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Chen looked at Moon when the witch sighed. “Sky is annoying, but he’s right. I can cast spells using different blood sources, but the best is always my own. Mom wanted to make sure I was doing something like that from a mentally healthy place.”
“Which it wasn’t for a long time after your parents died,” Sky interjected. The necromancer was still paying attention to their conversation while typing away on his phone.
“Thank you,” Moon growled at his friend. Moon flashed Chen a wobbly smile. He cocked his head to the side, sending a lock of white hair falling across his forehead. “But I swear, I’m much better and healthier now.”
Reaching up, Chen moved the strands of hair aside so that it was no longer in danger of falling into Moon’s eyes. “We all fall into dark places in life. The important thing is that you crawl out again.”
“Ooooh, that’s smart,” Sky cooed. “Also, Nolan says hi and is glad you’re okay, Moon.”
Chen lifted his eyebrows and mouthed, Nolan?
“Nolan is Sky’s very new, very human boyfriend. He’s gotten a crash course in magic and monsters over the past month.”
“And the fact that he hasn’t run screaming to the other side of the globe just shows that he’s a keeper,” Sky proclaimed. The witch even lifted the phone to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the screen.
“Something’s happening.” Junjie’s low voice carried across the field. Chen jerked his gaze away from the adorable witch in front of him to the spot where the two earth witches were working.
Both men were kneeling on the ground next to the map. White smoke trickled up from a black bowl at the top of the paper, curling around the hanging crystal before dissipating into the air. As he watched, the crystal spun in a slow circle. With each revolution, the circle became more oblong, with the crystal pulling to the east.
“Holy shit, I think it’s working,” Red chortled.
Those words had barely left the witch’s lips when the crystal stopped, pulling hard to the east as if it had gotten stuck in midair. A beam of intense white light shot out of the bottom of the crystal, hitting the map. Was that the spot? The place where the fae door would open?
Flames jumped from the paper, burning a hole into the map that was spreading. The earth witches jumped at the same time. Maddox jerked the sheet of paper out from under the crystal and slapped it with his hands, trying to put out the fire. Red grabbed the bowl and crushed out whatever was burning there.
“Uh…little too much bass in that one?” Moon called out.
“Needs more cowbell,” Sky added with a low snicker.
In unison, Maddox and Redstone flipped off Sky and Moon without even looking at them.
“Back-seat spell casting is not welcome here,” Red shouted.
“If you think you can do better…” Mad said, making it sound like a threat.
“No! No!” Sky and Moon countered, waving their hands and snickering.
“Is there a problem? Will they not be able to get the spell to work?” Xiao Dan asked as he walked over to join them.
Moon leaped into the air at Xiao Dan’s question and grabbed on to Chen, pressing his cheek against his chest. “Jesus fuck!” he swore, sending Sky into such a fit of laughter that he almost fell over. Moon kicked at Sky, and this time Sky was laughing too hard to dodge the blow.
Chen wrapped an arm around Moon’s waist, tucking him in close. “I don’t understand. What happened?”
“I didn’t hear your brother’s approach. Vampires are too damn quiet,” Moon muttered into Chen’s shoulder. He pointed at Sky, who was still attempting to catch his breath. “That asshole knew it and didn’t warn me.”
“Vampires can’t sneak up on me. Same magic. I can feel when you’re near,” Sky explained.
“Forgive me, Moon. I didn’t mean to startle you,” Xiao Dan apologized.
Moon straightened and brushed off his apology, but Chen didn’t release his hold on Moon’s waist. Moon’s racing heart was pounding in Chen’s ears. Plus, he just might like the feel of the witch leaning into him.
“To answer your question,” Moon said, resting his head on Chen’s shoulder, “the location spell is working, but they made it too powerful, I think. They need to make some changes, but I think they’ll be able to continue.”
“We’re gonna try again, but we can confirm the door is going to be close to Hartford,” Red called out. “Looks like to the north of the city.”
Chen watched as the earth witches cast their location spell two more times. The second time, they burned through another map but caught it faster. On the third attempt, the beam from the crystal was wider but not flammable, allowing them to draw a circle on the map.
“There! We got it!” Maddox cried. He flopped onto his back in the grass while Red sat heavily. Despite the chill in the air, both men glistened with sweat, hands trembling from exhaustion.
