“It’s not a bad plan,” Luc said. “I mean, in my opinion. Lots of parts.”
“Lots of places for things to go wrong,” Catcher agreed.
“Where can we do this?” Ethan asked.
“Hallowed ground,” Seth said. “It has to be.”
Paige nodded. “If you’re messing with dark magic, you want to stick to hallowed ground. The goal is to make this better—not worse.”
“We’d need a church?” Ethan asked.
“Not necessarily,” Paige said. “Any land that’s been blessed or purified would work.”
“How do we locate suitable property?” Ethan asked.
“I can ask Gabriel,” Jeff suggested.
“Gabriel?” Ethan asked.
“We have bonds with the land,” he said. “If anyone would know it, he would.”
“Gabe may not want us summoning Dominic on ground he’s decided is blessed,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but I don’t think you’ll find a pastor in Chicago who’s crazy about it, either.”
Jeff had a point.
Ethan nodded. “Shifters it is. Jeff, please make the call and see if he has time to talk or survey or whatever else it will take.” He looked at Seth and Paige. “Make sure we have what we need to make the magic work. If you need materials, have Helen order them, and get double sets of anything we might need.”
“Eye of newt and toe of frog?” Mallory asked.
“ ‘Double double toil and trouble,’ ” Ethan said, quoting Shakespeare’s Macbeth. “Just get it done. Let’s meet back here in an hour.”
I murmured the rest of the witches’ song. “ ‘Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon’s blood—’ ”
Mallory’s voice echoed through the phone. “ ‘And then the charm is firm and good.’ ”
An ominous chill ran through me. But it was too late to turn back now.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE FIRM AND GOOD CHARM
I spent the first bit of the hour in my room, oiling and cleaning my blade, ensuring it was as well prepared as I could make it, and then in the training room, slinging and slicing the katana around to limber up my body and my mind.
Maybe the fight would come tonight. Maybe it would come tomorrow. Crises didn’t work on predictable timetables. If you had most of your pieces in place when the need arose, you were doing well, by my account.
I tried to clear my mind of the importance of what I had to do, the battle I had to wage. Worrying about the impact of the outcome wasn’t going to do anything but make me more afraid. More nervous.
I tried to focus on my body, my movements, the dance of the fight and the rhythm of it, just as Catcher and Ethan had taught me.
It was hard.
A knock at the door threw me off balance, and I landed a move in an ungainly position. I righted myself just as the door opened.
Malik walked in.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hello.” He closed the door behind him and walked inside. “You’re practicing?”
“I guess. More like working off nerves.”
“You can do this,” he said.
I nodded. There was much to be said for Malik’s quiet confidence, but my crisis of confidence was bigger than any one vampire.
“I know Catcher and Ethan focus on technique,” he said. “But don’t be afraid to trust your instincts. Let the sword be an extension of you, not just something you wield.”
I nodded. “I appreciate that. Got anything else?”
Malik chuckled and looked over the walls of the training room. “Most of these weapons were his, you know.”
I assumed he meant Ethan. “I didn’t,” I said, following his gaze. The paneled walls were periodically decorated with antique weapons: pikes, shields, swords, and the like.
“They are symbols of his victories. Of the battles he won and lost. Not always perfectly. Not always with rigorous technique. But always with heart.”
He looked back at me. “There are few things in the world that he loves more than this House, Merit. Possibly only one.”
At the knowing gaze in his eyes, my cheeks flushed.
“And in all the world, he entrusted one girl, one scholar, with the right to defend it.”
I knew he meant it as a compliment, but it felt like a burden. “That’s a lot of pressure.”
“Not pressure to win,” he said. “Pressure to try. Pressure to push through pain and fear and to do the thing even if you don’t want to do it. He did not trust you with this task because you guarantee him a victory; he trusts you with this task because he believes you will give everything you have to the effort. It is the heart, Merit, not the sword, that rules the day. Remember that,