I felt my eyes widen. Heart’s blood wasn’t like nicking your palm and bleeding a little. “How did you do that?”
“I used a spell, of course. I couldn’t work it on myself so I had Olivia help me. She’s almost as strong as I am. I think when she’s older she might pass me. Well, she might have before.”
Before she’d had her powers drained by a crazy witch coven. They’d used Liv’s magic and hadn’t expected she would survive the experience. “I thought she was getting better.”
Sarah sighed. “Physically she is. Emotionally, not so much. I can’t imagine what it’s like for her. My magic has always been inside me. To have it stripped away, I can’t even think of how it must feel. Like she’s lost her identity.”
“They drained her. Can’t she rebuild it?” I’ll be honest I didn’t completely understand the problem.
“In theory she should. That’s not what’s happening. She can’t even do a simple spell, one that a skilled human could do. It’s like they left a void inside her,” Sarah explained. “I’m worried she’ll do something dangerous to try to get it back.”
Olivia Carey had always been one of the most sensible people I’d ever met. “Why would you say that?”
“I say it because I would,” Sarah replied. “We never know how far we’ll go until it happens, but I try to be honest with myself. I could see me doing some pretty dangerous shit to get my power back. I know what the world is like when you don’t have it. I can’t let my family be vulnerable. Any of us, and that’s why we have to figure out what that man is doing.”
“Do we risk talking to the coven about it?” I had kept my circle tight on this one.
Sarah shook her head. “Absolutely not. You have to understand that most of the witches on this plane grew up idolizing the idea of the man. He has groupies, Z. It’s weird and creepy. No. I think there’s only one real way to figure out what’s going on.”
“Hit me.” I needed something to do. Anything. I had to hope if I solved this problem, I got my husband back. Maybe even both of them. If I could prove to Daniel that Myrddin was up to no good, perhaps I could bridge the chasm that had opened between us.
She leaned forward slightly, and her voice went to a whisper. “I need access to his grimoire.”
A chill went through me and then a flare of excitement. A grimoire is a witch’s or wizard’s personal book of spells. It’s more than mere words, though. It’s the sum of a witch’s magical life. It’s everything she or he has learned.
Myrddin’s grimoire would be the most important magic text in existence. At least on this plane.
“It’s here?”
Sarah nodded. “When I get close to his apartment, I can feel it. He’s definitely got it warded because it’s nothing more than a shiver that goes up my spine, but something that powerful leaves a trace even when it’s warded. It’s why I need you to sneak me in. I would ask you to steal the sucker for me, but he would find it. It can’t be completely hidden.”
Except according to my father it could. My father had given me a gift at my coronation. One I’d never really thought about using. It was a bag of holding. Yes, roleplaying was invented by supes and they use a whole lot of our vernacular. This particular bag of holding was a medium-sized sack that looked an awful lot like a shopping tote, until the owner puts something magical in it and closes the top. The bag then disappears. It swallows up the magical item one wants to hide and holds it in a small pocket universe contained in the bag. Therefore no matter how powerful the object was, it couldn’t be detected because it wasn’t actually on the Earth plane.
“I think I might have a way to get you that book.”
There was a pleasant chiming through the speakers and Sarah stood. “That must be the academics. I’ll go let them in. And seriously, you can’t steal it. Don’t even start thinking that way.”
But I already was. My father had given me the bag in private. He’d taken me aside while everyone at the coronation party had been drinking and dancing and playing around with all those crowns. My dad took me aside and made me promise I would hide it