Nightfall Curse

chapter 15🔞

Felix jumped out of the car before it had fully come to a stop in front of Chan’s house, bounding up the porch stairs to the front door, raising his hand to knock. Chan beat him to it, flinging the door open and looking unusually harried.

Felix paused and stumbled back a step. “Is he-”

“Yeah,” Chan answered. “Be ready. It’s bad.”

The angel barely heard him as he ran past to the basement and pounded on the large metal door to the panic room. “Hyunjin!” he called. “Hyunjin, answer me!” No sound came from within. He didn’t know what condition he’d find the hunter in, and a part of his rational mind warned him that he should probably get the details from Chan first, but it was Hyunjin in there, and he needed Felix. They’d been apart for too damn long.

Before his fingers could close around the locking mechanism, a hand on his arm jerked him back. Felix swung around to find himself glaring at Chan. The older man shook his head pointedly. “If you’d let me finish, you’d know we gotta talk before you go in there all half-cocked, pardon the pun. Don’t worry about Hyunjin. He’s sleeping it off right now.”

Legs like lead, Felix turned from the door, every part of his body protesting the movement away. Chan took note as well, adjusting his grip tighter. “Felix.”

The angel didn’t miss the sharpness in Chan’s tone. “I understand,” he said, voice twisted with conflict. “Forgive me. It’s difficult.”

“I get that,” Chan assured him, tugging him back up the stairs. “Trust me, I do. Hyunjin was a wreck when he got here. Nothing I could really do but knock him out until the rest of you got here.”

“Probably wise,” Felix agreed at length, joining Minho and Jisung in the library. “We can build the spell here with the necessary wards.” He glanced over at Chan. “I’m sure that you have many of the reagents we might require if we run out of our stock.”

Chan crossed his arms over his chest, nodding shortly. “‘Course, I do. But I ain’t doing nothing until I’m convinced we ain’t gonna make it all worse.”

Minho jumped in to explain that the spells were purely of the cleansing variety. That they couldn’t hurt Hyunjin, and would only fail to do anything, at worst. He handed the research over and Chan studied the papers critically. He read them over twice until he understood them completely. “Says here we need a full moon. That’s tomorrow night.”

“Plenty of time to get it set up,” Jisung confirmed. “So, what do you think?”

Chan huffed and handed the papers back to Minho before turning around to get them all a round of beers. Once handed out, and the small group folded into chairs around the small room, he said, “I think you did your research as best you could.” He tipped his beer back to take a long swallow. “Your fancy computer program is kinda impressive. Still. We don’t know what the hell this spell is actually gonna do, and it ain’t like we wanna deal with a witch to get the details. So I say we ward this place better than it’s ever been and get it all over with. Felix, you sure this thing’ll work?”

“I can’t say for certain,” Felix admitted. “However, the base of the spell is just as Minho said; a typical cleansing spell. Nothing in the composition should harm Hyunjin or whoever casts the spell. We won’t really know until we try.”

“‘Least you’re being honest,” Chan muttered. “Fine. I got all the supplies. Let’s get to warding.”

Despite the extra preparations, Felix reminded them that the nature of a low-level spell such as the one they were performing would hardly draw attention from any unsavory guests. Cleansing spells were common, practically mundane. So much so that hardly anyone with any magical inclination at all would even feel a twinge from it. That eased Minho’s mind to some degree, but Chan still insisted on the heightened warding against at least the usual suspects who tended to hunt the team as often as the team hunted them. Felix couldn’t argue with that.