My stomach churns at the saccharine dripping from her voice. I can only imagine why she’s calling for Baz at a time like this.
I shove Casey’s note in my pocket.
“Guess again,” I whisper, looking for a reason to make her suffer. A reason to makeanyonesuffer for what’s happening to Ani. To Stevie. To all of us.
She played a part in this. She’sstillplaying a part, throwing her cards in with the Dark Arcana who’d just as soon snuff us out. And while my esteemed colleagues upstairs might have a hard limit against torturing this parasite, I’ve got no such scruples.
And the kind, compassionate professors who might’ve stopped me from pushing this too far are nowhere in sight.
Nowhere in screaming distance.
They’re too busy trying to bring our beautiful ginger-haired brother back from the brink of insanity.
Deep in my chest, a new feeling unfurls. Dark. Hungry. Filling up the empty spaces inside me like a slow, creeping fog.
You know what to do, Cassius,the old voice echoes.Just like before.
I glance at Kate’s sedative potion in my hand, but no, this red-gold brew isn’t going to do the trick tonight. I set it on the worktable and glance over the tools and ingredients still on display from our first few nights here.
Kate may be the Academy’s unparalleled expert at healing potions.
But me? I’m quite adept at the other kind.
And sometimes, the other kind is the best remedy. The true remedy.
The cost.
“How are we feeling tonight, Janelle?” I ask, unbuttoning my cuffs and rolling up my sleeves. My voice is so cold and detached, I hardly recognize it.
“Better now that you’re here.” She tries to sit up on the cot, but the last vestiges of the binding spell hang heavy, and she falls right back again. “So… tired.”
“Yes, I can imagine. I understand you’ve had quite an adventure with Professor Phaines.”
“I did it for you, Baz,” she says, not an ounce of regret in her watery voice. “So we could be together.”
Bile rises in my throat. What kind of sick, twisted things are playing out in her mind?
No matter. It’s only going to get worse for her tonight.
I turn back to the worktable and make my selections, carefully measuring ingredients into an empty glass bottle. It’s been decades since I made this particular potion, but I’ll never forget the recipe: a precise blend of Demon’s Blood resin, Witch’s Cauldron, Black Moonstone elixir, Essence of Poppy, rattlesnake venom, and Fairy’s Breath, the last ingredient the same magickal powder that allowed Phaines to take possession of her mind and body in the first place.
But it’s not Phaines seeking to control her thoughts tonight. It’s someone much more determined, much more skilled in the fine art of mental manipulation, and much more dangerous to someone like Janelle Kirkpatrick.
Ingredients in place, I stopper the bottle and give it a gentle shake, drawing on the deceptive energy of the reversed Moon card as I recite my spell.
Black rider, void of light
I call upon the Mare of Night
Unleash the darkness in her mind
For evil sown is reaped in kind
Outside, dark clouds float across the moon, bathing us in all-encompassing darkness. The bottle warms in my hand.
“What… what are you doing?” Janelle mumbles.
“I’ve made something for you.” I hold the bottle up before my eyes, barely visible in the shadows.
