Page 18 of Dragon's Midlife Secret Baby
“I guess that’s pretty relevant,” he agreed.
Next, she laid crystals out on his body. She felt the energy of each one shooting through her palm before she placed them on his forehead, neck, and chest. Though she knew she needed only to think about breaking the spell, Chelsea also felt the warmth of his skin radiating into her fingertips. They were just conducting a spell, but there was a certain level of intimacy that she couldn’t let go of.
“Is there anything I need to do?” he asked. He only held her with his eyes instead of holding her wrist, but it was just as effective.
She paused as she placed the blue kyanite on hischest, the rough crystal cool against her heated flesh. “Just keep your mind as open as possible so you can be receptive to the magic.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Are we ready?” Maeve asked.
“I think so.” Chelsea sat down on one side of Beck, near his shoulder. Her mother sat opposite her, and they held hands over his chest.
“We free you from this spell that binds you,” Maeve chanted, slow and even. “That which has been cast to keep you captive is no longer. All that has been done shall be undone. So it shall be.”
Chelsea joined her as she repeated the spell. She closed her eyes, concentrating on the energies that swirled around them in the room. The candles burned through the negative energy, and the crystals added positive energy. The ground quartz amplified each aspect of it. As they headed into the next repetition, Chelsea visualized literal chains around Beck’s chest and even one that crossed his forehead. She imagined them breaking free, rusting away into dust. The power was building, and with it, her hope. Her mate would be back soon.
Then, without any warning, she felt the strength of the spell fighting back. The chains tightened around Beck, and the candle flames were no longerstrong enough to burn through the original intent of the spell.
Chelsea opened her eyes to see that Maeve had done the same. “Damn it.”
“We’re not strong enough,” Maeve muttered, and now a deep crease appeared in her forehead. “This is one hell of a hex. We already knew that whoever cast this had to be strong, but it’s frustrating to find out that we can’t break it alone.”
Seeing the concern on Beck’s face, she put her hand on his arm. “We’ll have to wait until we can get the others to help us. We have several other coven members who could be vital to making this happen. Honestly, I should’ve known better than to attempt this with just the two of us. Even three would’ve been much better.”
“Mommy?”
She turned to see Corbin in the bedroom doorway. “What you doin’?”
“Trying to help your daddy,” she replied honestly. In her short time of being a mother, Chelsea had found that a simple, straightforward answer often worked better than either dismissing the child’s curiosity or trying to explain it in detail.
Corbin, whose curiosity could hardly be dismissed even if she’d tried, carefully stepped overthe border of ground quartz so that he stood just above his father’s head. “You not take a nap?”
“No. No nap.”
With just one finger, Corbin gently reached down and touched the cube of golden calcite on Beck’s forehead. “You funny on the floor.”
“Yeah, I know.” Beck was looking up over his head to see his son while still carefully balancing the crystal on his forehead. “Want me to come back and finish your book with you?”
“No.” Instead, Corbin moved slightly to his right to take his mother’s hand. Then he shifted slightly to his left and reached for his grandmother.
Chelsea gave her mother a look. Corbin was young, and though he was exposed to some elements of magic on a regular basis, they hadn’t even considered getting him involved. He wasn’t even capable of repeating the spell, much less understanding what they were trying to achieve.
But the look her mother returned told her that they might as well give it a shot. They were working with white magic, and there was very little risk that anything could come back at them.
Chelsea reached across Beck with her free hand and held her mother’s. Grandmother, daughter, and son made a trio around Beck. The twowomen began their chant again, and Chelsea found it hard to concentrate on the spell when she didn’t know what Corbin would do or how he might react. She cracked one eye open.
Her son, despite his young age, looked to be concentrating just as hard as his elders were. He held both Chelsea’s and Maeve’s hands steadily. His eyes were closed, and his lips pressed together. He didn’t say a word.
As Chelsea closed her eyes again, she realized that he didn’t need to. Once again, she could feel the energy rising around them, the black and the white battling over which would control Beck. Though the candle flames were low, she felt the room getting warm around her. Beck’s breathing grew shallow and quick. Shivers of energy flowed through her body, working up her spine and up and down her arms. The envisioned chains she’d focused on so much before were harder to conjure in her mind this time, and by the time she found them, it was only to see them shatter, breaking away into rusty dust.
Beck gasped a deep breath, making the crystals fall from his chest and forehead.
Corbin bent over so that he looked at his father upside down. “Silly Daddy.”
8
Beck walked upto the expansive house that served as the covenstead. It was familiar to him, but only because of recent memory. That felt insignificant compared to everything else that’d just come flooding back to him.
