Sex, Lies & Magic

Eight

At this rate, we won't need to worry about Cael killing us, we'll do it for him.

Forcing myself to stand, I sluggishly slunk over to the counter and snatched up my cold coffee. After a few sips, my energy returned some and by the time I finished I bounced back from the near comatose state I'd been in since the spell ended.

Craven and Sam returned as I tossed my cup in the trash. Sam had coffees for everyone and Craven was eating another parfait full of fruit which was far more brightly colored than normal.

"What kind of crazy GMO fruit is that?" I asked squinting at the clear plastic cup piled high with blueberries, strawberries and pineapple with a dollop of yogurt between the layers.

"It's from faerie. That damn parfait of his was fifteen dollars." Sam grumbled as she handed out the cups. Taking her wand out of her sleeve she waved it at Milo and he sat up with a yelp.

"Ow." He rubbed his nipple through his shirt.

"Take your coffee and quit your whining." She held out his latte, he took it with a smirk.

"Thanks, Sam."

She ran her fingers back through his hair but didn't say anything.

"Are we doing the three others today?" I asked nursing my drink. Though I wasn't looking at him I could feel Craven's lilac gaze on me.

"Yeah, Craven's going to help with the rest of the potions."

"No offense, but when did you become a master at crafting potions?" I asked rubbing the hot cup between my fingers. There was something about feeling the warm paper against my palm that was supremely relaxing.

"Around the last time the Unseelie and Seelie had a flare up. Sidhe warriors make use of potions." He walked over to the table where Sam had everything laid out from before. After ghosting his pale hands over the ingredients, he sighed and turned. "I'll be back."

"And you're sure this won't kill us?" I lofted a brow.

"Relatively." He laughed and I gaped at him as he paused at the door. "I'm joking of course, it's perfectly safe." He left and Sam picked up the crystal from the futon and put it on the coffee table.

When Craven returned he had an arm full of ingredients and mixed up potions for each of us. He and Sam spoke a bit as he did but I tuned them out, they were talking shop and about tailoring the mixtures for each of us.

With the new tinctures—which didn't taste half as nasty as what Sam cooked up—trapping the other three essences wasn't half as exhausting as the first. Alex showed the others how to attune the crystals to their power while Sam placed the brightest one in the housing for the Power Reliquary and waved her wand over it. The dark metal of the apparatus curled around the crystal like vines locking it in place.

The moment it was put together I was drawn to the Reliquary. I snatched it up and was surprised by the heft of it. For some reason I expected it to be light, but it certainly wasn't—it weighed ten pounds easy. Turning the cold metal over in my hands, and gazing on the sharp inch long spikes that were going to go into my body.

I scrunched my nose.

"So now that we have all this stuff, when are we going to... you know use it?" I asked glancing over my friends.

"Soon." Sam grinned. "We're going to take the fight to that son of a bitch."

"How?"

"We kidnap Cael and torture him until he agrees to back the fuck off." The way Sam said it you'd have thought it was the most logical option. However, being the only one who'd had an actual run in with Prince Cael I didn't think it was the best option by far.