Auggie smiled. “Yeah, she was the best. She taught piano lessons. I used to love watching them—the joy on her pupils’ faces. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body, but Mother could bring out the best in anyone with a sliver of talent.”
I nodded. “Is that who taught you about herbs and spices? Your mother? Or your father perhaps?”
“Oh, no. I never knew my father. That was mostly me. But my interest doesn’t end with botany. There’s a group of alchemists in town interested in the sciences: chemistry, biology, physics. Some may think that God has abandoned us, but He has given us the gifts of the natural world, through them.” He shrugged. “I’m close to alchemists. I love watching them pray over their concoctions with the words of prayer handed down to them.”
I nodded slowly. A group of alchemists. Interesting. I wondered what a group of them could accomplish. Like a coven of witches, perhaps several alchemists magnified their power, if you could call prayer magic. Or the sciences, for that matter.
Auggie was looking down at his lap. “I could always introduce you to my friends, if you’re that interested. Perhaps Mrs. Chartreuse would be interested as well?”
I scoffed. “Please. I’m hardly the marrying type. And even if I was, women certainly don’t interest me.”
“Really?” Auggie looked up quickly. “I’m the same. Or rather, I would like to marry one day, but not a woman.” His eyes glanced at me once more before he turned away. “Why wouldn’t you marry?”
“I don’t want to be tied down,” I said. I pushed away thoughts of my deal with Lucifer. I didn’t need to unburden myself on this boy. He clearly still had hope for true love when I thought it little more than an illusion.
“For what it’s worth, I think you would make someone very happy if you gave them a chance.” Seeing I wasn’t in agreement, Auggie cleared his throat. “Sorry for babbling. Witches have always made me nervous, and being under the roof with your friend is a little unsettling.” Realizing he may have offended me, he straightened. “Maybe she’s as selfless as you profess, after all. She seems nice enough.”
“Lexi is the … kindest person I know.”
I could tell him right now that I was a witch. He would no doubt find out at some point along the journey, especially if other witches came for him. Yet, just now, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. What if he no longer wanted to travel in my company? My job would be all but impossible then. I needed to think on how to break it to him.
Auggie yawned and I took that as my cue. I stood quickly, even as Auggie blinked away the tears the yawn had produced. “You’re not going?”
I smiled, patting his hand. “It was good talking to you, Auggie, but you need sleep. I’ll be just downstairs if you need me. I promise to keep the big, scary witch at bay.”
Auggie scoffed, but leaned back in his bed all the same, closing his eyes.
I stepped out of the room and closed the door behind me, standing there for a moment. My conversation with Auggie had unnerved me. Of course, I would be receiving a reward for thiskindnessI was showing him, and even that was a lie, covering up what had occurred to keep me in his good graces.
It troubled me that Auggie could have made a pact with the Devil. He didn’t seem like the type whatsoever. Was what he’d learned of alchemy a part of it? Lucifer wouldn’t risk giving such information to a human. It would undermine his own operations with his demons and, by extension, the witches.
Lucifer had only ever directly intervened in the affairs of witches a few times, destroying witches who’d had the idea to rid the world of humans. Ludicrous. The Council of Witches was formed to respect the balance, including what humans provided. Without humans, Lucifer wouldn’t have souls to feed upon. The witches wouldn’t have vital resources from human bodies, like hair and virgin blood, for spells. Not to mention the economic advantages that would be lost if we stopped doing business with them. Hunting down creatures for potion ingredients had already had some devastating effects on populations of magical creatures. Unicorns were extinct. Goblins nearly so. Some potions would become impossible without the ingredients harvested from them.
If humans ceased to exist, magic as we knew it could very well follow. Human bodies provided ingredients for a significant number of spells, some of which we have come to rely heavily upon for basic ways of life. We needed humans, whether we liked it or not. Perhaps that sort of forbidden knowledge was worth the price of Auggie’s soul. But Auggie wasn’t an alchemist himself. Perhaps the connections he’d made to alchemists had been the bargain they’d struck. Or Auggie’s intelligence in general? He must have gainedsomethingsignificant from the exchange if he’d been desperate enough to call on Lucifer at the crossroads. But it could have just as easily been about his circumstances after his mother died. I was grasping at straws trying to guess. And I hardly needed to know. I merely needed to get this boy to New York. Anything beyond that was none of my business.
I shook my head, as if to clear it. I didn’t want to think about my own reasons for having sought out Lucifer. I’d had over a century to try to forget it.
A board creaked on the stairwell, and I found Lexi climbing them. She leaned back against the wall and looked me over. “You look well,” she told me.
“You as well.”
She tilted her head, nodding toward the door closed at my back. “You want to talk about it?”
I sighed. I owed her that much, for bringing this to her doorstep.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Downstairs, Narcissa wasnursing a bowl of milk at the table, while Therese eagerly eyed a bowl of termites set before her. Her tongue snapped out with ease, finding a target, and she swallowed greedily.
I took a seat beside Freya, who had her arms crossed. Well, her top two arms; the other two were still hidden beneath her cloak. She ignored the steaming cup of tea in front of her.
The kitchen had some similarities to my shop. Bouquets of dried herbs hung from the rafters, while a cauldron simmered in the fireplace. A mouthwatering aroma filled the room, promising succulent meat, with notes of carrots and onions.
“I have a lamb stew cooking,” Lexi said, noting the hunger in my gaze as I stared at the cauldron. “It should be ready in about an hour.”
“Not soon enough,” Narcissa said, her voice once again filling my head in chorus to her mewing.
“I don’t know,” Therese said. “I think bugs are growing on me.”
