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I nearly drop the vial when I realise what that means. I don’t bother putting the floorboards back or unrolling the carpet. Instead, I fly down the stairs barefoot, the letter in one hand and the box of blood in the other. Ibrahim isn’t there but Mel and one of the witches are sitting in the dining room over a map of the city, parts of which are marked with red sharpie.
“I know how to find her!”
Mel, who is balancing her chair on its back legs, nearly drops to the floor. The other woman gently places her sharpie down and gives me an expectant look.
I plop the box down on the table and pop out each vial one by one. “Are you ready to go right now?”
Mel raises an eyebrow. “Uh… yeah. Let me text Ibrahim.”
When I pop the stopper off the first vial, the witch raises her eyebrows. “You’re going to drink that?”
“Yeah.” I try to take a deep breath to slow down my heart.
“It won’t work, dear. Bindweed affects blood magic the same it does all others.”
“Ok but there are exceptions, right?”
She tilts her head from side to side, “I suppose. Are you planning to summon Halley’s Comet?”
Mel looks back and forth between the two of us. “So, do we have a way to find her or not?”
“Just trust me,” I say. Perhaps believing this will work is just hubris. But I know how I feel, even if it’s taken me this long to realize. All that matters now is that she feels the same way.
Mel shrugs and the witch looks doubtful.
I turn away from them as I drink the vials one by one, hesitating at first but then knocking each one back faster than the one before it. If this really works, I’m handing her the keys to my bodyagainbut voluntarily this time. She said she would never make me do anything I didn’t want to – I need to trust her now. Because I’m not really an expert on magic, I drink the whole lot just in case.
My senses sharpen as they usually do, the rush of power pulsing through my veins with vigor. I wait for a few seconds, trying to sense if I can feel anything different. But I feel just how I usually feel after drinking her blood – awake, energized, powerful. I pull back one of the chairs and sit down on it, resting my head on my arms.
“What happens now?”
“Shut up, Mel.” I close my eyes and cycle through my senses again. It’s cold inside Celeste’s house because nobody can get the fire going but her. Outside, I can hear the occasional car driving by in the distance. I’ve shamelessly changed into one of Celeste’s jumpers which smells sweet and powdery and like home.Come on,I think.Come on. Where are you?Remembering how she found me after Alastor’s attack, I conjure her in my mind. Except this time, I also let myself feel – how much I love her stupid nickname for me, how I should be annoyed when she orders me around but I’m not, how good it feels to give myself to her fully.I love you,I think.I love you, I love you, I love you. Let me find you.
Suddenly, I can feel a sense of cold trickle through the back of my head, like someone is pouring icewater into my skull. Goosebumps cascade down my back. There’s a tug on my mind, as though I’m being pulled backwards into my head, the cold creeping through my limbs.Not my limbs,I think with a sudden fright. Slowly, from my fingertips backward, it feels as though my body is a stranger’s. I no longer recognize it. I fight back instinctively as it begins to move, holding a stranger’s breath, taking on a stranger’s posture. Suddenly I feel that I’m not ready but can’t stop it. Panic rises in my stomach.I can’t move. Why can’t I move?
My body convulses and I can see Mel trying to steady me, though I can’t hear what she’s saying. I want to scream. This is what dying felt like. This is what being pressed into the mattress at the Myrrh & Adder felt like. I can kick and scream and fight and plead and it makes no difference. I’m no longer in control. In my panic, I forget where I am or what is happening.I want my body back, please, I want it back!
And then, my body just sits there, a little more upright than usual perhaps. Waiting. The cold spreads, undulates, prickles against my skin. It’s the familiarity of it that seeps through my sense of panic. It doesn’t seize me and tear control away, it just lingers, soothing and gentle. I recognize her in the way she sits so very upright, the way she tilts my head, the slow and thoughtful way she narrows my eyes.Celeste.
Slowly, I move my hand, balling it into a fist and letting go.This is still my body,I try to tell myself.I’m not in danger.
There’s another tug on my mind, like the pull of sleep. Soft and gentle. I try to calm myself. It’s her. That’s why I’m doing this. And, most importantly, it worked. My heart flutters as I realize what that means. With a sort-of mental sigh, I give in to the tug, letting my body slip away.I trust you.
The next moment, I’m no longer sitting on one of the chairs but standing beside the table, holding a sharpie in my hand, which is hovering somewhere over Hel. I feel strangely dazed, like I’ve been asleep. When I look up, Mel is staring, mouth agape. The witch, too, is looking rather surprised.
I blink, trying to clear my head. “Did… did it work?”
Mel seizes my shoulders, forgetting about the burns for a moment. I flinch.
“Yes! You channeled her or something!” She looks at the witch. “How about that, can someone be a witch and a vampire?”
The woman shakes her head, a smile on her lips. “No, that’s not what happened. This was Celeste’s blood magic.”
The siren narrows her eyes. “I thought that wouldn’t work because of the bindweed?”
With a smile, the witch taps the table in front of me. “We’ve never had an opportunity to test them but I suppose there is proof now that at least one of the exceptions works.”
I look down at the table. A long trailing hand has written straight on the wood with red sharpie.
