“Yes, he’s quick to point that out.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to break the seal on the house, in that case?”
“My uncle thought I would be capable of it, or he never would have locked me in here. If I couldn’t pass his test, why bother giving it to me? He watched me for years before he died, which I know because of things I’ve found in here from my childhood. Not that he ever told me he was around.”
“Felix was not known for giving straightforward tests,” Abraxas said.
He’d moved away from the coffee table and couch, his tail curled into one ball underneath him as his torso leaned casually against the bookshelves. “I need to believe I can pass,” I murmured. “Whether he gives gruelling tests or not, I’m going to believe he gave me one I can pass.”
Instead of draping the warm blankets over the edges of his tail I could reach, I grabbed onto him and climbed. Abraxas made a small sound of surprise before the end of his tail wrapped around me and helped me settle into the centre of his tight curl. “Is this how you usually warm me?”
I nodded and passed him one blanket. He wrapped it around his shoulders, relaxing instinctually. The other two I placed to cover as much of his tail as possible, and then I settled myself with my head on his soft scales.
“I’ve never had anyone warm me like this. It’s the closest to sunning on a warm rock I’ve gotten in a long time.”
My smile was faint. “You always say that.”
He hummed, and we both relaxed. If Bennett walked in on this he wouldn’t be pleased, but it was my hope I wouldn’t see him again tonight. He’d be locked away, under the influence of the moon by the time I needed help with creating the artifact. The moon’s influence wouldn’t wane until shortly after the spell was complete.
No one interrupted us until the blankets had cooled down to Abby’s normal body temperature, and the sun was going down and bathing the library in shades of gold. Hesitantly I pulled myself to sit up, and he silently wrapped his tail around me and placed me down on the ground again. “Can you get everyone else, please? I’m going to double check the ingredients.”
Nodding, he left, and I gathered everything we would need together. Since part of the process was a live tree, we would do this in the hallway where the pine had grown through the window. Kirin came up to help me carry things down, and we met Waylon, Abraxas, and Zan by the tree branches. Bennett was silent in his room, locked up preemptively but not yet affected.
He would hear everything we said out here, and I tried not to pay attention to that fact.
“We need the blood of a hybrid, so unfortunately Waylon is up,” I announced.
Waylon’s jaw dropped. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me about this before?” he asked, his voice a pitch higher than usual.
“I didn’t want to give you a chance to avoid us. You’re the only true hybrid here.”
While he took a spanking or a cock in the ass like a champ, I had my suspicions that Waylon wasn’t a big fan of blood. His pale cheeks and slightly shaking hands confirmed it. Part of me felt bad for springing it on him, but it was a small sacrifice to make for the sake of everyone getting out of here.
“How much blood do you need?” Kirin asked.
His hand came down on Waylon’s shoulder, and the pixie’s trembling ceased. I wouldn’t call him relaxed by any stretch of the word, but Kirin’s presence comforted him. “Not much. Enough that it’ll be more of a slice than a poke, but with enhanced healing you should hardly notice anything happened after a couple minutes.”
Abraxas asked if I needed him for anything, and I waved him away. The basilisk was taking up too much space in the hallway, and two sets of hands would be enough. Kirin would stay and do double duty of comforting Waylon and holding what I needed. Zan stayed too, hovering with his body half inside a wall so he fit in the narrow hallway. He worried his lip between his teeth, looking unsure if he should comfort Waylon or simply watch.
It occurred to me I had no idea how close they were. Or how close Zan was to anyone, really. I’d rarely seen them interact because Zan spent the last two months avoiding me at every turn.
“I’m going to smear the poultice on the tree first, and add a couple other ingredients. Blood is last,” I said, explaining the process to them.
The beginnings of the artifact crafting went fast since everything was ready and organized, placed in the order it needed to be added to the tree branch. Then, we came to the bloodletting. Waylon was back to trembling faintly, his hair a mess as he ran his hands through it repeatedly. His claws were extended and lethal, teeth prominent, tail whipping back and forth. “Hold your hand over the tree where the ingredients are. I’m going to cut you, and you need to let your blood drip until I’m finished reciting the words. If you pull away before I finish, this won’t work.”
I glanced up at Kirin, an unspoken plea in my eyes. He grimaced, but nodded. Waylon wouldn’t stay still on his own. We needed to hold him, or this entire day would be pointless. “Kirin’s going to hold me, isn’t he?” Waylon asked, his voice flat.
“Yes.”
Sliding the ornamental knife out of its holster, it glinted in the moonlight spilling through the open window. He flinched. I didn’t want to cut him when he was freaking out, even though it needed to be done. I wracked my brain for a story, any story, to distract him and make him think this wasn’t as bad as his brain told him it was. “Kirin and I did some knife and blood play, in a past rewind,” I ultimately blurted out, flushing bright pink but going with it. “He enjoyed being cut. I doubt you’ll like it like he did, but try to focus on the positives.”
Everyone stared at me, even Zan. The ghost hadn’t been present for the kink play, so this was news to him.
“You didwhatto me?” Kirin asked.
He was half horrified and half intrigued. “To be clear, it was your idea. You gave me a list of things you wanted in the bedroom, and we tried a few.”
“And you’re telling me I’ll never remember this happening?”
