Page 50 of Shatter the Earth (Cassandra Palmer 10)

; She laughed.

I guessed that was a no.

“I don’t understand any of this!” Marco said, waving off Saffy, who was acting as bartender.

“What’s there to understand?” I asked. “Mircea was playing nice until he thought he was going to lose Elena, then he panicked. I don’t think he would have hijacked my abilities if there had been another way to get her back. But now that he has—”

“You’re afraid he’ll do it again.” That was Saffy, surprisingly. Rhea hadn’t said anything, although she looked frankly gob smacked.

But Marco was shaking his head in disbelief. “Mircea doesn’t panic!”

“The old Mircea doesn’t,” I said, and left it at that.

Or, at least, I tried.

“What do you mean, the old Mircea?”

I shot Marco a look. “You know what I mean.”

“No.” He appeared genuinely bewildered. “I don’t.”

Nobody else did, either, but I didn’t want to discuss this in front of the girls. Or at all. But Marco clearly wasn’t willing to let it go.

“He’s started to show some signs lately.”

“Of what?”

I met his eyes over Vi’s head. “Obsession.”

Marco didn’t say anything else.

“Can we get back to the point?” Saffy said, trying to hand me a glass which I declined. No lunch meant no alcohol, unless I wanted to be sick. “Lover’s Knot isn’t a spell I’m familiar with, but just from the aura . . .”

“Yes?” I said, because she didn’t look happy.

“It’s really strong,” Rhea told me softly.

Unlike the others, she had accepted a drink, what looked like straight whiskey. It was another sign of the inherent contrast in her nature: seemingly soft, sweet and gentle—all of which were true, especially when she was dealing with the younger initiates. But she could also be a fierce defender of the same—and of me.

But it was still odd to see an old-fashioned girl in a lacy top and below the knee skirt, belt back a shot without so much as flinching.

But then, she was British.

“Can you remove it?” I asked, because Rhea was a gifted witch.

She shook her head. “Spells that intertwine two people are difficult. You normally have to have both parties agree, unless you have a key.”

“A key?”

“Something built into the spell that serves as an off switch,” Saffy said, flopping back down onto the sofa.

Yeah, heard that before, I thought. Mircea and I had been bound by another spell once, a geis which had needed a . . . somewhat creative solution to remove. I really hoped this was going to be easier.

“Does Lover’s Knot have one?”

Saffy blinked at me. “I have no idea. You can’t tell just from the feel of it.”