The blade of his scythe started glowing red. “Oh shit.”
“An angel’s feather is easy to get,” Seth said. He gave Davien one of his signature smirks. “You can ask Domina, right? She’d do anything for you.”
“Fuck off, Khepri.”
Seth ignored him. “The blood of a revenant. You can ask your cousin.”
“That’s certainly not the problem.”
“Soil from their universe,” Adrian said, shaking his head gently. “Yolanda, you can’t go there again.”
“I have to. That’s not the problem, either. I can get some soil. Blood from a Great Old One. From Yig, in this case. Now that… that I don’t know how to get.”
“I’ll get it for you,” Adrian said.
I turned to him, inevitably pushing Davien aside. “How?”
The Unseelie removed his whip from his belt. He held the thong coil with one hand while he squeezed the handle with the other. He released it, pulled his arm back, and cracked it in the air. The sharp echo traveled over the cliffs and the ocean. The Hydra’s Tail was at least sixteen feet long. I had the feeling it could extend as much as its master wanted it to extend.
“With the Hydra. The fall must lick the monster once to draw blood.”
“Yig lives in a well! How are you going to…”
“Don’t worry about it,” he cut me off. “I got this. I got this for you.”
“Well, if this is all, I’ll be going now. Duty calls,” Merrit said as he walked toward the edge of the cliff. Before he teleported away, he threw over his shoulder. “Call us when you have the stuff.” He vanished.
“I should go, too,” Klaus said. “You can do this, Yoli. I know you. You’re just as stubborn as Mila.” He chuckled. “It runs in the family, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. The truth was that I couldn’t focus anymore. Klaus teleported away, followed by the last three mages. I’d thought this would be easy. I’d thought I had everything I needed – the date when it had to happen, and the five descendants who could do it. The news about the five needed ingredients had crushed me. And now Adrian was saying he wanted to confront Yig and get its blood.
“Come on, Mistress,” Corri said. She jumped off my shoulder, her wings buzzing incessantly. “Let’s get you inside.”
I nodded again. Davien took my arm and gently led me toward the door to the Holy Chapel. It had started snowing, and Headmaster Colin stayed behind. Corri used her magic to push the door open. Seth took my other hand and pressed it to his lips.
“You’re not alone,” he said. “We’ll help. I’m glad you told us.”
“Yeah,” Davien chuckled. “So, you trust us after all.”
“I do,” I whispered.
Adrian was one step behind us. The creak of the door as he closed it drew my attention to him. I turned to fix him with a gaze.
“I trust you.”
It was warm inside. It was late, I was exhausted, and all I wanted was to teleport to my room, crawl into bed, and sleep until I could sleep no more.
“Alright, so… See you tomorrow?”
“Wait.” Seth pulled me by the hand. He raised it to his lips once more, and I thought he was going to kiss my knuckles again. I was about to ask him how the hell he’d turned into a gentleman all of a sudden, when he… sniffed the back of my hand. “I felt it outside, but there were so many scents brought by the wind that I couldn’t be sure.”
“What are you doing?” I complained. He was smelling my palm now, then he moved to my wrist. “Come on, this is creepy.”
I looked at Davien for help, but he’d stepped aside and was studying me with furrowed brows.
“What?” I asked him. “What’s going on?”
“Something has changed,” he said in a mysterious tone.
Adrian stepped closer, but he seemed to be just as lost as I was. If anything, he was annoyed that Seth was sniffing me so shamelessly.
“Your pheromones have changed,” Seth concluded as he finally let go of my hand. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked at me with a sheepish smile on his lips. “I’m a sphinx, Yoli. A shifter. My sense of smell is infallible. You smell different, and I can only think of one possibility.”
I rolled my eyes. “So maybe I’m on my period.”
“Are you?”
“N-no.” I blushed.
Now Corri was sniffing me like mad. She was flying around my head, pulling at my hair and sniffing it loudly.
“I don’t smell anything,” she declared, frustrated.
“Anyway, I know how