35. X #2
X
My mouth dried. I’d made a bargain with either a dead spirit or a very much alive and powerful being.
I’d account for that later.
For now, I had a spell and a job. Find the raven. I assumed the mystery person… X… meant Spade’s familiar. What was her name again?
Just then, my bedroom door flew open with a bang. I jumped out of my chair, struggling onto my knees and hastily closing the book. Twenty raised an eyebrow, balancing several trays of food on his arms. “Jumpy this afternoon, I see.”
“Afternoon? How long did I sleep for?”
“Three days,” he replied, sitting plates of turkey legs, greens, boiled potatoes, and breads in front of me.
“Three whole days?” I gasped. “You’ve got to teach me how to keep these dark spells from wiping out all of my energy.
” My stomach grumbled, begging for food the moment the salty smell of meat hit my nose.
I clambered back onto my chair and took a huge bite from a turkey leg. “Have you seen your brothers?”
“Thankfully, I’ve managed to avoid them. Tis a big house, and they’re particularly loud and clumsy, so it’s easy to hear them coming. Dodging them hasn’t been too hard. Not that they ever noticed me much anyway, even before I left.”
“Why did you leave? Is that when you became a cat?” I asked, buttering a piece of white bread.
“Taking on my cat form was only supposed to be temporary… but… well… there’s a reason all transformation spells should be bewitched with a time limit.”
“So, being a cat—staying a cat—was an accident?”
“An unintentional yet beneficial misfortune.”
Twenty watched me eat in silence for a moment before I asked, “Did you speak to Spade’s familiar? Did she have anything to say about my sister?”
“I did,” he answered, leaning back in his chair and gazing at me with his multicolored, slitted eyes. “She doesn’t communicate with words, only with images. From what I gathered, she wants to speak with you directly.”
Perfect . That was my plan already after tying myself into some sort of soul bargain with a strange, and probably evil, grimoire. “Do you know where I can find her?”
“Never is typically perched on the grave of Esbat Cackle. It’s the grave with the crying angel statue near the gates.
” Twenty picked up a thick turkey leg and pointed it at me.
“And for the love of every goddess there is, don’t go fucking one of my boneheaded brothers today.
If you need release…” He winked before taking a bite. “That’s what I’m for.”
I rolled my eyes, stabbing a yellow potato. “Well, now that you’re out of hiding, will you come with me?”
Twenty smiled, his two pointed incisors gleaming. “I would be delighted, m’lady.”
“Stop being cute.” I smirked, though my insides did little twists at the way Twenty looked at me. The gray-haired man across from me was destined to be my familiar, which meant we were tied together for a lifetime… could that also mean he was meant to be, well, more than just a familiar?
I’d just made a bargain with a book—I supposed anything was possible.
After we’d finished eating and I’d bathed and changed into a simple black day dress, Twenty and I made our way down the hall. As we passed the cranky, broken grandfather clock, the bespelled item cracked open an eye to peer at Twenty.
“Nice to see you again, your Highness.”
Twenty waved. “Hey, Cronos. How’s it hanging?” Twenty swayed side to side in time with the swinging of the clock’s timekeeping pendulum.
I put my hand over my mouth to hide my laughter at my familiar’s antics. “ Highness ?” I whispered.
Twenty only shrugged a shoulder at me before Cronos answered, “Each moment they are closer to their end. However…” The large eyes of the grandfather clock fell to me. “The one who is strong enough to break the wards could be strong enough to end the hex.”
“End the hex? Are… are you three already hexed?” I asked Twenty in shock.
My familiar spun on his heel, casual and cat-like as ever. “He ticks backwards, can’t trust a thing he says.”
“You have cat ears,” Cronos quipped after us as I chased Twenty down the stairs.
Finally catching him, I tugged at the back of his shirt. “Hey, you. Am I right? Are you all hexed? Tell me, please. It would… it would make so much more sense.”
Twenty’s mouth pressed into a hard line.
“Wait, can you not… can you not speak of it? Any of you?”
Realization dawned. Their affliction, not aiding the town, not leaving the castle…
but who would hex them before me and why?
Two double doors opened next to us, revealing Riot, standing with his usual smug grin.
“I thought I heard you two out here. Rumor, darling, I see you’ve brushed the twigs from your hair.
Last I saw you, you were so disheveled.” Riot smirked like the devil he was.
“Please, step into the study and say hello, Twenty. Your brothers have missed you terribly.”
Talking to Riot and Spade was the last thing I wanted to do.
Not when the answers felt so close, Prism felt so close.
The magic in my veins thrummed in acknowledgment.
Nevertheless, I didn’t want to leave my familiar to face his family alone, so I joined him in a large, domed study I’d never seen before.
Globes spun, seemingly on their own, suspended next to bookshelves where white candle wax dripped down the wood. Plush leather sofas lined bearskinned rugs near a fireplace beneath a moving painting of a band of hunting dogs chasing geese.
Spade stood, swirling a glass of amber liquid, his eyes bypassing his long lost brother and falling to me.
The weight of his dark stare burned heavy on my skin.
His magic caressed my arm like the feather of a crow, and without my prompting, my own magic rose to greet his.
I bit my lip hard against the budding sensations as Spade merely took another sip of his alcohol.
Riot poured something bubbly into a long glass and passed Twenty and me each one. “A cheers! To the prodigal brother returning home!”
I took a small sip, letting the bubbles dance over my tongue and distract me from the broody Blackthorne’s shadowy stare.
Riot put an arm around Twenty. “I like what you’ve done with your ears.” He flicked the gray cat ear. “And the eyes, very sinister. Wait!” He looked behind his almost hissing brother. “No tail? Aw, shucks, I hoped for a gray fluffy tail.”
“I see you haven’t changed a bit, Riot.” Twenty downed his glass.
Riot flashed his dazzling white smile, offering me a wink. “You know what they say… when the cat’s away, the mice will play.”
“Your absence,” Spade boomed loudly from his corner by the fire, “could have cost us everything.”
“I didn’t know that,” Twenty replied, putting his hand on my lower back and ushering me deeper into the room. “Now that I do, perhaps something can change for us all.”
Riot and Spade each noted their brother’s touch on my back.
Spade’s jaw tensed as he downed his drink.
Riot wrapped his arm around Twenty’s shoulders and not so subtly pulled him off me and over to his brother.
“The Blackthorne Boys, united at last. I take it the transfix spell worked and got you the hell out of here, but… only if you stayed a cat?”
“He stayed a cat on accident,” I supplied, downing another sip of effervescence. Whatever this drink was, it was delicious. “No get out of cat-body clause in the enchantment, or something.”
The room fell silent as the guys looked at me.
Suddenly, Riot burst into laughter.
Twenty’s ears fell backwards, and his slitted eyes narrowed. If he’d been in cat form, I imagined he’d be arching his back and hissing in response.
Spade’s own rare chuckle followed. “The cat’s out of the bag.”
“Shut… up,” Twenty said through gritted teeth.
I shouldn’t have, but I bit my lip to hide my smile as I took a seat on the warm leather sofa by the fire.
This was the first room I’d discovered in the Blackthorne Castle to be cozy.
Or maybe it was the laughter of the company, the way it felt like we were all unravelling parts of each other little by little.
But my heart warmed with another sip of alcohol.
Riot doubled over. “No, I can’t stop, meow .”
“Are you kitten me?” Spade’s shoulders shook in laughter, and I had to cover my mouth to hide my smile.
Twenty looked angrier by the second as he crossed his arms. “I’ll have you both know, I managed to be in the care of Willowspire’s crone. As you can imagine, I gleaned much that could help you smug idiots.”
“That’s purrrfect ,” Riot tormented.
Spade added, “Let’s paws for a moment and be very grateful that our brother has returned.”
“Guys,” I said through giggles as Twenty kicked at a dust bunny on the carpet. “Be mice —I mean, be nice.”
Laughter exploded in the room once again. Only this time, Twenty cracked a grin in my direction.
“The witch fits right in.” Riot wiped tears from his eyes before sitting next to me, immediately resting his palm on my knee.
Spade’s smile fell the instant he noted it, and his gaze shifted immediately to the new white of my hair, but he didn’t comment on it.
I crossed my legs, shifting away from Riot’s weirdly possessive gesture.
“Since we’re all here, there’s plenty I’d like to discuss with the three of you,” I announced.
“Firstly, I’m curious if Adder is still in the cellar and what we plan to do with him. ”
“Oh, it’s we now, is it?” Riot chimed, heavy on his usual teasing and sarcasm. “I forgot about the fool. Shall we leave him to rot? Feed him to Wander?”
“No,” Spade said with finality, crossing his arms and glancing into the flames at the hearth. “We will handle him, and how he broke through the wards, when the time comes. For now, I’m aghast that Rumor knows no defensive spells.”
Twenty agreed. “That is a problem.”
Spade reached into his black jacket, pulled out a dark metal pocket watch, and passed it to me. “Keep this on you at all times.”