MAEVE
Corbin ran into the library just as I scooped up the grimoire into my arms. “Jane’s taken Kelly into the Great Hall. I think they’re going to watch a movie. What can I do here?”
“Carry this.” I dumped the heavy book into his arms and stacked a bunch of candles on top, shoving one through the arrow hole so it stood upright. Corbin snorted. “Arthur and Blake have the painting. Flynn’s gone to his studio for the other supplies. Let’s go down behind the topiary maze. I know it’ll take longer, but it should keep us hidden from the Great Hall windows.”
“Wait.” Corbin went behind the desk and shuffled around in a drawer. He lifted out a small wooden box and tucked it under his chin. “We’ll need this, too.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
I grabbed my bag of supplies and followed Corbin down the secret staircase to the kitchen. It was so weird to see the enormous space empty, the counters bare of fresh-baked loaves and preserving equipment. Outside, we ducked and darted along the edge of the garden behind the topiary maze and through the orchard. The sweet tangy scent of the apple trees brought me back to the last time Arthur and I had come out here to practise our sword-fighting.
Was that only a few weeks ago? It felt like another lifetime.
We passed Arthur and Blake as they shuffled over the uneven ground, the enormous gilt frame of the portrait bouncing awkwardly between them.
“Bloody heavy thing,” Arthur growled as he dropped his corner and leaned against the frame, struggling to catch his breath.
“I told you we should have taken the frame off first,” Blake shot back.
‘Yeah, well, I thought all the banging and cursing as we tore the wood away would alert our guest.” Arthur shot a look at Corbin. “Thanks for all your help, by the way. You offered to take that tour so you didn’t have to carry this bastard.”
Corbin grinned as he squeezed past Arthur. “Got it in one. See you down there.”
Arthur yelled something unbrotherly after us, and Blake cracked up laughing. Corbin and I tore down the slope and emerged in front of the sidhe. Flynn was there already, feeding dried kindling onto a small open fire. A canister of lighter fluid stood beside him. He wiped his hands on his jeans and stood up as I ran up to him.
“We don’t have much time,” I breathed. “I don’t want Kelly to get suspicious and come looking for us.”
“Do you have any idea what’s going to happen when we do this?” Flynn asked.
“None whatsoever. But I do love a good experiment.”
“I’d rather be experimenting in your bedroom right now.” Flynn leaned over and pinched my ass.
Corbin dumped the grimoire in the grass in front of me. I bent down and started flicking through the pages. “After Flynn gave me the idea in Avebury, I remembered something in here from when we were searching all these books for a way to stop the— ah, here it is.”
I leaned back, looking at the image. It showed a large hand, the fingers pointed down the page. A bolt of lightning shot from the tips into a small statue – a bulbous Mother Earth figurine like the kind we’d seen in the Neolithic museum displays at Avebury. A witch pouring her magic into an object, just the way Flynn had described doing with Candice. Corbin had placed a sticky note on the page – in his neat handwriting he’d translated the elements of the spell.
“If I remember my elementary witchcraft correctly,” Corbin said. “To reverse this spell we kind of do it backwards.” He bent down and studied the spell carefully.
“This is in Old Irish,” he said. “It’s one of the older spells passed down through the coven.”
“Do you think Daigh saw this book?” I asked.
“If he was in Smithers’ head, you can bet on it. For all we know, the whole reason he compelled Smithers for so long was to get access to these spells. When you combine this kind of power with fae magic, I can’t even imagine what the results would be.” Corbin glanced toward the painting. “I hope we’re right about this.”
Every word he spoke filled me with hope. I ran my finger down the list of instructions, feeling some comfort in seeing them written out in steps, like the experiments in a high school chemistry book. Crush those, mix take, light this, observe the reaction.
“Right,” I stared at my mother’s face in the portrait leaning up against the side of the sidhe. “Let’s get to work.”
While Corbin hauled the painting into the centre of our ritual area and called out instructions, Blake grabbed the candles and set them out in a rough circle around Flynn’s fire. Arthur waved his hand and the candles flickered to life. Flynn tossed a few crystals between the candles. Corbin handed me a container of salt and a candle.
“We’re ready, Maeve. Cast the circle.”
I followed the path of the candles the way I’d done once before, drawing a line of salt across the grass, then holding out the candle as I circled around again. While I walked, the guys stood inside the circle, calling on the five elements to protect and guide us.
I stepped inside the gap I’d left, then closed it behind me with a line of salt. I faced my coven; Corbin radiating calm and confidence, Flynn with a wide grin and a dangerous glint in his eye, Arthur stoic, though his hand rested on the hilt of his sword. Rowan with his eyes focused on a spot at my feet. Blake’s eyes twinkling. They all waited for me to begin the ritual.
