Chapter 28
A soft breeze blows through the garden, rustling the pages of the book.
I got excited, thinking this was an original Book of Shadows, but the note in the front said it was copied down from the real Book twenty-seven years ago.
Still, the spells are legit and this is the most magic I’ve seen in one place in a long time. Maybe ever.
It’s early in the morning and though the sun is out, there’s a slight chill to the late May morning.
I’m dressed in my usual outfit, wearing black Lululemon workout pants with a matching crop top.
Taking a few seconds to pull on my sweater to keep from getting cold, I lean back in the white, cast iron chair and slide the book closer.
My body is on pins and needles as I flip through page after page.
Mabel said the spell was in the first twenty-five percent of the book and I can’t decide if I should just flip right to it or go through the pages slowly, making sure I got the right spell.
Nothing terribly wrong will happen if I use the incorrect locator spell, but it might not be as accurate.
I’ve done locator spells before, picking up on dark energy to tell where a demon is. I would guess the spell would be similar, I just need to hone in on the specifics of finding someone related to me.
Enchanted by all the information in the book, I end up flipping through the pages slowly, bookmarking one locator spell toward the front.
I brought a notebook and pen out with me, along with the phone Xavier gave me.
I pick it up, tempted to Google “Florence Blackwood” to see what comes up, but I don’t want any images of any possible family members in my mind when I try to do this spell.
Intention is everything when it comes to casting, and I have to keep a clear mind.
This locator spell is almost exact to the one I’ve used before but with one powerful added element of setting up a crystal grid to really narrow down the exact location.
There is a specific incantation to say and I need several drops of my own blood, which makes sense.
I jot down notes and practice saying the Latin words.
“Sanguis sanguinis mei, ad te clamo. Te ipsum revela et mihi videam.” I stumble over the words, only recognizing a few.
“Hey, whatcha doing?” Devon asks, coming down the path. I was concentrating so much on the words I didn’t hear him coming.
“Magic,” I reply, blinking in the bright light as I look up. I really should have brought out my sunglasses.
“What kind of magic?”
“I’m trying to find my parents.”
Devon joins me at the little round table. “I thought they were dead.”
“I did too, but…” I shake my head. “What if they’re alive.
Clearly, they weren’t attacked like I thought they were.
Maybe they’ve been looking for me this whole time.
My family is from Italy and I’ve been here in the US ever since.
The Order is good at hiding people so I don’t even know if I have a real record here. ”
“Maybe Florence isn’t really your name.”
I look up from the book and stare at him. “Holy shit, what if it’s not?”
“Please tell me you weren’t found in Florence, Italy.”
“I don’t actually know where I was found. They’ve never gone into detail.”
Devon raises his eyebrows. “For a reason, I’m sure.”
“Oh yeah.” I put my head in my hands and let out a breath.
Devon’s hand lands on my shoulder, skin warm against the small area of exposed skin between the strap of my top and my zip up sweater.
“You don’t have to do this, Wren. You can accept that whatever happened before was messed up and you decided to move on from it.”
“I know,” I tell him. “And I actually considered that. But I know myself and I will obsess over this until the day I die if I don’t find out.”
“Okay.” He nods. “What do you need to do?”
“I need a map, these herbs,” I say and tap the list I made in my notebook.
“There are bay leaves in the kitchen, and I’m positive I’ll find rosemary.
But not yarrow. And I need four hematite stones and a lodestone, which I don’t have.
” I pick up the pen and tap it against the notebook.
“Is Nina around? I never know who’s working or if it’s like okay to ask the staff to take me somewhere. Man, that’s weird to say.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“There are new age stores all over the place. Not run by real witches, but the general idea is there and pretty much anyone can tap into the natural powers of crystals and herbs if they know what they’re doing.”
“You don’t think Xavier would have an issue with that?”
“No,” I tell him honestly. “He wants me to use my powers.” I can’t help but smile when I say it and it’s all I can do to keep the memory of his hand between my legs at bay.
“And you think it’s smart to trust him?”
“You don’t?” I question. “You’re like his number one fan.”
“That’s when I didn’t think I had a second choice.”
“And you do now?”
He nods. “I don’t have to stay here and become a vampire and partake in whatever the hell it is they do. I’ve been looking into things, Wren, like I said I would.”
“And?”
“And something isn’t adding up. You’re right. There are a lot more drug related deaths. But maybe they’re not drug related.”
“I talked to Kristina Davis.”
“The woman at the coroner’s office.”
“Yeah. She couldn’t pull the files, but she did allude to something being really off in the way these deaths were labeled overdoses when the actual findings were inconclusive as she put it.”
“What actually killed these people?”
“The bodies aged rapidly from the inside out. She said a few were even rotten, like their guts were soup.”
My eyes widen. “Oh, fuck.”
“You know what could do that?”
“Yeah. There is only one thing that can age a person while causing them to rot from the inside.”
“What is it?”
“Demonic possession.”
* * *
“Hi, welcome to The Crystal Key,” the shop owner says as Devon and I walk in. I spin the GPS bracelet around on my wrist as I enter the store. It smells wonderful in here, and the realization that I have Xavier’s credit card makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.
Yes, Xavier encouraged me to embrace who I am, but I’m still a little weary of crossing the line.
Though I think he knows how cornered I am, but I can’t decide if that was his goal.
Theo said it just last night that he doesn’t like how close Xavier is getting to me, making it seem like he’s worried about his brother letting his guard down.
They both know what I’m capable of…especially considering how Xavier’s maker was killed.
“Hi,” I reply back to the owner.
“Are you looking for anything in particular?” she asks, looking up from behind the counter. We’re several blocks away from the center of downtown Charlotte, and there are a few other shoppers in this store.
“Herbs and crystals,” I tell her. “Which I see plenty of.”
The owner chuckles as she motions to a wall full of shelves holding various herbs. “Let me know if you need any help.”
“Thanks,” I tell her and slowly make my way through the store.
“What would happen if I bought a bunch of stuff and tried to do my own spell?” Devon asks, picking up a premade spell jar for luck.
“Probably nothing,” I chide. “Though really, I don’t know. Want to find out?”
He cocks an eyebrow. “Kind of.”
I laugh. “Then try it. Just don’t do anything that borders on black magic.”
The new wave of acceptance for anything dealing with the occult has made me wonder if witches would be more likely to come out.
I’ve quietly sat back listening to hunters talk about the witches with big social media followings, wondering if they’re real witches—aka a threat—or just people who know a little about a lot of things, making them able to tap into some of the natural powers the earth has to offer us.
“Once Antonio told me about a theory that people who are really intuitive or lucky like that have witch blood in their family line somewhere. So they’d be able to burn herbs, make a spell jar, and read tarot cards with accuracy but they can’t conjure energy or cast a sleeping spell. Makes sense, I suppose.”
“Yeah, it does. If magic is passed genetically, then a witch and a non-witch having a child wouldn’t guarantee a magical child, right?”
“Right. And with the way witches were persecuted over the years, I can see people hiding who they are and blending in with the normies.”
“That’s why you want to find your family,” Devon says quietly. We’re standing by the display of herbs. They’re all organized alphabetically, and I go down the line, grabbing what I need to make a vanquishing potion. “Because they can do the type of magic you can do.”
“Yeah. And more.”
Devon steps in close, hips brushing against mine.
Right away, warmth goes through me and I notice everything about him.
How good he smells, the soft whoosh of his breath going in and out of his lungs, and how his dark brown hair is getting to the point of needing to be cut because it’s falling just slightly in his face and it takes everything inside me not to brush it back.
“What do you think she’d do if you made one of those energy ball things?” He motions with his head in the direction of the shopkeeper. “Kick you out or bring you in for Friday night’s featured guest?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “I really do think there are enough people open and accepting of magic they’d be curious and impressed, but then maybe scared once they realize we can’t be controlled.”
“You’re right on that. People fear what they can’t control.”
“That’s the whole reason witches were burned all those years ago. Men couldn’t stand the idea of women having power.” We keep shopping, and I leave the store with two full bags of magical supplies. Then we get lunch, sitting outside and enjoying the sun as we eat.
“You can’t sit outside like this in Europe and enjoy food if you’re a vampire,” Devon notes, dipping a piece of bread in oil.
“You’ve really been thinking about this?”
“Yeah.” He nods. “I have. Maybe someday I’ll change my mind…but not now.” He looks out at the passing cars for a moment. “Do vampires have souls?”
“I don’t know,” I reply honestly. “They died and came back.” I twirl pasta around my fork. “You have some time. I’m still a virgin.”
He lets out a snort of laughter. “Sure. Me, too.”
“Okay, fine, you know what I mean. We haven’t made a baby yet.”
“You’re his wife now. That wasn’t part of the plan.”
“Oh,” I say, taken aback. It’s such an awkward subject to bring up, and the waitress comes over to refill my iced tea.
Does the fact that I’m married to Xavier change everything?
Our couple status has been made public. If I get pregnant, it will definitely be something people talk about.
Vampires can’t reproduce, though there were rumors going through the Order about a vampire in the midwest who had a biological child.
“We need maps,” Devon says, changing the subject.
“Where do you even buy paper maps anymore?”
“I don’t know,” he says with a laugh and pulls out his phone. “Where did you get them before?”
I shrug. “They were always just there.”
He leans back, looking at me curiously.
“What?” I ask after a few seconds tick by.
“Nothing.”
“Liar,” I say and take a big bite of my pasta. We finish lunch and then stop at a bookstore on the way home to get maps. I grab a few, just to cover my bases. Then we get back to the house and go right back into the garden.
I spread a map of Europe on the table and put one hematite on each corner. I put three lodestones in between and sit quietly for a minute, grounding myself before working the actual spell. The next step is to crush the rosemary and yarrow in a mortar and pestle and sprinkle it on the map.
Then I take a bay leaf, write my parents on it, and prick my finger with a pin, smearing the blood over the leaf.
“You don’t have a lighter,” Devon says softly when I hold the leaf up.
“I don’t need one,” I tell him and close my eyes.
“Ignis,” I whisper and the leaf catches on fire.
I hold it until the fire reaches my fingers and then I let it fall into a little cast iron cauldron.
I pinch my finger, getting a few more drops of blood mixed in with the ash.
I look at the spell one more time before dumping the ash and blood mixture into my left hand.
Extending my right hand over the map, I start to chant. “Sanguis sanguinis mei, ad te clamo. Te ipsum revela et mihi videam,” I say. “Sanguis sanguinis mei, ad te clamo. Te ipsum revela et mihi videam.”
The rosemary and yarrow start to move, as if someone is shaking the map. My eyes widen and I hold my breath, too scared to breathe as I watch.
And then nothing happens.
“I don’t get it,” I say, disappointment washing over me.
“Maybe you need a different map,” Devon suggests. “Can you try the world map or is that too broad?”
I shrug, still holding the blood and herbs in my hand. “Let’s try it.”
He helps me swap the maps and reset the stones. I sprinkle new herbs and repeat the incantation. This time, the blood and ashes in my hand start to swirl, I tip my hand and they magically spill onto the map, moving along the grid lines and settle into a circle.
“Holy shit,” I exclaim, leaning in closer to look at the map. I can’t make out a precise location, but one thing is for certain: they’re here.