He’s talking about the Chalice. After we pulled it out of the realm, we spelled it and hid it in the dresser, but that was just a temporary solution.
“You want to take it the Fool’s Grave,” Baz says.
“But how?” Kirin asks. “The magickal boundary protecting the objects will only open with all five of us present. We have to wait for Ani to come back. He doesn’t even have control of his body right now.”
“We don’t need Ani’s body to unlock the magick.” Doc reaches for Ani’s arm, his energy resigned and apologetic. In his free hand, he holds a syringe, the sharp needle glinting in the sunlight. “Only his blood.”
Twenty-Two
STEVIE
Hours later, when the house is silent save for the hum of the fridge and the soft snores drifting from the upstairs bedrooms, we make our escape.
“Stay alert,” Doc whispers as we pile into the SUV.
Safely seat-belted into the passenger seat, I clutch my Eye of Horus pendant and whisper a prayer of protection—to my parents, to the goddesses, to the entire universe. Then, with a vial of Ani’s blood secured in Doc’s bag and the Chalice of Blood and Sorrow secured in mine, we drive out into the starry-eyed darkness.
Our destination is over an hour away—a no-name desert outpost in the middle of nowhere, featuring an abandoned convenience store and gas station combo that looks like it hasn’t done business since the 1970s. The old pumps are rusted and hollow, the hoses disintegrated long ago.
“The gas station was actually built by mages to mark the path to the energy vortex behind it,” Doc explains as he drives onto the cracked pavement and kills the engine. “We need it to create the portal back to campus.”
I nod, hefting my bag over my shoulder. Portaling directly from the house would’ve been more convenient, but at what risk? If this goes sideways tonight, the last thing we want is anyone—or anything—following us back through the portal to Red Sands.
“I feel like we’ve got a giant target painted on our backs,” I say, peering into the ghostly remnants of the convenience store. Actually, “store” is a bit generous; it’s more like a large shack, its few shelves and coolers overrun with tumbleweeds.
Doc squeezes the back of my neck. “We’ll be home before you know it.”
Home.The word wraps around my heart like a blanket, filling my mind with visions of a future we haven’t yet secured, but one that gives me hope and strength nevertheless.
Is it even possible? A home with the men I’ve come to respect, to trust, to love?
“She’s smiling,” Baz says, leaning in to kiss my cheek. “We’re all the way out here in Apocalypsetown on a stealth mission that might just get us killed, and this woman is smiling.”
“It’s calledhope,” I tell him, grinning until my cheeks hurt. “And right now, I’ll take that over freaking out like a little bitchanyday.”
“Are you saying I’m freaking out?” he teases.
“No,” Kirin replies. “I think she’s saying you’re a little bitch.”
“Fair enough.” Baz laughs, stealing another kiss before heading into the lonely desert beyond.
We fall in beside him, following the pull of the energy vortex about a half-mile out to a flat, sandy area encircled with scrub brush. The magick is too faint for most regular humans to sense, but to me it’s undeniable, like an invisible water current gently dragging us in.
I hold out my hands, letting the magick wash over them, warm and comforting. “This is definitely the spot.”
Doc kneels down on the ground and removes the Academy pin from his bag—the same one he used to wear on his ties. “This portal will get us into the Petrified Forest of Iron and Bone,” he says. “From there, Baz will create a second portal to take us to the caves. Our goal tonight is the Fool’s Grave—get in, spell the Chalice, and get out. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” we all reply.
Gathering behind Doc, we watch in silence as he performs the same portal ritual I first witnessed behind Lala’s house. He pricks his finger with the tie pin, then draws a sigil into the earth with his blood, whispering a spell.
The sigil blazes white, then sinks into the ground, calling up the portal—a swirling, shimmering mass of bright blue and white light, pulsing with strong magick.
“I’ll take point,” Kirin says. “If anything’s waiting for us on the other side, I’m bringing the whole damn sky down on their asses.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Doc gets to his feet and gestures for Kirin to go ahead, then Baz. He grabs my hand last, and the two of us step through together, spilling out into the Forest.
All around us, petrified trees glow like white stone monoliths in the moonlight, a sight as eerie as it is beautiful.
