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“So, you’re thinking Trojan Horse?”
“It’s a possibility we can’t dismiss without proof.”
“No,” Blair agreed, “you’d be stupid just to take my word. And I feel better, actually, knowing you’re not stupid. What do you want? My demon hunter’s license?”
“You actually have—”
“No.” She planted her feet, very like a warrior bracing for battle. “But if you’re toying with doing some kind of witchcraft that involves my blood or other bodily fluid, you’re out of luck. Line drawn on that.”
“Nothing like that. Well, witchcraft, but nothing that requires blood. We’re linked, the five of us. By fate, by necessity. And some, yes, by blood. We are the circle. We are the chosen. If you’re the last link of that circle, we’ll know.”
“Otherwise?”
“We can’t harm you.” Hoyt laid a hand on Glenna’s shoulder. “It’s against all we are to use power against a human being.”
Blair glanced toward the broadsword leaning against the tower wall. “Anything in the rule book about sharp, pointy objects?”
“We won’t harm you. If you’re Lilith’s servant, we’ll make you our prisoner.”
She smiled, one corner of her mouth rising, then the other. “Good luck with that. All right, let’s do it. Like I said, if you’d swallowed everything without
a hmmm, I’d be more worried about what I’d walked into here. You guys around this white circle, me in it?”
“You know witchcraft?” Glenna asked her.
“I know something about it.” She stepped into the circle.
“One of us at each point,” Glenna instructed, “to form a pentagram. Hoyt will do the search.”
“Search?”
“Of your mind,” he assured Blair.
“There are some private things in there, too.” Uncomfortable, she moved her shoulders, frowned at Hoyt. “Am I supposed to think of you as my witch doctor?”
“I’m not a witch. It will go more quickly, and without discomfort if you open to this.” He lifted his hands, and lit the candles. “Glenna?”
“This is the circle of light and knowledge, formed by like minds, like hearts. Within this circle of light and knowledge no harm will we impart. We seek to link so we may know, within this ring only truth bestow. With mind to mind in destiny, as we will, so mote it be.”
The air rippled, and still the candle flames rose straight as arrows. Hoyt held out his hands toward Blair.
“No harm, no pain. Only thoughts within thoughts. Your mind to my mind, your mind to our minds.”
Her eyes looked deeply into his, had something flickering in his head. Then they went black, and he saw.
They all saw.
A young girl fighting a monster nearly twice her size. There was blood on her face, and her shirt was torn. They could hear each drawing of her labored breath. A man stood off to the side, and watched the battle.
She was struck to the ground with a vicious backhanded blow, and sprang up. Struck down again. When the thing leaped, she rolled. And stabbed it through the back, into the heart, with a stake.
Slow, the man said. Sloppy, even for a first kill. You’ll need to do better.
She didn’t speak, but the mind inside her mind thought, I’ll do better. I’ll do better than anyone.
Now she was older, and fought beside the man. Ferociously, savagely. The odds were five to two, but it was done quickly. And when it was done, the man shook his head. More control, less passion. Passion will kill you.
She was naked, in bed with a young man, moving with him in the low light of the lamp. She smiled as she arched to him, nipped his lip. A diamond winked madly on her finger. Her mind was full of passion, of love, of joy.
