Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 31462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 157(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 157(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
It wasn’t just Maddox and the floor. It covered the walls, the windows, the furniture, and the pictures on the walls. There wasn’t a single thing that wasn’t purple other than the two little squares on the floor.
“What the fuck have you done?” Sky moaned. He turned around in a small circle where he stood, his eyes sweeping over the house and finally his friend.
“It was a spell. A new protection spell that I was trying to put over the house ahead of Moving Day,” Maddox explained, wringing his purple hands together in front of him.
“You’re moving? Have you sold the house already? Because…” Nolan’s eyes traveled over the purple walls again. This couldn’t have been what the sellers had in mind.
“Moving? What?” Maddox’s face wrinkled up as he stared at Nolan as though he’d lost his mind. “No. I—oh. No, this has to do with the fae. I’ll let Sky explain that later.”
“Is this another Reddit spell? I swear to God, you’ve got to stop using those.”
“No.” Maddox’s broad shoulders slumped and his head drooped. “Discord group.”
Sky groaned loudly and tipped his face toward the ceiling. “You have got to stop going in those groups. I’ve told you those old biddy witches are just a bunch of bitches. You can’t trust their fucking spells.” Sky reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out his phone. With a couple of quick swipes, he pulled up the camera and snapped several pictures of his sad, pouting friend.
“I can’t wait to show this to Red,” Sky muttered under his breath.
“No! You can’t tell Red! He’ll never let me live this down. What kind of friend are you? Don’t tell him!”
“I’m the kind of friend who takes time out of his very important date to deliver a cleansing box.” As he spoke, he held out the pine box to Maddox.
But the witch didn’t accept it.
In fact, Maddox took a step back and winced a little. “Are you the kind of friend who will also stay and cast the cleansing spell?”
“What?”
Nolan had to bite his lip to hold in his laugh. That single word had erupted from Sky’s throat sounding like a very loud chicken squawk. He hadn’t even known Sky could make that sound.
“I tried cleansing it myself, but it didn’t work. I’m using all my power to hold the cloud over my house and to keep those two squares open. The purple…it’s…it’s like a fungus, and it keeps spreading. My powers only seem to fuel it.”
“And you think my powers will cleanse it and kill it dead like bleach.” Sky sighed. “No wonder you didn’t call Red for help. He’d only make it worse like you.”
His date looked over at him with pleading eyes, and Nolan immediately held up his hands. “Go for it. Help your friend. Can I stay and watch?”
“Thanks.” Sky released a heavy breath and his eyes twinkled. “This should only take a few more minutes, and then we can get out of here.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” he offered.
“Nope. Just stay right where you are, and don’t touch anything purple.”
Nolan watched as Sky squatted where he stood and placed the small wooden box on the floor. From within it, he pulled out four white candles, a couple of glass bottles filled with clear liquid, some crystals, a bundle of dried flowers, and a handful of stick matches.
Sky set up everything with a practiced quickness, placing the candles at the compass points around him. As he lit each candle, he whispered something that Nolan couldn’t quite catch, but it sounded like he was speaking in Latin.
“You know why Latin became a dead language, right?” Maddox inquired, wringing a groan out of Sky as he continued to work. Nolan peered over at the giant grape and shook his head. “Because they kept summoning demons in normal conversation.”
Now he got why Sky groaned.
“There is so much wrong with that, I don’t even know where to start,” Sky grumbled as he blew out the match and put the still-smoldering stick aside.
“Just clean my house, witch,” Maddox commanded with a chuckle. Sky flipped him off without even glancing up.
Sky stood with one of the bottles of water clasped between both hands. He closed his eyes as he continued to speak fast words in a low voice. Nolan just happened to look down at the right moment and noticed that the teardrop flames on each candle seemed to slow as if someone had throttled the passage of time.
“This is old magic. Like the beginning-of-time magic,” Maddox explained. Even his voice had grown hushed and solemn, as if this work demanded a kind of reverence from all witches. “We all have strange variations and different spells that we’ve cooked up, but the cleansing spell and the protection circle are two that are the same across all magic casters. I guess it’s as close to the perfect spell as we could get.”