Page 81 of The Demon's Discovery
“Of course.”
She hugged her father, and Magnus squeezed her briefly, dropping a kiss on the top of her head before allowing her to leave.
“Alright then. Shall we?” Rylan asked, wasting no time.
He began to mutter over the rings, face hard with focus as his hands twisted in precise, controlled movements I didn’t understand but surely had profound symbolic meaning. His talent was interesting to watch, even if I never quite understood the way it worked. I supposed it was the same for him with myability to locate things with nothing more than a hairbrush or a mirror.
The rings danced as he lowered his hands over the top of it, reciting his spell in perfectly annunciated syllables. The tips of his thumbs and forefingers were touching, the gap they made a perfect triangle. A surge of golden energy wrapped around the jewelry, then dissipated in a small ripple of electricity. The air around us felt charged even after he stopped, a side effect from Rylan using his power.
He picked up the rings and handed them back to me. “That should do it.”
“That’s it?” I took them, surprised.
He frowned. “Yes, that’s all. What were you expecting?”
“I don’t know. Not… that.”
My brother rolled his eyes at me and began poking through my lock box. “Well, what you do isn’t often glamorous either. You will need to put your blood on those, you know. Yours and hers. And you’re welcome.”
“I’m well aware how to prepare an object I want to employ for scrying capabilities,Stolas.”
“Just checking, brother. You’d be surprised what things slip one’s mind when their mate is taking up all the available space in their brain.”
“Mages are such odd creatures,” Magnus muttered, watching us with his arms crossed.
“You adore me, Magnus. I know you do,” Rylan teased.
“I may, archmage, but you’re still strange.”
Rylan laughed, clearly getting agitated as he swiped through the hidden compartments of my case.
“In the smallest pocket on the left-hand side,” I told him helpfully. I slipped Greta’s ring onto my pinkie so it would be safe until I could put it on her finger where it belonged. “You have my gratitude,” I said, giving a little bow.
He smirked and shook his head as he dug around. His eyes scanned the vial of healing elixir with undisguised awe and fascination. “Explain.”
“I found the recipe in Lilith’s book. Greta came to me doubtful of her capabilities, so I had her try as an experiment in trusting herself. It was a step down from my original, loftier goal, the Elixir of Life, but she succeeded. And I have no doubt that she’ll make the other in due time.”
He tilted the vial as he held it up to the light, but never removed the cork. “May I keep this?”
“I suppose I can trust you with it. I left one with Ophelia, after all. Do you have specific intentions for it?”
He tucked the little vial into his inner vest pocket. “No, but one never knows when they might need one of the rarest elixirs ever made. Some similar items Ophelia gave to me came in very handy not so long ago.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “There’s another vial in here, somewhere, isn’t there?”
I grinned. “Of course there is. As you said, one never knows, do they?”
“If you’ve done what you came to do, we should be going,” Magnus said. “Stone kin celebrations wait for no man.”
“I’ll meet you there.” I fastened my new sword on my belt and locked up my case, holding it tight and reveling in the way both of their eyes narrowed as I blinked away into the mist.
When I gotto the square in front of the meetinghouse, the sun was making its descent, and tankards of ale and cups of wine were already freely flowing. There was meat roasting on open spits and an array of dishes covering several of the long dining tables. The area immediately surrounding the central fire pit wasreserved for dancing, and a diverse collection of benches and stumps were collected in clusters beyond that for sitting. The transformation from just that morning was tremendous.
Rylan approached me from one side and handed me a wooden mug full of ale. “It’s something else,” he chuckled, taking a drink of the brew.
“Are all the women…”
“In gowns? Yes.” Rylan laughed harder. “They could have warned us. I’d have at least brought my best shirt.”
I glanced down, finding nothing wrong with my usual clothing, but I did feel slightly underdressed in comparison.
