Page 45 of Cruel Destinies

“Well, I figured out what the words mean. Kinda.”

He lifted a brow. “How does that help?”

“If you understand the arcane language, you can make your own spells.” I pursed my lips as I watched Julian’s face light up.

“You understand the language, then?”

I snorted. He must be crazy. “Nooo. Not the whole language. But I kinda understandthatspell, which gave me an idea for changing it so it works on living things.”

“Humans?”

I sucked a breath through my teeth. I’d been trying the spell out on every dead creature I could find—flies, squirrels, evena dead bird I’d found on the side of the road. But humans? I was sooo not ready for that yet. Not that I’d admit it, least of all to him.

“I don’t know. Maybe? Magic can be a little...finicky. I need to try it out on something first. Like a squirrel or a—”

“A cat?”

“Yeah. Sure, I guess. As long as it’s a small one.”

I went back to chewing on my lip. Honestly, I worried a cat of any size might be too big, but I didn’t want to tell Julian that. Not much had come of my first attempts, and I had to keep tweaking my tweaks. But I’d had a breakthrough just this morning. At least, I thought so.

“Okay. Well, let’s test it out.” He looked up at the tree in front of us, assumedly beginning his search.

“It’s not that simple. We have to use—” my eyes traced some people wandering through our section of the conservatory “—something that isn’t alive,” I hissed.

“Ah, of course. There’s this creature that’s been caterwauling down the street for the past week. I’m sure I can find the cat behind it.”

I blinked. “Oh. Okay.”

It would be today, then. I didn’t know why that surprised me. It was the reason I’d come, but I didn’t expect to be able to find a test subject so soon. If I were being completely honest, I’d kinda hoped this would be more of a get-to-know-you session. The conservatory was certainly romantic and intimate enough. But now I’d be performing magic. And in front ofhim.

I pushed up my stupidly thick sleeves again as my pulse kicked into high gear.

He looked me over, a frown pulling at those pouty lips. “Unless you’re not ready.”

“Pfft. Nah. I’m just a little nervous, is all. I mean, there’s always the chance it doesn’t work.”Or, you know, I die or something.

The attempt I made at resurrecting the bird had landed me in bed for two days with flu-like symptoms. And it hadn’t even worked. Altering spells could be a tricky thing, which was why witches had taken to writing everything down in grimoires. That, and it made it easier to recall and pass on working magic spells.

I sniffed.I can do this.There was one more tweak I wanted to try, anyway, and maybe a recently deceased subject would be easier to work with.

“Okay, how do you want this thing to go down?”

“I’ll go find the cat while you head to the apartment?”

“Sure.” I pulled down my sleeves hoping to trap some of the heat. Cooling off would feel good once I got in the wintry Chicago air, but after that?

Julian nodded. “Then let’s go.”

He turned to leave, but my hand shot out to stop him. “My bag?”

“Of course.”

He handed it back over. I put it on the floor as I retrieved my coat, stuffing the hat and gloves in the pockets. I’d wait until I was outside to finish up. “Thanks. See you soon!”

But when I looked up, Julian was already gone.

I sighed. “That’s gonna take some getting used to.”

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