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“You want me to lie to the council?” Carlotta gasps, bringing her hand to her chest in shock.
“Yes, for the sake of Callie’s life, you will say whatever will keep the council disinterested for as long as possible,” she shouts, curling her hands into angry fists.
“If you wanted to leave them disinterested, then naming her your successor wasn’t the smartest of moves,” Carlotta responds primly.
“I panicked,” Mildred admits in defeat. With tears in her eyes, she looks up at her fellow matriarch. “It was all I could think of to protect her.”
Unable to watch another minute of this, I rush to my nan’s side to comfort her. “It’s going to be okay. Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out.”
She runs her hand down my hair and offers me a weak smile. “You’re right, my darling. We’ll find a way. I won’t let them hurt you.”
There’s a hint of envy in Carlotta’s gray eyes as she watches us together. “Alright, I will do what I can to keep the council at bay, but I doubt I can do it forever. Honestly, you have more influence than I do.”
I frown and flash Mildred a questioning look.
“Carlotta exaggerates,” she insists, staring my grandmother down as if to warn her from saying anything more.
Abandoned by the door, Kaleb awkwardly raises his hand to signal he has a question.
“This isn’t school, young man,” Carlotta states with amusement. “You don’t need permission to ask a question.” Her lips curl up on one side. “Though I don’t promise any answers.”
He drops his hand and stuffs it into his jeans pocket. “I was wondering what you need the council’s help for.”
“Neva values power almost above all else,” Mildred answers, wrapping her arm around my shoulders. “Having magic gives her power.”
“You want to bind her magic like mine was?” I ask, something settling within me that I don’t quite understand. It’s like there are inner scales inside me that seem to balance at the thought of separating the two Reyes witches from their magic.
“Yes, but a binding spell can only be performed by the council,” my nan laments, her expression defeated. “It requires a spell that can only be found in the ancient grimoires that are part of the council’s private collection. It takes the chancellor and two other members to open the damnable seal where they are stored.”
“Let’s not forget it also requires the combined power of the council to perform such a spell,” Carlotta adds, approaching the other side of the bed. She frowns at Gina’s sleeping face. “We won’t be getting much out of her in this state.”
Remembering why we’re here in the first place, I reluctantly answer, “That part is my job.” I hold my hand out to Kaleb in invitation. “Ready?”
He nods, wearing his familiar, determined expression, as he strides toward me.
Withdrawing from my nan’s one-armed embrace, I sit on the side of the bed. As I take Kaleb’s hand with one of mine and Gina’s with the other, I mull over a question in my mind. “If you need to understand the spell cast to undo it, then how did you plan to remove the binding spell on my magic?”
“Brute strength,” my nan answers, moving the table with the grimoire back to give Kaleb and me some room to work. “Sometimes, with enough raw power, you can do enough damage to a spell for it to become useless. I understood what the spell was doing—blocking your connection to the source of all magic—so I knew where to focus our efforts.”
Carlotta’s gaze bounces between Mildred and myself with confusion. “She clearly has access to her magic, yet you’re both talking as if you didn’t remove the binding spell.”
“I removed it myself with the power of love,” I answer with a smug grin.
“That’s literally impossible,” she argues with a wave of her hand.
Kaleb chuckles quietly and shakes his head. “You’ll find impossible doesn’t really apply to Callie.”
Her lips purse, and she rolls her eyes. “Ah, yes, this mysterious spirit magic that somehow unravels all laws that govern the fundamentals of how magic works.”
“I don’t know about that,” I reply with a shrug. “Then again, I’m still learning what the rules are.”
Carlotta’s jaw drops, and her eyes widen as she furiously looks over at Mildred. “You’re having an untrained witch attempt a spell to bring someone out of a healing sleep?”
“It’s the wisest choice since she was the one to put her in it to begin with,” my nan retorts, crossing her arms. “Callie is an exceptionally powerful witch who has… intuitive magic. Trust me, she is more than capable of performing the task at hand.”
Turning her attention toward me, Carlotta eyes the way Kaleb’s fingers interlace with mine. “What exactly are you going to do? I’ve never come across a spell that requires the assistance of a nephilim.”
“It’s a, uh… healing spell that I discovered in my mother’s grimoire,” I answer vaguely, kicking off my shoes so I can sit more comfortably on the bed. “It requires someone to, um, ground me.”
