Free Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton Page B

had been sought for a great protection charm, that a woman was being beaten by her husband, and her grandmother had come begging. I held my cat, which I’d named Serenity, and petted her tawny fur while Philip constructed a doll with the wax and sticks. He pushed in eyes and cut a gash for a leering grin. He tied a ribbon around the doll’s neck and pressed the hair into its head
.
    “How did this grandmother know to come here?” I asked
.
    Philip was frowning, rather fiercely, I recall. He did not like this kind of work. “The Deacon knew her, and he performed these sorts of charms for the whole of the lower side and much of the towns and villages beyond. She thought perhaps I followed his magic. And she was correct, of course.”
    I still do not know what happened to this Deacon, the one who taught Philip these bloody ways. Some days I want to meet him, other days I fear it. “Why don’t you make charms like this more often?”
    “It is filthy work, little sprite, and people will ask things I am not willing to give. Charms for healing and life, but also curses and death—like this one. And the more who know what we do, the less able I will be to experiment.” He set the doll into the circle and contemplated it quietly
.
    “But you’re helping some poor woman.”
    “At a cost, darling.”
    “To her husband? He deserves it, if he’s beating her.” I said it rather harshly, I am certain, and Philip snapped his head up to frown at me
.
    “To all of us.” He held out his hands for Serenity
.
    And then I knew. “What? No!” I held her against my chest, and she squeaked and pressed at me with her paws
.
    “They were brought here for this very reason, Josephine. Give it to me.”
    “But a cat! You said our blood is special, that it holds the power. If other human blood cannot quicken the charms, why a cat’s?”
    Philip came around the table to me, slowly and steadily. I could not move. “Some animals,” he said quietly, “share our powerful blood. The ones you would expect. Cats. Crows. Some dogs. Rats. They make strong familiars, though they must give their lifeblood to the magic, not a mere drop.”
    I was still shaking my head. “Just prick your finger, Philip.”
    “I won’t put my blood into a charm like this, nor yours. Not when it could be used against us.”
    “Against us?”
    “Others know the cunning ways. And even if their blood is not special, with ours they could curse us, turn the doll against us, or any number of other things.”
    Serenity shoved her head into my chin. I felt tears in my eyes. I feel them again now
.
    He cornered me and said, “This is not a game. You take it all too lightly. You must understand the sacrifices. The balance that must be kept.”
    And I understood that he’d given me the kittens to care for with this very thing in mind. My fingers clutched at Serenity, but Philip took her, and killed her on his laboratory table. I remember how her blood shone on the doll’s face
.
    It was the first night since coming to live with him that I did not read with him or even speak to him before retiring to my room in order to write this
.
    Now I hear them, the rest of the kittens, crying for me to feed them. I want to press their heads under the bathtub water.

NICHOLAS
    For better or worse, tonight I was going to make my mark on the Yaleylah High School drama club and all its various hangers-on.
    Too bad I had to get a ride to the party with my evil stepmother.
    The left rear tire on the Sebring was flat. Punctured by some random piece of gravel or road crap that liked cosmic jokes. It left me either stuck in the house with Dad and Lilith or hitching a ride. I was desperate enough that if I’d had Silla’s phone number, I might have called her. But I was the genius who hadn’t gotten it, or even Eric’s. Nobody else could come get me. I’d asked Dad for the ride, but Lilith had leapt to it like a rabid wolf on roadkill.
    Enter one tin flask filled with whiskey and