demon you look to, you will do much of it yourself.”
“Fine with me,” I said, wondering if he was lazy or simply evaluating me as a possible student. Not going to happen, Hodin. “Let’s do it.”
Hodin checked his tied-back sleeves. “Rachel? Invoke your circle.”
Formal much? Exhaling, I strengthened my grip on the nearest ley line to let more flow through me, and as I felt myself relax in its warmth, I moved a molecule-thin band of reality delineated by the salt into the ever-after. A sheet of gold swarmed up, streaked with red and hazed with only a whisper hint of black patina. My old smut was gone, used to balance out the new ever-after. My nearly pristine aura had gone a long way in convincing the witch’s coven of moral and ethical standards that I wasn’t a “bad” demon. Sheesh.
Hodin gestured to Bis, and the kid obediently poked at it, confirming that nothing had changed in the last twenty minutes and he couldn’t pass through it. Bis, having imprinted on my aura, was the only person able to move through my circle with impunity. At least, he had been until Newt had changed my aura. Any demon could jump me from place to place using the ley lines, but only Bis could teach me to do it by myself. I often thought Newt had been a little smug after shifting my soul resonance, fully knowing Bis wouldn’t be able to teach me how to jump the lines. Sort of like a nervous parent taking the car keys from a new driver.
To be honest, my aura-laced circle looked the same as it always did, but souls, and hence the auras that sprung from them, were like retina patterns, always the same, but forever changing.
Hodin took up his crucible and ceremonial knife, both black from use and time. “A crucible of blood, please,” he said, handing them to me. “From your Jupiter finger, if you will.”
Bis blanched to an ill-looking gray. “I didn’t know you’d have to cut yourself.”
Hodin wanted far more than the usual pricking of my finger, and I sighed as I set the crucible clicking upon the slate table. “Don’t worry about it,” I said. Breath held, I ran Hodin’s knife across my index finger. Immediately my shoulders eased. It was so sharp that I’d hardly felt it, and the bright red gush was startling. “Good?” I said as I massaged some out, and he nodded. “How much is that?” I asked, thumb pressed to the cut to get it to stop. “Five cc’s?”
Hodin wordlessly extended his palm, and I gratefully set my cut hand in it. His fingers closed about me, and I lost the tension in my shoulders as a healing ward coursed through me. “Thanks,” I said as I pulled away, and he inclined his head graciously. “But how much is in it?” I said, looking at the crucible. “I’m not going to bust my ass to learn this if you’re going to leave out key parts so you can be smug and pretend I don’t know what I’m doing when it doesn’t work.”
Hodin blinked, and Bis stifled a rocks-in-a-garbage-disposal giggle. “It doesn’t matter,” Hodin said. “The more you have, the more distinct the flames.”
“Oh.” It was one of those curses, and I frowned, not liking how loosey-goosey it was.
“Once you have your aura source, sketch the glyph to give structure to the energy.” Hodin picked up the stick of chalk he’d brought, hesitating before snapping it in two and handing me the larger piece. “Unlike most curses, this one begins with an unexploded pentacle.”
“Uh, I don’t know that one,” I said, and Hodin’s goat-slitted eyes flicked up.
“I didn’t expect you to. No one but Newt and I knew what they were good for.” Hodin’s dark features bunched. “The intent of most curses is to bring things together to create change. It requires an exploded pentagram, or pentacle rather, and since that’s all anyone uses, the exploded part is left off. We will be separating in this instance, so we begin with the older and rarely used closed pentagon from which the pentagram is formed.”
I leaned forward as Hodin sketched a pentagon with five lines radiating inward to a center point. My lips parted when I realized he never lifted the chalk or went over the same line twice. “How did you do that?” I said, and Hodin smiled. It looked rare, seeing the pleasure on his face that he’d done something to surprise me,