Baer shook his head. “We handled it.” He smirked. “Though someone set a car on fire.”
“You try aiming that shit,” Lucien muttered, his expression dark.
“Was it the same witch as before?” Clay asked.
“No, these were just regular soldiers. But they’re out there, patrolling the area and waiting for us to show up. I was hoping to take Wiley to see his grandmother, but that’s off the table for now.”
“How the fuck do the pestilents know where to find us?” Lucien demanded.
“We think they can track the magic that’s attached to our souls,” Baer replied. “Kind of how Clay can use his powers to locate the pestilents.”
Dane frowned. “What we need is a plan to get rid of that witch. We should probably be helping Wiley look through those spell books. The man’s been at it all day.”
“Where is he?” Baer asked.
“In the family room, with the books all around him. I let him use my laptop to make a spreadsheet. He’s breaking down which spells might work for which Weaver, writing ingredients where needed, that sort of thing.”
“Let’s go see if he’s found anything good.” Plus, Baer just wanted to see him. He gripped the little bag in his hand, wondering now if the gift was too sappy. Then he thought of Wiley’s smile and realized it wasn’t. The man would love it.
They found him just where Dane had said, sitting on the couch with his legs curled under him, the laptop to his side, and a book open on his lap. He looked up, and the excitement spreading across his face when he saw Baer warmed the Weaver deep inside.
“Have you found any good spells to get rid of a witch?” Baer asked.
Wiley bit his lip, shaking his head. “A lot of this is in Latin. Google Translate can only work so well. What I need is a translation book.”
“Or the goddesses. I’m sure they can read them.”
“Not all of it is in Latin. There’s quite a bit in English, too. I’ve found another spell for bringing down lightning…” Wiley trailed off, his gaze flicking to the book. “But I don’t know which spells would work on anything specific. Not yet.”
“I could start going through them with you,” Lucien offered. “There’s only so much training I can do anymore. Though, if we’ve got these powers we’re already using without spells, why do we need these spell books?”
“Because there are a lot of things that we can potentially do with magic that doesn’t necessarily come natural, such as the protective barrier,” Baer explained.
“Plus, I’m hoping there are more notes on what we can possibly do together with our powers,” Clay said. “It was by accident that we discovered that Grey can use my powers to boost his own. I think we should all be going through these books.” Clay walked to the couch and picked up one of the journals. “The ones we can read, anyway. There are more than six journals here, and some of them are very old. Several of them aren’t even in English.”
“What language are they?” Dane asked.
“Hell if I know. I don’t recognize it at all. But I did read one that went into detail about fighting a wizard who could create storms. The lightning spell probably wouldn’t work against him at all.”
Baer walked to the couch and sat next to Wiley. He glanced over the spreadsheet Wiley had been creating and whistled. “That looks good.”
“A database would be easier, but I’m not that talented, so spreadsheet it is. I’ve tried to list everything in an order that we’ll find easy. But some spells take ingredients. Oh! I think I found the barrier spell you guys were wanting.” He set down one book and grabbed another, flipping through it carefully since the pages looked old. He pointed. “Here. This one takes benzoin and dragon’s blood.”
Lucien cleared his throat. “Um, real dragon’s blood?”
“No, I think it’s an herb. I have to look it up, but surely we can get some.”
“Oh, good. Dragons would be a bit much in my new reality.” Lucien ran his hand over one of the books. “These are gorgeous old books.”
“They are,” Wiley said reverently as he stroked his finger on a page. “I’m completely fascinated by them. Tons of information that others have used for more years than I can imagine.”
Baer got up and moved to the window to see what Ruby was up to. She was lying in the sun outside by the pool. He closed his eyes and tried to see what she was thinking, still worrying that she’d been traumatized by being locked up, but all she was thinking was that the sun was warm and the water smelled good. He smiled, loving his simple, sweet dog so much.
“I did find several gardening spells,” Wiley told Clay. “I know you were thinking of having one next year.”