“Actually, a real, dead dragon bone,” Hudson answers, poker-faced. “Considering most live dragons tend to be using their bones, and nobody likes a grumpy dragon.”
“Where would we find dead dragon bone?”
Jaxon gives me a weird look at my emphasis on the word “dead,” but he answers, “Dragon Boneyard,” at the exact same time that Hudson does—again.
“Dragon Boneyard?” I repeat. “That doesn’t sound terrifying at all.”
“You have no idea,” Hudson says. “I keep trying to figure out how we’ll navigate the boneyard. It’s going to be a disaster.”
“I don’t think I even want to know yet. One problem at a—” I freeze as something occurs to me. “Hey, wait. You really do know what we need to perform the spell.”
“Nothing gets by you.” Hudson gives me a fake, wide-eyed look, then growls, “No shit, Sherlock.”
“You know, you really don’t have to be so intolerable all the time,” I admonish.
“And here I thought you liked intolerable guys. You are dating Jaxy-Waxy, after all.”
“Your brother’s not intolerable,” I tell him, a little offended on Jaxon’s behalf.
“Says the girl who’s known him less than two weeks.”
I ignore him—not because there’s a part of me that thinks he might be right but because I don’t have time for this right now. We have things that need to get done, and they have nothing to do with my and Jaxon’s relationship.
“So we need a bone from a dead dragon and a bloodstone from the vampires,” I tell Jaxon. “We already have something from the alpha werewolf. And the athame of a powerful warlock, courtesy of Hudson, although actually, not sure why we needed that. Wasn’t the warlock thing supposed to be a stone?”
Jaxon’s eyes widen as he realizes where I’m going. “You think that’s what Hudson was doing when he…” He trails off, like even saying the word is too much.
“Body snatched me? It would seem so.”
“The spell only calls for a tooth, though,” Jaxon says. “Why all the excess blood?”
“I already told you Cole’s got an attitude problem,” Hudson answers. “And apparently a chip on his shoulder a mile wide when it comes to you, Grace.”
“Hudson says Cole freaked out and the extra blood was an accident.” I pause, unsure if this next bit sounds like I’m defending him. “Cole and I haven’t exactly had the best relationship since I got to Katmere.”
Jaxon nods. “That’s an understatement. Although did Hudson really have to nearly kill him?”
“Tomato, to-mah-to,” Hudson answers with a negligible little shrug that does nothing to hide the satisfied gleam in his eyes, one that reminds me an awful lot of Jaxon after he, too, nearly drained Cole dry.
I wonder what Hudson—what either of them—would do if I told them that they have way more in common than they could possibly imagine.
Probably scream at the messenger, and who’s got time for that? Especially when Jaxon already looks so tense that I fear he might start shaking the ground at any moment.
So instead, I content myself with saying, “You’re terrible, you know that?” to Hudson before turning back to Jaxon. “So does the athame help?”
“Actually, no,” Jaxon answers, a contemplative look on his face. “The fourth item is a talisman from one of the seven main covens. I’m not sure why he took the athame.”
“Because at the center of the athame’s hilt is a talisman—a moonstone,” Hudson answers in a voice that clearly says how he thinks Jaxon is a child. “You’re welcome.”
“Which you’re going to share the location of immediately.” I don’t even bother to make it a question.
“Of course, Grace.” He gives me the most condescending smile in existence. “How can I resist when you ask so nicely?”
I relay what he said about the talisman to Jaxon and pretend I don’t notice the way my boyfriend’s eyes narrow at the in-his-face knowledge that I’m carrying on a full-blown conversation with Hudson at the same time I’m talking to him.
“The fifth item is near the North Pole,” Jaxon continues with a deliberate sneer on his mouth as he says it—definitely rubbing in the whole “we’re going to make you human and you have no say in it” thing to Hudson. Which, not going to lie, is totally well deserved after everything Hudson did.
“The North Pole? What’s there? I mean, besides Santa’s workshop?”
Jaxon and the Bloodletter both kind of raise eyebrows at that, so I give them a sheepish smile. “Not the right time for levity, huh?”
“I thought it was funny,” Hudson says. “Besides, I bet you’d look cute in one of those tiny little elf costumes with the bells on the toes.”
“Excuse me?” I say, not sure if he’s making fun of how short I am or if he’s implying something lascivious and inappropriate. Either way, I’m really not okay with it.
For once, Hudson is mysteriously silent. The jerk.
“The Unkillable Beast,” the Bloodletter finally answers, and there’s something in the way she says it that has me looking at her more closely. Something that has the hair on the back of my neck standing up and the rest of me trying to figure out just what feels so off about the voice she used.
But her face is impassive, her eyes placid pools of green, so I decide I must have imagined it. And focus instead on what she said and not how she said it. “Unkillable?” I repeat. “That sounds very…not good.”
“You have no idea,” the Bloodletter agrees. “But it’s the only way to break the covenant and take Hudson’s power away for good.”
I expect Hudson to protest the idea—maybe something snarky about no reason to get ourselves killed on his account when he’s quite happy keeping his power—but he doesn’t say a word. He just stares at the Bloodletter with his sharp, watchful gaze.
When I turn back to Jaxon, it’s to find him and the Bloodletter watching me expectantly. “I’m sorry, did I miss something?” I lift my brows in question.
“I asked if you wanted to try the wall thing,” Jaxon says.
I don’t even pause to give Hudson a chance to react. “Good God, yes.”
Because a thought is starting to take form in my head that has dread pooling in my stomach. If Hudson already knew how to get out and was taking control of my body to make that happen… What was he planning on doing once he was out? Kill them all?