Ulric proved to be correct—he did have guts, and not just because he ingested a glowing pink elixir made by a stranger. He also stood in a small, never-used sitting room on the second floor, with the shades drawn and furniture cleared away, and allowed me to try out various renditions of counter-spells. When those didn’t work, I started using the tear-away spell I’d been practicing earlier, attempting to pry it from his body.
“Now that you have the recipe, you can fashion a spell from opposites,” Ivy House practically yelled at me, her words vibrating through my body and echoing around in my cranium.
“I’m trying!” I paced the room as Ulric sat in a chair off to the side, waiting. “Nothing’s working. The spell I practiced earlier doesn’t seem to rip it away.” I rubbed my puffy eyes, my brain mush right now. It felt like I was swimming through wet cement, I was so tired. I’d been healing the tired away most of the day, for myself as well as those who’d been awake with me, but I’d hit the wall. My energy level couldn’t sustain the magic to continue healing, even with Ivy House’s help. And just like that, the last of the pink glow surrounding Ulric wore off.
“What’s going on?” Austin walked into the room, gray sweats adorning his bottom half and his bare torso glistening with sweat. He must’ve just gotten in.
I threw up my hands. “Nothing. Nothing is going on. I can’t figure it out, and now the elixir has worn off.”
“She’s too tired,” Ulric said calmly, somehow still upbeat despite the fact that his shirt had been torn to shreds with little patches of blood marring the rips. Toward the end, when desperation had started to set in, I’d gotten a little out of hand. Amazingly, he hadn’t ever flinched or told me to calm down. He probably should have. “She needs sleep and a fresh perspective. I think she has it; she’s just not putting it all together.”
“How can you possibly think that?” I pointed at his torso. “You look like you got caught in a briar patch.”
“I could feel you ripping at the spell, but you hadn’t dug in deeply enough. The next time you’d dig in deeply enough but forget to rip it away.” He shrugged. “You’re tired. Things slip when a person is tired.”
“Nonsense.” Mr. Tom walked into the room with a steaming mug. “She has a lot of mileage left in her. Here.” He handed me the brew, and I took a seat to drink it, fatigue pulling at me.
“Austin doesn’t need sleep,” I said.
“I was about to take a nap. Why don’t you join me?” Austin put out his hand to me.
I sighed. They were probably right—I was useless when I was too tired. I didn’t see things clearly.
That clock was ticking down in the back of my head, though. I could feel danger coming, just on the horizon. Dare I take the time to sleep when I wasn’t sure about a counter-spell?
“Do you know what would be best?” I said, then sipped the coffee. “If I could disintegrate the spell without them realizing it. You said you could feel that spell, Ulric?” I took another sip of the coffee, but it wasn’t perking me up like it usually would. Now that I was sitting down, my eyelids were growing heavy.
“Yeah,” Ulric replied. “It was kinda bubbly or fizzy. It felt like I was in a champagne bubble. I could see the glow around my limbs.”
“Right, so I’d need to strip it away while applying a harmless, fizzy, glowing spell. They’d continue on like nothing was amiss while Ivy House was targeting her missiles.” I took another sip and a wave of dizziness washed over me. I put my fingers to my temple. “I might need a cookie or something.”
The mug was taken out of my hand, and I was thankful because I was incredibly woozy all of a sudden. My eyelids felt like they weighed a hundred pounds and my body had already started to relax, like sleep was inevitable.
“What was in that coffee, Mr. Tom?” I asked, sagging in the chair. A moment later, Austin’s arms were around me, lifting me for the second time in twenty-four hours.
“A sleeping agent,” Mr. Tom replied. “The coffee was decaf.”
“Amazing. Not an ounce of guilt.” My head lolled against Austin’s shoulder.
“I am here to look after you, miss, even when you refuse to look after yourself,” Mr. Tom said as Austin carried me from the room.
“We have unfinished business, you and I,” I slurred at him. “Watch your back.”
“I think the defenses might be more dangerous in Jessie’s hands than with Ivy House acting as a free agent,” Ulric said, voice going dim as we moved away.
“Are you really going to take a nap?” I asked Austin as he climbed the stairs.