Just Like Fire | J. Saltzman - Legacies [2]

E I G H T E E N

Josie sits in the library with open books surrounding her: ancient spells she has no business diving into stare up at her. Shivers run down her spine as she reads, thoughts of the dark hourglass clouding her mind.

"What's that?" Josie looks up as Dorian frowns at the books.

Throwing her arms over the spells, she clears her throat. "Um, an assignment Clarke had me working on when he was pretending to be Headmaster Vardemus."

Dorian shrugs. "Well, Clarke's dead, so I'm pretty sure you don't have to turn that in."

"I was actually just working on getting rid of it. So, should be easy."

He arches an eyebrow. "Magic nullification?" He asks. "Is this about the assignment or about the elijun bond?"

Her heart beats faster against her chest. "You think a magic nullification spell would work on the bond?"

"No, and that's why I'm worried that you're looking into it." He sighs and shakes his head. "You would take away your magic, Josie, but both you and Stella would still have a bond. And, even then, we don't know how the bond will react to an outside force. It could kill you both." She looks down at the pages and clenches her jaw. "That's beside the point—these are advanced chain spells. You would need another witch. What kind of assignment was it?"

Suddenly, Josie sits up a little straighter and glances over her shoulder. "I can help," Stella says sheepishly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but we'd definitely be more powerful together. Might be safer. It could be good practice for control."

Dorian looks between the two girls before he holds his hands up in surrender. "Have fun, you two. Don't do something you'll regret."

"Can't promise you that," Stella calls after him and shakes her head when he leaves. "So, you wanna tell me what you're doing?"

Josie rolls her eyes. "Thank you for the assist, but I can handle it—"

Stella crosses her arms, stepping in Josie's way before the siphoner can walk away. "You gonna make me say it, or are you gonna tell me?" Josie remains silent. "Lizzie told me about the hourglass. She thought Hope could help, but I'm the one with the Original Alpha's grimoire."

Shifting her weight, Josie asks, "How?"

"My aunt's friend Vincent told me a story about Mora Miseriums that hold the effects of black magic, and how dangerous they can be when they break. We can't nullify the black magic inside, but we can put a protective barrier around the outside." Digging into her pocket, Stella smirks as she pulls out a spell. "I happen to know a spell for that."

"You're kind of a life-saver, you know that?" Josie chuckles as Stella links their arms.

"I've been told that once or twice," Stella replies as the two walk through the halls. Stella tightens her grip on Josie with each lingering gaze, especially when Alyssa catches them heading up to the rooms. "Do you think it'd be bad if I just moved in with Hope?" She mutters as they get to the twins' room. "I think Alyssa might slit my throat in my sleep."

"She's not that bad," Josie says, locking the door behind them. "I could give her a bob, if you like."

"Didn't you do that to Penelope?" Stella asks, despite the sudden tense of her muscles. "And didn't she look pretty good with the bob?"

Josie shrugs. "Yeah, but Alyssa can't pull it off. She'd rather go bald than do the bob. She told me once." With a sigh, Josie pulls open a drawer. "Fair warning, I really don't like this thing."

Stella looks over her shoulder and out the window as Josie sets the covered hourglass on the ground. When Stella meets Josie's gaze, the siphoner pulls the cloth off of the object. "Holy shit," Stella breathes, her eyes moving over every inch of the hourglass: darkness beats inside the glass while metal twists along the sides. "So, this is how Clarke got to me," she says as she pulls a bag of salt out of her bag. "This is the darkness from both of us, isn't it?"