Free creepy hollow 05.5 - scarlett by rachel morgan Page B

almost exactly like the one he wore to protect himself from her influence. Instead of a piece of wood, an off-white shape was attached to the leather. Bone or ivory, perhaps.
    “Is this the way all your spells work?”
    “All the charm spells, yes.” He frowned. “Didn’t Tilda tell you about them?”
    “No.”
    “It needs to be something that can hold onto magical energy. Wood, ivory, a stone, a tooth. Something like that. This is a piece of pixie bone. The charm needs to be dipped into a specific potion—my mother has a whole box of pre-dipped items so she doesn’t have to make a new one every time—and then you simply transfer energy into the item while saying the words of whatever spell you want to use.” He wrapped his hand around the bone and spoke three words. The air seemed to ripple around his closed fist for a moment, and Beth assumed that was to do with the release of energy. “Here,” he said, handing it to her.
    “Thanks.” The words to the spell had sounded simple enough, so she repeated them as she pushed the leather bracelet onto her wrist.
    Thoren, who had just returned the box to the shelf, looked back at her in surprise. “That sounded correct, actually.”
    “Would I be able to do this spell? Is it as simple as you made it seem?”
    “Yes. You’ve got to make sure you have an excess of energy, though. Wouldn’t want to run out of your own while doing spells.”
    “Oh, right.” As he examined the dozens of vials and bottles lined up in rows on Malena’s desk, she added, “So where do I get extra energy from?”
    “Uh, other magical beings.” He began packing the bottles into a wooden box so small she doubted it would hold even ten bottles. “I don’t know the rituals because I’m not a witch. You’d have to ask my mother about that. Anyway, can you understand me?” he asked.
    “Yes, because you’re—Oh.” Abruptly, she realized he’d been speaking a different language, and yet somehow, as impossible as it seemed, she could understand it. “Yes,” she said with a laugh as she moved to stand beside him. “That’s amazing. Why didn’t Tilda give me a charm like this? It would be so much easier than all of you having to speak English around me.”
    “We don’t mind speaking English. We use it for most business dealings.”
    “Wait, are you putting all these bottles inside that box? How are they … Of course,” she said, knowing the answer before she’d even finished her question. “Magic. It somehow makes extra space inside the box.”
    “Something like that.”
    “So where are we going for these deliveries?”
    “Uh, let’s see.” He closed the lid and wiped his hand across the top. Silvery words rose from the depths of the woods and glowed upon the surface. Places, potion names, numbers. “We’re stopping at two stores near the Pearl Strait, then we have a large delivery for the head healer at the Unseelie Court, then we’ll stop at a store operating in the non-magic realm in Grimstad, Norway, and last on the list is Creepy Hollow, where we have one personal delivery and one store delivery.”
    “Ooh, the Unseelie Court? How exciting. Creepy Hollow sounds ominous, though.”
    “It can be.” Thoren placed the box into a leather satchel, then opened one of the desk drawers and removed a black candle. “You might wind up with your heart ripped out by some terrifying magical beast.” Beth blinked, unsure whether to believe Thoren. He lit the candle with a snap of his fingers. The resulting flame was a brilliant white. He looked at her over the top of the flame. “Just kidding. I’ll be there to rescue you if something like that happens.”
    “How comforting,” Beth said, wondering if she ought to stay at the mountain after all. She didn’t get the chance to change her mind, though, because Thoren took her hand, held the candle up between the two of them, and with a blinding white flash, everything vanished.
     
     

CHAPTER TEN
     
    Traveling by