspicuously quiet, but I didn"t even look his way. I knew exactly where he"d tell me to shove it if I even thought about bleeding power off him to use in my own spells. It was too close to what my ancestors had done. And I"d never ask it of him.

"I would be willing to draw ward schematics and help with the circle," the jinn said in a bored tone, crossing his arms over his chest. "Since you"re so abysmal at it, pet."

I flipped him off for the insult to my skills. Even though he was absolutely right. Drawing schematics for wards and spells was slow and painful for me and required me to study about half a dozen text books while I was doing it. But I didn"t miss what he was really saying—he wasn"t willing to let me pull magic from him. But he did want to help. What a softie.

"Okay," I said, clapping my hands together. "Let"s get the stuff we"ll need and spread it out here." The wards were mostly anchored to a central starburst pattern in the tile of the entryway that aligned with a matching one on the painted ceiling. Might as well get this done now.

It took most of the night and half of the next day, but eventually, we had a massive spell circle chalked onto the tiles and the appropriate spell ingredients spread around us. I read through the steps of the spells I would use one last time as Aahil retraced a portion of the circle with sure, graceful strokes of chalk.

Then we all sat down around the circle and got to work. I held a gold bowl that contained a few drops of blood from each of my magic donors. It would serve as a focus object that would let me connect to them and draw from them temporarily. The boogeyman watched impassively from his spot near the front door. I was surprised when Aahil moved closer. The Jinn wasn"t going to participate in the magic portion of this, so he stayed out of our circle. But he sank down behind me, gracefully folding his legs as if he were about to start meditating.

"You can do this," he whispered, for my ears only. "Don"t embarrass yourself, pet. It would make your master look bad."

I huffed a laugh. "I hate you."

A warm hand cupped the back of my neck for a brief moment. "I think you lie almost as well as I do." Then he stopped touching me and raised his silky voice a little so the others could hear him. "Are you going to get on with it, or not? If there"s nothing entertaining going on, I"d rather go take a nap, boring witch."

I snorted, but I squared my shoulders and braced myself, sucking in a few deep breaths to center myself and connect to my earth magic. Power swirled through me, fed to me by the mother earth under the floors, by the stone, and plants and essence of life all around me. Then I muttered the words of connection, calling to my helpers.

I felt the flare of each thread of power, like small rivers joining the main branch of my own magic, making it rage and threatening to spill over the banks. Niamh"s magic had a similarity to my own, a fondness for the wild and growing things. Zhong"s magic had the steady strength of stone, enduring and true. And Hasumi"s power was like a whole other river, crashing into my own and carrying me along. I had to concentrate to keep from getting swept away by the beauty and strength of them all. But I managed, somehow, turning my attention to the spell circle, activating it, and tapping into the ancestral wards.

There were so many spells here, so densely woven. It was like picking apart the magic bindings that held each creature to the bestiary, but more complex. I had to simultaneously focus on every overlapping layer of magic as I tried to single out the one I wanted.

My head hurt, and my heart hammered in my chest with the strain of channeling so much energy. I felt sweat slide down my cheeks and back and gather under my breasts. My hands shook as they clutched the golden bowl that linked me to my borrowed power.

But, thread by thread, I slowly destroyed the Lovell containment ward.

When it was done, I struggled to extract myself from the working, pulling back sluggishly from the web of wards, then deactivating the circle. I held the bowl out, my vision sparkling with the urge to black out. "Aahil?"

The jinn was there in an instant, sending fire to burn away the blood in the bowl, severing my connection to the others and ensuring no trace of them would remain behind to be used again.

I set the bowl aside and pushed myself shakily to my feet, shifting my weight to ease the pins-and-needles sensation in my legs. The boogeyman appeared before me and sketched an elegant bow. "Madam witch."

I waved him away. "You"re free. Go."

Zhong opened the front door. The boogeyman smirked at me, his red eyes flashing. "See you around, witchy darling."

Then he scattered into black smoke and trailed out the door.

Which was great. Because now I could black out.

The last thing I remember was something hot wrapping around me and the absurd thought that Aahil had beat the others to save-the-fainting-damsel duty today. Which was weird for the jinn.

Then, I finally got a damned nap.