“But how the hell can we do this, Eve? We have to align the right structure to the right words, and they all have to fit the right intent…” She faltered as Eve jumped up.
“Spreadsheet!” She ran for the door, leaving Cally blinking after her, but she was back a minute later with her laptop. “Right. Let’s start with curses, then we’ll do boons,” she said as she pulled up a blank document. “Give me everything you’ve got, and we’ll color-code them by intent.” She looked up and grinned. “You know, I used to have a witch Lego set.”
“Why am I not surprised. Was it all in black?”
*
“This boon here. Then this one. With this structure.” Eve nudged Cally with her shoulder. “What does that feel like to you?”
They were sitting side-by-side on the bed, the laptop between them. Cally leaned forward to peer at the screen. “‘Mark the skin of the Source,’” she muttered as she read, scanning the directions. “A circle of blood drawn on the forehead, heart, and hands as the structure.” Eve had included the English translation against the Gaeilge, which was useful as Cally’s phone charged on the bedside table. “‘Strength of my bones… Heart beats, never fails…’ Looks like a strength spell.”
“It does, doesn’t it? Is that the sort of thing you had in mind?”
“It’s a promising start, if we can make it work. But it says, ‘the skin of the source’—wouldn’t that mean it can only be cast on the witch?”
“Uh, yeah. Good point.”
“I need something for Antoine.”
“Unless you fight Roberto too.”
“I won’t deny the idea holds appeal, but I’m only a lowly marked chattel. Even with this, I don’t think my strength would equal that of a Curia vampire.”
“Do you want to give it a try?”
“Tempting, but no. I need something that will help Antoine.”
“Maybe a different structure,” Eve said thoughtfully. “Something more externally oriented.”
“There’s nothing there,” Cally said. “I paid attention as we put them in. Theyalloriginate from the witch.”
“Huh.” Eve scanned the entries in the column under ‘structure’. “That’s kinda introverted.”
“A limitation of the magic, perhaps?”
Eve frowned. “That can’t be right. How would you ever curse anyone?”
“Damn it. We must be missing something.”
Eve rubbed her face. “All right. Let’s take this from another angle. What exactly are you trying to achieve?”
“I don’t know. I figured it would depend on what we had.”
“Ignore the structure and the curses for a moment. Let’s say we’re right, and we can build our own. What do you want the spell to do?”
“Make Antoine stronger,” Cally said without hesitation.
“Stronger how? Pure physicality?”
“Basically, yeah.”
“I think it’s risky,” Eve mused. “I could see him Hulking out, or getting strong but slow or something.”
“Shit. That would be bad.” Cally sighed and punched the pillow beside her. “This is just guesswork! I couldhurthim with this!”
“That’s why we’ll practice. But it is magic, babe,” Eve said gently. “No one said it was without risk.”
“You’re right. I know.” She let out a breath. “All right. Not strength then. Speed maybe? We could…” The words died on her tongue as her subconscious filled in the gaps. “You have always had power,ma chérie. That, I have never doubted.”Power. It was all about power. “Pure power,” she said. “I just want to transfer my power to him.” She looked at Eve. “What do you think? Would that work?”
