He’d been brooding about her trying this all day. He wouldn’t be happy unless she was lounging in a padded chair in a padded room and sipping a tepid cup of tea, lest she burn her mouth. That was what you got when you took a dragon as a mate—twenty-four seven protection from a man whose very nature was to hoard the things most precious to him. His mate and his developing whelp topped that list.
“If I did it in our Garden District house, I’d have to fight our own protective blood magic. It would reduce the range of the spell. Blakemore’s is protected with a defensive shield but not an offensive ward to repel intruders. It’s much simpler and easier to navigate.”
“I don’t like this. What if Aborella and my mother sense your use of magic? You’re drawing on dragon’s blood. It will be like a beacon for them.”
The thought of Aborella made her shiver. The fairy sorceress with dark purple skin had almost lured her to her doom when Gabriel had taken her to Paragon earlier that year. Aborella was an extremely powerful magical being who worked directly for the evil queen of Paragon, aka Gabriel’s mother.
“Aborella scares me as much as she scares you, but if she is watching from Paragon, it will cost her time and magic to get here. We’ll be safely home before we’re in any danger. Besides, if I do it here, there will be nothing linking us back to Prytania Street. It’s safer.”
Gabriel chuffed and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Hand me the map. Did you ask Tobias to get the candle for me?” Raven took the rolled parchment from Gabriel’s hands and was relieved when Tobias chose that moment to enter with a paper-wrapped package.
“One ginger-root-infused blue candle.” Tobias handed it over to her. “Why does Gabriel look like he’s going to have a stroke?”
“Ignore him. He’s upset that I’m not in a bubble at the end of a leash.”
Gabriel growled. “Not true. I’m simply concerned about the risk.”
“Do you want to find your sister or not?” Raven yelled, purple sparks rising from her skin.
Tobias waved his hands. “Whoa, cool it, Raven. You’re lighting up like a sparkler.”
“We’re doing this,” she said, glaring at Gabriel. “Give me space.”
Tobias took three large steps back. Gabriel stayed exactly where he was.Fine. Raven turned in the circle so that her back was to him. Taking a deep breath, she glanced once more at her mate before unrolling the map and pinning down one corner with a wooden toothpick, another with a metal tack, the third under a glass of water, and the last under the candle Tobias had brought her.
“Incendia,” she whispered. The candle blazed to life.
She removed the ruby pendant from her neck and dangled it over the map.“Virite tórach kin adelphí. Verimas avich drochorus.”She chanted the spell in the native language it was written in, a language long dead.
The ruby started to spin at the end of its ribbon, and the circle of stones around her produced purple strings of magic that crisscrossed around her until she was standing under a glowing, pulsating dome of power. “Your blood! Now. Both of you.”
At least Gabriel didn’t fight her on this. He held his palm over the silver chalice she’d left outside the circle and sliced it with her ceremonial dagger. Tobias offered his own hand. One cut and the blood of the brothers mixed in the belly of the cup.
“Bring it here. Pour it over the stones.” Raven gestured at the front of the circle.
Eyeing the dome skeptically, Gabriel did as she commanded, his mouth twisting in distaste as the blood left the cup. It never hit the stones. Every drop was caught in the web of magical energy, suspended, thick and crimson along the tracks of power that arced around her. She concentrated, gripping the fabric of Rowan’s dress.
All at once, the blood rained down toward the map on the floor near her toes.
“It’s happening!” Raven cried.
The ruby in her hand began to spin, so fast she could barely keep hold of the ribbon it was tied to. Drops of blood rolled across the map like marbles, spiraling under the gem.
“I’m close! I can feel it.” The blood rolled toward the state of New York. “Yes. Yes!”
Suddenly, as if she’d opened the door to a moving airplane, a powerful wind howled through the room, blowing back her hair and sending the material of her dress flapping in the gale force. The candle in the corner of the map flickered.
“No. No!” Raven yelled. “It’s the defensive magic again. Fuck! The candle!Incendia.Incendia!”
Raven tried her best to keep the candle burning, but the wind blew so hard through her magical dome she dropped the ruby. The flame extinguished. The purple dome shattered and fell like sand to the floor, where it disappeared.
“For fuck’s sake!” she yelled. She had a blister where the ribbon from the necklace had rubbed too hard against her thumb, and she sucked it into her mouth to soothe the burn. Her knees started to shake, and Gabriel rushed to her, gathering her into his arms. “Whoever is protecting your sister is a magical genius.”
Tobias stared at the map, tilting his head. “Uh, Raven?”
She detangled herself from Gabriel’s grip and followed Tobias’s gaze to the map. Although the ruby was cast aside, off the edge of the map, all the blood had stained one specific place in a concentrated red dot that had soaked through the map.
