Gertrude whispered, “Do you have any paper and a pen?”
He didn’t have any up there. He searched the dresser to see if Kelsie had stored some, but there was none.
Vega’s voice drifted from the room below. “I can’t solve five hundred years of problems the Raven Queen set in place without some assistance. And Clarissa is no help at all. She won’t even torture people for me.”
“You want me to cast spell on her for you?” Baba asked. “You want her to be your slave? Or to make her more wrathful?”
“No. I need something else,” Vega said.
Gertrude’s eyes flickered toward the voices. “Don’t worry about fetching a pen. I learned a spell to charm a pocket from Felix.” She fumbled in the pocket of her skirt and retrieved a roll of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink.
It was a handy spell. For just a moment, Lucifer wished he hadn’t been so quick to turn his nose up at his brother. Felix knew more magic than he did. He might have made a better mentor than Baba. On the other hand, Lucifer knew he wouldn’t have listened to his brother.
Lucifer held the book up for her as Gertrude used another as a desk on her lap to translate. The only sound that came from the loft was the scratching of the quill. The swishing of water and clinking of dishes attested to Kelsie washing.
Vega’s voice rose downstairs. “If it’s not one pathetic Witchkin calling on me, it’s another. They come to me with all manner of complaints like, ‘The Fae attacked my family. I need you to help me avenge their deaths.’ Or ‘Wah wah. Someone has got to put a stop to these rogue Fae in the forest abducting children.’ Or ‘Someone must hold these scoundrels accountable for the laws they set in place.’ I haven’t time to attend to every person’s needs.”
Lucifer was surprised to hear Kelsie speak up. “What did you expect would happen when you took a queen’s title and crown? You’ve got a responsibility to ensure justice in your kingdom. If you don’t, you aren’t any better than the rest of them, only using their status for more wealth and power.”
Vega sighed in exasperation. “It isn’t my job to police every Fae indiscretion.”
Venom Lucifer had never heard before filled Kelsie’s voice. “You could at least make sure there aren’t any dangerous rogue Fae eating children in your kingdom. Or carnivorous plants that snatch children up for their supper. It isn’t illegal for Witchkin children to use magic in this realm, but when we do, they snatch us just as they would in the Morty Realm. It isn’t fair.”
Lucifer wondered whether she was talking about Godric and the sister he’d spoken of. He didn’t understand why Kelsie cared about that. Then again, she had her own enemies. It was possible someone she loved had suffered a similar fate.
Lucifer read over the translation as Gertrude wrote. The theory behind the spell required more than a soul and a body. One had to give the soul a reason to return to the body. Red affinities who excelled at pleasure were especially good candidates for performing this spell.
Another piece of good luck.
All spells required some kind of sacrifice, like a fuel. The good-luck charm had a cost—other people’s luck to power up the spellcaster’s. Doing it wrong or too frequently would give someone else bad luck.
“What’s the price of this spell?” Lucifer asked. “What might happen if I perform the spell incorrectly?” Would it harm Abigail? Would it cost a piece of her soul?
“Patience.” Gertrude continued translating. “I’m not there yet.”
Lucifer could barely breathe, he was so anxious to hear how the spell worked. Kelsie peeked over the edge of the loft. Lucifer wasn’t sure if she was curious—or Baba was making her spy on them.
“We aren’t on your bed, and we aren’t touching your things,” Lucifer said, knowing how she could be. “Nor are we doing anything scandalous at the moment.”
Gertrude flashed a flirtatious smile. “You can join us if you’d like.”
Lucifer shook his head, hoping she was joking.
Kelsie blushed. “Do you mean now or later when you’re doing something scandalous?”
“Either,” Gertrude said.
Kelsie giggled, and she ducked out of sight. He shook his head, hoping she wouldn’t tell Baba what they were doing.
Gertrude wrote out the rest of the spell. When she got to the end, she turned to the previous spell and scanned the page. “Before you execute your big plan, it would help to study these exercises first. Start with smaller spells before you work your way up to Abby.”
Lucifer tried to find a familiar word on the page that gave a hint what those exercises entailed. As far as he could see, it had something to do with practicing on animals and switching a snake’s soul with a mouse’s soul. If one was successful, the predator would become the prey.
Vega called from below. “Gertrude, darling. I’m done here. We’re leaving.”
“Just a moment,” Gertrude said.
They’d only just begun translating. “Can’t you stay longer?” he asked.
“No,” Vega said firmly.
Luck had given him hours with Gertrude. Unfortunately, he’d wasted it on carnal pleasures instead of utilizing Gertrude for her brain.
“I need to know what the simpler spells are,” he said. He didn’t want to experiment on Abigail.
Gertrude leaned in close, her breath warm against his ear. “If you loan me these books, I can translate them all for you.”
“Really?” This was just what he needed. Fortune had smiled on him again.
“Certainly.” She patted his hand. “I’ll take these back to school with me and return in a few days with a copy in English for you.”
“Gertrude,” Vega shouted. “If you don’t get dressed and extricate yourself from Lucifer’s arms right now, I’m leaving without you.”
“I’ll be right down,” Gertrude said.
Lucifer whispered. “It’s Baba’s book. If I ask her if I can loan it to you, she’ll probably refuse.”
Gertrude leaned in conspiratorially. “Then don’t tell her.”
She slipped the books into her pocket. The tomes were far too large to fit, but the edges shrank to accommodate the size of the pocket. Lucifer was jealous. Felix had taught her a practical charm. He needed magic like that.
Gertrude climbed down the ladder first, followed by Lucifer. Baba sat knitting in her chair, a contented smile on her face.
They found Vega tapping her foot in impatience outside. From the grumpy expression on her face, he suspected she hadn’t gotten what she’d come there for. She stared off toward the forest, looking like she might set off without Gertrude.
He gave a curt bow. “It was a pleasure to see you, as always, Vega.”
“Queen Vega,” she corrected.
Gertrude took Lucifer’s hands in hers and stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. He embraced her, wanting to bask in the magic of touch for a few seconds longer. His body craved the satisfaction of being held by another human being. Even if he would feel guilty about it later.
“I apologize for not saying goodbye before,” he murmured into her ear.
“Save the apologies for another time. Just don’t be a stranger.” She sauntered over to Kelsie, who stood at the open doorway, and placed a hand on her arm. “Perhaps next time Lucifer won’t monopolize me, and we’ll have a chance to . . . converse more in depth the next time I visit.”
Kelsie nodded, a dopey smile on her face.
Gertrude hooked her elbow through Vega’s, and they sauntered off along the path into the forest.
Kelsie sighed. “Those were the two most amazing women I’ve ever set my eyes on.”
He laughed. “You do realize Gertrude enchanted you with her siren magic.”
“So?”
“So you hate me because I accidentally used my magic on you. But you’re in love with her when she does it on purpose.” He bumped her shoulder playfully. “That hardly seems fair.” Then again, he doubted Gertrude�
�s siren magic had worn off yet. Tomorrow Kelsie might hate Gertrude.
Kelsie shrugged. “It helps that she’s my type.”
“What is your type?” he asked. “Beautiful, curvy goddesses who remove all good sense from you?”
“Women.”
He looked at her again with her vivid blue hair and homespun dress. He supposed if Kelsie preferred women, it was one more reason she might loathe him after she’d temporarily lusted for him. Then again, she might not be a lesbian. Gertrude probably was everyone’s type.
He returned to the cottage to dry the dishes Kelsie had washed. He hummed the eighties love ballad he’d heard the unicorns singing to Abigail.
He was full of optimism and hope. In a couple of days, Gertrude would be back with his translations, and he would be able to practice the skills necessary to restore Abigail. Then he would just need to convince Baba to take a bath.
He was basking in the afterglow of sex magic and good luck when Baba said, “Lucy, pack up dishes and any loose items. Kelsie, lock up cabinets.”
“Why?” Lucifer asked. Usually they only packed up the house when the spring season had dwindled into summer and fall approached. That was when Baba wanted to find another forest to cheat time. She claimed she stayed forever young by living only in the season of spring.
“Young” was a relative term.
“I feel cool wind of autumn coming.” Baba’s eyes glinted with cunning. “It is time we left this forest and traveled to new location. Tomorrow we are leaving.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
A Devil Pushes His Luck
If they moved the cottage, that meant Gertrude wouldn’t be able to find them. Lucifer didn’t know if his luck had run out or Baba had stolen it back.
Now that Gertrude was gone, and he could think about more than her beauty, he wished he had asked Vega to cast a protective ward over Abigail that Baba couldn’t get through. He wished he’d given the book to Vega, who was powerful enough to defeat a Fae queen and use resurrection magic. He could have asked her to cast the spell right then. An experienced witch like Vega wouldn’t have needed practice exercises. She probably could have bested Baba right then and taken Abigail’s soul.
If she wanted to. Convincing Vega to do anything was a feat in itself.
In any case, he’d been intoxicated by Gertrude. His affinity was worse than a drug. It clouded his mind and made him into an idiot. He should have realized Baba would find a way to thwart his plans and make them leave so that Gertrude wouldn’t be able to return.
“Where are we going?” Lucifer asked.
Baba shrugged. “Wherever cottage finds springtime magic.”
He thought about what Kelsie had told him before about Baba removing the amulet when she took a bath at the hot springs. If they found a place she could bathe, she might remove it again. Perhaps his good luck hadn’t worn off yet, and this move was still part of it.
He didn’t dare suggest they return to the hot springs, though. He would give himself away if he did.
“Secure chickens and goat.” Baba motioned for him to do so.
Lucifer stood. “What about Abby? We aren’t leaving her behind. Where should I bring her?”
“Not inside cottage. Her bed is filled with dirt. Carry her bed to garden,” Baba said.
He tried to catch Kelsie’s eye so that he could signal to her to ask about the hot springs, but she was busy packing. He locked up the chickens in their coop and tethered the goat to the fence. Abigail remained asleep, just outside the gate. When the house uprooted itself and the chicken legs underneath sought a new home to roost elsewhere, they only took the cottage and the yard within the bone gate. He needed to find a place for her too.
Lucifer didn’t want to uproot all Abigail’s strawberry vines. He was careful as he pulled them from the earth. First, he carried the bed over. Next, he carried Abigail. Placing her in the garden was too much like the future she had feared, being a living organ donor, her body nourishing the garden of food they ate.
As long as Abigail remained asleep, Baba would keep on taking from her. Baba would mutilate her without feeling any remorse.
Which was why he needed more luck. He needed the cottage to travel to the hot springs. He needed Gertrude to find Baba again. And most of all, he needed to practice a spell so that he wouldn’t cost Abigail her soul if he did it wrong.
He knew he wasn’t supposed to use the good-luck charm more than once a season, much less two nights in a row. He would be robbing from those around him, but he was desperate.
Under the light of the waxing moon, Lucifer performed the spell again. He hoped the bad luck it brought others wouldn’t be too dire.
* * *
At breakfast, the house shifted with the urge to move. Baba struck her cane against the floor and commanded the house to be still. In the years he had lived with Baba before, he didn’t remember the chicken feet moving before she was ready.
Lucifer nibbled at the pecan tart he’d selected for breakfast from their leftovers. Kelsie wrinkled her nose up at the custard tart she’d selected.
“I think this is spoiled,” she said.
He used the spell he’d learned for detecting poisons. The air around the custard turned green and smelled like rotten eggs. Kelsie waved the stench of the spell away.
She walked over to their barrel of apples and selected one.
Lucifer knew now was the time to try to persuade Baba where to move the cottage. “So . . . Kelsie was telling me about some forest you were in a couple locations back. Some place with hot springs? She was saying she really liked it there.”
“It was not any good. Too many Fae in forest to be safe.” Baba frowned at the leftover chocolate mousse she had served herself. “This has gone rancid.”
Guilt needled at Lucifer’s conscience. His good fortune was the reason for their bad luck.
He offered Baba the remainder of his tart.
“You are good boy to offer.” Baba patted his hand, appreciation in her smile. “But I haven’t enough teeth to chew nuts.”
He held out the remainder of his tart to Kelsie.
“I’m not eating off you.” Kelsie lifted her nose in the air. “Your saliva probably has ecstasy or some kind of incubus date-rape drug in it.” She bit into a red apple.
“No,” Lucifer said. “It doesn’t. And for the record, I wouldn’t drug you with magic or otherwise and then force myself on you.”
He tapped his chin, considering how to introduce the topic of the hot springs naturally into the conversation again. “I was taught manners, Kelsie. If we traveled somewhere with hot springs, I wouldn’t spy on you when you were bathing. Just because I’m an incubus doesn’t mean I’m a sexual deviant.”
“Right.” Kelsie’s eyes narrowed and then widened with realization.
He hoped she would take the bait.
“Too bad we aren’t going somewhere with hot springs,” Kelsie said. “It might entice you to wash occasionally. You smell as bad as a pig in the heat of—”
Kelsie gagged and spit a mouthful of apple onto the floor. A worm crawled out of the apple in her hand. She threw it down.
Just her luck.
Baba rolled her eyes. “It is just worm. Eat around it.”
As Lucifer was washing the table, and Kelsie was putting out the fire, the legs under the house stood. The cottage tilted to one side. Lucifer managed to grab onto the table and three of the chairs. Kelsie shrieked, falling onto the gridiron in the fireplace. The air filled with the stench of burnt flesh. Before Kelsie’s pain could sink in under his skin and overwhelm his senses, Lucifer was fortunate he was able to construct a shield. It wasn’t enough to keep the phantom of the pain out of his hands, but the physical sensation was little more than an ache.
Kelsie sobbed, curled up on the floor. Lucifer started toward Kelsie to help her up before his luck made things worse.
The chairs at the table slid into Baba, knocking her on
to the floor. Pain blazed up in her ankle and knee so strongly he thought he was injured, though he was certain what he felt was muted compared to her own pain. She cursed in Russian.
The house righted itself and started its journey. He went over to Baba and helped her up, but the pain flared again the moment she set her foot on the floor. He carried the old woman to her bed where he hoped she would be safe. Fighting the swaying lurch of the legs’ gait, he helped Kelsie next. Being near her made it harder to fight the fire that his body felt in response to her pain. It took all his effort to block the sensation. Tears streaked her soot-stained face. Her hands bled from blisters and were black from the soot.
Lucifer managed to grab onto the table to keep it from sliding into Kelsie. The cottage shuddered, and a mirror fell from the wall. A few minutes later, the clock struck thirteen.
“This cottage is plagued by bad luck,” Baba muttered from the safety of her bed.
Once the chicken feet had settled into their new home, the extent of damage became clearer. Lucifer couldn’t open the gate outside because a fir tree on the other side blocked the path.
They’d lost half the chickens in the move. One of the skulls had fallen from its post on the gate. To his horror, Lucifer realized the ward he’d constructed around Abigail must have been disrupted when he’d moved her. He only realized it because a chicken had defecated on her forehead.
The moment he rushed back inside to grab a rag and some water to clean Abigail, Baba barked out, “Which one of my fool apprentices used spell from book and brought us bad luck?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lucky for You
Lucifer knew his plan to outwit Baba had failed. The moment she learned that he was the one who had used the spell, she would probably cut off Abigail’s fingers and toes just to spite him. His shoulders sagged in defeat.
“Well? Who brought bad luck upon our home? Baba demanded.
The throbbing in Baba’s ankle and Kelsie’s hands pressed in on him, and he had to work to keep it away. He had no time for lies or excuses.
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