“What if I was not finding out secrets, but in fact flushing out another double agent?”
“Are you saying words that even make sense?”
“Okay, think about it,” I said. “You’ve taken a real interest in me since I arrived on campus, right? What if you were manipulating me to try to figure out if anyone else was an undercover agent for the demonborn?”
“That’s just really convoluted.”
“That’s why it will work. People will get confused and just accept it,” I said. “So, listen, you maneuvered me into position to figure out about Abbadon and the women, figuring that I’d let them go. It was a tactical sacrifice on your part in order to see who would come to my aid. And who did?” I pointed. “Grayson.”
“Grayson?”
“Yes,” I said. “Grayson has been demonborn all along. And I think our transmogrify potion is mature enough that I could get it, and we could transmogrify some wings on him.”
Phist’s eyes widened. “Whoa.”
“I mean, the potion’s probably not strong enough yet for any heavy lifting, like fusing together sharks and elephants, but fake wings, I think it could do that.”
“But Grayson, he’s from the Diablo family, there’s no way—”
“Well, some demonborn has killed Grayson and taken over his body,” I said. “We can transmogrify a different face on him.”
Phist considered. “It could work. So, then the story is that Grayson tried to rescue you?”
“Yeah, because he was protecting me as Enid’s sister and all that,” I said. “He thought I could be turned to the demonborn side. He killed Abbadon, and he tried to kill you.”
“But I was too strong for him,” said Phist.
“Exactly,” I said.
“I guess we transmogrify off his burned out eyes? Because otherwise, it’s pretty obvious he and Abbadon were killed the same way.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I really hope this potion is up to the task,” he said. “Tess told me she helped you with it, but I wasn’t even there.”
“You’re crazy powerful,” I said. “Just shedding magic all the time like a dog sheds fur. Can’t you help the potion along a bit?”
He smirked. “Maybe.”
I smiled at him. “Should I go and get that potion? You said we were on campus, right?”
“Yeah, we’re in the basement of the Black Circle house,” he said.
“And there’s no one else looking for me, right? Abbadon didn’t tell anyone else.”
“No,” said Phist. “But if anyone sees you out there, it could put crimps in our story.”
“Well, then, I can’t let anyone see me,” I said.
* * *
To be sure that no one saw me, I used another camouflage spell. I figured it was better than invisibility, because invisibility had its own issues, what with doors opening on their own and whatnot. With a camouflage spell, people would see someone opening the door, but it wouldn’t register to them that anything was out of the ordinary. Whatever they saw, they wouldn’t take notice. That was how camouflage spells worked.
I managed to get across campus easily.
It was dark again. How many days ago had I been at Abbadon’s place, anyway? I hadn’t slept so much, and I was disoriented. When I got to Chillingworth Hall, where the potion was stored, the building was locked.
But, undeterred, I used a little magic on the door lock.
Okay, a lot of magic, because the doors had counterspells all over them to try to keep students from breaking in. I blasted the door with magic and forced my way in, and then looked around, afraid other people had seen the sparks.
But only one student was walking by on the street outside, and she glanced at me and then away, uninterested.
The camouflage spell was holding.
I had to say, this lacing thing, there were things about it that didn’t suck.
Other implications of it were…
Well, I didn’t have time to get into all that. At some point, I was going to have to think it all through, the fact that I was inextricably tied to Blake Mephistopheles, but that time was not now.
I hurried up to the classroom where my potion was stored and transferred it from the cauldron into a to-go container, which were in plentiful stock in the classroom, because potions did need to be removed.
I stopped to clean out the cauldron. I didn’t want anyone to find it there and be confused about why it was there. It was evidence pointing to Phist and me, and that couldn’t be discovered.
Finally, I hurried back to the Black Circle house. I crossed the foyer, heading for the steps downstairs, which were in the hallway between the kitchen and the foyer.
Pleased to have made it, I dropped the camouflage spell.
And just at that moment, Tess came out of the kitchen.
“Suther?” she said. “What the hell are you doing here?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I stopped short, gulping. “Uh, Tess, hi.”
“Seriously, why are you in the house? You can’t just come in here, you know. If Grayson or Oliver sees you, they won’t be pleased.”
I opened my mouth, searching for an explanation. Nothing came to mind. So, I shot magic at her, a ball of purple sparks.
It hit her in the face, and she immediately slumped to the ground.
I hurried over to her and checked for a pulse. Oh, thank God I hadn’t killed her. Two murders was enough in one day. I got her under the armpits and dragged her down the steps.
Phist met me at the bottom of the stairs. “What the hell did you do?”
“I don’t know,” I cringed. “Here, you take her.”
“Is she dead too?”
“No,” I said. “Let me run back upstairs for the potion.” I’d set it on the floor when I’d thrown magic at Tess. I pounded up the stairs, snagged the potion, and headed back downstairs.
Phist had placed Tess on the couch, where she was slumped over, looking like a girl sleeping off a hangover.
He glared at me. “No one was supposed to see you.”
“I know,” I said. “Can’t we, like, do a memory wipe spell on her or something?”
“You don’t know much about memory wipe spells, do you?”
“Well, I guess not.”
“Black magic,” he said. “They require a sacrifice, and they take a lot out of a person. We’re going to be using a lot of magic on this transmogrify thing, and then we’d have to go out and find something kind of big, maybe a goat or a—”
“Okay, never mind,” I said. “I don’t want to do any black magic. None at all.”
“Yeah, me either,” he said.
“But you said that thing about thinking of it like steak.”
“If it’s necessary, sure,” he said. “I’ve done it to preserve my cover. But, like I said, it’s addictive. Every time I do it, I have to fight the monkey on my back for weeks afterward. I hate it.”
“Okay, so wiping her memory is out.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “What if we just, you know, tell her the cover story we have all worked up.”
“Right, so explain why you were upstairs wandering around while we were recovering from nearly getting killed by Grayson.”
“I had to find the bathroom?”
He laughed.
“Of course,” I said, “why did I throw magic at her?” And I turned. “And, anyway, there’s a bathroom down here. Damn it.”
“She’s going to be out for a while,” he said. “Let’s think about it while we do this transmogrify spell. Bring the potion over here.”
I brought it.
He opened up the to-go container and dipped a finger into the goo and then put his finger to his mouth.
Eew.
“Man, that’s barely mature,” he said. “It’ll work, but I’m going to have to funnel a lot of my own energy into it. It’s going to take a lot out of me.”
“Out of us,” I said. “I guess if you get drained of energy, it affects me too.”
He nodded. “That’s the way lacing works, all right.”
“Are we, um, going to talk about it?”
“Talk about what? The potion?”
“The fact that we’re laced.”
“I don’t see what there is to say.”
“Well, I do. I mean, we’re connected now. And we kind of don’t like each other, so—”
“Yeah, let’s definitely not talk about that.” He stripped off his leather jacket and tossed it over the wet bar. He rolled his head on his shoulders and then knelt down next to the potion again. He nodded at me. “Come on, help me. We have to transfer this potion all over Grayson.”
“We do?” I said, wrinkling up my nose. The potion was kind of icky. It didn’t smell all that great.
He gestured meaningfully with his head.
I knelt down next to him.
Together, we smeared the potion all over Grayson’s face and back, where the wings would be. Then Phist got out his phone and pulled up the spell he’d gotten from his friend and we chanted the words together.
At once, magic flared to life between us, and it flowed through my body, and through his as well. I could feel that a circuit had been created. Power traveled from Phist into me, and out and around to the potion, then leaped back into Phist. We were in a whirlwind of sparks and bright light. It changed color, from green to blue to purple to pink to red to orange to yellow.
At first, it was easy to keep up the chant, and we were rewarded by seeing the wings begin to be built on Grayson’s back and watching his features begin to shift.
But the longer it went on, the harder it became. I could feel that the expenditure of power was wearing on Phist. It was wearing on me too.
I had been through a lot in the past forty-eight hours or so, and I felt aches and pains begin to overtake my body. My throat started to hurt from intoning the spell over and over again.
More than once, the magic faltered, but we kept at it.
At some point, I was sure that I couldn’t go on. I just needed a break. Two minutes to rest my voice, to stand up and stretch, maybe to take a power nap. But I knew that if we stopped the spell before it was complete, we’d have to start all over, and I couldn’t allow that.
So, I kept pushing on, even though I could feel that Phist was practically spent as well.
The magic flickered, and I forced myself to continue to say the spell, even though I couldn’t hear Phist’s voice. My own voice was hoarse, and I wanted it all over.
Phist wasn’t talking. He wasn’t pushing the magic out, and I had to do it all. I could feel resistance when I tried to pull magic from him, like sucking through a straw when there’s not much left at the bottom of the cup.
I looked at Phist, and he was slumped over, his eyes closed.
Shit.
I steeled myself, reaching out through this new bond that we had, feeling around for any power to grasp. I found it, a tiny store of it, and then I grasped it, and I threw it into the circuit, and I finished the spell.
The wings were done. The face was altered.
I gasped, and I said the words to set the spell, to complete it.
Then my voice faltered and I let my shoulders sag. I groaned. I curled up on the floor, exhausted.
My eyes fluttered closed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“What. The. Hell?” Tess was shaking me.
I grunted, blinking away sleep. I struggled to sit up, but I realized I felt okay. The sleep had restored me, well, Phist, actually. It must have restored him. I had taken all his magic, every single drop, but he had slept and his body had refilled the stores. He was so, so powerful. And now his power was my power, and when he was restored, I was too.
“Tess,” I said. “You’re awake.”
We really hadn’t come up with a story to tell her.
“What’s going on?” she said, looking close to tears. “What happened to Abbadon?”
“It’s all very confusing to me, too,” I said. “Apparently, Phist was using me in some kind of sting to flush out Grayson. Grayson was demonborn. He was pretending to be an occultist to get close and find out all our secrets.”
Tess turned to look at Grayson. “Oh, fuck, he has wings.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“But he doesn’t look like Grayson.”
“Well, I guess he’s not Grayson,” I said. “He’s a demonborn who must have killed Grayson and taken his place, pretended to be him. He used a glamour or something.”
Tess shook her head. “I can’t even believe it.”
“Phist thought that if there was anyone in the Circle who was also a double agent, they’d try to protect me, because I’m Enid’s sister, and she was on their side.” I grimaced. “Something I didn’t know, actually. I thought I knew my sister, but to find out this, it’s awful. Did you know my parents were killed by demonborn? How could Enid betray their memory that way?” I was laying it on pretty thick, and I watched to see if Tess was buying it.
“Oh, I know,” said Tess. “Listen, Enid and I didn’t get along, but I never suspected that she was betraying us with demonborn. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. They didn’t want anyone to know. They thought it made us look weak if someone could penetrate the Circle like that.”
I nodded. “I guess I get it. Anyway, Phist put me in danger, and Grayson came to rescue me. He killed Abbadon.”
Tess looked at him, her lower lip trembling. “Oh, Dirk…”
I guessed Dirk was Abbadon’s first name.
“I can’t believe he’s gone,” she said. She looked at me, her eyes shimmering. “I loved him.”
Really? Because he was kind of a jerk. I patted her arm. “I’m so sorry.”
“But what happened to Phist?”
“He fought off Grayson, killed him,” I said. “But it took a lot out of him.”
“And why were you passed out?” she said.
“Uh…” I shrugged. “I guess it took a lot out of me too, all this danger and running and fighting?”
“How did…?” Tess furrowed her brow. “Upstairs, when I saw you, what was going on?”
“I…”
“Why did you knock me out with magic?”
“I told her to,” said Phist’s voice.
Tess and I both turned to look at him.
He was sitting up, rubbing his face. He yawned.
“Why?” said Tess.
“I didn’t know if we could trust you,” he said. “Grayson said something about you.”
Tess’s eyes got wide. “No, no, you don’t think that I would betray the Circle, because I would never. And whatever happened with Grayson and me, it never meant anything. It was only like what happened with you and me, Phist. I was with Abbadon. You know that.”
“No, I believe you,” he said. “If you’d tried to get Suther out of here, to protect her, then I would have known you were on Grayson’s side. But you didn’t.”
“I didn’t even have a chance,” said Tess. “I mean, she just slammed magic into my face. Powerful magic, too. I didn’t think you were so… strong.”
“I’m not,” I said. “I think it was an adrenaline thing. You know, like when mothers lift cars off their children and stuff?”
Tess didn’t look convinced.
“Look,” said Phist, “the important thing is that we figured out there was another traitor in our midst.”
“Yeah,” said Tess, but she still looked confused. “It’s crazy to think Grayson… but I guess he was always a little over the top. You know, too much? No one could have been as awful as he was sometimes, not unless he was acting.”
“Definitely,” said Phist, nodding.
“And Suther, you’ve been in on this all along?” She squinted. “She’s Enid’s sister, Phist. How can you be sure you can trust her?”
Phist glanced at me and then at Tess. “Hey, Suther, do you mind giving Tess and me a moment here?”
“A moment?” I said.
“Yeah, to talk alone?
” he said. “Go on upstairs.”
“Um… okay,” I said. I got up, confused, and climbed the steps. At the top, I tried to listen through the door, but I couldn’t hear anything that was going on down there.
About ten minutes later, Phist came up the steps and he grinned at me, sweeping one arm around my shoulders and pulling me close. He kissed me, his mouth hot and hard against mine, our bodies pressed tightly together.
The kiss was like molten pleasure, burning through me, awakening every forbidden sensation I’d ever repressed as it coursed through my body.
When he let go of me, I stared at him dumbly, as if the kiss had destroyed my ability to speak.
“Thanks for waiting up here,” he said to me, winking.
What the hell had that been for?
He turned to Tess. “So, you going to call this in? I’m going to take Suther back to her dorm, and then I’ll be back.”
“Sure,” said Tess.
Phist put his hand on the small of my back and guided me into the foyer. “Let’s go, Suther.”
My mouth worked, but no sound came out. I started walking. I didn’t know what else to do. Together, Phist and I left the Black Circle house.
Dawn was splitting the sky in the east. Another morning. How many days of classes had I missed?
Well, this was going to be another one. No way I was going to class today.
“I’ll walk you back to your dorm,” said Phist.
“Just like that?” Ha! I had finally found my voice.
“Sure,” he said.
“What was… why did you…? What did you say to Tess down there?”
“I told her that she’d been right all along and that I was trying to get in your pants. But so that I could control you. I told her that you were head over heels in love with me and that I was using you. I said that you were useful to me and could be useful to the Circle. I said you’d do whatever I wanted you to do.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, that’s, um, that’s… she thinks we’re sleeping together? I would never do that.”
He smirked.
“You can’t go around kissing me,” I said.
“Sure, I can,” he said.
“And I don’t need you to walk me back to my dorm. I’m perfectly capable of…” I folded my arms over my chest. “What am I supposed to do? Pretend none of this happened?”
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