Hexbound Read Online Free PDF

not.”
    Scout’s eyes were still frozen on the creatures on the floor.
    I tried again. “Scout.” I waited until she made eye contact, then leaned down and put my hands on the sides of her face to make sure she was looking at me.
    “Scout, you and Jason saved me from Sebastian and Alex, and we came and got you out of the sanctuary. Whatever our weaknesses, we are a team. And we’re here, now, together. You can do this. I believe in you.”
    “I’m not sure what to do.”
    Michael snapped his fingers. “I’ve totally got it. Scout, you could flutterby them.”
    She blinked at Michael. “What?”
    “Flutterby them. Use a transmogrify spell like you did on that Frankenstein thing last year. Remember?”
    Scout was quiet for a couple more seconds. “I can’t use a flutterby down here. I don’t have anything. I don’t have an incantation prepared.”
    Michael grinned over at her. “Scout, you are an Adept extraordinaire. If anyone could do a transmog spell off the cuff, it would be you.”
    For a moment, there was silence. And then she reached out and grabbed his cheeks and planted a kiss right on his lips. “You are brilliant ,” she said.
    When she let him loose again, his cheeks were flushed bright red, his eyes wide. Probably the best part of his day, I figured.
    “You’re right,” she said. “I can totally do this. But it’s going to take a few minutes, and I need space to work.”
    We all looked down at the creatures, which were beginning to stir again, heads lolling as they fought off the firespell.
    “First off,” Scout said, “let’s all back up a little.”
    Carefully and quietly, we took a few more steps backward, putting space between us and them.
    “And now for something a little more formal,” Scout said. She looked around at the floor of the tunnel, which was relatively dry compared to some of the other areas we’d been in.
    “Protection circle?” Jason asked.
    “Protection circle,” she confirmed with a nod.
    “What’s a protection circle?” I asked.
    “It’s like a safety bubble,” Scout said, fumbling around in her messenger bag. “Like a little snow globe of happiness that will keep us safe from them.” She pulled out a small zip-top case. She opened it, then pulled out a small plastic hourglass filled with bright orange sand.
    “You keep an hourglass in your messenger bag?” I wondered.
    “Found it at a thrift store. Kept it for just such an occasion. Keep an eye on the biters.”
    I made sure Jason and Michael were doing just that, then turned back to watch Scout work her juju. No way was I going to miss this.
    She pulled a small screwdriver from the case and pried off the end of the hourglass. And then, starting behind us, she began to pour the sand in an arc around me. She completed most of a six-foot circle, but stopped when a gap of about a foot separated the two ends.
    “Everyone inside,” she said. Michael and Jason both stepped carefully over the sand circle. When we were all inside, she went to her knees, put her hands on the floor, and pressed her lips to the gap in the circle.
    “What’s she doing?” I whispered to Michael.
    “She’s starting the Triple I,” he answered without looking back. “It stands for ‘intent, incantation, incarnation. ’ The three parts of a major spell.”
    Okay, magic had officially become school.
    “We ask a wish,” Scout said, sitting back on her heels. “We ask for peace. We ask for space between us and those who would harm us.”
    She held the hourglass in her hands, then closed her eyes.
    After a moment of silence, I leaned toward Michael again. “Is this part of it?”
    “This is the part where I have to draft a spell on the fly since I haven’t poured a circle in forever,” Scout huffed. “It’s also the part where it helps if Adepts don’t ask questions while I do it.”
    I zipped up my lips, just in time for Jason and Michael to take a step backward, bumping into me a little.
    “They’re moving,