Noah unrolled the white fabric that Wade had brought.
The other agent had brought flat bedsheets, and Noah had watched as Wade bit one extremely large canine into the fabric. Making the first puncture, he then ripped each piece longways down the center.
He’d done this several times, not knowing that Noah watched in fascination. Noah laid the sheets out in a circle, as the spell book instructed. As he put the last sheet in place, he felt the hit of deja vu. But it didn't matter, because Christina was placing the bowls in seven spots at equal intervals around the room.
Walter was emptying every container of salt that Jen had managed to bring. It looked very much like what they had set up in the tent for Alesse though, clearly, Noah could see now, she’d had thirteen points and they only had seven. Would this make their spell less powerful? He had no idea.
“Take your places,” Will commanded, motioning them around the room.
One last small vessel—a silver chalice that Will had produced from one of the upper shelves—sat between the feet of the bones of Aegis. Empty.
“We’ll have to do without,” Will had informed them as he glanced around the table. “Now, who reads the spell?”
“You,” GJ answered without hesitation. When Will’s look questioned her, she added, “I read some Latin and so does Noah, but you're more fluent, and therefore you're the one most likely to get the pronunciation and the cadence right. Also, you're the head of the family. You have the most power here.”
No one had a better argument, so they’d all moved to stand at their respective spots. Noah lifted his hands into the air like the rest of them, his left side shrieking in pain and his sensibility leaving him feeling like a rank fool. What in hell was he even doing?
With the book in front of him on a chair and hands raised, Will began to read the words. In his halting voice, they sounded almost like iambic pentameter to Noah, and he managed to translate a bit of it.
“Aegis” was repeated, and it appeared they were calling on the ancient god. Noah wasn't sure if he actually wanted this to work, or not. was getting more and more nervous by the moment. His left side ached. He wasn't able to take a full breath given the bindings at his ribs. And though Will went through the spell three times, nothing happened.
“Son of a bitch,” he swore. If he'd held the ancient book in his hands, he looked like he would have thrown it at the ground.
Noah finally lowered his arms. He looked to one side, then the other. But GJ shook her head at all of them. “The power of the spell is in the repetition. The spell only has the energy we give it. Do it again.”
Though Noah didn't believe—and from the looks around the room, it was clear that most of the others didn’t, either—he lifted his hands again.
Christina was muttering something about wishing Eleri were here, and Noah found himself thinking the same thing. Even though the other agent had gone stone-cold silent and a bit wonky at the end of their trip to the Caribbean, she still would have been far superior to what they had now.
Will repeated the incantation a fourth time, and GJ nodded at him to keep going. On the fifth round, a tiny spark lit in the chalice between Aegis’ feet. On the sixth, a small flame winked into existence. But even as it lit, it fluttered right back out.
The silence it left in its wake had Noah’s head jerking upward. They all heard it: the pounding of feet overhead.
“Where are we?” Noah asked, as all their arms dropped to their sides and the room went silent. Where could the footsteps be coming from?
“We’re under the main house,” Will told them and Christina frowned at him.
“There are tunnels under the main house. We’re not there.”
Good, Noah thought. He wasn’t the only one who didn’t quite know where he’d wound up.
“We’re under the tunnels under the main house. Just two levels down.”
The thundering steps overhead were ominous. The soldiers had completely breached the property and made it to the center.
Christina's eyes went wide. Of all the agents under her wing, she looked to Noah. He was the one who saw the fear.
He read it clearly: How would they get out? There were too many soldiers. They were trapped… until the soldiers found the library. Then they’d be slaughtered and the library would be handed over. All the records Will had fought to protect would be in the hands of his worst enemy. And given the mole, it shouldn't take very long for them to find the place…
It was GJ who stepped out of her spot, still determined to run the spell. “We’ve got to add blood, Will. Let's use our own.” She was holding a hand out over the chalice, as if to demonstrate. “We probably don't need much. Who has a knife?”
She asked it as if cutting themselves was now a forgone conclusion. Noah had one strapped to his thigh, but he wasn't quite ready to use his stolen blade to slice himself and his fellow agents. GJ seemed to have noticed his hesitation and made a motion for him to hand it over.
“Look,” she said, holding her hand out, palm up. “If you cut the meat here, at the ball of your thumb, you won't cause nerve damage and you'll get a decent amount of blood. Also, it’s easy to guide it into the cup.”
She motioned again as she explained how to adequately collect blood for a spell as though she were discussing spices for a turkey. “None of us are witches, but all of us together will be more powerful than one of us.”
She reached down toward Noah’s leg, getting ready to take the knife without his permission. And that was when Noah saw it.