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Lily knocked firmly on Drew’s door. One way or another she was going to get some answers.
The door opened, and Drew’s surprise turned to delight as he stepped back to let her in. “Not at Nate’s birthday party?”
“I was, but they’ve gone back to their place with the family. Not enough room.” She pulled her coat off and hung it on the coat peg by his.
“Ah, so you thought you’d slum it with me.” He followed her into the kitchen.
“Not bothering you, am I?” She sat at the table, with no idea how to start the questions she had.
“No. Have you had something to eat?”
“They had food there, but I didn’t fancy it.” Heat flooded her cheeks as her stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly.
“But now you do.” He laughed and crossed to the fridge. “All I have is ready meals, I’m afraid. I don’t cook if I can help it.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Korma or...” He opened the freezer and poked about. “roast chicken, shepherd's pie, and I think that’s a lasagne at the back.”
“I don’t mind, whichever one you don’t want.”
“I’m easy. Korma be okay for you?”
“Yes, please.” She rested her head on her hand watching him.
He poked holes in the lids of the meals and crossed to the microwave. “I’ve got the frame fixed. Remind me and I’ll get it for you later.”
“Thanks.”
“Have the boys spoken to the teacher?” he asked.
“Yeah, last Sunday.”
“And?”
“They’re happy with what he told them.” She watched the plate turning slowly in the microwave. Now was her chance, but she didn’t want to hear him lie, and she didn’t want to hear the truth. She was a coward.
“What did he tell them?”
“He hid them when he realised what they were. He wanted to protect them, especially Matt. It was so long ago he’d forgotten about it.”
“Did they ask about the Council? Why he was here in the first place?”
She drew in a deep breath and gauged his reaction. “Yeah. He denied there was a Council.”
“He actually said there was no Council?” He leant back against the counter; his hands gripped the edges, but she couldn’t read his expression.
She had to stop being a coward, she needed to know if he was lying to her. She needed to know where she stood with him and there was no other way. “I don’t know if he’s lying, or if...”
He regarded her for a few seconds before crossing to crouch in front of her. “Or if I’m lying,” he said. “You’re all turned around, and I’m not surprised. You’ve been on a rollercoaster since you stepped foot in this village. You don’t know who to trust, do you?”
“I trust them, I trust my boys.”
“They don’t know any more than you, that’s for sure. They’ll trust the teacher, because they’ve never had reason to doubt him before.”
“And what about you?”
“Have you heard of Blood Magic?”
She shook her head, turning in her seat to face him.
“It’s a type of magic that’s worked using blood. It can be used for a number of things, protection, binding, etc, but it can also be used to detect honesty or dishonesty in a person.”
“What’s involved?”
“Not very much. Just a prick of blood, magic, and candles.”
“If we do this blood magic thing, will we’ll be bound together?” She didn’t want that. Not without answers, proof he wasn’t lying to her, and even then, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be bound to him like that.
“We’re already bound in a way, purely by the fact we’re kin. My blood runs through your veins. Blood magic will work on anyone, but because we have a connection it’ll be a stronger result. You can’t fool blood magic, you will definitely know if I’m lying or not.” He got up. “C’mon. Upstairs I’ve got a book. It will help you make up your mind.”
“You’re not going to feed me to carnivorous flies, are you?” She got up from the chair and followed him up the stairs.
“Not today, no.” He laughed reaching the top and standing to one side to let her pass.
She held back at the bedroom door and he chuckled when she indicated for him to go in first.
He opened the bedroom door enough to poke his head in. “Don’t eat Lily. Not even a little nibble, do you hear? No, you can’t lick her or sniff her. Just stay where you are. She promises to not eat you either, don’t you Lily?” He looked back at her.
“I’m gone, I’m out of here. I’m not going in there with them.” She headed towards the stairs. “You’re mental if you think—”
His deep throated laugh and his hand on her shoulder stopped her decent. “I’m pulling your leg, Lily. There’s nothing in there. I told you, they don’t stay there.”
She looked through the open door, seeing the white ceiling between the black beams, and narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s probably not the best way to get me to trust you, you do know that, don’t you?”
His eyes were sparkling with humour, a wide grin on his face. “I know. I’m sorry. I could tease your mum so easily, she always told me it would backfire on me one day.” He went into the room, and she followed him in, taking another quick glance around the ceiling.
He picked up an old looking book, flipped through until he found the page he wanted, and handed it to her. “This will tell you what blood magic is. You can take it away and read it, if you want. But this bit will explain what I want to do now.”
He cleared a space for them on the bed, and she sat down with the open book.
Blood Magic
Honesty
Blood magic can be used to discover the level of honesty in another person, be they willing or unwilling.
Cleanse and prepare a white candle. Obtain a pinprick of blood from the party in question.
Place the blood around the unlit wick and concentrate on finding the truth.
Light the candle, ask the question, and listen to the response. If the blood boils and becomes black smoke, the response has been a deceptive one
If the blood remains cool to touch once the flame is extinguished the response was honest.
She looked at him. “And this will work?”
“How about you do a little spell casting to find out? This is an easy and perfectly safe one to do. We can start by telling a lie and see what happens.”
Excitement rippled through her, she was going to be casting magic.
“I’ll take that grin as a yes.” He crossed to the dresser that held the cauldron.
“Is the colour of the candle significant?” She went over, watching as he took a box of white candles out of a drawer.
“It is, yes. It’s relative to what you’re casting or want to achieve. You use distinct colours for different things. Red is the colour of fire and passion. Green, the colour of nature and luck. Brown is earth, balance, helps with clear thinking. Blue is calming, good for restful sleep, and relates to water.”
“And white?” She watched him set them up.
“White can be used in place of most candles, or alongside them. White holds all the colours of the spectrum.”
“So all we need is—”she referred back to the book—“to clean and prepare it. How do you clean a candle?” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m guessing we don’t wash it.”
“No. You clean and prepare a candle by wiping oil onto them. If you’re casting something that you want, like a good sleep, then you wipe from the ends to the middles. If you’re casting something away, like bad energy, you wipe from the middle to the ends. These candles are already cleaned.”
“In an order?”
“No, just pop them on there. If you’d done this before, we could use the same candle, but you’ll doubt the results with one, so we need a control for your first time.”
“Okay, that’s fair.”
“Hold this. I’ve got antiseptic wipes here somewhere, hang on.” He handed her the ornate jewelled knife she’d seen before. She studied the jewels worked into the handle. She couldn’t work out what colour they were, let alone whether they were real.
“Are these real?”
“Are what real?” His voice came from the bathroom.
“The stones on the knife.”
He came back in with a packet of wipes and some small plasters. “What colours do you see?”
“I don’t. Well, I mean I do, but I can’t work it out. They keep changing.”
“They’re diaspore stones. Very rare colour changing gems from Turkey. The blade is silver, and the handle is ebony. If you do decide to steal anything from me, make sure it’s what you take first.” He winked at her, taking a wipe from the packet.
She held out the dagger to him. “You want to clean the blade first?”
He shook his head. “No, you never use any chemical on the blade, or at least not man-made ones. Passing through a flame is enough.”
She wasn’t so sure this was a clever idea now. “What about tetanus?”
“You should’ve had your booster.” He looked at her.
“Yeah. What about hep C?”
“I don’t have hep C, and we’re not sharing blood, Lily.” His lips curved into a smile as he took the dagger from her. “It’s just a prick, a paper cut is worse. I’ll go first.”
Before she could say anything, he lit a candle with magic and held the blade of the dagger in the flame for a few seconds.
“My jumper is maroon, isn’t it?” The tip of the blade turned red.
“I’d say burgundy more than maroon.” She eyed his cable knit fisherman style jumper. “Maroon is a browner red than that.”
He rolled his eyes at her. “Can we agree it’s a shade of red?”
“Yeah, a burgundy red.” She smirked at him.
“Just pay attention.” He grinned at her. “When the wax starts to melt, ask me what colour my jumper is, okay?”
He touched the tip to his finger and blood welled up. He dropped the blood around the wick and then lit the end with magic. The flame burned steadily, and the wax began to melt.
“What colour is your jumper?”
“Blue.”
The blood bubbled violently becoming black smoke. He extinguished the candle and brought forward another.
“Ask me something you know to be true.”
He repeated the procedure, and she waited till the wax began to melt. “What was my mother’s name?”
“Sarah.”
There was no reaction at all, and he blew out the flame. “Touch it.”
She touched the blood. “It’s cold, not warm at all.” She wiped her finger on a wipe.
“I didn’t lie. Your turn. I’ll ask you a question I don’t know the answer to. You choose whether to lie or not.”
She nodded, taking the blade and pressing it to her fingertip, it was so sharp blood pooled immediately. She dropped it around the wick of her candle and waited for him to ask his question.
“Which of the boys did you meet first?”
“Nate.” The blood boiled and turned into black smoke. “It was the twins I met first.”
“There you go then. Try again, it’s up to you if you lie or tell the truth.”
She took another candle and let her blood drip around the wick, then she lit it and waited.
“If you could change anything about your past, what would it be?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
She watched as the blood began to bubble and rise into black smoke.
“Liar!” He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “You little liar.”
“You didn’t want me to lie, did you?” she asked, smirking at him.
“Well, I hoped you wouldn’t,” he replied. “What would you change?”
“You may never know. My turn.” She wiped her finger with a wipe.
“Liar and a brat.” He chuckled, bringing the other candles forward and putting the used one to the back.
“No. I want to use the last candle we used.”
He looked at her, and his grin widened. “You’re learning. I’m going to help you, because my goal is for you to trust me. I’m not playing games with you. Be very careful about how you word your questions. I won’t deliberately lie but remember some responses can be worded so that you still won’t know the truth even though you think you do.”
“Okay, but I want you to lie about one of them. But not on the last question, I’ll need more chances to ask it again if I need too.”
“All right. We’ll take these downstairs. You need to think carefully about how you ask your questions. Let’s eat tea and, then after we’ve cleared up, we’ll set it up on the kitchen table.” Her stomach rumbled just as he finished speaking, and he laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He picked up the candle and the dagger and left her to bring the rest.
She needed to think exactly what it was she wanted to ask him and in what order. This was a chance she didn’t want to waste.
