She left the door open so Antoine’s view was unobstructed as she walked to the front door, her exit more theatre than retreat.
At the threshold, Belle paused. “Soon, we will be together again. Give Cally my love, won’t you?”
“I’ll… pass that on.”Just as soon as I figure out how to tell her you killed her mother.
The door closed behind her, and Antoine stepped forward to slide the lock firmly into place.
Twenty-Six
“Antoine had a visitor last night,” Eve said nonchalantly as she flipped open the tome on Cally’s bed.
“Did he?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say she was a vampire, and from Antoine’s reactions, a fucking crazy one.”
“Belle was here?” Cally glanced involuntarily toward his room where he rested.
“Who’s Belle?”
“Antoine’s sire.”
Eve’s hand froze halfway to her face. “Shit, no way! She looked our age. No more than twenty-five.”
“Try five hundred and twenty-five.”
“Really?”
Cally spread her hands. “No idea, but she’s older and more powerful than Antoine. He’s…” She lowered her voice. “…kinda scared of her.”
“I’m not surprised. That much power in a package as psycho as that?” She gave a mock-shudder.
“We have about four hours before Antoine will wake up,” Cally reminded her. “And five days before I’m supposed to be able to cast a spell I don’t even know.”
“Right, right. Focusing.” Eve sat up on the bed and fixed her with a serious look. “So I was up late last night reading, and I think I might have a plan.”
“Plans are good.”
“We can’t know if the immobilization spell is working without testing it on someone, and you won’t let us use Antoine as a guinea pig—”
“—Obviously.”
“Right.” Eve rolled her eyes in clear disapproval. “So what we need is a spell that will allow you to practice.”
“Making crystals shine isn’t going to cut it.”
“Well, no. I agree. But we have others.” Eve tapped the tome with one finger.
Cally rolled over and pulled the leather-bound volume closer. “Whatisin this book? Should I read it?” The pages were thick, and there were fewer of them than she’d expected. Each was covered in the spidery handwriting where ‘magick’ was spelled with a ‘k,’ and some letters were squished together and joined with flourishes. Eve had stuck colored tabs to most of the pages, her own notes scrawled in tiny writing.
“You can if you want, but the problem is that as an instruction manual, it’s only half-complete.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, there’s six spells in here, right? But three of them reference things not explained.” She turned back a few pages, where her notes were dense. “This one, for example. It references ‘invocation IX’—no idea what that is—and ‘the universal language,’ which I think means Latin, but could reference Gaeilge or Klingon for all I know.” She flicked over two pages. “This is the immobilization spell. It references… look, here. ‘The Circle must be bound to the Cardinal set aright.’” She waved helplessly at the text. “That could mean about a hundred different things.”
“What’s the ‘Cardinal’?”
“Great question.” Eve pointed to a cluster of notes sticking out from the margin. “Cardinal directions—north, south, east, west. The cardinal virtues—prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. That’ll be a stretch for you.” She smirked. “Or the rank of cardinal. One below the pope. Doesn’t really fit the vibe. Last but not least, ‘cardinal’ used to mean ‘most important’.”
