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As I entered the door, the blissful heat settled over my frozen bones, a soothing piano beat playing from the speakers, not quite loud enough to drown out the sounds of the espresso machine and steamer from behind the bar. Near the window, in the farthest corner from the door, Alexei stood and dropped a swift kiss to Genevieve’s hand, speaking in a low, serious tone I couldn’t quite make out.
As I hurried to join them, I caught the end of what he was saying and nearly tripped for the second time today.
“—my deepest apologies and condolences. Whatever I can do to make things right, you must let me know and I will get it done, no questions.”
One glance at Genevieve revealed just how genuinely moved by his words she was. “Thank you, Alexei. Though, I already told Jade I don’t blame a son or daughter for their parent’s actions, but we cannot allow Alistair to continue hurting spirit witches, no matter how powerful he is.”
I collapsed into an empty chair, with Genevieve and Alexei slow to follow. Alexei seemed to realize I was in no mood for humor or teasing kisses tonight because he merely glanced at me with that heated look I loved before he pushed two mugs toward us.
“I wasn’t sure what you wanted, but the barista assured me a cappuccino is a universal choice for coffee drinkers,” he murmured, inhaling the aroma from his own cup wistfully.
“A cappuccino is perfect.” Genevieve smiled before she reached into her bag for a familiar notebook.
Taking my cue, I snagged the ripped pages from the séance and smoothed them onto the table nervously. “So,” I started, looking uneasily at Alexei and hoping he wouldn’t be furious when he discovered what I had done. “Last night, I told you we held a séance, right?”
Alexei’s dark brow lifted, and his ran a hand through the waves falling past his temple. “How could I forget Jade Belle's foray into the world of mischief?”
I winced, my fingertips guiltily brushing over the onyx gem stuffed into my coat pocket. “Well, I didn’t exactly tell you the full story. In fact, I may have been keeping something kind of big from you for a few months now.”
His affectionate expression froze as I lifted the Amulet of Davorina from my pocket and set it on the table between us with shaking hands.
“Now, before you freak out—” I started, but the sound of his molars grinding together made my words die off.
“Please tell me you haven’t been wearing that cursed thing?” he seethed through his fangs. “Pleasetell me that’s not the secret you’ve been keeping from me.”
With a slightly panicked look around the empty café, I bit my lips and nodded. “It’s been helping me channel my spirit magick. Without it, I would have never had any success with dampening the curses in the talismans within your Court.”
“The masquerade?” he suddenly bit out, already knowing the answer. “That was because of the amulet?”
I nodded, feeling my face flame. “The corruption makes the magick within react to strong flares of emotion. Positive or negative. We had just been discovered by the whole party and well—” I shrugged, remembering the feeling of panic and fear as I gasped for breath in his courtyard. Back when being known as Alexei’s lover had been a horrific reality.
“I see,” he said, too softly to be taken for anything other thandangerous. He steepled his hands together and shot a pointed look at my notes. “And this is?”
Genevieve straightened her shoulders, her gaze darting between us cautiously before coming to some kind of decision. “As Jade was saying, at our séance, we used the amulet as part of the spell. Whoever last possessed the necklace in life would be drawn to our circle.”
Alexei’s face greyed, and he sucked in a breath. “Blanca?”
Just her name, etched with a lifetime of tragic dread, settled over the table like a shroud.
“Yes,” I said, finding my voice and my strength. “We spoke with Blanca, and she shared information with us on how the talismans were created and how we can potentially reverse the corruption.”
Alexei’s fingertip grazed the edge of the paper as if longing to see the evidence of his old friend’s sentience after nearly a century of her spirit remaining on Bled Island. “And how was she—”
“She was sad, afraid,” Genevieve answered sharply, not bothering to smooth any of the cutting honesty from her words. “She had been waiting for her sister to join her before she moved on to the Beyond. A purgatory wait I don’t think she’ll be moving past anytime soon unless we help her.”
Alexei’s shoulders stiffened. “No, I don’t imagine she will, considering Vera’s spirit is trapped with the rest of my father’s victims in his dungeons. They’ve been warded by druids for centuries, long before even my father was born. But let’s get back to the talismans.” He cleared his throat, desperately clinging to the present rather than succumbing to his self-hatred.
It made something in me soften, and I reached for his hand, gripping it to let him know in some small way that he wasn’t alone.
“Here’s what we know,” I muttered, returning to Genevieve’s hastily scribbled notes. “Only another spirit witch can break the corrosive magick that festered in the Bled talismans. They’re not like any of the objects Genevieve has collected; the magick from Bled is seeped in serious dark magick, more powerful than any recreations since.”
Genevieve lifted the amulet without fear and fingered the sharp edges of the stone. “Something Blanca said about their rituals caught my attention. This morning, I searched through my mother’s grimoire and confirmed that it was believed the Bled witches often prayed to both Hecate and Nyx. Light and dark magick fused together. It must be the reason these talismans are so powerful.”
My brows furrowed, and I took a scalding sip of my coffee. Alexei’s finger brushed away the foam on my upper lip casually as I tapped my nails on the glass. “You said other covens who perform dark magick only pray to Nyx, right?”
She nodded, her lips twitching up. “And traditional ritual magick is used by praying to Hecate. However, when they combine both forces—two Goddesses imbuing their power on one spell? It creates something uniquely wonderful.”
“But also a combustible weakness,” Alexei mused lightly. “Because in the wrong hands, or if corrupted by say, murderous vampires, the magick within becomes a livewire, too powerful to control.”
