You Must Fall In Love

Chapter Forty-Five

"Oh wow," said Jen. "You actually did it. Go you."

Christine glared up at Jen, despite not intending to. She was certain that her eyes were about to fall out, and that her fingers would follow suit if she let go of the marker.

"It's been a week, I don't know, have I? Is this what a warding amulet is meant to do?"

The amulet — her amulet — looked like a bad copy of Lawrence's original, but at least it was a copy of Lawrence's original. The strokes were shaky, the composition was off, and the whole thing looked like amateur hour at the preschool art show, but if you looked hard enough, there was more than a semblance that could be drawn.

It was stuck on the wall, doing nothing.

"You're the expert," said Jen. "Do warding amulets usually do anything else?"

"I am not the expert," said Christine. "You're the expert. How do we test it?"

"It depends on what kind of things it wards," said Jen. "Let me get my knife."

Christine was too burnt out to muster any annoyance, so she got up, lay down and assumed the Position of Optimal Frustration. The annoyance came back.

"Okay," she said. "Whatever."

Jen came back toting her Apache ceremonial dagger, a ratty paperback and a cotton bud, in that order.

"I don't even want to know," said Christine to the ceiling.

"It's quite simple, really," said Jen. "To test out an unknown defensive spell, you just work out what kind of things it defends against. Throw the book at it."

Christine made a comment, but her words were swallowed by the book on her face.

"You aren't doing one of your smart-person metaphorisms, are you?"

"No," said Jen, "but when you find out what a metaphorism is, please let me know!"

Christine looked at the book. It was a pink chit of a paperback that screamed chick-lit.

"SHOCKED BY THE SECRETARY: A BILLIONAIRE PLAYBOY ROMANCE? I can't believe you read this stuff," she frowned.

"I can't believe it either," beamed Jen. "Throw the book."

Christine tossed it half-heartedly, still on her back. The book hit the wall and flopped right back onto the table, sending up a cloud of wadulets.

"Okay, so benign physical force is out," said Jen. "Let me try the knife."

"Please don't try the knife."

But Jen was already leaning over the table, sliver of sharpened flint in hand. She poked the amulet carefully with the tip, then poked with a bit more panache than Christine wanted.

"And that's dangerous physical force. Huh. That's really weird."

"Please don't break it!" whined Christine. "I spent so much time on it."

"It's not that, C. Lawrence said there were three kinds of amulet in his letter, right?"

"Warding, warning, curse deflection. I know."

"Right," said Jen. "But if the warding amulet doesn't ward against physical force, then what is it good for?"

"Maybe it just doesn't work," groaned Christine. "I probably messed up or something."

"Hold up," said Jen, "we have one last test. Believe in yourself a little bit more."

"I wouldn't believe in myself if you paid me to do it."