by Laura Wylde
Yep, I agreed with her. It was a strange team, but a good one. One that I was proud to be a part of.
Chapter 7
Felicia
“The tower was built in 1066, did you know that?” Andrew asked as he caught up with me. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was trying to find, but I was walking around desperately trying to find something.
“Huh? Yeah?” I gave him a little bit of a glazed over look. “It was, was it? I didn’t know that.”
“I think that might be significant.” He furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought. “I keep circling back to it in my mind and I feel like it might have something to do with all of this. I mean, William the Conqueror was a well-known wolf shifter, wasn’t he? A very strong and powerful one, which was how he managed to take over England, leading the army of the Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French soldiers, making them get along during very fragile times. He also fought off all of the rebellions against him afterwards and no one was able to defeat him.”
“Sounds like a very powerful man.” I couldn’t stop myself from being interested in this, despite everything else that was going on around us. “What happened to him in the end? Did he remain a ruler?”
“Well, history is actually a little murky on that, but rumor has it that he was put under a love spell by a French druidess and he spent most of his time over there, until she eventually killed and ate him.”
I paused for a second in shock before bursting out in hysterical laughter. “Wow, druidesses always get a bad rap, don’t we? We are always the ones who are blamed for everything going wrong.”
“I know. You’re right. It is a very common theme in magical history, and there is not much truth to it.”
“Or so you assume.” I shot him a playful wink, actually causing him to grin. “We can be the worst of the worst.”
“Well, I actually think that it’s William who was the worst. His invasion was devastating to the country. It has been described in many library books as a volcanic eruption because of the effect that it had.”
“That’s a weird description,” I couldn’t help but nod. “Why a volcanic eruption?”
“Because it seemed to come from nowhere and it completely changed everything. Life in the medieval period was changed completely and utterly by it. William basically spread himself over the country like volcanic ash and ruined how it was before. Reading back, it seems like some of the changes were good, but I guess it didn’t seem that way at the time. I suppose any dramatic change like that can be hard to deal with.”
Hmm, that was the truth. Even in my own life, I found change a bit difficult to comprehend. I wasn’t sure if I would have even made it to the Academy if Evan wasn’t going at the same time as me. And that wasn’t even a big change in the world, it was something that only involved me.
“So, do you think that’sed link to all of this?” I couldn’t get too lost in that thought, because I needed to keep my eyes on the prize. We were here for a reason and I needed to remember that. “The invasion and everything?”
He shrugged his shoulders a little helplessly. “I am sorry, Felicia. I know that I must be getting on your nerves just talking about stuff all the time, but I really feel like it’s easy to speak to you. We share interests so I find it easy to open up to you. Plus, I keep hoping that by spewing all of this out, we might figure out something useful. I am here for a reason, and I want to make sure my knowledge comes in handy. Otherwise…”
I nodded and smiled reassuringly at him. “It is…. I like hearing about all of it anyway, and you’re right. You don’t know how much of it will be handy. Please tell me because I might pick something out or it may come later on… it doesn’t really matter, just knowing it is great.”
“Well, if that’s the case then I think I should also point out that before World War Two, only seven executions took place here.” He chuckled as he spotted the look on my face. “I know, it’s crazy, isn’t it? This place is famous for torture, but that actually took place in Tower Hill. It’s just that the rumors got it all mixed up.”
“Huh.” I tapped my chin thoughtfully. “So, why were seven killed here? That seems like a strange number.”
“Not when you think about the seven deadly sins,” Andrew replied almost teasingly. “Then it makes perfect sense. The seven kills were all linked to a sin as well. Mr. Edward Marchant… hung for having multiple affairs, which was a crime against God then. Lust. Thomas Handelman, killed for eating off the King’s plate during a meal that he was cordially invited to. Gluttony. Then there was Duke Patrick Stevens, who stole to feed his gambling addiction…”
“Greed,” I whispered as I started to get the point. “Woah, so it is linked. What about the rest of them?”
“Jack Burke who refused to go to church because it was too early in the morning. Sloth. Russell Smith who was so envious of his friend’s business and wealth, that he killed him. Alexander Jones who became so full of pride that he fashioned himself as a God himself and tried to get others to abandon God to praise him. And of course, Michelle O’Malley, whose wrath sent her on a murder spree that was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. No one could understand what made her so insane. There are theories, of course…”
“So, one of them was a woman? Wow. And the rest … well, I don’t know what to make of it.”
“Well, like everything I say,” Andrew replied with a shrug. “I don’t know if it’s linked. You can never even know how much of it is completely true or simply altered over time. This was all many years ago anyway, what these demons are doing now could be something else entirely.”
“They always say that we should learn more from our past, don’t they? History has a lot to teach us.”
“Hey, guys!” Evan’s voice called over to us. “Look at this.”
I glanced at Andrew and saw that his interest captured, so we both walked over to where Evan and Trent stood pointing. It wasn’t long until Joshua joined us, to stare at the same hell hound marking that we found in the castle in Edinburgh. My heart refused to stop beating at its normal pace as I stared at the symbol, the knowledge that we were definitely on the trail of something awful was too much to bear. Demon dogs and crown jewels… we knew that it had to be meaningful and linked now because this was all in the same room. The power and the hounds… what were the demons going to do with it?
“Woah,” I gasped in shock and terror. “Are there hell hounds here as well then?” An icy coldness gripped me. “Do we need to be worried? Should we warn someone? I feel like… like maybe we should be on our way back to the Academy.”
A hand rested on my shoulder, but I couldn’t even turn to see who it was. There was something about this symbol that I couldn’t take my eyes off of. It was scarier here than in Scotland… perhaps because we were so far away from everyone that we knew and could help us. We were really and truly by ourselves.
“I think this place might be closing now,” Joshua said in a soft voice, letting me know that he was the one trying to reassure me. “We need to get out of here. We can make some calls back at the hotel. We were told to stay in London which means the professors can’t believe that we are in any serious danger here.”
“What if they are wrong though? What if they are mistaken about what’s going on here?”
“If the harem could handle it last year, then we can too.” Evan said, forcing a smile. I could tell that it was a strain, but he was trying to hold it together for my sake. “We kick ass, remember? We can even be better than them.”
I nearly pointed out that they were a harem and we weren’t, which could have made a big difference, but I didn’t want to make any of this more awkward than it already was between all of us. I mean, we couldn’t get along well enough to even consider being a harem. Plus, each of shifters transformed into a different species which was another complication. I wasn’t even sure why I was thinking of this… I certainly wasn’t happy at the moment by the thought of being with these guys, because romance wasn’t on the agen
da here. It wasn’t.
“I agree,” Trent joined in. “We should go back to the hotel and make a plans. We have done all that we can here… and to be honest, we are starting to get some funny looks, and we aren’t supposed to be drawing attention to ourselves, so yes… I think that we should make a move right now.”
The insistence in his tone snapped us all in to action. We put on our brave faces to look like everything was under control, and we exited the building. Although, however cool I tried to look on the outside, if I was even managing to pull it off, I was a mess inside. My thoughts were rambling, and I felt like my fears would paralyze me. I didn’t know how to survive this. Luckily, the boys didn’t seem to be having the same issues as me. We went in silence to the hotel and I was over the moon to get there because finally I could relax…
“Oh my God.” As soon as I stepped through the door in to the bedroom, I realized my mistake. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to think that I was going to be able to relax for even a second, because the academy wasn’t about to let that happen. “This is a hotel for magical folk, right? So this is… this is a room for a harem.”
There was only one giant bed in the middle of the room for all of us to sleep in. I knew that the academy encouraged harems because no one wanted the magical lineage to die out, but this was a bit much wasn’t it? I found it very pushy to assume that we would even want to share a room, never mind a bed. And we weren’t exactly a typical harem, were we? I looked around and could tell from the other guys faces that this didn’t seem to be an issue for any of them. Not even Andrew and Evan, with all of their bickering and fights.
We can all be grown up about this, I told myself defiantly. It’s fine, if we all make it fine.
Just because they were advocating for me to hurry up and get a harem at the Academy, it didn’t mean that I had to go along with it. I was in charge of my own destiny; I could do whatever I wanted with my future. This bed would only be for sleeping and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I nodded, mostly to myself, and walked inside the room with my head held high and my chin jutted out like this was the most natural thing in the whole damn world, and I picked out a corner to toss my bag in to. The others followed, which meant that we were all going along with this, it was going to be okay.
“Let’s make some notes,” I finally said decisively to break the tension in the room. “Andrew said some really interesting stuff to me today, and I think that some of it might be important. Plus, we should draw the sign…”
“I took a picture of it.” Trent helpfully pulled out his phone and showed it to me. “I know that it’s an image probably burned in to our brains forever, but I thought that it might come in handy.”
“I will sketch it.” I wasn’t sure that I was the best at drawing, but I needed to do something with my hands to keep me distracted. This was all getting just a little bit too intense for my liking. “Just to have another record.”
Thankfully, this got the guys talking, and communicating in a more pleasant manner than before, because they had a common goal and something to work towards. I couldn’t help but notice that even Evan and Andrew were speaking as if they didn’t totally hate each other. They were bouncing ideas off of each other, which I loved to see. It made me wonder if maybe, one day, they could even find a way to be friends. But of course, that was probably hoping for too much. Right now, they needed each other. Soon, they wouldn’t.
Anyway, I couldn’t worry about that. I needed to get all of this written down. Who knew, this moment of distraction could even be the point that led us in the right direction. Right now, I would have taken anything. There was a link in all of this, something that the academy professors wanted us to find, and so did I.
Hey, maybe we weren’t put together randomly because we were all in the same place at the same time and we just happened to get caught up in the same mission, but that we were put together for a reason because we all had something to offer. We just needed to find a way to use our knowledge together to make it work for us…
Did I look okay? I wasn’t sure. When I packed a tank top and shorts to wear to bed, I wasn’t exactly planning on sharing my bed with the guys, but I guess there wasn’t any choice now. I was going to have to make it work. So, with a deep sigh and a breath to try and steady my nerves a little, I pushed open the bathroom door and headed back in to the bedroom where the others were spread across the bed.
“I just got off the phone with the professor,” Trent called back to me. “I filled him in, and he asked us to stay here for tonight and that he will be in touch tomorrow with further instructions.”
“Right.” I folded my hands awkwardly across my chest. “Sounds good.”
Evan was the first one to finally look up at me, and the way that his jaw visibly dropped as he ran his gaze up my legs brought a heat to my cheeks so intense that I knew I had to be red as a tomato. Why was my best friend looking at me that way? Like the last thing he wanted from me right now was friendship? And more importantly, why did that gaze make me want to jump his bones? Even in front of the others? I had to really restrain myself to not act on that impulse which was very much unlike me at all.
Trent ran his gaze over me next and he seemed to light up as well. I couldn’t understand it, these were just very simple clothes, there wasn’t anything exciting or sexy about them. The only difference was that I had more skin on show than usual. But that didn’t warrant the gaze that pierced right through me.
“Wow,” Joshua gasped, much more open with his opinion than the others. “Nice PJ’s, Felicia, you look fab.”
I couldn’t resist smiling back as his eyes twinkling at me.
“You do,” Andrew whispered, shocking me to the core. I never would have expected that from him of all people.
Andrew brought out that all too familiar competitive side in Evan and they both began flinging compliments my way, almost bordering on an argument with each other at the same time, which made my eyes roll. Whatever, if they wanted to fight, it meant that everyone wasn’t looking at me anymore, which was a good thing. I didn’t know how I was supposed to behave with strange looks and hormones flying all around the room. I couldn’t handle that, I just wanted things to be normal so that none of us teetered in to dangerous territory, because once we crossed that line, there was no telling if we could come back again and that scared me most of all.
Chapter 8
Evan
It wasn’t just me; it couldn’t just be me, who noticed how incredible Felicia looked right now. I hadn’t seen her in her pajamas for a very long time, not that I forgot how great she looked, but even now the sight of her stunned me to my core. She was utterly breath taking. The feelings that I had for her, the way that my love for her had been growing recently, damn near exploded in my chest. It was really hard for me to not chase her down and hold her. More so when the other guys complimented her, and I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there like an idiot. How did Joshua know what to say and I didn’t? It was absolutely ridiculous.
Luckily, we soon got down to business and we talked through the day. Speaking about London Tower and the crown jewels, plus the sign on the wall was better than me worrying about Felicia. Not that it stopped me.
There was an edge to the air though that wasn’t going anywhere as we gathered around Felicia on the bed, a thick tension surrounding us and digging in to my lungs. I couldn’t stop the competitive edge to my feelings, I couldn’t stop myself from sliding the closest to her, to let the others know that I was the one with the strongest connection to her. I was the one who knew her from a young age, I was the one who had grown up next to her, who had claimed her… I had wanted to be in her harem for the longest. I just knew that if she accepted me, I wouldn’t be jealous anymore. I would be able to hack it because I had a piece of her for myself. It was all of this not knowing that got to me, that sent me a little crazy. Sometimes, I felt like she liked me as well, other times it was as if she barely noticed me as a
nything other than a friend. I was so utterly frustrated; I could hardly stand it.
“Can someone else take over the writing?” Felicia finally asked as she gave a heavy-lidded look. “I’m getting too tired to keep on with this.” She handed it to me, knowing that I would do whatever she wanted. “Thank you.”
Felicia lolled her head back on to the pillow and flopped her hands over her hair with her locks spilling everywhere. She looked like an angel, a dream, I even licked my lips in desire because I wanted to lean down and kiss her. It was impossible for me to focus my eyes back on the page in front of me.
“Do we have anything else to write?” I asked desperately. “I think that we have been through it all.”
Joshua and Trent chewed down on their bottom lips, remaining as silent because they weren’t sure what to say. Of course they didn’t, if anyone had anything to say it would be Andrew, so I turned to face him. He was thinking, he was tapping his chin, but soon he just nodded in agreement, much to my relief. We were done…
Well, I was relieved until I realized that we hadn’t thought much about the sleeping situation. We all really needed to be well rested if we were going to survive the next few days with our heads intact, and there wasn’t anywhere else that we could do that aside from in this bed. Sure, it was huge to accommodate a number of people, but I wasn’t sure if it was right. To be perfectly honest, I would have preferred it to be just me and Felicia.
