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I could feel it.Sense it. The closer it came, the more sweat gathered along my hairline.
“Here it comes,” Sara warned us moments before a beautiful girl who appeared to be in her early twenties and was dressed in old-fashioned garments sat within the circle, her arms folded protectively across her waist.
She took in our circle fearfully, her blonde hair flowing past thin, shaking arms, though her eyes looked fierce. “Where am I? What magick is this to wake me from my rest?”
I stared, wide-eyed, at the spirit. Only, she wasn’t a spirit—not like I had ever seen before. She appeared far too corporeal, the edges of her face and body lit up with an iridescent blue glow that I could touch should we release her from the protected circle.
“What’s your name?” Genevieve whispered to the girl, looking entranced.
The spirit quirked a brow at the innocuous question. “Blanca. Who are you and why are you summoning me?”
Blanca.
Before Sara or Genevieve could continue their interrogation, I came to my knees, inching as close to the circle as I dared. Blanca turned to watch me, but then she noticed the amulet, which had dropped back to the cement before my place at the circle.
“Is that—” she gasped.
“It’s the Amulet of Davorina,” I breathed. “Your creation.”
The girl seemed to deflate, her earlier terror returning in a blink. “But how did you—? The vampire king. The battle on our island. I thought the amulet lost forever. Please, tell me what has happened to my sister,” she suddenly pleaded, looking as untethered as I felt the night of the Samhain festival when I feared the worst for my sisters. “Please. I haven’t been able to find her spirit. I couldn’t move on without her.”
I wiped away the sheen of tears that sprung to my eyes. “As far as I’m aware, Vera lost her life at the hands of Alistair. I don’t know much about her fate, but I know that Alexei stole the amulet, among other talismans, and has been working on fixing the broken magick within.”
“Alexei?” she mouthed, a small, secret smile playing at her lips. “That poor boy. He never deserved the cruelty his father showed him.”
I nodded, my throat tight. “I know. But he’s not that boy any longer. He’s a good male and together, we’re trying to make things right.”
Suddenly realizing the others grew deathly quiet as I revealed my true reason for coming to Salem with the vampire prince, I felt my shoulders drooping with rising panic.
“That’s why you wanted to know about talismans and dark magick?” Genevieve asked. It wasn’t fury or disgust in her voice, but excited curiosity.
I nodded nervously, glancing at Sara and Elaine who still merely looked drunk and a bit befuddled as they watched me conversing with Blanca. Sara watched the Ouija board move at a dizzying speed, and her brows furrowed.
A jolt went through me. “Can y’all not hear her?”
Sara continued transcribing Blanca’s words. “Why do you think we have the Ouija board? We’re not spirit witches, so the spirits sometimes go in and out of focus, her speech fading. This is the most corporeal spirit I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing what you can do when you stop fearing your spirit affinity, bitch.”
The strange endearment, coupled with another hasty draw of honey mead, settled over me like a warm embrace.
Blanca watched our exchange with pinched brows, but as she waded through our modern speech, she snorted. “I take it you are a fellow spirit witch? It’s no wonder Alexei has entrusted our magick with you.”
I shrugged, fighting the urge to play with the ends of my bangs nervously. “I’m definitely not as skilled at this affinity as you and your Coven were. It’s kind of why I wanted to call on the amulet’s owner. I need help.”
“Alistair.” Blanca said his name as sharp as a blade and full of knowing.
I shifted uneasily, avoiding the curious gazes of the other witches and spoke low enough so only Blanca could hear. “Yes. One of the talismans was stolen by another vampire. The Staff of Borislav. Alexei and I must recover it before he ends up causing mass destruction, garnering mortal detection and possibly costing more lives. But I need to understand the corrosive curse within the talisman. How do I fix it or destroy it, so no one else can use it against our people?”
Blanca’s face crumpled, and she rested her face in her open palms. “That staff was a mistake. Rheanne knew it soon after she created it. But it has been so long since I’ve casted. Even longer since I forced my thoughts to return to those talismans.” Her voice broke, a ghostly tear falling down her hollow cheek. “I’ve remained on Bled Island, sleeping eternally as I wait for Vera to find me. I’ll share what I know, but I’ve never tried to undo our magick. Only create more intricate and awe-inspiring gifts to imbue into the objects.”
Genevieve took a notebook from her tote bag and started taking notes. Her gaze remained riveted to Blanca’s lips, reading the movements when her voice trickled out. Before I could think to be grateful for her foresight, Blanca started to explain her Coven’s experience with dark magick.
I followed the spellwork and rituals she described with interest, amused at the similarities and vast differences that had evolved after nearly one-hundred years. Unlike modern coven’s use of crystals and other natural herbs, the witches confined to their small island used blood and bones. Biological materials that created huge surges of magick, unlike any spell I had tried before.
Much like Genevieve explained, the Bled witches prayed to Nyx. However, in addition to the Goddess of Night, they also included Hecate, pulling power from both goddesses in a symbiote of perfect balance.
“As far as breaking the magick,” Blanca sighed, not wearied at all from her lesson, while Elaine and Sara had given up on reading the Ouija board and simply drank heavily from their wine bottles. “you’ll have to locate the source of the corruption. It’ll be like a poison latching on and infecting the magick within. If you can neutralize the corrosion, or better yet, find a way to purge it from the object, the talismans should return to its original state.”
Genevieve’s pen scraping across her paper was suddenly the only sound in the basement as Blanca started to flicker in my vision.
