Gloria eyed me over the stone table.
“You wish to help the wolf.”
“Yes. Are there any spells that can help her hold on to her humanity?”
She shook her head, and my heart sank, but I forced my voice to remain threatening. “If I find out that there is a spell, and Kyla can’t come back from this, you’re dead.”
Gloria scowled at me. “Wolves are resistant to magic. You know that.”
“I need you todo something.”
I whirled and stalked toward the window, staring down at the forest below me. Gloria enjoyed an excellent view from the back of the palace up here in her tower.
I was engulfed in my fury,seethingwith it. And I was likely giving Gloria a delicious meal. It was that thought that forced me to take a deep breath, rolling my shoulders as I studied the green landscape below me.
I could imagine Kyla racing through that forest. I had to do whatever it took to ensure she would be okay.
“There is one thing. Difficult, but… it could perhaps buy her time.”
“I’ll do it.”
Gloria sighed as if I was an impatient child. I bared my teeth at her.
“You must connect her to her Alpha. Right now, being separated from him by both the portals and the cuff around her paw is making it more difficult for her to hold on to her humanity. Wolves are notoriously difficult to enspell, but if you place this charm in her cell, it will open her mind while she is sleeping.” Amusement flickered in her eyes. “Not that you would know anything about dream walking.”
“If you have something to say, then say it.”
“You may think you have me over a barrel, Danica, but never forget that Ichoseto help you this morning. And I know plenty of things about your own activities that Lucifer would love to learn. If I go down, you go down with me.”
“Noted.”
She shook her head, turning away to collect more ingredients, chanting until I heard a low ‘pop’ as the charm was complete. She’d attached it to what looked like a chicken bone, and I wrinkled my nose as I slipped it in my pocket.
Then I took a deep breath as I glanced down at the ring on my finger.
“One more thing.”
Gloria squinted at me. “Nothing else. I’m not your witch to command, Danica Amana.”
“Not even for the chance of a clean slate with Samael once this is all over?”
She studied me. “Speak.”
I filled her in. Gloria shook her head. I begged, cajoled, and turned to horrific threats that made me nauseous to even speak them. Finally, she agreed that it could be done. I handed her the ring in my pocket. And she did what I wanted.
I turned back to the window while she gathered more ingredients, putting together the spell. Then I frowned. The wind was picking up outside, and I’d spotted something between the branches, just close enough to the castle for me to see.
I craned my head, squinting as I waited for the branches to shift once more.
The edge of a wooden building. And I had a good feeling I knew what it held.
Had I imagined the dull roar that the wind carried back toward me as the trees shifted?
“Turn toward me and take your spell,” Gloria ordered wearily.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself as she bespelled me. Then I took my ring back. The knowledge in Gloria’s eyes told me she knew what it was, and why my plan had a chance of working. But it couldn’t be helped. Hopefully, her natural instinct to stay alive would prevent her from betraying me within the next few days.
Five minutes later, I was striding out of the tower. I placed the ring back in my mouth and made my way back down to my rooms, where I shoved the metal container of liquid behind a group of long, formal dresses in my closet. The death spell went in the pocket of a black winter dress in the back of my closet, the charm for Kyla in the opposite pocket.
