Chapter 18

Eighteen

Joshua drives this time and he watches me in the rear-view mirror a little too long.

"Eyes on the road, mister?"

He looks away, but only for a moment before his gaze comes back to me. "Is the ring important?"

"Very. But not for the spell."

"So, what do you need ‘others' for?" Johnny asks.

"Well, this is my grandfather's wedding ring." I twist it on my own thumb. "The other family rings are what's in the stairs. She gave you her blessing without actually giving you her blessing."

"So, she likes us?" His smile is a bright flash in headlights and I know the other three wonder as well.

"She likes you."

"Good." Thomas arm snags me and he pulls me against him. "She is scary as hell… but I think we like her too."

Johnny gets to work on dinner, grumbling about set meal times, and the others go off on their own business, while I head for the attic.

The staircase is still half pulled apart, so I step around the loose boards and head up into the dark of the attic.

The space is mostly empty. There had been grand plans, once, to find a way to turn it into a functional library, but there are simply too many sloping surfaces. Though I still like the idea of hanging the books from the rafters.

With the house warm below, it's toasty up here, and I only shiver when I get close to the chimney. It might be radiating more heat, but there is definitely something cold and ugly entombed inside it.

I search the bricks without touching them, starting from the top down.

And there it is, a small pentacle pressed into a brick low on the south side of the chimney column.

"Right where you're supposed to be."

The book hidden behind the brick is tiny and a moment's glance at the words inside tells me it was written by my great great grandmother. A woman the family likes to talk less about than even the woman buried in the Carraway plot.

When I get back downstairs, and after we've eaten, it takes a bare minute to slip out into the cold barn and disinter the other book from its salty grave. That is enough time for the guys to get the table cleared off.

They haven't touched the other book of hexes and spells.

"I don't know how long this is going to take." I say, but before I can offer the apology that should go along with it, they're all shaking their heads.

"Whatever it takes. We want her gone. Just tell us what you need us to do."

"Nothing yet. But I'll let you know when I know."

Spell after spell, I compare the two books. Neither of my ancestors was kind enough to include an index.

A yawn racks me and I look at the clock.

It's been hours… and the last of my tea tastes like the sweetest nectar.

But I still haven't found the spell that matches. And I'm going to need more caffeine if I plan to do it.

"Everything okay?"

Chase's words are quiet as he stands with me and I glance over my shoulder to where the other three are passed out on the livingroom furniture, the faint glow of the tree's lights across them.

"Yeah, I just need a refill."

He follows me to the kettle, leaning on the counter and watches as I set it to boil and prep the leaves.

"Find anything interesting yet?"

"Interesting, yes. Helpful… not so much."

"Interesting?" He takes the tea jar from me and returns it to the shelf beside the refrigerator.

"Dad's family was a distant branch of Renée's family—"

"The head of your old coven."

"The very one. So, some of the spells in this book are ones she would also have had from her family. And none of them are nice. There's one in there that—if used correctly—can siphon a stronger witch's power."

"Seems dangerous."

"It isn't if you have no problem starting when that witch is a kid."

He scowls and his eyes fall to my stomach. "There's a whole host of things we're going to have to protect her from that we haven't even heard of yet, isn't there."

"Yes, but there are five of us. We'll manage better than most." I take his hand and brush a kiss over his knuckles. "And don't forget… the wolves will protect her too."

"Will they?"

I nod. "When she's a few years old, the five of us can do another spell, and I can tether them to her as well. She'll be the most well-protected child in the world."

The kettle starts to chatter and I take it off the burner before it can wake the others… but I feel none of the steam's heat.

Something cold and slithering washes over my skin and I take a deep breath, stumbling back from the stove.

The pull is strong.

But it's not strong enough.

I draw in a breath. The air of my home filling me so that she cannot find space inside me.

Out in the dark of the window, I see the faint, vapor-like glow.

Aphrodite isn't going to give up until she has me, or I drive her out completely.

"Are you okay?" Chase's hand on my arm is the first warmth that returns to me.

"Yeah…" I take another long and deep breath. "I have to be incapacitated for Aphrodite Lourdes to get any true hold on me without celestial amplification."

"Like the Yule sabbat?"

I nod and slowly start making my tea again. "I believe it's safe to say that if you were normal men, she might have been able to take me that night… But your wolves stopped it."

"And our wolves are also the reason you have to break it before the next full moon."

"Exactly."