I opened my eyes. Emily leaned over me. Her pasty, heart-shaped face glowed in the spotlight of the moon coming in through a nearby window. It was warm again. Colorful crystals hung from the ceiling, and white sandstone walls surrounded me. The cushions on the chairs and bedcovers were various shades of blue. I was back in the bedchamber in the Fey realm.
I hadn’t seen much of her the last two days. She had been locked up in her room studying the ancient spell book.
“You’re crying.”
“Bad dream,” I said and noticed my messenger bag on the bed. “Thanks for keeping my bag safe.”
“No problem.” She smiled. “Anyway, I found something cool in here.” She flipped open the ancient spell book to a page she’d dog-eared. “This is going to sound awful and somewhat barbaric, but hear me out. I found a charm that can hide things on a person’s body. Wizards used it to keep thieves from stealing precious gems and other stuff. It’s going to get tough carrying around the Chiavi everywhere without someone noticing. And considering both worlds depend on them not falling into the wrong hands, I think we should try it.”
I sat up. “Go back to the part where you mention it’s somewhat barbaric.”
She exaggerated a breath. “I have to brand them into your skin.”
“What?”
“That’s just a response, right? You did hear what I said.”
“Yeah, I heard you.” My fingers went to the crescent moon scar on my chest. Nana Kearns had branded the charm on me when I was a baby. It shielded me from the Monitors. I could jump through any gateway book unnoticed. “My nana branded me once. She used a numbing spell on the area before doing it. Do you know how to do one?”
The apologetic look on Emily’s face told me she didn’t know. “I’m not even sure I can do the branding spell. We can try one in a place not visible. See how it goes.”
“How about some of Nana’s elixir?”
She shook her head. “The lab was locked, and Nana didn’t answer when I knocked on her bedroom door.”
Nana used earplugs while she slept. Even the smallest noise would keep her up.
I stared at my hands.
Come on, Gia. Toughen up. It would be hard to travel with a bag full of Chiavi clinking on my side. And it was better if they were hidden.
“Okay, let’s do it.”
She nodded and placed the book on the bed. “Where do you want me to put them?”
Where do I want them? Not the arms. Someone would notice. Stomach? No. Someplace it was easy to hide. “My side. How do I get them off when needed?”
“I’ll teach you the charm for removing them. We’ll practice.”
I turned my side toward her and removed my shirt. Thankfully, I still had my sports bra on. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”
She passed me a thick piece of leather.
I took it. “What’s this for?”
“You know, to put between your teeth and bite down on so you don’t scream or bite off your tongue or something.”
“You’ve seen too many movies.” I turned the tan piece over in my hands, inspecting it. “Where did you get this? Is it clean?” There was no telling where that thing had been or what germs were on it.
“I washed it. I cut it out of a chair in my room.” She looked over her shoulder at the door. “Let’s get this done before someone comes.”
“Okay. Torture me.”
“Funny,” she said, adjusting her position in front of me.
The leather was stiff between my teeth and tasted like my sweaty kickboxing gloves. Emily opened my messenger bag to retrieve one of the Chiavi. She pulled out the cross and placed it on the bedding in front of her. It was the size of her palm, made out of silver, decorated with gemstones, and attached to a chain. After reading over the spell in the book, she held one of her palms over the cross, placed one hand on my side and said, “Abscondere.”
“Nothing’s happening,” I said around the leather piece in my mouth.
“Hush. Let me concentrate.” She lowered her head and mumbled to herself.
Still nothing.
“Abscondere,” she said in a forceful voice. It didn’t even sound like her. There was a darkness to it.
A burning pain hit my rib cage, and I bit down hard on the leather, groaning. It was more like a guttural screech. I slumped forward, leaning over my lap and holding back my screams. Tears stung my eyes. My skin was on fire. I took several deep breaths, releasing each slowly.
“Are you okay?” The worried look on Emily’s face scared me.
“What does it look like?” I strained to view the brand on my side. A cross the size of a thumbprint was burned into my skin. As I stared at it, the angry red mark faded until it was a white scar. “It’s really small.”
“And it healed fast.” Emily flipped the page in the spell book. “Do you want to try and remove it?”
“I don’t know if I can do this six more times,” I said.
“Maybe it won’t hurt as much the next time. You know, as they say, the body gets used to pain.”
I doubted it. “Okay, how do I get it off me?”
“Place your middle and index finger on the brand. It has to be your dominant hand. Think of the cross and only it. Then say, ‘Reditum.’”
The scar felt raised under my fingers. I concentrated on my first memory of the cross. I was playing around with my mom’s red umbrella, waving it in the air like a weapon, when the handle detached and the top of the umbrella went flying across the room, almost hitting Afton. The cross was inside the handle.
“Reditum,” I said.
It was like ripping off a very sticky Band-Aid when the Chiave tore away from my skin and slowly grew to its normal size. The cross hovered in the air, the silver chain swinging underneath it. I grasped it.
Emily’s mouth gaped. “Now, that, you don’t see every day.”
“How do I put it back?”
“Like I did. You say abscondere, and it will brand into your skin.”
“Great.” It was anything but great. Each time I used them, it would be painful.
“What do you think?” Emily adjusted on the bed, crossing her legs. “Do you want to put them all on you?”
It took me several beats to get up the courage to answer her. Having the Chiavi hidden on me was the best way to keep them safe. Only Emily and I would know how to release them. But the pain of having them branded into my skin made me hesitate.
Stop being a baby. Just do it.
I nodded several times, swallowing back my fear. “Okay, I’ll try.”
…
After branding all the Chiavi into my skin, Emily went back to her room. I’d let her keep the ancient spell book. She was coming into her own as a witch, and it felt like the book belonged to her. My heart sank as I kissed Gian’s journal. I no longer needed the information in it, but it tore me apart to leave his words behind.
You have to travel light. I placed the journal on the crystal nightstand. My wounds still ached, but the pain was now dull as I pulled on my pants then a long-sleeved T-shirt. My fingers went to Faith’s pendant and then the glass locket with Pip’s white feather inside. I should leave them behind, but I tucked them inside my shirt instead. They were like lucky charms, and I was afraid to part with them.