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I checked the clock over the door I had half an hour before opening It o back upstairs" I was running, taking the stairs to h me From below I heard Rupert call a muffled "But Thorn, we - " as I slaainst the door, taking in the apart, a basso tone in my ears This was dumb I didn&039;t even knohether I could actually do it I ht expose myself, but I had to try, didn&039;t I? If I could find and rescue Lucas, then no seraph would have to come to Mineral City and intervene And find rabbing candles and the bag of coarse salt Not sea salt, but salt round Salt of the earth, of power I could draw upon I dropped thee of the dark turquoise tile floor in the kitchen area, added stones fro theate, others Frorindstone, not by river water and nature

I added some jewelry imbued isdom and sacrifice: a jade netsuke on a silver chain, three antique crucifixes, two hung with the Christ in agony, a free-form fire opal wrapped in silver wire, and my own half-drained, blackened-steel-mail amulet necklace, which I removed from around my waist On the necklace were stones keyed to reenery from a heavy silver bowl; flowers and leaves scrolled around the rio but never used for neo, symbol of co things, rubies and eainst the cabinets, exposing the floor The tiles were poured stoneware from clay collected in Mexico, near a battlefield where seraphs, hulaze was coed toup the bag of unused salt, I poured a heavy ring in a circle six feet in dia a foot of space open for me to enter

I positioned candles around the outside of the ring, dithering about the number until I settled on just three There was both power and risk in numbers If a nearby seraph found me, then he found me I filled the bowl at the sink and set it in the exact center of the salt ring, springwater sloshing gently I setblock, to the side of the stones Lastly, I pulled the Book of Workings fro the incantation I needed in the index and placing the open book on the floor by the bowl Three e to its top

I sat within the circle, at the open space in the salt ring, crossed i fashion, and closed my eyes Spine erect, I blew out a tension-filled breath and drew in a calain Serenity fluttered just out of reach, distanced by fear I didn&039;t knohat I was doing

I&039;d been re before I would have learned how to do this I knew the theory I kneas supposed to be done But I&039;d never practiced a skill I thought I&039;d never need

I breathed, calm just beyond my reach The silence of the loft settled about me A brittle tranquility finally rested on my shoulders My breath slaentle radiance, the brighter glow of s and arht

The loft pulsed with power, a place of neoe safety I had created in the humans&039; world Stones were everywhere, at bath and bed and gas fireplaces, everyand doorway, the floor Froy, subtle harreat huyMage-sight saw that energy in everything

As I closed the circle with two handfuls of salt, power seizedof tih me, a drone, an echo of the first Word ever spoken The first Word of Creation The reverberation was captured in the core of the earth forpower of stone and mineral, the destructive potency of liquid rock and heat I treh my bones and pulsed into th, the force, the raw, ragingy, mine to use

Power The need for it, the lust for it, rose in me Waves of lava bowed my spine, clawed my hands into weapons I can take what I want I was the strength of the earth, the ht of the core, the power of its creation A scream built deep in my chest

Dis dewithin ht?

With a single motion, I slid the necklace of amulets over my head The screa with freedom from the power crave A breath that refreshed and satiated, yet ached deep in s I could breathe; I could think I returned to low to the room, but now the power appeared distilled and clarified to e-eye A sharper vision to remind me that I had stepped close to the abyss, stared into its depths, and conquered s was constructed of blackberry ink on handes contained little lu of power At the top of the page ritten in ancient calligraphy, "Scrying for a Hu soely, the directions were in the final third of the book, the section dedicated to warfare, and required e-blood and three candles

I studied the recipe and ement for the invocation Lucas was taken with violence and blood Those facts led the way I hung the crucifixes around my neck, in contact with my amulets, and took the fire opal pendant inwith each other A soft resonance of energy gathered each time stone met stone, as crystalline matrix touched matrix

I swiveled on ht hand and slipped the wedding ring onto er I stared into the water and ih me, unheeded ested in er of blood find hier of blood find hier of blood find hi shocked throughus word again" A trail of blood slid downcrimson pool

"Then shalt inquire, and ently" I dropped the netsuke and a them on their chains fro certain, that such an aboerous part, the creative words I tossed into theof his blood That ye seek Lucas Stanhope to save hier and placed the gold circle into y that roared through me in a heavy wave "Find old band into the water Three drops of blood followed, soft, distinct splats Three candles, three stones, three drops of blood Three and three and three My blood swirled into the charged water "Show , as it spun lower "Show me Lucas" My blood touched the stones in the bottom The water stilled, darkened Power rose from the earth My blood thrummed in y from the depths of the land They heated A thin er, I saw Lucas, his face, full of love and tenderness The vision dissipated in a surge ofwhiteness a for, his beautiful blue eyes blazing with passion Lips swollen with kisses, his body full with his need He held out his arer A woauzy thing that slipped froh lide, his face between her breasts Her head fell back and Jane Hilton laughed low, the sound lost beneath the resonance of energy hu in my mind

The power of truth steamed up from the water The certainty of history

A tear slid down iven himself to me And then he had slept with that woman Slept with Jane Hilton whilehistory Two histories One of ether Then this one of Lucas&039; betrayal Theas I picked it up had been of co I had miscalculated I had performed a truth vision

I blew on the steam, blinked away the vision, and wiped erous indeed, but not as I ht have expected

Blood was still liquid onthree more stones from the pile, I placed them in the water, which had evaporated in the steah space When the water settled, I plungedon the stones at the bottorace in your eyes," I quoted fro to banish thethe Old Testa verses that seehtly slurred "Can we find such a one as this is? Thou shalt find Lucas if thou seek him Come and I will show you thethe back of a man&039;s head He was bent over a bowl of oat, curled over his collar He sat up, spoon bouncing into the boithout a clatter Thaddeus Bartholo in every patron and server, wary, on alert But he saw nothing suspicious

Heat sparked in the pit of e of Thaddeus, naked on my bed, took shape inwith a different kind of power A look of perplexity crossed his face, followed by a deeper kind of shock His pupils widened He half stood The one

The water was glowing to er hot My hand rested in the water on top of six stones An i me an imperfect vision Or had it? Hadn&039;t I asked to be shown themy hand from the ater, I dried it on my scarf and looked at the clock I was late I broke the salt circle, releasing all the stored power, returning the loft to itswith it I du it into a separate plastic bag, which I labeled truth/lust I placed the pile of stones at the fireplace where they belonged, heated stones for ware equip up last night&039;s used salt froer, knowing scar tissue would pucker it slightly, a re my scarf to hide the makeup smear I could wash out later I damped my skin from pearly to human, and freshened my makeup, all in three and a half minutes I was al And I kneas Lolo

With trepidation I picked it up "Good ?" the Cajun woed

"Fool of your blood?" I felt my own blood drain to my feet

"Oui! Le fol! 0, c&039;est tous les soirs, moi, je lish, Lolo," I interrupted "I can&039;t - "

"You url! De police, dey trouble Les seraphs, dey trouble what to coer come, and you make blood sacrifice on de full moon, screa, you"

My pulse pounded in otten that, for a stone lory resulted in h I sat slowly,the Last War, the full and new ic, hu D, had done blood sacrifice of innocents and attacked seraphs, wounding many to the point of death Even now, seraphs re for a resurgence of blood sacrifice and blackoutside of protective Enclave, hiding in plain sight, had just spilled my own blood in the full moon Glory and infaic by accident? Doesn&039;t intent have to be part of the ritual? Or is spilling blood enough?

"I h I fear I fear fo&039;you"

"I&039;ll be careful, Lolo"

The call was disconnected without good-byes, as always, and I slowly replaced the receiver What had I done?

"Did you see?" Ciana burst through the door of the shop and sla that crushed ot kidnapped" The words caht my balance

My heart clenched and I wrapped her in my arms "I saw It ful But I&039;m here, darlin&039;" What could I say? Should I lie and tell her everything would be all right? It ot Lucas back He had been injured,him

"He&039;s dead, isn&039;t he?" she asked, her tone wounded, perfumed with fear

"Oh, Ciana, no, I hope not" I rocked her, tears gathering inabout it After school, I&039; to God the Victorious to save hihtened hts overlapped about Lolo&039;s warning, about h Host, about huer heard, or that the Most High ainst the earth and the life he created And the secret blaspheht not exist, er I was already in, and that I shouldn&039;t call attention toto kirk too often or too seldohcould stop o with you If Maria doesn&039;t mind"

"Mama thinks it&039;s funny," Ciana whispered intothe TV when daddy falls And on top of that, she calledRupert on the far side of the store watching us, his eyes filling with tears Rupert loved kids, and Ciana especially He worried because she was being raised in loveless, chaotic, emotionally tumultuous homes, by parents who lived apart and hated each other He held up aarea "Well, that sucks Habbiel&039;s pearly toes," I said to Ciana, nodding at Rupert Of course ould part with a s of the shop&039;s fantastically expensive, imported chocolate "I&039;m sorry, darlin&039;"

Ciana sobbed and hiccuped into my clothes

"Come on" I pulled her toward the set soh for school And I&039;ll be here at five for the trip to the kirk," I pro in my heart

"Tell Thorn why Maria called you a liar," Rupert said softly

"You won&039;t laugh, will you?" Ciana looked up at me, her dark hair mussed, her blue eyes - so like Lucas&039; - ith tears She sat in -covered knees and leather shoes sticking out beneath her school uniforent to lie to successfully My dread grew

"Never," I said, stirring cocoa and sugar into the stea milk

Her face a careful blank, Ciana said, "I saw a devil-spawn yesterday"

I stopped stirring the cocoa, swirls of clu as the milk whirled