Once they disposed of the potion, Jane announced that she was done for the day. Sadie considered staying behind, taking the opportunity to brew something herself, but after what had just transpired, she had other priorities.
She needed to talk to Nicholas about the protections he had included in her charm. Maybe then she’d be able to understand what in the world had just happened.
He was supposed to be with Beatrice today, and though Sadie shouldn’t interrupt, she didn’t think the other woman would mind. She made her way to the library, figuring it was the most logical place to find them.
Beatrice was there, but not Nicholas.
“We are enjoying our day by spending it apart,” she told Sadie. “He is all yours.”
Did she mean… no, Sadie was reading too much into Beatrice’s comment. She just meant that Nicholas was available if Sadie needed to talk with him.
She tried the engraving room next, but it was empty. Finally, Sadie asked a servant and was directed to the baron’s study. She followed the directions to the unfamiliar room and knocked. She could see a sparkle of blue through the keyhole—he had the door warded.
Nicholas’s voice was muffled but understandable through the heavy door. “Who is it?”
“Sadie.”
The blue winked out, and she took that as permission. She opened the door to find Nicholas coming around his desk. He stopped short when she stepped into the room without waiting for him to invite her.
She shut the door. “We need to talk.”
Nicholas leaned against his desk, a large wooden affair that was rough with natural impurities and knots underneath a glossy veneer. He didn’t tease her, no doubt sensing how serious she was. “About what?”
“The charm you gave me.”
Nicholas scowled. “I’m not taking it back, you know that.”
“That’s not—” Sadie cut herself off. Best to get directly to the point. “Something strange happened just now in the brewing room with Jane, and the charm activated.”
She explained what had occurred, and saw her own worry and confusion reflected back at her in Nicholas’s hazel gaze.
“The heat is a warning element,” he told her. “It is supposed to alert the wearer to intangible dangers. Honestly, I’ve never had any of the charms I made with that glyph included react to anything before.”
His mouth snapped closed, and his eyes went wide. “Except, I was carrying your charm when the bat attacked Lenora, and it grew warm then, too. I didn’t think anything of it, since the bat was clearly a threat of some sort, but the charm should have only warded me against attack, not grown warm, since the bat is physical.”
“What does ‘intangible dangers’ even mean?”
“The grimoire I found that glyph in was sparse on the details. I believe all it said was that it would alert bearers to intangible threats such as telepathy.”
Sadie’s hand twitched, but she suppressed the instinct to clap a hand over her amulet. Did Nicholas know every time she used her telepathy?
No. That made no sense. He’d have figured out her power if that were the case. Besides, he had just said the incident with the bat was the only time he had experienced that glyph in action. Maybe the grimoire he had found it in was wrong.
“Of course,” Nicholas continued, “I rarely have any charms on me, so my data is limited.”
“You don’t carry one of your own charms?”
“I’ve never felt the need. I can only fit so many glyphs on a charm, meanwhile I can craft myriad wards without one in a blink if needed.”
Then the glyph might do exactly what he thought. This time, her hand rose to the amulet at her throat before she realized what she was doing. The glyph her grandmother had found in a forbidden grimoire was the only other one she knew of thataffected telepathy. The designer of the glyph hadn’t been trying to shield against witches, though.
No, that grimoire had dealt with one topic only.
Demons.
Dark creatures of spirit and mind with no corporeal body of their own. Creatures that would revel in the dark thoughts Sadie had picked up in the foyer the other morning and again when Abigail confronted her and Nicholas at the edge of the forest.
If Nicholas’s power hadn’t still been flowing through her amulet, would she have heard a shift in Jane’s thoughts as the demon took over and made her brew poison rather than a potion?
