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"Anyway, choose carefully, because you’ll be stuck"

He pondered his options "We don’t have a lot of tiive you two hours How’s that? Give ive you six"

"That seems like a lot for such a short a this for, like, a century I’ainst? Mind control? Ugliness? Pain? Death? Anything you can think of, they can cast a spell for Iive you a ward to protect your wards, so that they can’t be tampered with, well, unless they…never uess that means we only have time for five others"

"Wait Go back to that never hed "Wards can be closed with ates their power"

Aden arched a brow Why would soate one? "Is there a ward that will keep me alive forever?"

"Yes and no That’s a weird one, and one we don’t really have tiive you a ward that will protect you froered long after the words were spoken

"Can you protect Mary Ann and Victoria with such a ward?" Victoria had already told hiet a second opinion

"No I could tattoo the ward on them, but the moment I finished, that ould crackle and burn away, rendering it useless since they’ve already been bespelled"

Too bad "Okay, then, I’ll give you an hour to work on et three wards Then I want you to ward Mary Ann against some stuff"

"Tattoos? I don’t know about that," Mary Ann said, nervously shaking her head "My dad would kill me"

No one pointed out the obvious You had to be alive to be killed

Riley nodded again, for Aden’s benefit She needed to be warded, therefore she would be warded End of story It would be one less worry for all of them She’d realize that and cave, Aden was sure of it

Riley held up a silver gunlike device "So Besides the ward to protect your wards, what tould you like, Majesty?"

"One against a death spell, like you said" No question And he was teainst hate What if they bespelled hiht he hated these friends of his? What if they cast a rage spell, and he injured his friends in a fit of violence? But in the end, he said, "Protect my mind"

"Good We’ll start with that one So far, the witches have wanted you alive If they were to capture you, they’d probably try to scrub your head for infor like that Now, take off your shirt"

With a quick look to Victoria--she atching hiot to work

There was a constant sting, but nothing Aden couldn’t handle In fact, he could have taken a nap And did He closed his eyes, , until he heard Riley curse under his breath

Aden blinked his eyes open, suddenly noting the burning in his chest and the scent of sizzling flesh that saturated the air He looked down There was a tattoo on his chest, but lightning snapped over its surface, wiping away the color, causing stearavely "Why the hell didn’t you tell me?"

What? "I haven’t Believelike that"

"Well, the only other thing that would cause this kind of reaction is if you have a ward that preventsyou"

"I think I’d re sense in the back of histhat I’d encountered static in Dr Hennessy’sto enter his head"

"Memory problems, huh?" Riley frowned, set the equipment aside and stood "Take off your clothes All of them"

He choked on his own breath "Excusewas another

"You heard iving everyone a peep show, Julian sputtered

Nothing wrong with showing a little skin, Caleb said

"I think I would have noticed--"