“What does it mean?” I ask Bastian.
He huffs. “You’ve just opened a spell book and you’re first inquiry is about the rituals list?”
“Rituals list,” I murmur, looking at it closer.
“It states who and on what date, performed a ritual, and from what page.”
“Wow,” I whisper in awe.
I pick one of the names and flip open to that page. I use the rose stem to trace the words written in—probably—Latin. I’m fairly certain I recited Latin before, too, when opening the book.
“I know your vision isn’t great, but can you read it?” I ask.
He smiles. “I can do one better.”
He places his hand over the page and then uses his claws to draw out the ink. His palm hovers over the parchment as the old, black lines rearrange themselves into letters that start to make sense.
He’s translating it for me…
With a flick of his fingernails, the ink splats back onto the page in readable format.
“Fertility Ritual,” Renee says over my shoulder.
I press the rose stem to the words and read. “To enchant a woman to be overcome with lust and a supple womb…EW! Is this a date rape spell?”
“Something like that.” Bastian harumphs. “Horny bastards.”
“Barftastic,” Renee says with a groan. “Next.”
I flip the page, and Bastian performs the same magic to translate it.
Healing of Ailments. Cool, if it works, but not what we need right now.
I flip to the next page.
Coerce an unfriendly person to agree with you. Kinda useful if it gets the warlock to leave us alone, but still not what we need.
I turn to the beginning of the book and find something of a table of contents. Score. Bastian translates the page, but it’s slower than the last two times, and his fingers tremble as the ink rearranges.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
He nods. “Yes, I’m still recovering from being relegated to mylizardform. I was very near the edge of mortality.”
“Shit,” Drew says. “Good thing Cait got here when she did, huh?”
“It was,” Bastian says, looking at me in a way that makes butterflies vibrate in my stomach. The brand on my chest thrums and it feels almost like I’m being pulled into him.
“Extra good that she didn’t mace you to death,” Renee adds. “Sorry about that, by the way. It was my suggestion.”
“I overpowered her easily,” Bastian says with a smirk.
I scoff. “I wasn’t overpowered. I was startled.”
“Indeed,” he says, grinning so wide his fangs poke into his lower lip.
“A naked man slammed the door behind me, of course I was startled,” I declare, snapping the spell book shut.
“Naked huh?” Renee asks.
