Chapter Twenty-Eight Lyra #2
“On it,” I said, and dug in the drawers and cabinets for a bowl and spoon. Handing them over, I stepped back. “I’ll just stay out of your way since my magick desperately wants to help.”
“You can help.” Raven looked over her shoulder at me.
“No, best not. I’m still royally messing recipes up.
It’s not that my magick isn’t eager to help, it’s just not really working at the moment.
I mean, it works, but kind of like opposite day.
” I didn’t want to insult my magick, as I could feel it shriveling inside me at my words, but I also wanted to be realistic with Raven about what the current state of affairs was.
“Luckily, I should be able to handle this on my own.” Raven put a few drops into the bowl from a brown tincture bottle and then added a yellow liquid from a small blue bottle.
She stirred clockwise with the spoon and muttered some words over it.
The liquid shimmered in the bowl and then changed to a glittery poultice. “Come here, sweet thing.”
Iris obediently hobbled forward and bent her head to Raven.
Raven crooned soft words, applying the poultice gently to the wing, a glimmer of light surrounding her hands as she did so. When finished, Raven straightened and looked to Broca.
“She’ll need time and a safe space to rest while this bone knits back together.”
“I have a space for her,” Broca said, reaching out her arm so Iris could hop on. Broca steadied the bird with her other hand. “I’ll just go get her settled.”
Broca left for the back room, where Iris had a lush cage—with no door on it—and relief filled me.
“That would have been—”
“Horrific?” Sloane suggested, turning to me, her face grim. “Lyra, we need to do something. We can’t go on like this.”
“Don’t you think I know?” I demanded, the tears I’d held back during the healing falling down my cheeks. “But I don’t know what to do. I haven’t had time to do anything. The filming takes up so much time, and the curse is only getting worse and—”
“Shhh, hush now. It’s going to be just fine.” Nova slung her arm around my shoulders. “Knock it off, Sloane. You know she’s overly emotional since she obviously just shagged Rab. You can’t dump everything on her right now.”
“You shagged Rab?” Raven asked, surprise on her face. “I do believe I need details.”
“Details later. Curse first.” Sloane walked around the counter and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“Lyra, I love you. You know I love you. But we need you to focus now. I have your grimoire, but it’s only revealing spells that it feels like, not anything that has been helpful.
Which is typical of grimoires, as they will be tricky with anyone who isn’t theirs. ”
“I need to—”
“You need to take some time over your coffee and see if you can find any spells that will help. Then you can shower and pick out a dress to wear today,” Sloane said and handed me the book.
Nerves filled me as I took my grimoire to the couch and dropped onto the soft cushions.
It had been years since I’d been in school, but the similar feeling of needing to ace an exam settled over my shoulders as I flipped open the book.
For a moment, the words swam before my eyes, a gobbledygook of madness, and I pressed my lips together, tension banding my neck. Pulling my feet up under me, I dragged the soft blanket from the back of the couch over my lap, and Ruth flew downstairs and across the room to land on my lap.
I didn’t want to disturb the healing. But is the bird okay?
“Aye, it sounds like she’ll be just fine.”
And you? Ruth’s tiny eyes searched my expression, her little nose sniffing the air as her lavender whiskers wavered.
“I’m great. Was great. I don’t know.” I lowered my voice as Ruth came over and peered at the pages of the book. “I’m supposed to find a spell in here to break the curse, but I can’t even read this.”
Can’t you?
“I can’t…”
The words suddenly swam into place on the page, neatly lining themselves up in order so I could decipher them.
“Och, wait a minute. You’re right. I can.
Would you look at this? They’re recipes.
It’s recipes,” I turned and cried to my sisters who were huddled in the kitchen.
They knew to give me space when I was doing any type of learning, because distractions made it almost impossible for me to focus. “I can read them.”
“Isn’t that grand?” Broca said, coming back into the room. The color had returned to her face, and she looked much more her usual robust self. “I wasn’t sure if we’d need a deciphering spell like we did with Sloane’s.”
“Every grimoire is different,” Raven said, packing up her bag. “Will you need me for this? If not, I do need to get back to the store. I just flipped the sign to Closed and ran out when you called.”
“It will probably take a while for her to find the spell—er, recipe—needed. If it’s in there at all,” Sloane said. She gave Raven a hug. “Best for you to crack on and I’ll call a meeting of the Charms if more power is needed.”
“Good luck.”
“Thank you, Raven. You’re a miracle worker.” Broca hugged Raven.
“Och, I barely did a thing. You’d already patched her up a treat when I came in.” Raven paused and leaned over by my head on the way out. “And I’m still going to need those details on Rab.”
“They shagged. What more do you need to know?” Nova dropped into a lounge chair, kicking her legs over the arm. “Or do you need a discussion on how babies are made? See, first—”
“I’m well versed in that department, thank you very much.” Raven sailed out the door while Nova chuckled, clearly delighted with herself.
“There should be a law about you taking the piss before a certain number of cups of coffee in the morning,” I said, glaring at her.
“I’d second that motion.” Sloane joined me on the couch, her mug filled to the brim.
“You should try starting your day with a run,” Nova suggested. “Wakes you right up so you can start taking the piss out of others almost immediately.”
“I wonder if there is a recipe in here to shut up annoying sisters?” I asked and then gasped when the pages flipped of their own accord, landing on a recipe. “Recipe for quieting.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Holy shite,” Sloane breathed, putting her cup of coffee on the table and leaning forward. “Can you just ask it what you want and get the spell? That’s… No way. That’s so helpful.”
“Does yours do this?” I asked, blinking at the recipe in shock.
“I don’t think so. I’ve never tried, I guess.” Sloane jumped up and grabbed her book. “Show me a spell for warming a home.”
We all stared at the grimoire in her hands.
None of the pages moved.
“Nope, nothing.” Sloane came back around the couch, and Broca crossed the room to take a seat.
“Grimoires are highly personalized. They adapt to what their owner needs.”
“They do?” I glanced up at Broca, surprised. “I didn’t realize.”
“We all have strengths, dear. The grimoire will work in the best way possible for its owner. Remember, magick wants to be used.”
Excitement coursed through me. Perhaps I’d been subconsciously avoiding this book because I’d been nervous about having to study and learn from it.
But now, hearing that the grimoire wanted to work with me?
Well, that changed things entirely. For the first time since stepping into my magick, I felt like I might be able to finally harness it in the way that I wanted to.
“Show me the spell for breaking my part of the bloodline curse that has haunted the MacGregors.”
Ruth flew up to my shoulder and nestled in while we all waited.
At first, nothing happened, but then the pages of the book began to flip slowly in my lap, as though someone were casually perusing the contents.
Then, as though it had figured out where the spell was, the pages picked up speed until they stopped suddenly on a recipe with a sketch of a loaf of bread and two candles next to it.
“It’s here,” I said, bouncing in my seat. “I have it. I have the recipe.”
“Is it complicated?” Broca said, leaning forward.
“Let’s have a look.” I scanned the recipe, noting the ingredients, and then looked up. “Largely, the ingredients are what I have on hand. I do need a black candle and a white candle. But it also says it is a sisterhood recipe. And, well, we’ll need a drop of blood from each of the three of us.”
“But not the whole town?” Sloane asked. To break her part of the curse, Knox had rounded up the whole town, and everyone had contributed a drop of blood.
“Nope, just us, it says.”
“And is there an incantation? Once you’ve done your recipe?” Broca asked.
“Yes, in two parts. It looks like everything will need to be done in order.”
“So? What’s stopping us?” Sloane asked. Blue bellied his way over to her on the couch, spreading his back legs out so he was splooted between me and Sloane, the best of both worlds. I scratched his bum while I thought about it, and Sloane rubbed his ears.
“Uh, nothing, I guess? It just feels like… Shouldn’t we do something more formal? Call the Charms? Make sure the moon is in the right phase? I dunno.” I bit my lower lip as nerves made my stomach twist.
“While I understand why you’d say that, Lyra, I do think we need to move as quickly as we can.
” Broca gave me a sympathetic smile, but it wasn’t hard to spot the tension in her face.
“Ruth and Iris are particularly vulnerable to the owls at the moment, as I imagine many other familiars are as well. We need to get them back up to their normal hunting grounds and on their normal rhythms. They’re hurting too. ”
“Right, okay. Right,” I repeated, my thoughts scrambling. “Um.”
“Just breathe,” Sloane said, knowing how I could get under pressure. “Look at the list of ingredients and tell us what to get.”
“Ingredients. Got it.” I looked down at the book. “Honey, boiling water, salt, a loaf of bread, a bowl, candles, and, well, our blood.”