“Take care,” Reginald said.
Lady Batsford’s face vanished with a ripple of light and the cheval glass was still once more. The serpent’s head lifted from the frame flicked its tongue in and out in silent question.
“I think we need to find him before they do,” he muttered to the serpent.
“Reggie?” Sarah’s lighthearted voice came from the other side of his study door.
“Yes, darling?”
“I decided to call in a pizza. We’ve both had a crazy day and I’m just too tired to cook.”
Reginald grinned. Despite his concerns about Malcolm, he could never stay gloomy long when Sarah was around. He didn’t mind cooking, it was a unique kind of magic all its own, but whenever she chose to order pizza, he knew she’d had a hard day and comfort food was what she desired most on nights like these.
“Pizza, you say? Did you remember to order it with—” he began as he opened the door, only to find his wife standing a mere foot away.
“The beef and the onions? In the thirty-two years we’ve been married, have I ever forgotten your favorite toppings?”
He caught Sarah by the waist and pulled her into his arms, nuzzling her neck.
“I swear, you are the only magic I truly need, wife.”
She kissed his cheek and his lips, soft and sweet before she met his gaze. “Were you talking to someone on the Council?”
He nodded, sobering. “It was Serafina. She’s concerned.”
“About Malcolm?”
He nodded again. “And her own daughter, but that’s another matter. I asked if they really wanted him to serve on the Council given his magical challenges. I admit I hoped I could break their requirement that he serve, but it was a long shot.” He didn’t dare tell her the truth about the blood vow he’d made.
Sarah cupped his face and brushed her thumbs over his cheeks.
“When he was born, you told me that he would be capable of great things, and that we had to trust the Council. Try not to worry. We have to believe this will all work out.” Then she took him by the hand and led to the kitchen for dinner. “I mean, it wouldn’t be much of a prophecy if it blew up in their face, now would it?”
But Reginald couldn’t banish his worries so easily. Malcolm was their son. He was stubborn and willful, yes, but aside from Sarah he was also the most important thing in his life and not because he was a warlock destined for great things, but simply because he was Reginald’s son and he loved him with every fiber of his being.
Malcolm’s happiness should come before magic, before duty. But Reginald knew that he would have to be honest with his son and tell him why he’d placed a binding spell on him. Malcolm only knew that Reginald had promised him into service. He knew nothing of the blood vow, and Reginald knew that he would have to tell him, and soon… or it would be too late.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Calli stood in front of the island countertop in the center of her kitchen, facing Malcolm. Sweat beaded on his brow as magical energy charged between them. Calli could see him weaving spells above his head, trying to figure out how to tap into hedge magic.
“Concentrate…”
A potted plant of night blooming jasmine sat in the middle of the countertop. It hadn’t flowered yet and had only a few leafy stems.
Malcolm closed his eyes for a long moment. “What am I looking for? What does hedge magic feel like?” he asked.
Calli came around the counter and stood next to him. She grasped one of his hands and led it to the potted plant.
“Sometimes it helps to touch the soil or the stems. Hedge magic is about finding that connection. It’s not a source from within yourself, but a stretching outward toward something else. You reach out to the world. And as you stretch, the world reaches toward you in return. That’s where the magic appears, in that place of joining.” She placed her fingers against the nearest leaves of the jasmine.
“Keep your eyes closed, but feel the leaves, feel the plant’s life force. Reach out to it.” She kept her fingers on top of his. She felt the moment he reached out toward the jasmine, because her own magic stirred awake and wanted to join with his.
Her grandmother Celestine had taught her that all witches and warlocks could access both elemental and blood magic but that each was born with a natural skill and stronger connection to one more than the other. So Malcolm was capable of performing hedge magic, if only a little. It was more a matter of learning a new set of basic skills. The difference between learning to ride a bike versus learning to swim. They were both simple activities, and taken for granted once you were an adult, but they could not be learned in the same way.
“I think I feel it.” Malcolm’s voice was low, soft and full of wonder. “I think I feel you… too,” he added more reverently. Her heart tightened in her chest.
She kept her hand on his head as she felt the enchantments weaving all around them.
