The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(104)

Blue swallowed hard against the rising lump in her throat. “I’ll try.”

Grand-mère nodded once, one tear spilling over onto her cheek, and then she said, “Then let’s make you fit for a prince’s ball.”

Blue took the dancing slippers and walked with Grand-mère out onto the path that led from the cottage to the farmhouse. Pepperell rose from his bed on Grand-mère’s porch to follow them, winding anxiously through his mistress’s legs. Lucian stood beside a large pumpkin, a pile of medium-size rynoir branches, and a bouquet of gorgeous yellow roses. He held two squirming white mice in his hands.

Grand-mère turned. “First let’s take the twists out of your hair.” She waved her wand, and all of Blue’s curls sprang free, lifting to form a halo around her face.

“Now for a dress.” The wand pointed at the yellow roses, and Grand-mère muttered something under her breath. The flowers rose into the air, drifted over to Blue, and surrounded her. They began spinning, slow and stately at first, and then faster and faster, dancing around Blue until ribbons of petal-soft yellow flowed in streamers from the thorny rose stems to wrap around the dirty, ragged dress Blue was wearing. Grand-mère pointed her wand at the heavens and twirled it. Starlight fell from the sky in long, shimmering strands of silvery-white and spun around Blue.

When Grand-mère’s wand dropped, Blue stood in a dress of golden-yellow silk that left her shoulders bare and hugged her tiny waist. The skirt bloomed outward, like an upside-down rose with delicate tiers of icy-silver-white lace tucked beneath each petal.

Grand-mère’s wand held one more wisp of silver-white on its tip, and she aimed it at a pebble on the ground. The rock floated upward, bathed in starlight, and became a diamond hairpin that nestled in Blue’s thick black curls above her left ear.

Blue slipped Mama’s dancing slippers on and spun once. A laugh bubbled up, even though she felt like crying.

It was beautiful. Magical. It was a dress fit for a princess. And for a little while, Blue was going to pretend to be a princess instead of a girl full of poison and dark purpose.

“Now for a carriage.” Grand-mère aimed her wand at the pumpkin and the pile of twigs. The pumpkin shuddered and then began expanding, doubling in size and then again and again until it was a full-size carriage. The twigs bent themselves into wheels and spokes, steps and harnesses, a coachman’s seat and a carriage tongue. Grand-mère borrowed starlight again and bathed the pumpkin coach in it until it sparkled like a silver-white jewel.

“The mice!” she said.

Lucian plopped the mice down in front of the carriage, where they immediately started scampering away.

“Not so fast.” Grand-mère aimed the wand, and the mice lifted off the ground, hanging suspended in midair. Soon, their tiny bodies rippled and then expanded. In an instant, they were two gorgeous white horses standing patiently in the carriage’s traces, waiting to be hooked to the coach they would pull. “Lucian, be a good boy and get those horses laced in.”

Lucian scrambled to obey, his eyes wide with wonder.

Grand-mère turned in a full circle, hunting for one more thing. “A coachman. Something careful and loyal.”

Her eyes landed on Pepperell, and Blue held up her hand. “Don’t change him, Grand-mère. I want to remember him just as he is.”

Grand-mère’s scowl could’ve dropped the wraith on the spot. “You’ll have many more memories with him. You’re going to use that brain of yours to survive. You promised.”

“I promised I’d try,” Blue said gently.

The older woman sniffed. “Clearly, I have more faith in your abilities than you do. I’m never wrong, my child.”

Blue bent to pet Pepperell’s fluffy head, and then yelped in surprise as he shuddered and spun into the air, coming back down in front of her, a tall, pudgy man with bushy gray eyebrows lowered over one glowing golden eye. A handsome coachman’s uniform in red and gold and shiny black boots completed the look.

“Pepperell?” Blue asked, cautiously reaching out to touch his shoulder.

“Meow,” he said.

“He still sounds like a cat.” Blue looked at Grand-mère.

“Because he is a cat, my dear. But he’ll look the part, the carriage will do the work to guide the horses, and I trust that Pepperell would protect you with his life if necessary.”

“It won’t be necessary,” Blue whispered to Pepperell as his bushy gray beard twitched.

“Lucian, I need you to go into the city with Grand-mère and collect as many street kids as you can. Don’t try to go to all nine quarters. Send runners. Get everyone into the shop. Grand-mère has a key.” Blue turned to her grandmother. “There are ingredients for a powerful protection spell—”

“I know how to keep someone out of a building,” Grand-mère said, her voice thick with tears, though she didn’t let them fall. Gathering Blue close for one last hug, she said, “The enchantments will last about four hours, so you have until the midnight bell before everything turns back to the way it was. Remember, I’m proud of you, and I love you. Now go dance with a prince and kill yourself a wraith.”





FORTY-THREE

THE NUMB CORNER of Kellan’s heart had spread until he felt half-empty.