Page 17 of Dragon's Midlife Secret Baby
“That’s right.”
“You dragon, and I dragon,” Corbin informed his father. “You big dragon.”
Beck laughed. “I guess so. You’ll be a big dragon someday, too.”
Maeve cleared her throat. “Beck, I’m sorry to interrupt, but we need to talk to you.”
“We’ll finish the book a little later,” he said as he set Corbin aside and got up off the floor.
“It okay. I read.” Corbin picked up the book right where they’d left off. It was halfway through the story already, but he said, “Once upon a time…”
Beck followed them back out into the living room. “What is it?”
“We think we know what’s caused your amnesia,” she began. “Your clan was right in advising you to shift,because that would’ve gone a long way toward healing an injury or cleansing out any kind of drugging. I know it helped you a little, but it may have helped me more.”
“How is that?”
“I think someone put a spell on you,” she explained.
Beck glanced back and forth between the two women. “Forgive my ignorance, but are there spells that strong? Ones that can actually just take all my memories away?”
Maeve had retained much of her youth despite her age, but at the moment, the fine lines near her eyes and mouth deepened. “It’s a very strong spell, one that would have to be performed by someone very powerful. I’ve heard of it before, and it’s called a mindwipe. It’s a type of binding spell.”
Beck opened his mouth to ask another question, but then he stopped. “Binding.”
Chelsea knew he’d made the connection between the name and what he’d said earlier. “Yes. That would also explain why hypnosis, shifting, and being near familiar places and people isn’t enough to fix it. The spell is still active.”
“Does it wear off or anything?” He gestured helplessly as he tried to figurethis out.
“That, I don’t know,” Maeve replied. “What we ought to do is try to break it, if you’re up for it.”
“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation. “What do I need to do?”
Chelsea tapped her fingers on her cheek. “Normally, I’d bring you to Mom’s altar room, but I don’t want to leave Corbin alone. Everyone else is out at the moment, so we’ll just make it work here in the living room.”
Maeve agreed. “We have plenty of room. I’ll get a few crystals and candles.”
“Take off your shirt and lie down on the floor,” Chelsea instructed Beck as she pushed the coffee table out of the way. “The moon is a waxing gibbous right now, which is good for healing. Mercury is in prograde, so communication should be enhanced.”
“Hey.” Beck’s fingers closed around her wrist and pulled her gently around toward him. He’d taken off his shirt as she’d instructed, and it was now balled up in her other hand. Those kind eyes gazed into hers. “Is there some sort of urgency to this? You sound like you’re freaking out a bit.”
“No. It’s just that this is going to be a challenge. I focus on astrology more than spellcraft, although Mom can make up for the latter.” Her eyes drifted down to his bare chest. A few fine scars raced acrossit in jagged diagonal scars. They were incredibly old, from wounds so deep that even his shift couldn’t erase all signs of them. They complimented his muscles and reminded her of just what kind of man he was, even if he didn’t remember. She swallowed as she thought about how it felt to run her hands through his chest hair.
“All right,” Maeve said, striding back into the room and breaking through Chelsea’s intrusive thoughts. “I’ve got pyrite, blue kyanite, hematite, and golden calcite. You said Beck is an Aries, right? I grabbed some carnelian.”
“And the ground quartz, I see,” Chelsea said, noting the heavy bag tucked under Maeve’s arm.
Her mother grinned. “Yes, we need all the boost we can get. I’m not going to volunteer to clean it up afterward, though.”
As instructed, Beck lay down on the big area rug. He watched as the two women worked around him, and Chelsea had to give him credit for not asking too many questions. They needed to concentrate.
Maeve poured the ground quartz in a large circle around Beck’s prone body. She then laid alternating red and white candles out along this border, opening the circle of magic as she lit each one in order.
Before they were lit, Chelsea rubbed her thumband finger on the burnt wick of one of the white candles. Using the soot, she drew a vee with curling tips. Then she replenished the soot and touched his chest.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice rumbling against her fingertip.
“That one,” she glanced at his forehead, “is for your sun sign. This one represents Mars, which rules your sun sign.” She traced a circle with an arrow pointing out of it on his right pectoral. On his left, she drew another circle, but this one had a single dot in the middle. “This is for the sun itself, which represents self-awareness and the ego.”
