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The flames crawled up the first quarter inch of the handle. Beyond that were naked people crawling on top each other, terror on their faces, trying to get away from the flames. The ones closest to the flames were screaming in pain.
I rubbed my hands on my jeans. “Shit.” I regretted even touching it. “The carving is so intricate that just looking at it, I feel like I can see the people moving and screaming, trying to get away from the flames. But they’re tiny and it’s metal and… Shit. That’s an optical illusion, right?”
Claudia frowned at me. “I can’t believe you touched it.”
Twice. I’d touched it twice. Once to take it from the circle and once to put it on the table. “I can’t believe it either.” I didn’t want to ask, but I had to know what the deal was with the other two objects. “The jar?”
Claudia shook her head. “It’s a spell or a talisman or something. I don’t know. It could be anything, and if it was in the circle, there’s no chance it’s good.”
Just fantastic. “And the goblet?” I didn’t even want to look at it.
“I don’t know. It looks fine, but I can’t say for sure. Especially when you found it in Luciana’s basement.”
“She took them from the circle, next to where there were dead animals on an altar,” Chris said.
Claudia crossed herself while some of my other friends let out some colorful curses.
“Why would you do that?” Raphael asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Astaroth was coming and I just grabbed anything that caught my eye. I didn’t think.”
“Clearly,” Raphael snapped.
“Watch it,” Dastien said. The rumbling threat clear in his voice. “We’re all doing our best here, and we don’t know what could help us. We can’t rule anything out.”
“I think it’s safe to rule those out. Nothing good is going to come from them.” Claudia motioned to another table. “Come on. We can look through the books and the rest of the stuff over here.”
I felt a little like a dumbass for taking that stuff. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have even thought about crossing into the circle, let alone taken anything from it. But even as I walked away, there was something about the dagger especially that caught my eye. I itched to take it, but I wouldn’t let myself.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and went to the other table where my friends were already gathered.
Are you okay? Dastien asked.
Just a little freaked out.
He put an arm around my shoulders. Me, too.
Tell me honestly, is this going to work?
It will because we’ll make it work.
I had to take faith in that, even if I had no answers. Yet. Chris was already pulling everything out of the boxes and bags so that we could sort through it all.
“There are books and ingredients and other odds and ends. It might not be what we need, but it’s a start to figuring out what we can do. We have to stop thinking about what’s wrong and how messed up everything is and how we can’t possibly fix it.” I said that for myself as well as for everyone else. “We’re all strong. Not one of us is without some—or a lot—of magic or power. The Seven might be broken and everything might be going to shit, but that gives us an opportunity to do something amazing. We’re going to form a new bond. Something bigger. Better. Stronger.”
An idea hit me, and I went with it. “We’re going to need three witches, three fey, three werewolves, and one…”
“One what? Don’t say djinn,” Chris said. “Because I’m not about to go start looking for some damned lamps. Those assholes are tricksters.”
“No, although now I’m really getting curious.” Shit. I couldn’t believe I was signing up for this. “And one me. Because I’m witch and Were and human. Although I don’t know what to call myself.”
“But how are we going to link such different supernaturals and have it be as strong as the Seven was?” Claudia asked. “Did you find anything about that? Because we haven’t.”
I was really getting tired of her nay-saying. She wasn’t even giving this a chance to work. “I haven’t had time to go through this stuff, but we’re going to figure that out.” I took a breath, trying to gain some confidence. Everyone here was just as anxious as me. “Something here is going to help us. Chris, any word from Cosette?”
He pulled his phone from his pocket. “Yes.” The word whooshed out of him quietly. A grin spread over his face as he read the message and then he laughed, and started typing.
“Don’t leave us hanging,” Adrian said. “What’s the word?”
