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“I’ll come with you,” I said. “I can make them all their own pendants, whatever glyph they’d like incorporated. It might not protect them from everything out there, but it’s a start, right?”
Rose relaxed a little and shot me a smile. “That sounds like a perfect idea.”
* * *
I might have been in a building owned by a secret society I hadn’t even known existed a few months ago, surrounded mostly by people who saw me as something less than them, but there was something about the tangy scent of paint that always made me feel at home. One of the officials had found a flip chart display stand I could use as a makeshift easel, and Rose had somehow convinced another to do a quick run to a local art store. Now I was setting up my materials in the brightest corner of the lounge room where we were meeting with the formerly demon-enslaved women the Assembly had collected.
Mid-morning light was streaming through the room’s two windows now, traffic sounds from the busy street outside carrying faintly through the glass. The four women the Northcotts had ushered in had stopped in a cluster by one of the sofas. They ranged in age from a wan young woman who looked younger than Rose to an elderly lady whose hair was a pure ivory-white that my fingers itched to commit to canvas. But all of them looked drained, even though they’d just gotten up for the day.
“You’re going to paint us… necklaces?” the youngest witch, who’d been introduced as Crystal, asked in a thin voice.
“Pendants, like mine,” I said, showing off my own like I had in the meeting earlier. “They’ve gotten us through a lot of messes.”
“It’s like wearing a bit of magical armor,” Rose said, tugging out her own so they could see it. “Jin’s gotten a lot of practice incorporating the glyphs into his art. We could do a standard protective one, or if there’s one you feel would make you even more secure against the demon’s influence…?”
“I’d like one like yours,” Crystal said. “Blue and purple, if you can customize the colors.”
“Of course.” I twirled my paintbrush. “I might not be magical, but I’ve got to think the spell will work better if the painting itself speaks to you too.”
“That makes a certain kind of sense,” the elderly woman—Selena—said. Her voice was paper dry.
“Have the Assembly officials told you much about the current situation?” Rose asked tentatively as I got to work. All four of the witches had expressed relief at being rescued and contentment with how the Assembly had handled their cases so far, but it also didn’t take magic to tell their experiences had taken a huge toll on them.
“One of the demons got loose from the Cliff,” Crystal said with a shudder, hugging herself.
“Bloody Frankfords,” Selena muttered. “Messing with forces they couldn’t possibly fully comprehend, let alone control.” Her hand shook as she smoothed it over her pinned-back hair.
“We’re hoping you won’t ever have to be anywhere near the Cliff or the demons again,” Rose said. “But we figured some extra magic to ward off ill-intent couldn’t be a bad thing.”
A murmur of agreement passed through the witches. I paused as I finished the last curve of the glyph. The acrylic paint needed to dry before I could incorporate the rest of the design.
“There were some glyphs mentioned in the Frankfords’ files,” I said in as light a tone as I could manage. “If any of those helped hold the demons on the other side of their portal, I should probably be paintingthatall over this building.”
A halting giggle escaped Crystal. “That would be an interesting look.”
Eloise, a middle-aged witch whose hands were nearly as weathered as Selena’s, shook her head. “We never used the glyphs they’d constructed for that purpose,” she said hollowly. “Those symbols… They were meant to transfer power. From us to…” Her mouth twisted.
“It’s okay,” Rose said gently, touching her elbow. “You don’t have to talk about it.”
“We should, though,” Selena said, squaring her shoulders. “We don’t have time for weakness, not if one of those fiends is rambling around. They stole our magic, and then the men claimed some of the demons’ power for themselves. That’s what she’s talking about.” The words came out firmly, but her chin wobbled at the end of her declaration.
“So you and they didn’t useanyglyphs as part of securing the portal?” I checked.
“Not that I remember,” Crystal said, and the other witches shook their heads in turn.
“Well, that’s too bad,” I said, still lightly but softer now. “Here I was hoping to add demon-banisher to my resume.”
Crystal giggled again. She looked down at her hands. “The magic they had us do to hold the portals in place… It wasn’t like anything I ever got taught. No one does spells like that these days.”
“Barbaric,” Eloise bit out.
When they didn’t continue, I went back to dabbing color on the wooden token that would become Crystal’s pendant. Rose waited too, giving them space to decide what and how much to say.
“We don’t have a binding stopping us from talking now,” Eloise added finally. “But even so, it’s not easy.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “We’re here to offer something to you, not to take.”
Something about those words seemed to unlock Crystal’s limbs. She shoved the filmy sleeve of her blouse up her arm in a jerky motion. A raw red line, only recently scabbed, stood out against her pale skin.
