Page 32 of Hunted
“I’m a bold person,” I muttered without looking at him.
Richard squinted.“Ha.Bold.You like to sound all dangerous.But you’re just a big, fluffy pile of demon candy hidden under a mountain of unnecessary muscle.”
“Correct,” I said, pleased.“And this fluffy pile of demon candy is about to revolutionize defensive wardcraft by combining sorcerer magic with witchcraft and luck.”
He flopped onto the floor near the edge of the ring and stretched his legs out.“You sure you want to test this on Josh?”
“No,” I admitted.“But he’s the one who asked.”
“And he’ll survive if it backfires?”
“Hopefully.”
“Great.Let’s risk his sanity and his internal organs,” he said with a sarcastic grin.“For science.”
I snorted.“Not for science.For revenge against that hag who turned him.”Acacia might be a woman, and one who hid behind a cute as hell little mask.But that wouldn’t stop me from punching her in the face.Or setting her on fire.
The door opened.Cicely stepped inside with a soft sigh—barefoot, curls damp, cheeks flushed like he’d just come from the bath.The guy had no right looking so relaxed.Or so fuckable.He carried a small scroll tube and a pouch of something that shimmered faintly with fae sigils.
“I brought a suggestion,”he signed.
“Please let it be better than Richard’s last five suggestions,” I muttered.
“Hey!That last ward held forthree whole minutes,” Richard said defensively.“You just didn’t like the screaming noises.”
“Because the voices were screaming in infernal!Those demons coulda been my fifth cousins four times removed, or something.”
Richard shrugged.“Details.”
Cicely unrolled the scroll across the cleanest surface he could find—which in this room, meant only moderately covered in stuff—and traced the outer ring of the sigil.The symbols were elongated and curving, like vines wrapping around a bone.I leaned in.“That’s...beautiful.”
He signed,“It’s a fae dampener—meant for silencing sirens in the dark pools of the enchanted woodlands of the old realm.”
“Gorgeousandancient,” I said with barely contained lust.Fuck I loved learning new tricks.“And...repurposable, I think.”
I didn’t ask where he’d gotten it.I had a feeling Cicely had been slowly stealing shit from O’Dell for ages.And it hadn’t stopped when he escaped the fae court and arrived here.Somehow, he was still accessing some cache of stolen goods that he wouldn’t share with the rest of us.Personally, I suspected Ruya’s animals were involved.He and that cat were thick as thieves.
Cicely looked at the charm ring, then at me.“You want to anchor it to blood?”he signed.
“Just a pricked finger,” I said.“Minimal draw.No bindings.But it seemed appropriate for interfering with vampire magic.”
He gave me a slow, cautious nod.
I turned to Richard.“Want to help me calibrate it, Mr.Almost-a-Vampire?”
He groaned.“Fine.But only if you make me one too, if it works.You might be enjoying my amazing presence, but I’d like to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.”
I blinked.
Cicely coughed into his sleeve.
Richard shook his head and made an exaggerated sad face as he patted Cicely on the back.“There, there.I know.You don’t have to hide your grief.But you’ll get over missing me eventually.”
I rolled my eyes.
We worked for hours.The charm started as a simple ward that would create a bubble of protection around Josh—a mobile magical perimeter to make it more difficult for Acacia to enforce her will on him, and therefore more difficult to casually spy on us.Cicely’s fae design nested into the second layer of magic like it belonged.It would help target the protections specifically toward mind manipulation.And an extra layer of my own demon-blooded magic wrapped around it all in a chaotic binding.
It wasn’t elegant.But it was powerful.
