my muscles wind into knots. “How do I know you’re not marked?”
She rolls her sleeves up then sweeps her hair to the side and shows me her shoulders and neck.
Satisfied, I lean against the doorway. “You think you can remove the mark, then?”
“If you can remember how Aislin removed the mark,” Adessa says, twisting a pendant around her neck.
“I think I can.”
“Tell me, then. And try to remember every little detail.”
After we sit down on the velvet sofa in the living room attached to the store, I get really fidgety. “Aislin could come back any minute,” I warn. “We should probably go somewhere else and talk about this.”
“If we go somewhere else, we’ll have to track Aislin down again.” She stretches her hand toward the ceiling. “Me tenebris et tueri nos.” A dark cloud funnels from her hand. “There, that’ll keep her away for a bit.” She dusts her hands off. “Now go ahead and explain the spell to me.”
I feel the slightest bit better. “Well, the first thing she did is go to the graveyard to summon some kind of witch spirit to give her more power. Then she created the spell itself. First, she cuts into the middle of the mark so blood drips out.”
“To bleed out the evil.” Adessa nods her head. “That makes sense.”
“Then she inserts some kind of potion—I think she called it Vitis . . . vinifera—which is supposed to free them from the evil connection. Then the last thing she does is chant some sort of spell . . . liberare vos . . . ligaveris, I think.”
Adessa springs to her feet and lifts open the top of the apothecary table. Inside are bags filled with various kinds of herbs. She takes one out and shuts the lid.
“Does this look like what she used?” she asks, holding a bag of crushed green leaves in front of my face.
“I think so.” I squint at the bag. “But it doesn’t matter if you have all the stuff. You need the power of that ghost flame woman.”
Adessa smiles warmly. “Has Laylen ever told you anything about me?”
“Um . . . a little.”
“Well, did he ever mention how old I am?”
I shake my head, remembering how pissed off Sophia used to get when someone assumed her age.
My heart suddenly squeezes in my chest as I remember all the soulless years I spent with Sophia and how confused I felt when Aislin broke the news to me that Sophia and Marco might be dead. Aislin discovered that information when she was trying to locate Keepers with a Tracker Spell; only, the spell informed her they no longer existed, which more than likely means they’re dead.
“I’m two-hundred fifty-eight,” Adessa sates proudly. “And do you know how I’ve lived this long?” She stands up with her shoulders squared and her chin elevated. “Because I’m that powerful.”
Without warning, she spans her hands out to her sides and tips her head back. “Isabella, come to me!”
A roaring fire ignites in the middle of the room, and a flaming woman materializes in the center of the flames. She lets out a deafening wail, and I cover my ears as Adessa chants under her breath, settling the fire woman down.
“You’ve been hiding something from me, Isabella,” Adessa says sternly. “Is there something you’d like to tell me?”
The fire woman hisses at Adessa, blowing smoke into her face.
“Don’t take that attitude with me,” Adessa says. “You’ve been lying to me for a very long time.”
The flame woman tips her head back and screeches again.
“Stop being a pain in the ass and hand it over.” Adessa sticks out her hand and waits.
The fire woman huffs. Then, with a scowl, she blows a breath of smoke into Adessa’s palm.
“Go now.” Adessa flexes her fingers.
When the fire woman dissipates, Adessa turns to me, grinning. “Now that I’ve taken care of that, I think I can make the spell work, but I’m going to need your help with something first. It’s very dangerous, but very important to me. I’m going to be straightforward with you, Gemma. What we’re about to do is very risky.”
I look down at my stomach, remembering what Alex said, that I needed to take care of myself.
“I’m not sure I can.”
Adessa tracks my gaze, and her brows shoot up in surprise. “You’re with child?”
I nervously nod. “I think so.”
She considers something before stepping forward and reaching for my belly. “May I?” she asks and I nod. She gently places her hand on my belly, and