Matteaus reached out his hand and caught the damn thing like it was a baseball. He stopped it three feet from hitting us. “You didn’t think I’d let it hit you, did you?”
“Reflex.” I stood straight. “Mostly.”
My eyes were drawn out over the sky. Where the bolt had struck, fissures forked out, making it look like Matteaus had cracked the sky. The white glowing lines connected in some places, and in others it looked like there’d already been a hole there. I arched my eyebrow at him. What the hell did it mean? Why was he showing us all this? When the others began to curse and shift uncomfortably, I knew something was up. I was still learning about this world, but I could tell by the grave expressions on the faces of the Fallen and the way the other heirs reacted… we were screwed.
Maze shook his head and walked away, yanking at the strands of his hair. “I didn’t see! How could I not see?”
Zinnia let out a pained breath. “The walls! They’re down?”
Matteaus shrugged and dusted off his hands. “Not completely. Not yet.”
Beckett’s eyes widened. “THIS IS WHY WE HAVE TO JOIN TOGETHER! THIS IS WHAT’S COMING?”
Everyone began speaking all at once.
“The walls are down.”
“What do we do?”
“How can we fix it?”
But the question that struck me the hardest was. “What the hell were they keeping out?”
Magic poured from our group in nervous waves. A mixture of colors flowed over the ground. Purple, red, yellow and blue all mixed together in a swirling mess.
Beckett gave a shrill whistle. When everyone fell silent he turned back to Matteaus. “Can you tell us exactly what it means for the world if the walls are down?”
Matteaus shrugged. “I can, but I can’t.”
Alarm rang in my ears. I’d never seen them this freaked out. I was so lost. “Wait a second, what walls? What does it all mean? I feel lost.”
Zinnia shook her head, and Beckett’s mouth just kept opening and closing like he was a fish out of water. Ophelia finally pushed to stand in front of me. “You know how Matteaus showed us the bottle?”
“Yeah?”
“That used to be the earth. We had a nice strong wall all around us, protecting us from any big baddies who want to come in and ruin shit.”
My heart began to pound in my chest. “And now?”
“And now it looks like we’ve got swiss cheese protecting us. Shit’s got holes all over the place.” She turned to Matteaus. “My question is, why?”
I nodded, agreeing with Ophelia. Yes, why? Why the hell would this happen? Then my own question popped into my head. “How did that happen?”
Aidenuli glanced at the rest of the Fallen then back at us. “We can’t answer that, but you know someone who can.” He turned toward Penny and gave her a cocky half smile. “Penny?”
She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I have the answers. We will speak of this later.”
Later? But we needed answers now. I opened my mouth to ask but was cut off by a swift gust of wind.
Just then a shadow passed over us, and I looked to the sky. Another angel with hulking black wings that were covered in orange tiger stripes flew in and landed right next to Aidenuli. He staggered to the side and adjusted the cuffs of his shirt. He looked us all over then chuckled. He smiled, but it wasn’t warm or welcoming. It was one of pity and exasperation. He rolled his shoulders, and his wings popped in, disappearing completely. I sucked in a sharp breath. Could they make them disappear like that? He ran his hand through his wind-tossed hair. Black waves fell back into place just as quickly as he pushed them back.
“Collias, what the hell?” Matteaus pinched the bridge of his nose.
“You should just tell them.” As proper as Collias looked, he seemed entirely uncaring.
Matteaus sighed. “We’ve been over this.”
“And I’m telling you, redemption is something I’ve long since given up on. So we might as well tell them everything.” He waved his arm toward us. “They’re capable of so much.”
Aidenuli stepped in front of Collias and pressed his hand to his chest. “Not now. Not here.”
The muscle in Collias’ jaw ticked, and he narrowed his hypnotic feline eyes at Aidenuli. “But—”
Aidenuli shook his head. “No.”
Matteaus clapped Collias on the shoulder. “We’ll discuss this later.”
“They need to know what took their friend.” Collias shrugged from Matteaus’ hand.
My heart leapt up into my throat. I wanted to ask him to tell us. We were so close to knowing what we were dealing with. Flying blind was no fun, and we had been doing it this whole time. Please, tell us, please. I wanted Logan back, not just for the heirs to take over the council, but to have him home safe with the ones he was closest too. Beckett wrapped his hand around my wrist and gave it a little squeeze. I didn’t look at him, didn’t dare move. He too was praying for the same information.
“They already know.” Aidenuli turned and looked Ashryn dead in the eye. “It’s time to get the best tracker you know…”
Ashryn, who’d always been silent and unwavering every time I’d seen her, unleashed a string of curses even I, the New Yorker, wouldn’t have thought to put together. Her pointed ears twitched and tangled with her long sandy-blond hair. Her forest eyes blazed with anger, and her body went so still I thought she might turn into a statue. Serrina placed her hand on Ashryn’s arm.She lowered her voice. “It’ll be okay.”
“We’ve told you all we can.” Matteaus turned and walked around our group leaving us there to wonder what the hell we were going to do. The other angels followed him back into the house.
A shiver ran over my body, not from the cold. We are so screwed.
Chapter 8
Astrid
The blue portal swirled around us, mirroring Beckett’s tumultuous emotions. While his rolled from anger to worry, mine remained completely shell-shocked. The walls around the earth were fracturing like someone had thrown a baseball through a window. There were holes and cracks, and whatever they were keeping out was now getting in. The scariest part about it all was we had no idea what the hell the walls kept out, but whatever it was, was dangerous as hell and hadn’t been let in for a long, long time. And now they were coming in and stealing warlocks. My heart panged for Logan.
I stepped out just in front of Beckett’s house and waited for the others to filter out through the portal. On occasion, students walked past his house, although it was in the back of the property and away from the other houses on the walkway that looped around the whole school. A boy a few years younger than us, and his two friends, stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of us. Maze was the last one through, and the second his eyes landed on them, the three boys turned and ran in the other direction.
Zinnia glanced up at the house. “What are we doing back at Warwick?”
“This has something to do with Alataris, and we have all his journals here. And she’s comfortable here.” Beckett raised his chin toward Penny then motioned for all of us to go into the house.
There we were, heirs, queens, and guardians, all walking into his house to figure out the shit show that was the world. The walls rattled and shook as Beckett entered the room. Grayson raced around us all claiming a spot on the arm of the couch. Maze practically vibrated with tension as he walked into the sitting room. His eyes kept darting toward the hallway in the direction of Tilly. He hesitated for a moment took a step in her direction, shook his head, then went into the room.
The couches were filled, and the rest of our group filtered in around them. We had the most powerful witches of the five casts and the most powerful warlocks of the heirs. The guardians were just icing on the cake. Brax with his huge stature filled up the back corner. Tabi stood out in her bright pink clothing against the dark coloring of the leather couches. Nova looked pale and ghostly. She rung her hands together twisting the tips of her gloves around her fingers. Purple
sparks danced over her skin and everyone seemed to give her space as they moved around to find a spot in the room. Power hung heavy in the air, I felt it on my skin like a second layer. Zinnia glowed like a freaking Christmas tree from it all hitting her. Once we were all settled, Penny stood in front of the fireplace grabbing all our attention. She wrung her hands together and shifted from one foot to the other.
Beckett cleared his throat. “Penny, how did this happen?”
She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. When she opened them again, I saw the grave starkness within her eyes. “Years ago, Alataris tricked some very powerful evil beings into mixing his magic with theirs.”
“Shit,” I whispered under my breath.
“You see, he wanted to be the most powerful on Earth.” She licked her lips. “But the only way to do that was to get some of their power and use it against them.”
Ophelia groaned and rolled her eyes. “Sounds like dear old Dad.”
“So, he took the power and made the wall. Which, by chance, worked for us. He kept them out and put himself in power. Essentially taking control of everything. And you all know the rest. He ruined lives. That is, until you came along.” She motioned to Zinnia.
“But the question is, what exactly was he keeping out?” I glanced around the room. “We have the most powerful supernaturals sitting here ready to protect the world. And yet I am nervous for what’s about to happen.”
“Everything. They were keeping everything out.” Penny whispered.
Zinnia sighed and shook her head. “When Alataris died, there was a massive earthquake. I felt it all around me. I thought it was just all the power I had shot into him exploding back out. I had no idea it would lead to this. Are you telling me that was the walls coming down?”
Penny nodded. “Not coming down, but the first fracture. The walls are like a magical glass bubble—one crack leads to another and another. When he died, the magic died with him.”
Zinnia glanced at the other queens, her sapphire eyes filled with pain. “We did this. Everything we know is in danger.”
Zinnia let her head fall into her hands. Penny stepped toward her and placed her hand on her shoulder. “If I could’ve killed him, I would have, no matter what the consequence. You did the right thing.”
Nova shook her head, sending a cascade of her white-blond hair sailing over her shoulder. “Zinnia, we did the right thing. We can’t look back. We have to look forward now. At least we’ve got a clue now as to why the Fallen are trying to band us together.”
Beckett leaned in closer to me, his breath drifted across my ear. “This is it. This is why I had to be on your ass. This is what’s coming.”
A chill went down my spine. How could I have ever been ready for this? For other worlds colliding with ours. To face monsters that didn’t even occur in my nightmares. My stomach tied into knots and I tried to swallow down the ball of nerves in my throat…was I ready?
“Well, we have to get the walls back up.” Zinnia pressed her lips into a hard line. “To keep the world safe, we have to—”
“Once the walls go up, then we won’t be able to get in or out,” Penny interrupted. “And Logan would be lost… forever.”
“Three days!” The words burst from Beckett before any of us could speak. “Give me three days to get him back, then put up the walls.”
Zinnia nodded. “That’ll give us three days to figure out what the hell he did to get the walls up in the first place.”
“Thank you.” Beckett sighed. “I’ll be back by then.”
“Call me the moment you get back. Whatever we need to do to put these walls up needs to happen—for us and for the world. After seeing that picture of the thing that took Logan, I don’t want to risk anyone else getting taken.” Zinnia’s eyes roamed over our motely crew. “Not a single one.”
“Excellent. Ashryn?” Beckett turned toward where she stood in the corner, having a hushed conversation with Serrina.
“Yes?” She glanced over her shoulder at him.
She was so still so cold, yet her forest eyes told me another story. They were full of angst and silent worry. Serrina ran her hand over Ashryn’s shoulder. Where Serrina was tall and model perfect, with full cherry lips, bright emerald eyes, and streaked blond hair, Ashryn was slightly shorter, with natural, sandy-blond hair and slim willowy frame. Yet somehow they seemed to almost match each other. Maybe it was the T-shirts and jeans, or maybe it was something else I couldn’t put my finger on.
“Aidenuli said you know where the tracker is?” The room shook for a moment, and I knew he was trying not to get his hopes up. But this was the first lead we’d had at all.
“I do.” Two words, nothing more.
“Don’t let all the information flow all at once, dove. It’s not like we’re not waiting on edge.” Grayson moved off the arm of the chair and sauntered across the room—so smooth, so casual. With his vampire agility, he hoped onto the arm of a couch. “Doling it out in bloody piecemeal, aren’t you?”
Ashryn said nothing, just pursed her lips and gave him a sour look. Beckett shifted from one foot to the other. “We have to find him, tonight. Do you know where he is?”
“Yes.” She tucked a strand of her sandy hair behind her pointed ear. She straightened her shoulders and raised her chin giving her already slim body a long willowy grace only an elf could achieve while standing still. Her forest green eyes seemed to see me right down to my soul.
We all waited for her to say more, yet she didn’t. I sighed. This was like pulling teeth. “Where is he, and will you take us to him?”
“I will take you. And we must return to my home. To Windelos.” She didn’t smile, didn’t look happy about it for one second. Her lips pressed into a thing line and muscle in her jaw ticked as if she was grinding her teeth.
Beckett took a step toward her. “If you know where this tracker has been, then you know where we’re going.”
Ashryn gave him a single nod. “Yes.”
Grayson sighed and shook his head. “Care to share that with the class, love? We haven’t got all bloody night.”
Her eyes darted around the room, then to the windows. She lowered her voice. “I cannot speak it out loud for fear they will hear us… but we’re going someplace worse than Hell.”
Even I had to admit that was not helpful. Not in the least. “Then how do we know what we’re going to need to prepare?”
Ashryn stepped away from Serrina and moved farther into the middle of the room. She plucked at the bow string that lay across her chest. “There is no way to prepare, but when it’s time, I will tell you.”
“Then we need to decide who’s staying and who’s going to help get the walls back up.” Beckett looked around the room. “I don’t expect any of you to go. But I will be going after Logan.”
Penny waved toward Zinnia and the other queens. “All the queens need to stay. We have to get the walls back up. It will take a great deal of power.”
Nova shook her head. “I need to go.”
“We need you here.” Penny argued.
“No.” Nova looked around the room and slowly lifted her fingers. She wiggled them and the others all fell silent. “I’m going.”
The others all began to chat about who was going and where they were going. Their low whispers filled the room. While I had the chance, I leaned in closer to Beckett and whispered, “What do her fingers have to do with this?”
He turned his face away from the others and pressed his lips to my ear so no one could hear us. “Nova can see death coming for anyone she touches. If she’s coming, then there is a reason for it… a reason she’s already seen. No one would question it. Because who really wants to know?”
I sucked in a sharp breath and eyed her anew. “Yeah, that doesn’t make me uncomfortable at all.”
Beckett chuckled then raised his voice over the low murmurs of the others. “Who else is in?”
Ophelia pulled two knives from some hidden place. She spun them in her hands. Th
e flickering firelight from the fireplace glinted off them. “I’m in.”
Zinnia shook her head and pointed her finger at Ophelia’s chest. “You’re not. Don’t forget, sister, you’re a queen, and if Nova has to go, then you need to stay. I need your power for the walls.”
Ophelia’s bottom lip puffed out and her shoulders slumped. “But I was gonna go to another world and stabby stab.” She made the stabbing motion with her knives for effect.
“No.” One word, and Zinnia made her wishes known. Her power rolled through the room, and we all froze for a moment.
“Fine,” Ophelia huffed and slumped down in her seat. “I’ll stay. I need to help my sister get the walls up.”
Cross glanced from her to Beckett and back again. He leaned his elbows on his knees and ran his hands through the length of his messy hair. His gold eyes sparked and he sighed. “I, um, I have to stay. I’m out.”
Beckett’s eyes shot to me then back to Cross. I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. Soulmates couldn’t be expected to split up, not for something like this. “We’ll need you here to keep an eye on the council, or what’s left of it. And to keep an eye on the walls. Anything comes through it, you kill it.”
Cross ground his teeth together and nodded. “With pleasure.”
Grayson hopped off the arm of the couch to stand next to Beckett. “Not sure how the whole blood thing will work where you’re going. Unless you all want to volunteer.” He let his tongue dart over one of his fangs while wagging his eyebrows at me. “What do you say, love?”
My hand instinctively went to my neck, landing with a loud slap. My eyes went wide and I swallowed. “I think I need my blood.”
Wicked Curse (The Royals: Warlock Court Book 4) Page 6
