Tripping Magic

3.3

Ian led us down a long hallway towards the back of the house.

“Have a little faith.” Alice pleaded as she followed.

He slowed and turned before an intent stare hardened his features. After a moment, she scoffed, a scowl pinching the corners of her lips.

“That is not—”

Reaching out, he slipped a hand beneath her chin and tilted it, aligning her eyes with his. Friendly, but intimate, the gesture surprised me. Alice’s expression softened the longer Ian held her.

“Fine.” She replied to the mental conversation. “Whatever.”

His finger smoothed across her jaw before he let go to continue leading us to the room at the end. We filtered in behind as he opened the door, the air stale in the vacant space. Thick curtains covered the single window inside, but despite the lack of illumination, something shimmered where it sat propped in a corner. Ian reached out to pull a velvet drape off of a tall standing mirror.

The glass bathed us in pale green light. Decorated with delicate carvings of animals and imagery that changed between glances, the frame was ancient ashwood. Energy swirled from the wood into the milky surface of the mirror and back again. Much like Ian’s essence, it was archaic and heady, but heavy as the Earth itself.

“I can only take one of you.” He said, his long fingers caressing the frame. It pulsed at his touch. “Alex?”

Still mesmerized by the mirror and slow on the uptake, I started at the sound of my name. “Yes?”

“Do you want to go?”

I blinked at him. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

“All right. May I have the grimbones?”

I dug the pouch out of the lock box. Mira glanced at me, an eyebrow arching high.

“A cloak spell?”

“Yes.” I handed it to Ian and set the box on the floor.

He unraveled the cord and poured the teeth into his broad palm. Tumbling them over, he sorted through each tooth, rubbing them between his fingertips.

Ian leveled a stare at me, his brow furrowing as he worked through the teeth. “You sure you wish to do this? These are foul, even by human standards.”

“Yes.” I took a breath. Ian’s disgust didn’t instill confidence. “I need to know.”

He picked out one tooth before pouring the rest back into the pouch. He passed it to me and I returned it to the chest. “Last thing — which should have been the first thing, now that I think about it.” He pondered his words for a moment longer and shrugged. “You’ll need an anchor. Something or someone one to tie you here.”

“How about both?” Mira asked before I had a chance to open my mouth. She regarded me as she unlatched a bracelet from her wrist, caution in her expression. “Unless—”

“No, that’s what I’d like.” I squeezed her arm.

Clasping the band of carved beads between her hands, Mira held it close to her mouth, thumbs pressing against her lips. “Put your hands around mine.”

I complied, folding my hands over hers. She closed her eyes, internalizing the incantation she worked. Energy began to flow in a circle beneath my hands, moving between hers through the beads. Sympathetic to the movement and the harmonics, my own essence slipped unhindered into Mira’s as it traced by. Startled at the sensation, her eyes flashed open wide.

“Go on,” I whispered through a breath, nudging the flow. Her essence swirled in a grander pattern as she closed her eyes again, magic rising to intertwine with mine. Pure and electric, it cascaded, surging into and extracting from my hands in a push pull like an imbue spell. It caressed and tingled, quickening my breath as a shiver rolled down my spine. A flush rose to her face as I slipped into stream and helped it move, her arousal matching mine. It was impossible to deny that reaction to the sensation.