“What is it?” Gunnar crouches next to me.
“This is what he’s using to hold the circle.” I point to the wire. “How is chalk going to disrupt this?”
“Magic is all about intention,” Gunnar informs me. “We have the opportunity to break his intent before it takes hold. Your will, your intention, must be stronger.” He meets my stare.
“What if I don’t believe in this crap? Can we just ignore it?” I unintentionally look down at his hand where the rune is still marring his skin.
Gunnar shakes his head, his lips thinning. “No, he believes. That’s enough. Just like with Uncle and Bloody Mary, they’re here because enough people believed them into being.”
“I still don’t see how this can help.” Frustration has me fisting the stick. Gunnar reaches for my hand and gently pries it open.
“What do you want to do, Dami?” he asks with a patience he usually doesn’t possess.
“I want to break this fucking circle, break all of them.”
“Then do it.” He shrugs as if it’s that simple. When I open my mouth to argue, he lifts up one eyebrow in a challenging manner, and says, “Do it!”
Shear frustration has me scoring the chalk over the wire with a quick snap of my wrist. There’s a slight hissing sound and a fissure forms in the wire, breaking the copper, and the haze of purple drops to the ground like a curtain falling before disappearing into the darkness.
I look at the seemingly innocuous white stick in my hand and my mouth falls open. I can’t believe it worked. The intent was there in spades, but I never expected it to actually work.
“You’re surprised? You just severed a magical connection with dozens of corpses without more than a thought, but this surprises you?” Grim squints at me.
“But this is just chalk.” I examine the dust on my hand.
“And that was just a wire,” Calix counters.
I rise to my feet and extend my hand toward Grim. “Maybe you should hold on to this. I might break it.” My fingers are trembling, but I ignore it. He gives me a look that says I’m being absurd, but he takes it from me anyway.
When I turn around, I’ve either lost my expanded sight, or all the circles have been broken. I don’t trust the latter assumption, so I don’t tell the guys.
Pushing onward, we continue at our slow pace, edging our way through the forest and getting closer to the witch. I open my senses, searching for anything out of place, and come up empty. The sickly feeling that accompanied the corpses evaporated just as quickly as the spell was broken.
My heart starts to beat fast. We can’t let Antonio evade us again. There’s an urgency to the desire to get rid of him now. I wanted him dead because he posed a threat to people I care about, but then he fucked with my best friend and made it personal. I knew I would never stop searching for him, but even then, he was just a thorn in my side, not a real threat. However, the risk of letting him live has grown to a point where we can’t allow him to escape us again. If power is what drew him to me, he’s about to learn he should have left well enough alone.
The outline of a building finally comes into view. I actually stop in my tracks because I wasn’t expecting to see it. As I examine the structure, more of what’s been hidden behind a ward invades my senses. This isn’t like the thin purple mist. This is like the heaviness I felt at the club and the place where we found Aeson. Dirty magic happens here, and by the feel of it, it’s a lot.
“Jesus Christ,” Gunnar mutters when he gets a look at the building. It’s covered in symbols and runes. Every square inch of the old wooden slat boards is marked with symbols, and I have no idea what they mean.
“Can you decipher any of that?”
“Not with any certainty. There’s just too much. It looks like spell over spell.” Gunnar’s wide shoulders are bunched up, and he still has his knives fisted in his hands. He looks over at me. “If I had to guess, I would say they are warding spells. Some designed to keep people away, others to protect what’s inside.”
I nod, that makes sense. “This isn’t like the circle magic. I can’t see a way to break it,” I confess.
“We knew he would have safeguards in place,” Calix reminds me.
“I’m going in alone,” Gunnar declares.
“Ah, not happening.” I cross my arms over my chest, making sure not to stab myself with Gunnar’s giant knife.
“He’s already bound my powers, Dami. It’s the only thing that makes sense. If one of you guys walk in there, you might be in the same position. I’ll go in alone, get close enough to use our binding spell on him, then take him out.” He says it like it will be so easy. “Plus, I know what to look for, so I don’t get caught in a trap.”
“No, we should stay together. I mean, look at this place: the entire house is a trap.” I throw my hands toward the building.
“He’s right, Dami, and we’re right here. If anything goes wrong, we’ll go in, but let’s let him try first,” Calix implores.
I look at Grim, hoping he will be the one to see reason, but he just stares back at me without saying a word. He doesn’t have to. I can tell he’s on board with the plan. “It doesn’t feel right,” I argue. “I’m telling you I think we should all stay together.”
