Page 62 of Witchbane
Nick held out the book, which my mate took without hesitation. “Perhaps?”
“It was a branch, wrapped around me, with thorns digging in,” I said. “Liam tore it away.”
“The thorns were memories of bad things that had happened in his life,” Liam added. “He still has scars from where they dug in.”
“Don’t we all,” Kiran grumbled. “Thorns.” He glared at me, gaze rolling over me like he could see things I’d rather not show. Like my past. Liam growled and pushed me behind him. Kiran raised his hands and stepped away from the threshold. “So be it. Possessive beast.”
“Not helping,” Nick told him.
Liam clutched the book to his chest.
“If you head down to the center courtyard,” Nick pointed to the opposite end of the hall, “down several flights of stairs, you can go outside. The wards shouldn’t feel as intense out there. I’ll keep the others away. The book will give you the basics of conjuring. Clothes, easily. Food, keep in mind it’s Sebastian’s power. By eating regularly, you’d only be draining yourselves.” He glanced back at Kiran who stood in the doorway of the library. “We’ll all be surviving on what little is left of Underhill’s magic now.”
Did that mean I had to eat fae now? “I’m not hungry,” I said. It was a partial lie. I wouldn’t turn down a burger if I had one.
“The more magic you use, the more you will be,” Kiran said. He turned and headed into the library, vanishing from sight.
“You’ll keep the courtyard clear?” Liam asked Nick. “Give Seb and I some time to practice?”
Nick nodded. “Same rules. No portals in the castle. Try not to eat the fae. We gave them shelter and we try to only use them when necessary.” He headed into the library himself, closing the door and leaving us alone.
Liam wrapped an arm around me and held up the book. “How about a bit of studying?”
“If we can get somewhere that doesn’t feel like a million eyes are on us, sure.”
He nodded, and we made our way down to the courtyard, discarding the blankets Nick had given us inside the doorway before stepping out into light and green grass.
Chapter 17
Okay, opening one door did not mean I suddenly had mastered magic fae power. And it pissed me off. We created the symbols like the book stated. And whatever barriers had been between the kitsune and I were gone. I could change from one form to another as flawless as I could ever change to a fox. Liam could too, though the wolf was oddly stunted here. Liam described it as the actual spirit of the wolf feeling sluggish and slow, while the body of it worked fine. But magic, that was another story. Liam thought maybe we were missing intent, but I could wish for clothes all I wanted and nothing happened.
“Why is this so hard?” I snarled, mad at myself more than anything else.
“What if I wanted to create clothes from alchemy?” Liam asked. “How would you do it?”
“I wouldn’t. Alchemy doesn’t create something out of nothing. We’d need elements.” And I’d never mastered a spell with that big of an exchange. Most of my work had been wards, shields, and look away spells. Potions were teas and infusions.
“But we aren’t really creating something out of nothing,” Liam pointed out. “We are creating clothes from the magic of Underhill.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “Magical clothing tree and all that.” At least I was no longer cold. The fiery warmth of the kitsune awake and free within me kept a toasty temp. I also didn’t feel weak or sick. More irritated with my lack of skills in this whole magic thing. The fact that the kitsune had no desire to rage and destroy everything in sight had to be a good sign, right?
“Do you know how a spell like that would work?” Liam pressed again. “Even if you don’t think we have the right exchange?”
I thought about that for a minute. The fae spells weren’t specific enough to be a “create clothing spell” or “conjure food spell”; it was more an idea that we had to craft based on will. Which made sense. Alchemy was a bit more focused than that, needing a central thing to propel the spell.
I drew the symbol for cellulose, which was really plant fiber. There was a handful of weed-like things around us. A mixture of fiber, water, air, and a handful of lesser chemicals. I drew symbols for them in the dirt as I remembered them. “Cotton for clothes is more advanced than this, but all plant fiber breaks down basically like this.”
Liam studied the marks. He flipped through the fae book Nick had given us, and scrawled a handful of symbols into the ground near mine. “These look similar.”
“But they could be to summon a dragon for all you know.”
He studied them, expression tense and focused. Twice he tried to make something happen as I could see the binding spells on his hands light up, but nothing changed. He frowned and drew a third set of symbols, and this time it appeared to be a mix of the first two. Part alchemy, part fae magic. He erased them a few times by swiping the dirt over them, but finally sat back, seeming pleased.
“This feels right,” he said. He looked at me. “Don’t look so doubtful. You’ve done amazing things with alchemy. I’m not sure fae magic is much different.”
“Wards,” I agreed. After a lot of practice.
“I think those are actually some of your biggest accomplishments. Creating something out of nothing.” He ran soft fingertips over my arms and the sketching of my many wards. “These aren’t exact alchemy symbols.”