Tiddly Jinx (15 page)

Jessica eyed the ground and pointed to one of the symbols. “That’s not quite right.” She talked Frost through the correction. “I can tell Selene has been teaching you. Her rune work is always sloppy.”

Selene looked up. “Is not.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow. “What do you guys need?”

Selene told her what we were doing, and how she would need to assist Frost. Jessica eyed the squirrel on her lap. “Have you put it in a trance? Why is it laying on you? I remember the squirrels on campus charging at people if they had food, but I have never seen one curl up and go to sleep on someone.”

I smiled, and even Sebastian looked amused. “It’s the elf in me,” I said.

She nodded. “Well, if it doesn’t bite me, I’ll do it.”

Frost handed her the ceremonial knife and Selene brought the squirrel to her, showing her how to hold it so it wouldn’t bite. As soon as Jessica touched it, the creature immediately tried to escape, but she held tight as it squeaked and struggled.

“Let’s do this,” Jessica said, expression set in a determined scowl.

Sebastian, Selene, and I backed away, leaving Jessica and Frost to their task. Selene came willingly, though she didn’t take her eyes off of what they were doing. She repeated the spell for Frost with no inflection in her voice.

As Frost began to recite the spell, storm clouds rolled in over the mountain and lightning hit a tree closest to us. Sparks and limbs fell, but Frost kept reciting. The breeze picked up to a gust that whipped the girls’ hair around their heads. I could barely hear the words that were being spoken, but I could see Jessica plunge the knife into the squirrel, letting it bleed over the entrance to the pathway to the other side before laying the body in front of it.

The storm and wind raged on, and Selene turned into my chest, burying her tear-streaked face against me. I held her tight as what looked like black smoke rose around the casters, obscuring them from my sight. It grew darker and darker until a loud
boom
shook the mountain. Then it all faded away as if it had never been there. The smoke was gone, the sky was blue and sunny, and the temperature warmed. Selene still held onto me.

“It’s over,” I said to her.

“I can’t look. Are they okay?”

Both women lay on the ground, unmoving.

“ARE THEY OKAY?” I repeated, but Cheney still didn’t respond.

My mind spun with all the horrible things that could have happened. Did they disappear? Did they die? Or did they embrace the evil and burst into hundreds of black birds and fly away like in a movie? I had to look. I opened my eyes and turned away from Cheney. Both Jessica and Frost were lying on the ground, but they were too far away to see much more. Sebastian was already halfway to them by the time I started in their direction.

Sebastian crouched next to Jessica and picked up her wrist. “She’s alive.”

“Dude, don’t shout,” she grumbled, pulling her arm away to fling it over her eyes.

We couldn’t touch Frost to check, and I didn’t think I could feel a pulse through thick rubber gloves anyway. I was considering poking her with a stick when she groaned and sat up. “Did it work?”

Cheney went to the spot in the center of the casting area and reached under the fallen tree. A relieved smile tilted one side of his mouth. “It’s closed.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, the tension leaving my shoulders. I helped Jessica to her feet and collected the book. When everything was together and we had cleared away the evidence that we had been there, we all headed back to the castle.

Frost immediately headed for her room without saying anything to any of us, which wasn’t unusual but still concerning. If she was struggling with the evil she’d encountered while casting the spell, we would have no way of knowing. None of us could tell the difference between normal, bitchy Frost and evil Frost.

Jessica put her hand on my arm. “I feel terrible. I’m going to lie down for a while. If you need anything, come get me.”

“Thank you so much for your help, Jessica,” I said, trying for a reassuring smile. “Get some rest.” I patted her shoulder then went to Cheney’s office with the guys.

Inside, I sat on the couch while Cheney safely secured the book. I stretched and stifled a yawn. “Frost could probably cast the spell tonight, but I think we should give it a day to see where things stand.”

“What do you mean?” Sebastian asked.

I rolled my neck. “Well, she just cast her first dark spell. Obviously it’s draining, but more importantly, I don’t want to put her in danger by asking her to cast again in a weakened state. I want to monitor her and see if it’s affecting her.”

“How can you tell?” Cheney raised an eyebrow. “She’s hardly a ray of sunshine.”

“That’s the problem. We need a barometer. We’re depending on her too much to go in blind. What she needs is a friend.”

“A friend who is a better friend to you than her,” Sebastian said with a knowing look.

Sure it seemed like I was up to my old tricks again, but I didn’t mean her any harm. I just wanted to know before I pushed her too far.

“Selene is good at finding those kinds of friends,” Cheney added.

“Hey,” I protested. “I’m trying to help.” I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to imagine the sort of person Frost could be friends with. She obviously had a chip on her shoulder about not being able to be touched. She needed an undead friend so they would be on even ground. Olivia would have been my first choice—because honestly, who wouldn’t like her—but she was apparently busy. Also, I wasn’t sure Olivia would betray a friend once she made one. Suddenly, the perfect person flashed in my mind.

“Why are you smiling?” Cheney asked.

“I know who she should make friends with.”

“Sy?” Sebastian guessed.

I shook my head. “She has the same problem with him as she has with me and you. She would still be lonely. Simple things like shaking someone’s hand or helping someone up if they fell are things she can’t do. I think it bothers her to see other people do it when she can’t.”

“Then who?” Sebastian asked.

“Corbin. She can’t hurt him like that because he’s already dead. And he’ll be loyal to me.”

Cheney frowned. “I understand your logic, but you’re forgetting one important detail. They hate each other.”

“He just has to stop being a dick to her long enough to charm her,” I replied. “There’s a fine line between hate and love. Corbin can be very charming when he wants to be. If she’s as lonely as I think she is, she won’t resist it. They’re a lot alike. They both live on the outskirts of society, they’re lonely, and they toe the line between good and evil. It’ll work if Corbin agrees to do it.”

Sebastian scratched his chin. “Okay, let’s say you talk him into this. How is he supposed to gain her trust in a matter of hours? If you want her to cast tomorrow—we all agree we need to find the Pole now—there isn’t much time to accomplish any of this.”

“I don’t know how he’ll earn her trust, but I said we could
try
to cast tomorrow. The thing is, we don’t know what the spell entails until she finds the right one and reads it, but as soon as she does, it disappears from the book.”

“So it might take multiple tries,” Cheney said with a nod.

“Which increases the chance of her turning dark,” I said.

Cheney scratched his jaw lightly. “I think I know how he can gain her trust.”

I leaned forward. “Really?”

“Last night Corbin said he would help find the passageway to the underworld if we agreed to kill Frost after she was no longer useful to us.”

I sat back again. Corbin had told me he wanted something for his help. I arrogantly had thought he’d meant something to do with me, but this made more sense. He obviously thought I wouldn’t agree to it, and I couldn’t say if I would have or not. Some problems are bigger than one single life. I nodded. “How does that help?”

“He could tell her.” Sebastian leaned forward. “He could tell her in confidence that we planned to double-cross her and make her think he is her only ally.”

“What’s to keep her from just walking away?”

“People like her are used to not being trusted. They expect it. She isn’t helping because she likes us. She is helping because she wants the book. If she trusts him, they can plan their own double-cross—it will have to offer them both something they want. He can entice her with walking away with the book, the Pole, and her life, all while leaving no witnesses,” Cheney said.

“And what will Corbin get?”

“You,” Sebastian said. “That way Frost can’t attack you directly and everyone knows that’s what he wants. He hasn’t really tried to hide it.”

“What about the rest of you?”

“She can’t attack us if Corbin wants you. They’ll have to come up with a plan where it’s believable that you would go to him. If she killed the coven, Sebastian, me, or anyone else you love, you would die trying to kill them,” Cheney said.

“We have to be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that Corbin is in fact on our side.”

I nodded, but the whole thing sounded risky to me. If the plan was too good, Corbin might be tempted to try it after all. “I’ll research vampire bonds and see if there’s something there we can use. I’ll also look into necromancers and see what we are up against.”

“Have you found a spell to bind the book?” Sebastian asked.

“I don’t know. I need to talk to Katrina. She was supposed to be looking with Jessica yesterday.”

“Frost can’t do the spell until we have that,” Cheney said. “We need to make sure you’re ready to bind the book once she starts the spell.”

There was a knock on the door, and Heinrich came in. “Miss Lily is here to see you, Erlking,” he said.

“Hi, Heinrich.” I smiled and waved at him. He blushed—it was never an easy feat to make an elf blush.

Cheney gave me a strange look before he looked back at him. “Thank you. Please show her in.” Heinrich gently closed the door behind him. “Why are you torturing the guards?”

“Torturing? Ha. I’m offended. I simply said hi. He’s sweet.” I stood and kissed Cheney’s cheek. “I’m headed down to the archive.”

Sebastian stood, too. “I could probably be of more use with you, unless you need something.” He glanced at Cheney.

Cheney waved him away. “No. Help Selene.”

Sebastian and I left. I greeted Lily as we passed her in the hallway. Someday I was going to have to make the time to talk to her.

Katrina was in the archive already, surrounded by stacks of books. “Hey, do you remember which book had the chapter about human and elf mating?” she asked without looking up as we came in.

“I have no idea,” I answered, and her head popped up.

“I thought you were Jess.” Her eyes trailed to Sebastian and lingered for a moment. He carefully avoided her.

“Jess is napping. She helped us with a spell this morning to close the first tear. Did you find anything on binding the book?”

Katrina scrunched her nose. “Not really. There are lots of books on runes,” she gestured vaguely to her left, “but I don’t know that that’s the best method. They’re pretty easy to break. We were supposed to go talk to your grandma this morning, but Jess hasn’t made it down yet.”

“I’ll get Edith,” Sebastian volunteered—too quickly, I thought—and left just as fast.

“He didn’t have to run,” Katrina grumbled.

I suppressed a laugh. “Human and elf mating?”

“What? He isn’t the only elf of my acquaintance. I like to know my options.”

This time I did laugh. “So Sebastian is still an option?”

She frowned at the door. “Apparently I’m not one for him.”

“I think he’s protecting you.”

She looked back at me. “How?”

“Elf and human relationships don’t end happily. Most of the time at least one half of the union dies, sometimes both. You’re a witch, but you’re also still human. Sebastian will live for thousands of years.”

“So what you’re saying is find an old elf.” She tapped her finger on her chin thoughtfully. “I could be a trophy wife.”

I laughed again. “You could maybe just find a nice human?”

She rolled her eyes. “How boring.” She ran one finger over her eyebrow. “Seriously though, you think I should walk away?”

I couldn’t really say what Sebastian felt. He said it wasn’t going to work with her, but he had also just been through a trauma. I had doubts that even Sebastian knew what he wanted right now. “I honestly don’t know. Don’t put your life on hold for him, but don’t write him off, either. He may end up surprising you.”

She nodded, and then straightened up in her seat. “So, what brings you down to our research hole? You wouldn’t believe how many books they have on practically everything. A lot of them are hand written in languages I don’t even recognize, but still. It’s just amazing what was collected.”

“Elves live a long time, and they’re a very stable race. They sort of became the unofficial historians of the Abyss. Anyway, I need to look into vampires and necromancers.”

“Right this way.” She took me to a stack on the far side of the room. “Vampires in English and necromancers would be over there,” she continued, pointing to a stack about three piles away.

“You should be the court librarian.”

“I’d take the job in a heartbeat if you weren’t leaving.”