“Dining room,” I replied, walking through the kitchen door with the bowl. I spread out a towel and scooped out some of the syrupy salt, herb, spice, and water mixture onto it. Forming the base first, I built the obelisk out of the salt mixture. It smelled amazing, but it kept falling apart.
“The binder isn’t strong enough,” I said, waving at it.
Ant mewed from the door and circled in, brushing Ranth’s leg as she walked by.
“What do we do with this?” I asked, motioning to the fragrant mess on the towel.
“You spread it out on the floor without shaping it. We can do this together.”
I paused, considering him. This was what I’d always wanted. With a gush of excitement, I upended the rest of the bowl onto the floor. “Now what?” The salt mess was oozing out of the binder. I shoved the crumbling bits back up on top to keep it from spreading off the towel.
“Leave it and stand back. I can help you form it, but you’ll have to make the spell yourself since it’s your house.”
“And how do we do that?”
“May I connect with your skin?” He reached out a hand.
“What?” Now he was asking?
“Skin contact will help me show you how the spell works. Please, give me your hand?” His eyes were intense and focused on me.
“First, tell me what we are going to do. Exactly.” Anticipation bubbled like kombucha ferment as I played with my silver necklace. The memory of his touch painted all colors of danger. There was something between us, and touch made it manifest. I wasn’t ready, even if it seemed a simple sacrifice.
“You’re going to pretend you are setting a ward, but you are going to bind this ward to the obelisk that we will form while we do the spell. Then you will connect this ward to the other ones with salt lines.”
“I don’t see how that’s different. I’ve done that in the garden, and the portal still opened.”
“The garden is open to the sky, and you used a ward—a protection spell—not the binding we need.”
“Oh. Oh! Like binding a protection spell to the obelisk and amplifying it through the wards so it covers the house?” How could I have not thought of that? My moth wings flapped toward his bonfire of knowledge.
I held my arm out, and his fingers slid over my skin like silk.
CHAPTER TWENTY
It took us about ten minutes to do what would have taken me days of experimentation.
“Will this hold now?” I asked, marveling at the hard smooth surface of the salt obelisk.
“It should. The items we used are similar to what I’ve used in the past, if not the same. But in concept, yes. The obelisk ties every ward in the house into a single spine.”
“Great, then stay here, and I’ll be back in a bit.” I started for the basement, but Ranth was at my heels before I opened the door. “What are you doing?”
“I’m coming with you. It’s safer if we stay together until I get back to the Garden.”
“You mean, so we don’t die?” I laughed. “Wouldn’t it be safer if we weren’t together? I mean, it would be less easy to target us, right?”
“Well, that’s not an option until I get back to the Garden and the curse ends. Besides, did you see what we did here?” He gestured to the dining room and then waved his arm toward the kitchen. He was right. We were stronger together. He followed me down the stairs.
“I need quiet and space to work,” I said about halfway down.
“Can’t I help?”
“Yes, by staying out of my way.”
“That’s not really helping.” He grinned.
“It’s the help I’ll appreciate the most.” I smirked at him.
