“How did you know to do that?” Kristy asks, taking the bowl of salad from the fridge.
“I kind of got a vision,” I tell her. “And then I did what felt right.”
“You said a spell. In Latin, maybe?” Ruby inches closer to the table, looking at the sword.
“Enochian,” I tell her. “I don’t know I’m speaking it. It’s an angel-thing.”
“Why do you even have a sword?” Abby asks, grabbing a wooden spoon. Her hands are shaking, and anger surges through me again.
First Lucas and now my sister. If Ruth wants me, then she should go after me.
“They’re for demon hunting. That one actually belonged to Freya’s previous witch before she came to be mine. It’s too heavy for me, though. I usually use an enchanted dagger.”
“Enchanted dagger?” Phil’s voice comes from the hallway. Penny toddles past him, arms stretching out toward Scarlet. I almost forgot he was here and has probably been listening to our conversation the whole time.
“Can she—?” Ruby starts, seeing Penny plop down on her butt, giggling as Scarlet gently licks her hands. “Is that—she’s not—this is…this is exactly what I’d expect from you, Callie, oddly enough.” She slowly shakes her head.
“Scarlet won’t hurt anyone I don’t want her to,” I explain. “I don’t think she understands anything but Enochian anyway, and in her current form, she’s harmless.”
“What if the kid takes the collar off?”
“She can’t.” I grab plates from the cabinet. “You couldn’t, either. Only someone with angel blood can. Neat, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know if I’d say that.”
I set the plates on the counter and start bringing water glasses into the dining room, putting one at each of our spots, well, not Lucas’s, of course. Phil follows suit, and we all silently prepare dinner.
“Are you hungry?” I ask Lucas, pulling him aside.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood. Again.”
“But you should eat.”
“There’s still a bag of blood in the fridge.” He makes a face at the thought of drinking bagged blood.
“Is it that bad?”
“It’s fucking awful, but it will do. You are more important to me.” He kisses my forehead. “Eat, rest, let me fuck you until you pass out, and then I’ll drink from you in the morning. While I fuck you again, that is.”
I smile up at him, not wanting to break it to him just yet that I’ll probably pass out before anything remotely sexy happens between us tonight.
“Okay. I’ll warm it up for you.”
I fill a pot with water, hold my hands over it, magically heat it, and put the bag of blood inside. I wait until everyone else has filled their plates and is in the dining room before I pour the blood into a wine glass. Lucas takes it into the dining room and pulls out a chair for me.
“This demon,” Ruby says, cutting into her pasta with her fork. “You said it was wearing a crown? Did you get a good look at it?”
“Yeah. It was gold with black gems along the base. There were symbols engraved into the metal, and it kind of looked like there was blood dripping along the spikes.”
“Would you recognize it if you saw a drawing of it?”
“Definitely.” I break a breadstick in half and stick it in my pasta sauce.
“Good.” Ruby catches my eye and smiles. “Because an Infernal Dictionary just came into the Academy’s possession.”
“What’s that?” Abby asks as she gives Penny a few more tiny pieces of pasta.
“It’s a massive book on demonology,” Kristy explains. “True Infernal Dictionaries are rare and very expensive.”
“This one is just being loaned for the time being,” Ruby says. “Unless we can come up with the five hundred thousand the owner is asking for it.” She rolls her eyes. “You know how these things go. Books get sold to the highest bidder and end up in the hands of some rich collector who has no idea what the book actually is.”
“Half a million?” Lucas echoes.
“That’s a lot for a book,” Phil mumbles.
“Books have gone for more,” Lucas tells him, taking a small sip of blood from the wine glass. “Is it in poor condition?”
“It has a lot of wear,” Ruby says. “It was in another Academy before it was stolen and put in the hands of nons for the last fifty or so years.”
“Do you have the seller’s contact information?”
Ruby freezes, fork halfway to her mouth. “Why?”
“I want to buy it,” Lucas says casually. “For Callie.”
“And I’ll donate it to the Academy once I’m done with it,” I quickly say, knowing how important a book like that could be to future students at Grim Gate. “As long as you promise to bring it to me when I inevitably have another demonic problem.”
“Are…are you for real?” Ruby lowers her fork.
“Yes.” Lucas takes another drink of blood before setting the glass down. He takes my hand in his, moving his thumb in little circles on my wrist.