Chapter 20
twenty
Magic Tricks
“So, you’re a witch, and you’re a dragon,” Drew says as he munches on a carrot. He holds the veggie tray in one hand like a waiter with hors d’oeuvres at a party, but he’s not sharing.
“That’s just batshit bonkers,” Renee declares as she follows me down the hall.
“I know.”
We take off our shoes at the end before turning into the apartment. I open Oscar’s kennel and set him free into the room.
Drew and Renee stop cold, their questions cut off as they stare open-mouthed at the Bookhenge.
“That’s how Bastian gets his power,” I say.
“You live by them,” Renee repeats his line from a few days ago, then laughs. “This is insane.”
I nod, repeating, “I know.”
“But also, so rad,” Drew says.
“Indeed,” Bastian comments.
I grab the spell book from the counter and look at my dragon. “Does this have anything in it that could help protect us from the warlock?”
He grabs the book. “Possibly. We may be able to make modifications to existing spells that were designed to fight me.”
“I thought you said this was your book of spells,” I say.
He shrugs. “All books left in my vicinity become mine.”
“You didn’t make this?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No, this was crafted by the mages guild ages ago.”
“A guild, huh?” Drew asks as he snaps into a piece of celery.
“Ages ago?” Renee asks. “How many ages are we talking?”
I assumed Bastian was old since he had been clinging to first editions from a hundred years ago like his life depended on it, but is he older than I’m thinking? I glance at him for confirmation.
“Many centuries,” he says.
Well, at least I’m not nineteen and illiterate.
“Hang on,” Renee says, holding up her hands. “Start from the beginning.”
So, we do. Bastian doesn’t say anything I don’t already know about him, and I tell them about how we met.
“He’s the lizard?” Renee asks, trying to cover her smile and failing.
“Dragon,” Bastian snaps.
She bursts with a loud guffaw that comes straight from her belly and doubles over, holding her gut.
Drew snaps into another celery stick. “What was that creepy guy all about?”
“He’s a warlock, hunting me,” Bastian says over Renee’s dying laughter.
“Why?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Hunters have their reasons. Some want to use my power, some want to take it, but none of them have good intentions.”
“What’s your magic?” I ask giddily.
He doesn’t know mine, but he must know his own by now.
Bastian scowls and his eyes track back and forth like he’s reading. “I have the power to do many different things, but what most hunters are interested in is my enchantment spells.”
“What are those?” Renee asks, just as excited as me.
He raises his hand and black ink culminates at the tip of his nail. He draws through the air in front of him like a painter, but the lines he’s making don’t amount to anything to me. They’re like pictographs, but fused with symbols that might be letters, or words.
He gives a final flourish at the end of an object and with an explosion of golden sparks, a rose appears. It’s pink, fully bloomed, and radiant. The stem is long, but thorn-free, with two branches of green leaves near the top that frame the pretty pink petals.
Bastian holds the flower out to me with a gentle smile. “My magic.”
I take the rose and lift it to my nose. The soft petals brush my lips as I inhale deeply. It smells just like a rose and feels like one too.
“Is it real?” I ask.
He nods. “It is, though it was never alive, and cannot become alive. It cannot decay, either, because it is not made from the matter of this plane. It is eternally like this, unless I recall the magic into me.”
“Holy cow!” Drew claps his free hand against his knee.
“Where did it come from?” I ask.
“The magic in me comes from another place. When I draw on it, I’m taking raw energy directly from that place and channeling it through me.”
“Can you make anything?” Renee asks.
“No. Only things that I have a firm grasp on. I have seen, smelled, and touched many roses in my time,” he says, his voice almost solemn. “I’m grateful to retain two of those senses.”
My heart aches for him and I decide right here and now that I’m going to put more plants in the bookshop. More in the apartment, too. Oscar will have a heyday at first, but he’ll learn some manners after going in the timeout crate.
I try to give the flower back, but he covers my hand with his, keeping it closed.
“It’s for you,” he says.
“Thank you. It’s lovely.”
“Not as lovely as you,” he mumbles.
His warm hand lingers on mine, holding it up as I hold his flower. I’m trapped in a tenuous moment in time where it’s just us. A single breath could shatter it, so I don’t breathe, staring up into his clouded eyes. They seem clearer than ever as they lock on me, seeing me.
He sees me.
Renee clears her throat loudly. “Friends. Right.”
“Shush,” I hiss at her as my cheeks burn.
Drew grins as he snaps another celery stick in his pearly teeth.
I hold up the spell book. “Well, we ought to take a look in here and see if we can protect the bookshop from these hunters. At the very least, you need a safe haven, and then we’ll figure out on-the-go protection.”
Bastian nods, dropping his hand away from mine. “Agreed. I would prefer not to be parceled out like a valuable inheritance to naughty children who don’t deserve it.”
I run my finger along the front, and wince as I pierce myself on the needle. A pinprick of crimson wells at the top and I push into it, swelling the bubble.
The book wouldn’t open for me last time no matter what I did, so I look to Bastian for guidance. “Now what?”
“Press your blood onto the cover and say, Aperi, sanguine magi.”
I repeat the phrase as I press my finger over the letter “S.” I gasp as my blood soaks into the cover and disappears. Soft orange light glows along the letters, then spreads to each corner of the book.
“Wicked,” Renee whispers with a maniacal leer as she comes closer.
The light zips along the pages and up the spine before it disappears in a sparkling puff.
“Now it will open,” Bastian says.
I unwind the cord and I know I shouldn’t be shocked, but I am when the cover slides open to reveal something like a library checkout card.
I pull out the ripped bit of paper and though it’s written in the Roman alphabet, I can’t read it.
I can decipher some of its meaning, however.
It looks like the book was shared among several witches and warlocks, as two of the same names appear halfway down the list. Besides the names are a few numbers, and beside that, a few symbols I don’t recognize.
“What does it mean?” I ask Bastian.
He huffs. “You’ve just opened a spell book and you’re first inquiry is about the rituals list?”
“Rituals list,” I murmur, looking at it closer.
“It states who and on what date, performed a ritual, and from what page.”
“Wow,” I whisper in awe.
I pick one of the names and flip open to that page. I use the rose stem to trace the words written in—probably—Latin. I’m fairly certain I recited Latin before, too, when opening the book.
“I know your vision isn’t great, but can you read it?” I ask.
He smiles. “I can do one better.”
He places his hand over the page and then uses his claws to draw out the ink. His palm hovers over the parchment as the old, black lines rearrange themselves into letters that start to make sense.
He’s translating it for me…
With a flick of his fingernails, the ink splats back onto the page in readable format.
“Fertility Ritual,” Renee says over my shoulder.
I press the rose stem to the words and read. “To enchant a woman to be overcome with lust and a supple womb…EW! Is this a date rape spell?”
“Something like that.” Bastian harumphs. “Horny bastards.”
“Barftastic,” Renee says with a groan. “Next.”
I flip the page, and Bastian performs the same magic to translate it.
Healing of Ailments. Cool, if it works, but not what we need right now.
I flip to the next page.
Coerce an unfriendly person to agree with you. Kinda useful if it gets the warlock to leave us alone, but still not what we need.
I turn to the beginning of the book and find something of a table of contents. Score. Bastian translates the page, but it’s slower than the last two times, and his fingers tremble as the ink rearranges.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
He nods. “Yes, I’m still recovering from being relegated to my lizard form. I was very near the edge of mortality.”
“Shit,” Drew says. “Good thing Cait got here when she did, huh?”
“It was,” Bastian says, looking at me in a way that makes butterflies vibrate in my stomach. The brand on my chest thrums and it feels almost like I’m being pulled into him.
“Extra good that she didn’t mace you to death,” Renee adds. “Sorry about that, by the way. It was my suggestion.”
“I overpowered her easily,” Bastian says with a smirk.
I scoff. “I wasn’t overpowered. I was startled.”
“Indeed,” he says, grinning so wide his fangs poke into his lower lip.
“A naked man slammed the door behind me, of course I was startled,” I declare, snapping the spell book shut.
“Naked huh?” Renee asks.
“Welp, I think it’s about time we head back,” Drew says, cutting in. The veggie tray is now empty. “We’ve got some more plans to wrap up at home before we bring all the wood over tomorrow.”
“You ready for all our wood?” Renee asks with a filthy leer.
I groan and shove her arm. “You’re like a twelve-year-old boy.”
“Whaaat?” she whines. “I asked an honest, innocent question.”
“Uh huh,” Drew says as he guides her toward the door. “You two rest up and we’ll see you tomorrow for construction.”
“Yeah, rest,” Renee says as she slips into her boots and zips them up.
“Oh my god, please leave,” I urge, my face about a million degrees.
“See you tomorrow!”
The door slams shut and I turn back to Bastian. He’s looking the other way, his golden scales shimmering on his cheeks.
Friends. Just friends.
Right?