“No.” Blackwell’s hand tightened around her arm in warning, not that she needed one. God only knew what problems that might cause. It could link her with Ella. It might even link all three of them. “Two people should never Vow to each other on the same night. She can Vow to me.”
Ella glared at him. But she didn’t argue.
Beatrix wrote out another version of the contract, this time with her name, as Ella watched silently over her shoulder. She stepped into the circle, the very air seeming to push back against her. Did her mistreatment of Meg give Ella reason to doubt her judgment? Was that the driving force behind this demand?
And what side effects might she suffer from athirdVow connecting her with Blackwell?
He joined her, pips in one hand, leaves in the other. She took the leaves, trying not to touch him, and squeezed her eyes shut, wanting to block out ... everything.
“Ic gehate,” she said. The spell zipped out of her, and yet she felt instinctively that it wasn’t right. But when she forced herself to look, the paper glowed up at her.
He took her hand. She started so violently, she nearly jerked him into her circle.
“Easy—easy,” he said, barely loud enough to make out. “Here.”
She felt the three pips tumble from his other hand into her palm, but she couldn’t pull free of his gaze. He looked at her like it hurt him to do it. She thought she could feel his heart racing through the pulse in his hand, but perhaps it was just hers.
Only the recollection that Ella, Meg, Rosemarie and her sister were all watching gave her the strength to break the connection and put the pips in her mouth. It was ridiculous to pretend she didn’t want him. Because oh, she did. She did.
She swallowed, willing herself to be rational. This was madness. She had to hope he didn’t want her, too, because that would be even worse.
His breath hitched in his throat as she backed out of the circle, exactly as it might if she unbuttoned his shirt and pressed her lips to his chest.Madness.
Blackwell knelt to slip the demarcation stones into his pockets. When he stood, she could see no sign that he was struggling with unwanted feelings. His voice was calm as he said, “Ready to practice?”
So she’d merely projected her feelings onto him. That was a mercy.
“Let’s start with a simple levitation spell, something you can actually see working,” he added. “Then we’ll move on to protection.”
He found a telephone directory and set it where the circles had been. “The spellword isAhebban,” he said.
Ella said it once, confidently. Rosemarie rolled the unfamiliar word on her tongue a few times. Meg, slumped on the bed, said nothing.
Blackwell held out a pair of leaves. “Who’s first?”
Ella—of course. She snatched them from his hand, planted her feet beside the directory and spent a short moment arranging herself as if she’d done it all her life. Back straight. Shoulders squared. Arm out. Fingers flexed.
“Ahebban!”she commanded, and her target launched into the air—decidedly higher than Beatrix had managed.
“Just over four feet,” Blackwell estimated, eyebrows raised. “Miss Knight—if you were a boy, you’d pass the wizarding exam.”
Ella had been circling the directory—practically dancing around it—but this seemed to bring her back to earth. She laughed, more bitter than amused. “Yes. If I’d been a boy, my life would have been very different indeed.”
Blackwell released the spell and handed leaves to Rosemarie. She said the spellword every bit as vigorously as Ella had—Rosemarie was nothing if not forceful—but the directory rose only about as high as it had for Beatrix.
“Miss ... Wallace?” Blackwell glanced at the bed where their treasurer had collapsed. “Are you well enough to try?”
Meg’s “no” was barely more than a whisper.
Beatrix pressed against the wall, reassuring in its solidity, and stared miserably at the floor. Meg had done nothing wrong. How could she have treated her as she had?
“The strongest protective spell isbeorgan,” Blackwell said, continuing the lesson. “It holds up against attack spells, at least initially. Also falling cranes.”
Meg moaned. Not a fan of black humor.
“You can cast it directly onto someone or something, though if you have time you’ll get better results with demarcation stones.” He held up one of the onyx examples. “You can bury some around your property and cast the spell on your house. You can set up a circle around the younger Miss Harper and cast it on her. But be aware thatbeorganfails after roughly three minutes of bombardment by high-level attack spells, if you don’t reapply.”
“Still,” Ella said, “that sounds pretty good.”
