Chapter 12
MONIQUE
I stirred and stirred, fatigued from all the stresses of the day. Then, just as I began swaying on my feet, worried I would have to take a break, a strange smell wafted up to meet me. It smelled like... well, custard. Considering all the flowers and blood I’d put into that cauldron, a sweet dessert was not what I’d expected to achieve.
“Yes!” I cried, blinking fully awake now. The potion had turned into a bright yellow at last.
I put down the wooden spoon and grabbed a large flask to hold the potion. The liquid was hot and the glass burned my hands, so I wrapped the flask in a towel, closed my front door and raced off into the night once more, headed for Michael.
With the large flask in two hands, I hadn’t been able to bring the lantern, so I navigated slowly through the dark, testing each step before taking it.
Ahead of me I could see the faintest of lights and my heart leapt. “Michael?”
I followed that light like a ship beacon on a cloudy night, searching for home. It got brighter and brighter until I could finally see him, in the veil doorway, holding up the lantern so I could see his beautiful face.
“You’re back.” He smiled, with an accompanying sigh that smacked of relief.
“You thought I’d forgotten you?” I asked with a grin, pulling back the towel to reveal the strange yellow potion.
“Well, no,” Michael said. “But this damn curtain is getting bloody heavy.”
I laughed because I could, and it felt nice. A soft bubble of hope amidst the stress.
“Okay, so how do we do this?” I asked.
Michael magicked up a stool, where he set down the lantern.
Good idea. Why didn’t I think of that?
Then he created a large paint brush, which he held in his free hand. “We apply it liberally over the opening, as a sealer so to speak. A lubricant, to make sure the edges of the veil can’t seal together.”
“You’ll need to say the incantation,” I reminded him, though I was pretty sure he knew that.
I magicked up a table on which to place the flask with the potion, and shook out my arms. “That was getting heavy too.” Then I grabbed the spell book page out of my pocket and turned so he could see it. “How do you want to do this?”
He spoke a couple of words and the page floated out of my hands and into the air in front of him so he could read it clearly.