“So which is it?”
“That’s the point, babe.”
Cally stared at her. “We are so fucked.”
“Well, I do have an idea.” Eve turned to another page. “This one isn’t very complex, and it doesn’t do anything spectacular,but it uses the same cardinal-circle thingy, so if we can figure it out, maybe it’ll help us unlock the other one.”
“What does it do?”
“Finds your car keys.”
“Seriously? First, I don’t have a car, and second, I’m pretty sure whoever wrote this book by candlelight in a medieval Order basement didn’t have a car either.”
“Sweetheart,” Eve said patiently, “it’s a localized finding spell. So my leading theory is that the ‘cardinal’ reference is the compass points. We ‘bind the circle’ andvoilà,as Antoine would say.”
“Okay, that makes sense. But why would the immobilization spell use a finding mechanic? We already know who we’re immobilizing, right?”
“At that point, I leave the area of educated speculation and fall back on pure guesswork. Maybe it needs to be aligned to the vamp’s position? Or it uses spatial awareness to keep him in one location?” Eve shrugged. “Like I said, we only have half the instructions.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Cally said with a sigh. “We don’t have a coven. Five witches, right? We only have me. How are we ever supposed to…” She stopped as Eve grinned at her. “What?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to raise that objection. Do you remember what Mr. Alexander said at dinner?”
“That he was an intrusive asshole and used his power to blackmail and threaten?”
“Well, yes. But more specifically. I said we needed a coven and asked him if he had more witches, remember?”
“Uh, vaguely? So what, you’re suggesting we useOrderwitches?”
“God, no.” Her grin widened. “But what did he say?”
“Fuck if I know. You’re the one with the massive brain and the photographic memory.”
“More like phonographic—”
“—Whatever—”
“—but what he said was”—she paused, then spoke in a high, nasal voice that sounded nothing like Mr. Alexander—“‘We havetwo witches in the Order, but they are both in Europe, and already the demands on their time are excessive.’”
Cally blinked. “Was that word-for-word?”
“I guess?”
“You total freak. Okay, so we need five, we only have two more anyway, they’d never join us because they work for the Order,andthey’re somewhere in Europe. I don’t see your point, unless it’s that we’re screwed.”
“Thepoint, my coven-obsessed friend, is why would the demands on their time be ‘excessive’ if they can’t do a damn thing without a coven?”
“Huh,” Cally said. “Thatisa point.”
“And you did the obsidian-nova thing all by yourself.”
“True.” Cally couldn’t help thinking they were groping in the dark, but she forced a smile. “All right, let’s give it a go.”
“Great!” Eve sprang up from the bed, rummaging in a bag she’d brought from her room. “See, the other thing about this spell is that it references a circle. At first, I thought like you—that it meant thecovenforms a circle. But then I figured, if we don’tneeda coven…” She straightened, holding up a pot of paint. “We just need a circle!”
“I think you’re insane.”
“Great! You read the instructions while I piss Marcel off by drawing all over his carpet.”
