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Chloe’s lips curled back. “We need to find out. Problem is, this damn book won’t open!”
She tugged on the front cover, but it didn’t move, as if it’d been glued shut.
“Let me see…” Nadine slid the book across the table and splayed her palm over it. She pressed her lips together, like she was concentrating hard. “This ward is a joke. I can break it no problem.”
Nadine closed her eyes, and black magic billowed out of the pages, swirling up her arm. As a Curse Breaker, Nadine had the unique ability to move magic from one place to another. It was what allowed her to break curses, but it had other perks, too, like breaking wards. Most wards were too strong for a single Curse Breaker to break, but Nadine was getting better. I was confident she could break this simple ward with ease.
She transformed the ward magic into a battle orb. It crackled in her palm for a second, then shot out of her hand and whizzed across the library. It slammed into a nearby shelf and knocked a bunch of books to the floor. I winced as the sound filled the room.
“Whoops,” Nadine said. “I really need to work on that.”
“You don’t think anyone heard that, do you?” Grant asked.
“Relax,” Chloe said. “No one’s here.”
Nadine opened the book to the table of contents, and Talia leaned forward, her eyes bright with interest. “Let’s see…” Nadine mused. “Demon summonings…”
“This looks promising,” Talia said, pointing.
Isa peeked over the edge of the table and hissed, as if warning us not to go through with this. Nadine stroked her fur. “It’s okay, girl. We’ll be careful.”
Isa let out a low growl, but Nadine ignored her and turned to the spell Talia had pointed out. She studied the page for a moment before saying, “This looks simple. All we need to do is draw a sigil and speak an incantation—oh, wait. This spell uses blood magic.”
“So?” Chloe asked.
Talia gaped at her. “Blood magic is bad.”
“Why?” Chloe challenged. “If I cut my hand open, I’m not hurting anyone but myself. I don’t see the problem.”
“Because it’s tricky and can backfire on you,” Nadine pointed out.
Chloe shrugged. “Same with summoning a demon. You know the real reason the coven doesn’t sanction blood magic, right?”
I eyed her curiously. “What are you getting at?”
“Blood magic is powerful,” Chloe pointed out. “We’re like magical reservoirs—batteries that can be recharged. That’s why your magic returns every time you’re affected by the Waning. Our magic comes from Alora, but once we’re recharged, we hold our magic in our blood. The coven doesn’t want us using blood magic because they don’t want us to know how powerful we really are. They’re afraid of it, plain and simple.”
Talia narrowed her eyes. “That has to be a conspiracy theory. The coven banned blood magic to protect us.”
Chloe shrugged. “Believe what you want, but I’m convinced. You already know the priestesses aren’t above lying. Is it so hard to believe they would lie about this? Of course blood magic is going to backfire the first few times you use it—just like any magic. They tell you it’s dangerous so you won’t ever use it and realize how strong you really are.”
Chloe made a good point, one I had never considered before. I used to trust the priestesses. I didn’t anymore.
“I think it’s worth a shot,” I said.
Grant crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Perhaps we should let Chloe do the honors.”
He was testing her, trying to see if she was bluffing. Chloe was more than up for the challenge. “I don’t mind,” she said.
Nadine nodded. “Then let’s begin.”
She conjured a marker and began drawing the sigil on the tabletop, glancing at the book every now and then to make sure she got it right. It was a circle, with a five-pointed star inside and all sorts of runes surrounding it.
The moment Nadine finished drawing the sigil, an icy chill filled the room. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself. “Does anyone else feel that?”
Talia shot a glance around the room. “Definitely weird.”
“Well, we are summoning a demon,” Grant said. “It should be weird, shouldn’t it?”
