Page 15

G reat. The spell was in the one place we couldn’t go retrieve it.

It was in The Stone Palace.

I let Phineas go, and he dropped to the floor, his knees giving out. He crawled to stand, rubbing against the place where the blade had cut into his skin.

“Lot of good that does us,” Puck said, shaking his head and throwing his arms up in exasperation.

It made sense that Corian would want to purchase that particular spell from Phineas.

They didn’t have the siphoning spell itself, that was still safely tucked away in the Kotova grimoire where it belonged.

That was the spell Donika had been desperate to get her hands on.

Corian had probably gone searching for a siphoning reversal spell from Phineas knowing he could twist it and use it as a jumping off point to create his own twisted Noctani spell .

As Alastir had implied.

He might have created the Noctani out of that exact spell.

I released a frustrated exhale as I gripped the back of one of the dining chairs tightly enough that my knuckles turned white.

“We can’t get that spell.” I muttered, my gaze on the floor.

“Alastir?” It was Kenna’s small voice that drew our attention back towards the table.

I lifted my head, glancing at Alastir only to see that his eyes were white, completely glazed over. No iris or cornea was visible at all, only the milky shade that now stared back at us blankly. Was he having a vision?

Phineas moved to his side, gripping his shoulder as he gently shook him.

“Alastir, Alastir! What do you see?”

“He’s having a vision?” I asked, moving to his side.

Phineas nodded in confirmation, his mouth taut in a thin line.

Alastir was somewhere far, far away as the vision took him. His hand twitched and his head nodded absently. It only lasted a matter of seconds before the milky white mask of his eyes cleared and his hazel gaze coming back into view.

“I remember,” he spoke, his voice brittle has he re-adjusted to his surroundings, his gaze sweeping the room. He cleared his throat, his hand on his chest before he spoke again. “I might not have the spell in my possession, but I remember. The Mother… she showed me.”

He stood from his chair and it pushed back with a screech against the concrete floor.

He hurried to the counter where he grabbed a pen and parchment, scribbling down all that he remembered from the vision.

His hand moved quickly across the paper, and a silence fell across the room.

As if we all held our breath collectively.

Why would the Mother choose to show him the spell? Was it because he had already seen it, he simply needed his memory refreshed? The Mother didn’t choose sides, and a vision such as this was a rarity, indeed.

When Alastir finished scribbling down the spell on the paper, he said nothing. He went to the shelves and searched for ingredients, pulling them off the shelves and placing them on the countertop.

Saanvi stirred, her eyes opening.

“What’s going on?” Her voice was weak. She pulled the bandage away from her chest wound to find it mostly healed, only the last of the scab still visible beneath. “What the—” but her words were cut off by Alastir.

“You’ll need to rest. You can’t travel with the spell that I used. It might be outwardly healed, but the body is fast at work draining your own energy and magic to do the healing. You’ll need to stay here for a few days until your magic can replenish and the wound can finish repairing itself.”

Saanvi met Kenna’s gaze. Tears pricked her eyes as she pulled her to her chest, holding her tight against her. A soft smile graced my lips at the sight. I couldn’t be more thankful to Alastir for saving her.

“And the antidote?” Saanvi asked, her eyes searching the room for me .

“We don’t have the spell,” I explained, “but Alastir might still be able to replicate it.”

“I make no promises,” his voice was stern, his concentration on the shelves before him as he stroked his beard. “I need bloodroot… there isn’t any here.”

His gaze flitted to Phineas. “Fetch me some.”

“Me?” he asked, surprised. “Why me?”

“You, son, are the most familiar with The Shadow. Not only do they not know how to find the exit to this disastrous place, but I cannot send one of them out to fetch something that they don’t even know what it is. Now go.” Alastir’s voice was commanding as he continued to study the shelves.

Phineas silently grabbed his jacket and shrugged it on.

As Alastir’s son, he had to be well versed in charms and potions himself, knowing exactly what ingredient it was Alastir needed.

He silently left the shop, slamming the door behind him and rattling the windows.

His men followed him as he set off down the cobblestone street, out of sight.

The moment the door closed between us Alastir moved to the counter where I was perched, his eyes bright with excitement. “Listen to me carefully, it won’t take him long to find the bloodroot. We only have a matter of minutes.”

My brow furrowed in confusion. “What is going on? What aren’t you telling us?”

Alastir shook his head, as if he didn’t want to speak the words he was about to say. “Siphoning is dark magic. Blood magic. To reverse it, we need the same. Magic is all about balance. Give and take. Is this a price you are willing to pay? ”

I gulped, the consequence of the decision weighing heavily on me despite already knowing the answer. “Yes.” The word was barely a whisper.

“I do not know the price, but there will be a price. Of all the spells Phineas could get his hands on, this one is especially dangerous. I know you made a deal with him, but you might need to keep some of this a secret. This spell can easily be twisted for one’s own gain, and blood magic is unpredictable when altered. ”

I nodded in response. “I understand. But what if he finds out? What will be the price of betraying him?”

Alastir raised his brow. “You don’t want to know.”

I nodded. I couldn’t think of the repercussions of that right now, we needed to perform this ritual and create this antidote. We didn’t have any other choice.

“What do you need from me?” I asked, studying the parchment where Alastir had scribbled the spell.

“Your blood.”

“ My blood?” I asked, confused.

“Kotova blood is some of the most potent and powerful blood there is. Donika used her own blood to create this spell, we need your blood to undo it.”

I nodded in understanding.

Alastir grabbed a glass and placed it on the counter, reaching into his belt to procure a small knife.

Without preamble he grasped my hand, cutting the palm.

I winced, holding it over the glass as the blood poured forth over my skin.

His eyes darted towards the shop door before returning to me, squeezing my hand to encourage the flow of blood .

Once enough blood had filled the glass, he pressed his own palm to mine, blood smearing between our hands.

“ Sana quod laesi. Sana quod laesi. Sana quod laesi. ” The incantation flowed from his lips rapidly. When he removed his hand from mine, the only indication that there had ever been a cut was the smear of blood left behind.

“Quickly, go upstairs and wash that off.” Alastir nodded towards the staircase that led to the second level. He wiped his own hand on a dish rag, stuffing the bloody rag into a drawer behind the counter. “Thomas, bring this upstairs and place it in the vault.”

Thomas, who I hadn’t noticed appear again, nodded in understanding.

He grasped the glass in his shaking hands and followed me up the staircase.

Right off the landing to the second floor was a small washroom, and I ran my hand under the sink until it was clean.

I wiped my hands off on the washcloth, leaving it hanging over the lip of the sink.

I quickly descended the staircase, Thomas on my heels.

“We cannot perform the spell with him here. I will have to figure out a way to get rid of him. The blood magic gives off a distinct essence that he will sense immediately.”

“I understand.” My throat was thick.

“There is another ingredient I seem to be missing that I will have to send out for as well. Dragon’s breath. I could have sworn it was right here,” Alastir spoke as he moved towards the shelf, his hand lingering on an empty spot where the container must have been.

It was only another moment before Phineas approached, his men remaining outside as he opened the door to the shop. His hand was filled with a green and red root with a white flower. He placed it on the counter before Alastir.

“Will it only be enough for one cure?” Puck asked.

Isaac. He was thinking of Isaac.

“Do you need more than one?” Alastir asked, his gaze meeting Puck’s.

“Yes,” I answered for him. “We need two.”

“Who else—” but his words were cut off as his eyes glazed over, turning milky. It only lasted the span of a exhale before they cleared. “Isaac.”

His expression turned grim as he grabbed a larger beaker from the shelf and placed it on the counter. “Isaac was a good friend of mine. Tried to convince me to join the resistance more times than I can count.”

“And each time you declined?” I asked.

“As I’ve told you before, I am too old for war,” he replied thinly.

He didn’t appear to be that old. But at some point, Shades slowed in their aging. If he was the advisor and best friend of my father Osiris, he had to be at least in his sixties at this point, if not much older. I was too afraid to ask.

Alastir ground together a mixture of ingredients in the mortar with the pestle, pressing them together until all that was left behind was a brown, indistinguishable powder. He poured the powder into the beaker, filling it with a mixture of different colored liquids.

“I still need Dragon’s breath,” he said, glancing at Phineas.

Phineas crossed his arms over his chest, raising a skeptical brow. “I think not. One of them can go out and get it. I won’t leave again. I am owed this antidote just as much as they are. We made a deal.”

“I’ll go,” Puck offered, not wanting to argue further.

We didn’t want to raise suspicion by continually sending him off for ingredients, it was best if we went ourselves this time.

“I’ll go with you,” Tess offered, “can’t be out here alone in a time like this.”

“We all should go,” Saanvi offered, swinging her legs over the side of the table. “We could easily be ambushed—we need strength in numbers.”

“ You won’t be going anywhere,” Alastir spoke without glancing up from his concoction. “You won’t be leaving this shop for two days, at least.”

Kenna bit her lip, clearly hesitant to leave Saanvi here alone.

“I’ll go with you,” I spoke, moving towards the door. “Three is better than one.”

Puck nodded in confirmation, his hand on the knob.

“And what, exactly, are we searching for?” Puck asked.

“A plant with dark red leaves and bright red flowers. You can’t miss it… its unmistakable. Though it only grows in Dragon’s Hollow.”

“Seriously?” Tess murmured under her breath, exasperated.

By the end of this day, we would have gone back and forth enough times that we could have made it from one end of Istmere to the other .

“Back to Dragon’s Hollow, then…” I said reluctantly as Puck opened the door.

We stepped out of the shop and out into The Shadow once more.