Page 131 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“That whole region is considered the cradle of civilization,” I offered as a possible reason. I supposed it was as good as any other reason. For all we knew, demons had a love ofancient stone architecture. Okay, so that idea gave me a chuckle. Architecture-loving demons—if only.

The door to the back room opened. My brother and Madigan exited. He held her close and tight as they made their way over to our group. “What are we talking about?” he asked.

“Türkiye,” Lily Joy said and he shot her a curious expression.

“What about it?” Madigan asked.

“Demons are organizing there.” Connor did the honors filling her in. She gasped as one would.

“Demons are organizing?”

“Is the potion ready?” I asked Simeon.

“Give me a sec.” He walked over to the pot using a rag that magically appeared to lift the handle off the hook, walking the pot back over to us. It bubbled thickly. A deep, reddish-purple color. The brew smelled cloyingly sweet, causing me to gag.

“Connor, my backpack?”

My mate walked over to the table where I’d left the backpack sitting. When he returned with it, handing it over to me, I reached inside to pull out the amulet.

“Ready?” I asked. The group nodded or gave confirmations of “Yeah” or “Yup” and I tossed the amulet into the pot. The bobble plopped, causing a large splatter to hit the sides of the cauldron. It bubbled and hissed, steaming up from the surface. “How long do we leave it in for?” I asked and Sim shrugged.

“Let’s give it at least ten minutes to steep,” he replied.

“Okay, so we need cloaking wards. A lot of them.” I looked to Lily Joy, who already knew how to make wards. “We’ll need Luc to zap them with his angel mojo.” And that got me thinking, “How did you make the wards before?”

“A recipe I found on the counter in my cottage. I left them there overnight and the next morning a jar of this glowing, swirly goo sat next to them. I rubbed them down with the goo and let it dry. Oh, and I’m on it.” She turned to walk over to one of thetables, where a group of witches made room for her. My cousin started giving directions and the witches got down to work. Glowing, swirling goo? That had Lilith written all over it.

“I’ll help,” Shafira said.

“Take the grimoire.” Opening the pack again, I fished around for the grimoire, pulling it out, handing it off to Shafira. “Lilith has good spells in here.”

Shafira took the book, reverently holding it in her arms as she turned, jogging over to the table with Lily Joy.

“Once the wards are finished, we’ll have to start moving witches to Göbekli Tepe. I thought about manifesting us all there at once, but?—”

“No.” Connor cut me off. “You’re powerful, but that’s too much, even for you. We need you strong and healthy.”

“Calm your tits. I was just going to say I thought that was too much for me to do.”

He growled. “Good. Then we’re on the same page.”

“So now that we all know I wasn’t going to risk it, I think we need to move the witches and launch our attack from there. We’ll hit them first, when they least expect it.”

“It’s the best strategy,” Madigan said. “They won’t see us coming.”

“That’ll still strain your energy,” Connor protested.

“Do you have a better way of moving this many witches to a camp without them getting caught?”

“We could try the tunnels.”

“With this many witches?” I countered.

“Brother, I know you don’t like it,” Madigan said, “but she can manifest for a reason. She’s powerful. She can do this.”

“Sim, you and Madi will go with the first group. I’ll send Lily Joy, Shafira, and Karro along, too. We’ll need Madi in hellhound form for protection while the wards are set in place. Then I want you to form a perimeter of poisonous plants just inside thewards, leaving openings for the witches to get out. That way, if some stupid demon does venture too close, they’ll regret it.”

“Got it.”

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