Ylva meeting with her probably acted as a decent deterrent, but Sawyer was opportunistic. He proved that much when he kidnapped Nel. Unless Ylva had Juliana under constant surveillance, it wouldn’t be hard to slip in between visits and kidnap her.
Replacing the zoology book on the table, Eva got off the couch and headed for her library. She didn’t have all that many books on blood magic. What she did have had been all
One was the basics. It held everything from bloodstone creation and attunement to the exact thought patterns needed to properly manipulate free blood. It also contained fairly in-depth descriptions of uses for blood and a few tables on blood potency by creature.
Another was about positive rituals. The healing spell she had used on Sister Cross came from that book. Cleaning the zombie infection from Shalise did as well. It also contained the ritual that gave Eva the ability to heal from minor cuts–an amazing ritual for any self-sacrificing blood mage–and the ritual she had performed on Basila.
Eva paused, blinking. In all the excitement with the enigmas, she had almost forgotten about Basila.
Plucking the negative blood ritual book from the shelf, Eva slipped into her room and plucked Basila from her end table. She brought both out to the common room.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about this,” Eva said as she set Basila down on the table. She slipped the blood tome just under the couch. It wasn’t something Zoe needed to know about just yet.
Zoe leaned forward to inspect the miniature basilisk. “This is one of Genoa’s statues, is it not?”
“It is,” Eva said with a nod. “She gave it to me for Christmas a year ago. I’ve since made a tiny modification to it. Basila on.”
The little snake let out a huge yawn. Both black fangs had the tiniest droplet of blood hanging off the tips. Its jaw unhinged enough to make its mouth open almost a full half circle. As it glanced around the room, Eva watched as it stopped on Zoe and opened its eyes wide.
Probably trying to turn her to stone.
After a moment of abject failure, Basila turned and slithered up Eva’s outstretched arm.
Eva smiled as its coils tightened around her wrist. She had been worried when, immediately after the ritual, Basila tried to attack her. The ritual was supposed to instill some loyalty among other things. That failing wouldn’t have been good, but it seemed like it took some time to take hold. Not once since had Basila attempted to attack Eva.
Basila hadn’t even tried to petrify her.
Of course, the downside was that it still couldn’t attack anything. It wanted to–placing it in a cage with a rat showed that much–but it just
“You might notice that the scales, teeth, tongue, and the eyes aren’t quite the normal color for a basilisk.” At least, she was pretty sure they were the wrong color, given her little blood infusion. Its eyes were still silver, but the black veins definitely stood out.
“It was a ritual normally intended for actual living creatures. Blood enhances the durability of the scales in a manner similar to my shields. Strength and loyalty should also increase. And in this case, the venom glands have been replaced with blood glands. Blood that I should have some control over once injected.”
Truthfully, she hadn’t actually tested that part just yet. Mostly because she couldn’t.
“The problem,” Eva said, “is that it is hard to inject blood when it refuses to bite. Some kind of mental conditioning that Genoa put on. Probably to avoid lawsuits and such.”
“You’ve turned Genoa’s gift into a weapon?”
Eva winced at the incredulity in Zoe’s voice. “Not a
Assuming people were willing to resort to blood magic.
“At least for me,” Eva amended.
With a sigh, Zoe rubbed the exact same spot on her forehead that she had brushed over while they were discussing Carlos.
Pretending she hadn’t noticed, Eva continued. “I was wondering if you might have any ideas on how to circumvent that limitation.”
“I’ve asked her about them in the past. Fascinating bit of magic. Unfortunately, neither Genoa nor Carlos ever mentioned how they work. Family secret is all they said.”
“And you’ve never taken one apart yourself?”
Zoe blinked and shook her head. “You said this was a gift. Have you seen how much she normally sells these for?”
Eva shook her head.
“Let’s just say that I would be somewhat upset if I damaged mine in experimenting on it. There are jokes about teachers’ salaries being poor, but even with the hazard pay I get from Brakket, I wouldn’t be able to buy more than one or two of the cheaper ones.”
