23
if she disappeared for a couple of decades, people would know what
happened.
She carried the willow branch into the chalk circle, thinking fast. Her
phone vibrated in her pocket, but she ignored it. Sandra would tell her
not to do this, but she’d told Giancarlo that she would keep him safe.
Heck. She had a contract. By Faerie rules, that made her responsible
even if her own moral sense didn’t.
Eva left the circle of chalk open since she needed the Fae to touch her.
She knelt on the ground and lay the willow branch across her left palm,
loosely. Setting her teeth, she drew the blade of the knife across the cut
in her thumb, reopening it. She wiped the blade on her trousers and
shoved it into the sheath at her belt. She let the blood flow over the
willow branch, coating the brown wood in scarlet. Blood magic was
dangerous, but she needed a binding contract if she had any hope of
getting Giancarlo out of Faerie.
Bending the wood, she wove it into a simple circlet, chanting in a patois
of Gaelic and Cherokee as she did. Magic thickened in the air around
her, shimmering in a haze outside the chalk circle. T