“Almost.” She poked her legs into my scalp. “Someone called me away.”
“Get back to it.” I anchored my hands on my hips. “I need to ward this before we leave.”
With a glance back at the bed, she zipped off to the loft with her antennae quivering in thought.
“She’s going to try to talk to the book.” I stated the obvious. “We need to keep an eye on her.”
“She’s a kid,” Clay agreed. “Kids get curious.”
“Can you ward it on your own?” Asa toyed with his earring. “There’s a chance, if you borrow from Colby, she can manipulate the magic.” He dropped his arm. “The grimoire must not be allowed to forge a bond with her.”
“I’ll have to dig deep.” I rubbed my fingertips together. “I’ll need a spotter.”
“I’ll do it.” Clay moved behind me. “I can’t let you do this alone, Dollface.”
“Asa is here,” I pointed out. “I’m not alone.”
“He’s as likely to use this opportunity to cop a feel as to protect you. He’s not a great multitasker.”
The dig might have insulted someone who didn’t know Clay well enough to tell he meant no insult. He was indulging in a freak-out session. The book had him unnerved in a major way. That made two of us.
“I’ll finish packing.” Asa eased from the room. “Call if you need help.”
Reaching for my kit, I pulled out my small athame. “This is going to suck.”
“How did it go?” Clay cut through my mutterings. “With the challenger?”
The distraction from the book, and what it might be doing to Colby, was welcome.
“That happens a lot?” I pulled the herbs required, sprinkled them around the book, careful to close the circle. “Does he ever just check a perimeter?”
“It does, and he does.” He watched me work. “I was surprised he let you go with him.”
Why I accepted that Clay took those threats to his partner lying down, I don’t know. “He won’t let you?”
“I killed the first three I bumped into in the woods.” He chuckled. “Then I had to pay a blood price to their families, like the challengers weren’t going to die anyway. I mean, paternity aside, Ace is a beast. No one is going to take him out. You haven’t seen him fight until you’ve seen him in a free-for-all.”
The vote of confidence buoyed me as I finished my preparations, until my brain snagged on that last detail. “You watch the challenges?”
“Not only is it great entertainment,” he said haughtily, “but do you really think I would let my partner go into hostile territory alone?”
“I wasn’t aware it was a spectator sport is all.”
With a grimace, I sliced open my palm and christened the circle with blood. I pushed magic into it while I murmured the most powerful ward I could set on the spot with what I had on hand. The power zipped in a loop, enclosing the grimoire, and the oily sensation from the black magic snuffed out with a hiss of displeasure.
“Well?” The room blurred around the edges, and I blinked to clear my vision. “Can you smell it?”
“No.” He slapped me on the back. “You never cease to amaze, Dollface.”
The weight of his hand was all it took to tip me forward into a fall that would have mashed my face into the newly warded grimoire had he not looped his thick arms around my waist then scooped me against him.
“I’m a wimp.” My head lolled onto his chest. “Total…wimp…”
“Hush.” He kissed my forehead. “You’re good people, Rue. You always have been.”
Pretty sure that’s what he said, anyway. I couldn’t hold my eyes open another second.
* * *