“I know a spirit talker who will do the deed for you. For a fee, of course. But timewalking or traveling to other realms will loosen the ghost’s bind inside you. It may not last if you timewalk more than once. The further you travel through the centuries, the looser the bind. Then you’d have to start the process all over again.”
I chewed on my lip. We’d totally be timewalking more than once. Of course, we knew a spirit worker who could renew the bond should it break, but she was new, our age. Would Amethyst be up for such a thing? Or maybe we could ask her parents?
Would this crazy scheme even work?
“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Eva whispered to me. “We need to get home, and we need to be undetectable when we do. Particularly if we plan on using demon magic. I’m guessing that the royal we’re connected to might sense someone using their power if they’re in the same realm?” She looked at La Voisin.
“Yes. Which is another reason why you’ll be performing what I teach you in a protective circle.” The witch crossed her arms over her chest as if daring us to fight back on that.
I loosed a sigh. “It looks like we need you to get hold of that mind witch—tomorrow, if you can. Until then,” I gestured down at the salt circle that I stood inside, “teach us everything about working with black magic.”
CHAPTERTWELVE
The black tendrils of magic flew from my fingers to swirl around La Voisin.
She tried to bat it away, but unlike all my previous attempts, my power stayed the course, doing my bidding.
It only took two days.
Since we’d arrived in seventeenth century France, La Voisin had been showing me and Eva various ways to work with our dark magic. For me, the first time I released it without a spell was the most difficult occurrence. From there, it had grown easier, although the effort still drained me a lot more than my natural magic.
From the look on her face, our teacher hadn’t expected such rapid advancement. I got the sense that it actually annoyed her. Which, for some reason—probably because I knew what a terrible person she was—made me pretty happy. I grinned and bid the magic to advance on the demon-touched witch again, tickling at her arm.
“Enough,” La Voisin snapped. “Clearly you’re quite skilled at bidding the shadows to do as you wish.” The clock on her mantle chimed the hour, and her scowl lifted slightly. “Ah! Once again, I have lost track of time. We need to move on anyhow.” She waved for us to follow her.
I stepped out of the salt circle and shuddered with relief. Being inside the poisoner’s protective circle was uncomfortable—prickly—but we continued to practice within its confines because it was prudent. Should the royals be lurking nearby and sense our power, they would surely come check it out. And even Morgan claimed she wouldn’t be a match for any of them.
As far as I knew, she was right. Neither Morgan nor Merlin would be able to defeat a royal. If that were the case, they would have done so in their lifetimes, and I wouldn’t be in this position—training for a war and risking the lives of those I loved. The best M&M could do was trap them in Hell. And that experience was in their future—after the demons forced them to split up.
“Will you be going over spells for black witches?” Morgan stood from her spot on the chaise. “We’ve heard of such things.” She was always careful not to mention too much, like that we already knew a black spell.
“I have never come across any,” La Voisin said. “And besides, after a few more days of practicing with shadows, these two won’t need spells, witching or otherwise. The shadows are more potent.”
As much as I wanted to argue her point, I had a feeling she was right. The shadows were scary strong, but I still liked the idea of using spells. They were more direct and less open to interpretation. The shadows, on the other hand, had strayed a couple of times, and gone farther than I intended them to once. Each instance in which they exhibited their own will, no matter how slight, worried me. I would need to be very clear in my intention when I used them.
Moving on, the poisoner pulled out a large, blue book and opened it to a page in the middle. I watched as her fingers ran down the smudged and yellowed pages of what looked like a ledger.
“So whatarewe doing?” I asked.
“This book holds the record of all the deceased witches in Paris. Or at least, those I know about. When death is a part of your business, it’s good to know when people perish. From here we can choose a suitable mind witch so that the spirit worker can call their ghost to help you,” the black witch replied.
“There are so many,” Eva murmured eyeing the names on the page.
“Not all are mind witches, but that’s to our benefit. The spirit worker I spoke with will be here at any moment to perform such a task. She will need to know who to call.”
My eyes bulged. I hadn’t expected that to happen today. Truth be told, I’d have been content to wait a little longer before I invited some random ghost into my head.
“Are you choosing? Or do we get to?” Eva asked warily.
La Voisin snorted. “You may choose, but as mind witches are rare, there aren’t many options.” Her finger tapped three names on the yellowed page. “These deceased witches are the most trustworthy candidates and strong with mind magic. If the spirit walker I called can get two of them to come, that would be ideal.”
“Tell us a little more about the mind witches. What were they like in life?” Morgan asked, probably noting the sweat trailing down my face, and wanting to calm me.
The poisoner did as she asked, relaying what she knew of the three witches, which wasn’t more than the basics. One had been a baker who supplemented his income with mind magic. Another had actually lived at court as one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting. The last was a fortune teller.
My best friend and I shared a long glance as La Voisin detailed the third witch. It was clear that neither of us wanted the fortune teller in our heads. He’d not only dabbled in reading the future, but performed black masses. Even if La Voisin claimed he was trustworthy the similarities were too stark for us to trust such a ghost.
“How are we going to know if this works?” Eva asked. “It would be idiotic to call upon Lucifer or Ishtar to test it.”
