“Felix?” I turn and take a step forward, attention going back to the notebook. “How many spirits do you need?”
“Four. One for each corner.”
“Corner?” Eliza questions. “I thought you were casting a circle.”
“We are,” Felix and I say at the same time. “Corners in circle casting aren’t actual corners,” Felix explains. “It’s confusing, I know. The thing with magic is overthinking makes it more complicated.”
Eliza nods, and I know she’s actually trying to understand what’s going on.
“I can explain everything in detail once we’ve transferred the curse,” I say, trying to nicely shut her up. “And if it’s spirits you need, we’ve got them. Specifically, Binx does.”
Felix looks at my familiar, and Binx’s green eyes glow red for half a second as he drops his shield. Binx is a powerful dark spirit himself and has lesser spirits under his command. He had them when he came to me, and as a young witch, I didn’t quite understand exactly what it meant to have a familiar with a legion of spirits.
It made me quite the subject of conversation between both the other students and the professors at Grim Gate Academy.
Nodding, I shift my gaze from Binx to Felix. “The spirits aren’t the most powerful, but they’ll obey. And don’t forget, I have three familiars.”
Felix’s lips curve into a smile. “I don’t think anyone has forgotten you have three when the rest of us are lucky to have one.”
“So Binx, Freya, and Pandora will take a corner, and Binx will command his lessor spirits to all take the remaining one. And maybe…maybe I can get a friend to help us.”
I shift my gaze up to the ceiling. Julian…if you can hear me, please get your feathered ass down here.
Felix nods enthusiastically. “I think we have a real shot at this, Callie. We can start the potion tonight to give us a head start for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” I echo.
“It’s a complicated spell,” he reminds me. “We should be well-rested and cleansed of negative energy. You look worn,” he adds gently, but he looks at the window, remembering that Lucas is a vampire. “Do you have a sealed room we can use?”
“The whole house is sealed from sunlight in a sense,” I tell him. “I kind of accidentally created a spell that filters out the harmful rays of the sun, making it possible not to have to cover the windows.”
Felix looks at me, blinking. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s…that’s incredible. And dangerous. Who else knows about it?”
“No one who shouldn’t,” I promise. “Lucas and Eliza are the only vampires who know.” I play with the silver bracelet on my wrist that belonged to my mother, nervously spinning it around. “I’m fine to do the spell tonight.”
Felix’s expression softens. “Callie, we don’t have what we need.”
“I’ll go get it.”
“The host,” he starts and then tips his head, thinking. “We kind of need one.”
“I’ll go grab the first person I find,” Eliza says and stands up.
“We can’t just kill someone,” I rush out.
“And I’m not entirely sure a person will work,” Felix goes on. “We might need a vampire.”
“Dina,” I say and look at Lucas. “Is she still tied up in the basement?”
Lucas nods. “I’m not convinced she’s confessed everything yet. We should keep her alive a while longer.”
“What would it matter if you’re not alive?” I press.
“If it’s a vampire you need, then I’ll go get another fucking vampire,” Eliza says. “Vampires have been disappearing all over the area. What’s one more?”
Felix is growing more and more uncomfortable from our conversation by the second.
“There are only two vampires in Thorne Hill, and they’re babies,” I go on.
“Good. They’ll be easy.” Eliza pushes her hair back. “Where do they live?”
“You’re not killing the only vampires in Thorne Hill,” Lucas tells her. He says something in French again, and Eliza spouts right back, waving her hand at me.
“Fucking witches,” she mumbles, and I think I got the gist of it. The VC already suspects that witches are behind the recent vampire deaths. And they are. Well, they meaning me. Killing the only vampires in a town full of witches and warlocks makes us look guilty.
And many vampires are looking for a reason to start a war against our kind again.
“I need a bit more time to analyze this curse and figure out what sort of host is needed,” Felix says, sounding nervous for the first time since he stepped foot into the house. It’s been years since we’ve seen each other, and while Lucas isn’t at full power, he could still easily kill. And Eliza is a loose cannon right now.
Felix is smart to be nervous.
“Come upstairs with me,” Lucas says, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. It feels so good to have his body against mine. I twist, hooking my arms around his waist.
He looks tired.
He needs to rest as much as I do.