The sight was coming back to her in a rush and Sally willingly accepted her gift. She would need it to find Kylie, so she might as well use it here and now. As she stood at the bedside she was flooded with images. She could see this man’s history. There it was, as if she’d opened a book, the sullen childhood, the fights, the day he went to jail, the dim path, his mother watching over him while he slept, worrying over what he would become.
“You’ve been bad, haven’t you,” she said. It was a statement not a question, not that it was any of her business. Still, she wondered what might have justified this attack. She thought he glared at her in response, but it didn’t matter. There was no time to lose. Luckily there was a space unmarked by ink in the middle of his chest. When she laid a hand upon his skin he was burning hot, and so was she. The heat traveled up her arm into her heart before she could withdraw from him. Quickly, she seized a pen from the desk and wrote out the charm for banishing evil and removing unknown fever and illnesses.
A B R A C A D A B R A
A B R A C A D A B R
A B R A C A D A B
A B R A C A D A
A B R A C A D
A B R A C A
A B R A C
A B R A
A B R
A B
A
When she was done, the professor was still paralyzed; that was when she understood she needed help. “Stay exactly where you are, until I come back.”
An American, Ian thought. Telling me what to do.
His gaze fell on her as if he were spellbound. For all Sally knew he’d lost his hearing, so she leaned in close and told him what she wanted. He wasn’t deaf and could hear perfectly well; all of his senses were working, perhaps too well. Heat streamed through his body, and he was abashed to be so thoroughly seen, and what’s more, to be so completely aroused by a woman who was nothing more than a stranger and a witch telling him what to do in his own house.
“Once I help you, you’ll owe me your loyalty.” This was the bargain, about to be sealed. She seized a small pair of scissors on the night table and cut herself, then took his hand and made a similar slash across his palm. Their blood spilled onto the sheets and he saw that hers was black, and he congratulated himself on being right about her. “You’ll return the favor to me,” Sally said.
For once, Ian was willing to oblige. Get me out of this and I’m yours, he found himself thinking. His heart was burning and he’d never known such pain, but his left arm was fine so perhaps it wasn’t a stroke after all, but something else entirely.
Oh, shit, Ian thought as he realized what it was. This cannot be the way it happens.
PART THREE
The Book of Wonder
I.
To remove the malediction afflicting Ian, Dracaena draco must be obtained, a cure composed from the bark of the Draco tree, which only grew in the Canary Islands and in Morocco and was said to sprout from the scarlet blood of a dragon. The red resin it produced could generate miraculous results, affecting the cortex cells, so that if one was paralyzed, either in the body or mind, the resin poured onto cold washcloths could cure the afflicted person in a matter of hours. Vincent had rummaged through the professor’s desk to find a directory of local herbal shops, then he and Gillian had gone off to the nearest one, which fortunately was just around the corner on Needham Road. The costly Dracaena draco, which was stored in a metal cannister at the shop, was kept safe under the watchful eye of the clerk.
“It’s expensive,” the clerk warned. He took a moment to observe the old fellow who looked strangely familiar. “Do I know you?” he asked.
Vincent shrugged, evading the truth. You know the song, but you don’t know me. “We’ll take as much of the herb as you have. Quickly, please.”