“No.” My fingers close around Lucas’s hand, nails biting into his skin. “I don’t accept that.” I blink and ignore the ringing in my ears. I refuse to accept it. Lucas isn’t going to be in this half-alive, half-dead state forever.
And he’s not going to die.
“Can we reverse it?” Lucas asks.
“I’m afraid not.” Felix trades the crystal for a pendant on a silver chain. The sand is washed away from under my feet and a wave is about to crash down and drag me out to sea. I can’t breathe.
Not without Lucas.
“I recognize this curse, but not in the way it’s been cast. It is indeed necromancy, but the few other times I’ve come across it, it’s been cast differently. This…this is reversed.”
“What do you mean?” I whisper, hardly able to talk without crying.
“This curse slowly kills parts of the body, causing the victim to rot from the inside out. But they’ve…they’ve…” He holds the chain over Lucas’s chest and closes his eyes, getting another read on the curse. “They’ve combined it with a different spell, complicating things even more. They’re bringing him back to life slow enough to kill him.”
“I know,” I say as tears fall down my cheeks. “There has to be a way to stop it. To reverse it and make him undead again.”
“There’s not.” The pendant starts to spin, and a wave of dark blue energy sparks around it. Felix opens his eyes and looks at the pendant, reading whatever the hell it’s telling him. “But there’s a loophole.”
“What is it?” I ask, teeth chattering together.
“The curse can be transferred.” Felix looks into my eyes.
“Transferred?” I echo. “What do you mean?”
“The curse is designed to work until it is done and has an element I’ve only seen once before. Whoever cast this curse is watching somehow. They might have a poppet or a candle, something that lets them know how things are progressing. If we can transfer the curse from the vampire into another host, then…”
“Then Lucas will be okay and the casters will think their curse killed him, buying us time to figure out who cast it in the first place.”
“In theory.” Felix gathers the chain in his hand and gets a book out of his bag. “I’ve come across the curse—not in reverse like this, of course—only twice before.” He flips through the book and then hands it to me. I glance down at his notes. “As you can see, it’s quite complicated. And dark,” he adds as a warning. “Transferring it can be just as dark.”
“That doesn’t bother me. I’ve done dark before.”
His lips twitch into a smile. “How dark?”
Having frequent conversations with Uncle Lucy is pretty damn dark, but Felix doesn’t need to know about that. “I’ve raised the dead.”
“A resurrection spell? Damn. Color me impressed, Martin—I mean, King.”
I give Lucas’s hand a squeeze. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s do it.”
Felix’s brow furrows. “Callie…it’s a complex spell that I’ve never seen executed properly. The first time…both the cursed and the host died. The second time, the witches trying to transfer the curse got hit with a lesser version of the same curse. And then they all died, too.”
I swallow hard. Dying won’t save Lucas.
“Callie is a very powerful witch,” Eliza rushes out, too concerned about Lucas to realize she’s bluntly complimenting me. “I’m sure she can handle it.”
“I did hear how you took out that demon and saved your coven,” Felix says, getting something else from his bag. It’s a small bag, much too small to be holding everything that’s come out of it so far. Once this is over, I’ll have to ask what spell he used for that. It would really come in handy when I pack for vacation again.
“Lucas helped,” I say, and tears start to sting the corners of my eyes again. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it if it weren’t for him.”
“I heard that, too.” He unscrews the lid of a jar of black salt. “News travels fast through the covens.”
I nod and rub my thumb in circles on Lucas’s palm. “Let me see this spell.”
Felix nods and goes right for the book, surprising me a bit by not trying to talk me out of it or reminding me how dangerous this spell is. I take my hand out of Lucas’s, and he sits up, wincing, and his hand going to his stomach.
This spell book is old, and I can feel the enchantments put on it as soon as my fingers grace the leather cover. The book is in good condition, thanks to a stasis spell, preserving the ink and paper. It looks maybe a few years old, but I can feel its true age. This book has been around for centuries.
There are spatters of blood on this page and something thicker—a piece of flesh, perhaps?—that’s dried on the top corner of the page as well.
“I think I have the ingredients for the potion,” I mumble as I read through the list. The spell is incredibly complicated, but the danger is in lifting the curse and transferring it into another living being. “You have to drink the potion,” I tell Lucas, shifting my eyes from the book to his face for half a second. “It’s just a small vial.”
“That’s fine,” Lucas tells me, jaw tensed from pain.
“And I’ll cast a circle,” I go on, moving my finger across the page as I read the messily written incantation. “To keep the curse contained. Less danger to others that way.”
“It will take at least two people,” Felix adds and puts his hand on mine. “I will help you.”
“I don’t want to put you in danger,” I tell him, though I’m not going to talk him out of it. I know I need the help, and I’m desperate to save Lucas.
“This is what I do,” he tells me with a cheeky grin, and Lucas huffs, rolling his eyes in a way that reminds of me of Eliza. Maybe she got it from him after all. “I’ve dedicated my studies—my life—to breaking curses.” The sadness is back in Felix’s eyes for a moment, and he looks away. He’s been in my shoes before, only his loved one didn’t make it.
He couldn’t break the curse in time.
“Thank you.”
“Do you think your High Priestess or Evander would want to join? Evander should be here soon, as I let him know when I arrived.”
“They would,” I tell him. “But I can’t ask them. I’ve put them in enough danger already, and since I married a vampire, they shouldn’t really be associating with me,” I say ruefully.
“It’s a stupid, old-fashioned law,” Felix says, shaking his head. “We’ve come a long way but are still so behind.”
I smile, glad he feels the same way. The last thing I need is his judgment over who I married.
“I’ve made some improvements to that spell over the years.” Felix gets up and pulls more things from his bag. “Like you’ve already suggested, casting a circle is imperative. But I’ve upped it from there.” He opens a notebook, and I look at his messy handwriting scrawled across the page.
“Oh my god, that’s genius,” I say, eyes madly scanning the page.
“What is?” Eliza asks, standing up and peering over my shoulder.
“Changing elements of a Solomon summoning circle to be used as a barrier for transferring curses.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Eliza takes the notebook from Felix and cocks an eyebrow. “It’s chicken scratch.”
“Careful with that.” Felix snatches the notebook back from her. “This is years and years of research.”
“I hope you’ve backed that up somewhere,” Eliza grumbles under her breath.
“Oh, I have. I have copies. But this baby is my original.” Felix runs his hand over the page.
“Will this work?” Eliza demands.
“In theory. Conjuring the spirits is the tricky part.”
She draws her fangs. “That’s the second time you’ve said that. If you’re not sure and anything happens to my maker—”
“Eliza,” Lucas booms. “Enough.”
She turns and stomps her foot hard enough to rattle the entire room, causing a framed photo of Evander and me at Disney World to fall off the wall. I throw out my hand at the last second, telekinetically catching it before it crashes to the ground.
Lucas stands, moving with vampire speed, and comes over to Eliza. He says something to her in French, and she narrows her eyes and shakes her head in response. He points to the stairs, and I don’t need to understand the language to know he basically told her to shut up or go to her room.
Eliza purses her lips and takes a seat on the couch. “This better fucking work,” she huffs in a warning. Scarlet jumps up on the couch next to her, wagging her tail and trying to lick Eliza’s face.
Binx trots into the room and gracefully jumps onto the coffee table. He meows and holds out his paw. My lips part, and I look into his green eyes, nodding.
“Felix?” I turn and take a step forward, attention going back to the notebook. “How many spirits do you need?”
“Four. One for each corner.”
“Corner?” Eliza questions. “I thought you were casting a circle.”
“We are,” Felix and I say at the same time. “Corners in circle casting aren’t actual corners,” Felix explains. “It’s confusing, I know. The thing with magic is overthinking makes it more complicated.”
Eliza nods, and I know she’s actually trying to understand what’s going on.
“I can explain everything in detail once we’ve transferred the curse,” I say, trying to nicely shut her up. “And if it’s spirits you need, we’ve got them. Specifically, Binx does.”
Felix looks at my familiar, and Binx’s green eyes glow red for half a second as he drops his shield. Binx is a powerful dark spirit himself and has lesser spirits under his command. He had them when he came to me, and as a young witch, I didn’t quite understand exactly what it meant to have a familiar with a legion of spirits.
It made me quite the subject of conversation between both the other students and the professors at Grim Gate Academy.
Nodding, I shift my gaze from Binx to Felix. “The spirits aren’t the most powerful, but they’ll obey. And don’t forget, I have three familiars.”
Felix’s lips curve into a smile. “I don’t think anyone has forgotten you have three when the rest of us are lucky to have one.”
“So Binx, Freya, and Pandora will take a corner, and Binx will command his lessor spirits to all take the remaining one. And maybe…maybe I can get a friend to help us.”
I shift my gaze up to the ceiling. Julian…if you can hear me, please get your feathered ass down here.
Felix nods enthusiastically. “I think we have a real shot at this, Callie. We can start the potion tonight to give us a head start for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” I echo.
“It’s a complicated spell,” he reminds me. “We should be well-rested and cleansed of negative energy. You look worn,” he adds gently, but he looks at the window, remembering that Lucas is a vampire. “Do you have a sealed room we can use?”
“The whole house is sealed from sunlight in a sense,” I tell him. “I kind of accidentally created a spell that filters out the harmful rays of the sun, making it possible not to have to cover the windows.”
Felix looks at me, blinking. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s…that’s incredible. And dangerous. Who else knows about it?”
“No one who shouldn’t,” I promise. “Lucas and Eliza are the only vampires who know.” I play with the silver bracelet on my wrist that belonged to my mother, nervously spinning it around. “I’m fine to do the spell tonight.”
Felix’s expression softens. “Callie, we don’t have what we need.”
“I’ll go get it.”
“The host,” he starts and then tips his head, thinking. “We kind of need one.”
“I’ll go grab the first person I find,” Eliza says and stands up.
“We can’t just kill someone,” I rush out.
“And I’m not entirely sure a person will work,” Felix goes on. “We might need a vampire.”
“Dina,” I say and look at Lucas. “Is she still tied up in the basement?”
Lucas nods. “I’m not convinced she’s confessed everything yet. We should keep her alive a while longer.”
“What would it matter if you’re not alive?” I press.
“If it’s a vampire you need, then I’ll go get another fucking vampire,” Eliza says. “Vampires have been disappearing all over the area. What’s one more?”
Felix is growing more and more uncomfortable from our conversation by the second.
“There are only two vampires in Thorne Hill, and they’re babies,” I go on.
“Good. They’ll be easy.” Eliza pushes her hair back. “Where do they live?”
“You’re not killing the only vampires in Thorne Hill,” Lucas tells her. He says something in French again, and Eliza spouts right back, waving her hand at me.
“Fucking witches,” she mumbles, and I think I got the gist of it. The VC already suspects that witches are behind the recent vampire deaths. And they are. Well, they meaning me. Killing the only vampires in a town full of witches and warlocks makes us look guilty.
And many vampires are looking for a reason to start a war against our kind again.
“I need a bit more time to analyze this curse and figure out what sort of host is needed,” Felix says, sounding nervous for the first time since he stepped foot into the house. It’s been years since we’ve seen each other, and while Lucas isn’t at full power, he could still easily kill. And Eliza is a loose cannon right now.
Felix is smart to be nervous.
“Come upstairs with me,” Lucas says, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. It feels so good to have his body against mine. I twist, hooking my arms around his waist.
He looks tired.
He needs to rest as much as I do.
“Okay,” I say, not arguing this time. The spell will be hard on him as well. “I have a guest room,” I tell Felix, turning away from Lucas. “It’s being used as more of a storage room right now, but it’s clean.”
“Thank you,” he tells me and starts to put some of the magical supplies back in the bag. “It’ll be just fine.”
“Thank you again for coming,” I tell him, reluctantly breaking away from Lucas. “Are you hungry or anything? I just realized I never offered you anything to eat or drink.”
“It’s okay,” Felix tells me. “You have a lot going on.”
“You can say that again,” I mumble and run my hand over my face. “I’m going to go upstairs with Lucas, and then I’ll be back down. I’m hungry,” I add quickly, before Lucas can protest. Though I think he’s feeling too crappy right now to say otherwise anyway.
Scarlet barks right as I’m reaching for Lucas’s hand, and Eliza jerks around.
“Your friends are here,” she tells me. I go to the front door, opening it for Evander, and am surprised to see Nicole and Naomi behind him.
“Hey,” I say, relieved to see them. “What are you guys doing here?”
“We couldn’t get away from the Grand Coven earlier,” they say at the same time.
“Are they still here?” I ask, stepping aside to let them in.
“Yes,” Evander tells me. “Which is why my mother isn’t with us.”
“Right.” I nod and swallow hard, trying to shove the lump in my throat back down. “It’s probably for the best she’s not here. The spell we’re going to preform isn’t the, uh, most legal.”
Naomi smiles. “Now I’m really glad we came. Does this spell involve corpses again?”
“Yeah, actually, it does.” I telekinetically shut the door behind them. Scarlet yips, jumping up at everyone.
Nicole bends down, holding out her hand for the hellhound to sniff. “She’s the same size as she was before,” she says quietly.
“I know,” I whisper back. “When this is over, I’ll try to adjust the glamour.”
“I’d keep her as a puppy forever.” Nicole picks up Scarlet and lets her lick her face. “She’s so cute.”
“She’s a hell—” Naomi says sharply but cuts off when Felix steps into the foyer. “A hellion. Don’t let that thing chew my shoes.” She puts on a fake smile. “Hello, Felix.”
“Naomi. It’s been a while.” His eyes to go Scarlet, who’s trying to wriggle out of Nicole’s arms. “I do have to say I was surprised to see Callie had a dog. I always thought she was a cat-person.”
“I am,” I say, and Scarlet whips her head around to stare at me. “But the puppy was a wedding gift, and she’s really grown on me.”
I wave everyone into the living room, and Naomi flashes a coy grin when her eyes meet Eliza’s. Lucas is sitting on the couch, trying to look relaxed, but I can sense the tension in his posture.
“What’s the plan?” Evander asks.
Felix opens his notebook and passes it to Evander. “This.”
Evander looks it over for a minute. “This is bloody brilliant.”
“Thank you.” Felix nudges me with his arm. “And with Callie’s familiar lending a legion of his spirits, I think we can pull it off.”
“Now?” Naomi asks eagerly, and Eliza smiles.
“In the morning,” he tells her. “There are a few details I’ll need the night to work through, and it would be best if we all got a few hours of sleep.”
“Let us know how to help,” Nicole says. “And we’ll be back in the morning.”
“Thank you,” I tell them and start to feel a bit of relief. If anyone can figure this out, it’s us, and I still don’t know how I got so lucky to have such good fucking friends. We just have to make it through the morning, and lying down next to my husband for the night isn’t so bad.
But then Lucas moves, and I see blood on his shirt.
He might not make it until the morning.