“Wait, like the Greek gods?” I’d seen a lot in Evermore over the past few weeks, but the Greek Gods . . . no way. But I supposed if Medusa and her sisters were real, then the bigger ones were too.
“Technically they’re not gods, but they have power as if they were. They’re the first supernaturals ever created. They were meant to help the Fallen in their own battle, but they’re a handful for Matteaus and the others.” He shook his head. “And after everything else that happened with them.”
“What happened?” Worry bounced on my nerves. I thought this would be a test, something to teach me, but maybe this was a way to get rid of me for good.
“They were abysmal when it came to working with Zinnia. Hermes almost killed us all and don’t even get me started on Poseidon. My lungs still hurt just thinking about it.” I couldn’t take my eyes off the predatory way he moved. Like a panther prowling a cage. “And then there are the rumors.”
I sat on the edge of the couch. “What rumors?”
“Supposedly some of the Fallen”—he made air quotes with his fingers—“‘dated’ the Greeks, which is a hugely bad idea.”
“Why is it a bad idea?” My voice came out a bit more salty than I wanted. I didn’t understand why couples were such a bad thing. Why Beckett and I would be such a bad thing? My dreams were trying to tell me something. Yes, I was attracted to him. Of course I was. Who wouldn’t be? He was gorgeous. But deep down it was more. I liked the way he fought for what he believed in, how he always tried to do the right thing and how loyal he was to those closest to him.
“Because dating can only make things more complicated. Especially for people like us.”
“What do you mean people like us?”
“The heirs, the Greeks, hell, even the witch court. It only complicates things.” He pinched his bottom lip. “Can we focus here?”
I wasn’t ready to talk about the mission yet. I wanted to know why he was so against relationships. “Logan doesn’t seem to think they get in the way.”
“Logan is dating a normal warlock with normal powers. She’s not like the rest of us. There are rules for a reason. Powers and high emotions don’t mix. That’s why it’s in the warlock bylaws.” He pressed his lips together.
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s like with Zinnia and Tuck. They weren’t supposed to be together because a knight is not to be with a queen. When choices get difficult, which they always do, the couple will pick each other over the good of the many. The same goes for the heirs. They don’t want two houses to align against the others.” He put his hands on his hips. “Honestly, Astrid, we need to focus on the task at hand.”
Message received, not interested. “Fine.”
“If we have to go to the underworld, I think we should get Nova. It only makes sense.”
Nova, again with Nova. Beautiful goth Nova. “I thought this challenge was ours to undertake not the whole cavalry.”
“What do you have against Nova?”
You want her. And I wasn’t jealous, not one little bit, not even for a second. Sure, Logan gets to have his cute date, but I have to live in the land of forbidden crushes. “I don’t have anything against Nova. All I’m saying is I don’t think we should break the rules from the get-go. I know we’re warlocks and all that but still. I’d like to get all of my powers back.”
“Fine,” he snapped. “No Nova.”
“Good.”
“Good.” He threw his hands up. “I think I know of a way to get in, but we’ll have to leave at night.”
“Great, nighttime it is.” I rose to my feet. “Anything else?”
“You’re leaving?”
“Well, yeah, unless there was something you wanted to discuss.” Tension hung between us.
He shook his head. “Nope, nothing.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
“Stop saying that,” I snapped. “If you have something to say then say it.”
I stood waiting for him to blow up at me for ruining the apartment, for not listening to him, yet he said nothing.
He shook his head. “I don’t have anything to say.”
“Fine then.” Things were just awkward between us. I didn’t know what to say to him or do around him. I both wanted him and wanted to get away from him.
“Fine, good.” He put his hands on his hips.
We stood glaring at each other for long moments. Neither of us saying anything, and neither of us moving. I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss him or hit him. Maze walked in from the kitchen and stood between us. He glanced from Beckett to me and back again.
One by one he placed little cone-shaped snacks on the tips of his fingers. He pawed his hand through the air and hissed like a cat. “Damn, I thought you guys worked out this whole tension thing.”
“What the hell are you babbling about? There is no tension.” There was definitely tension. I just didn’t want to admit to it.
“Um, yeah, there is. You guys should just stop doing that dream bang cuddle thing you’ve been doing and get to it in real life.” He bit the snack off the tip of his finger.
“WHAT?” We both yelled at the same time.
“Oh come on, like you guys didn’t know.” He reached into the bag on his lap and placed another snack on his fingertip.
“Maze!” I gave two quick claps to get his attention. “What are you saying?”
He looked from Beckett to me then threw his head back laughing. “You guys honestly didn’t know?”
“Didn’t know what?” Beckett snatched the bag of snacks away from him.
“You all have been you know, bow chicka wow wowing in your dreams. You know, doing the dirty, hiding the trout, tickling the pickle, slap and cuddles, wetting the whistle, laying the pipe. Grinding metaphysical nasties.” He laughed even harder.
I was going to throw up. Those dreams, they were so real, so close, so freaking intimate. I shook my head and whispered, “You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
“Bizzzzzzzz.” Maze made that annoying game show sound. “Survey says the psychic is right. Ding ding ding.”
“Holy shit, Astrid.” Beckett took a step toward me.
I held my hand out, stopping him. “Nope.” I had to run, to get the hell out of there before this got any more embarrassing. “So yeah, I’ll meet you tomorrow night.”
I ran toward the door.
Beckett leapt over the coffee table to chase after me. “Astrid, we should talk.”
The cold air hit my face and I pumped my arms even harder. “Later,” I called over my shoulder and ran headlong from the house. There was no way I was going to talk about this with him, not now, not ever. It was too embarrassing. I gave him the metaphysical booty and he knew it. Shit shit shit. I dared a single glance over my shoulder to see if he followed. But he stood still as a statue on the porch, staring after me.
Chapter 40
Beckett
I slammed the door shut with all my strength. The walls and windows rattled and I turned to face Maze. I was in front of him in two strides. Before I knew what I was doing I wrapped my hand in his shirt and yanked him to his feet.
His snacks fell to the floor. “What the hell, man?”
“What is wrong with you? How could you just blurt out something like that?” I shook him. “How long have you known?”
Green smoke seeped from his hands and he looked down at my fists in his shirt. “Beck, you know I don’t do well with the whole touching thing.”
I shoved him away from me and he fell back on the couch. The leather creaked under his ass and the couch scrapped against the hardwood floors. I moved to stand in front of the fireplace. Heat kicked out from it in waves against the back of my legs. I was dumbfounded. Did I go after her?
I cleared my throat. “Let me get this straight. She and I . . .”
“Yup.” He nodded.
“But that’s impossible.” I shook my head, not wanting to believe it. We already had so much to ove
rcome between the two of us and now this.
Maze bent over and scooped one of those little cone snacks off the floor. He blew on it then shoved it into his mouth. “Not if you’re a dream walker.”
“No warlock has had that gift in centuries. It’s too dangerous.”
Maze slid off the couch to sit next to the pile of snacks on the floor. He blew on each one before he put them into his mouth. “And yet you and your girl both have it.”
I didn’t know why, but it made me feel better that we both were participating in this little mess with our powers. “No, that’s not possible. Powers don’t work like that. Besides, I’ve had the same powers all my life.”
“Well, I imagine that if you share a deep connection with someone, that might open up some avenues for other powers to manifest.”
“I can only think of one other warlock who supposedly had that power and it just can’t be.” I put my hands on my hips and bit my bottom lip.
“Or can it?” Maze arched his eyebrow.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“Is that a trick question?” He shrugged. “Of course there are things I’m not telling you, duh.”
“I have a headache. You give me headaches.” I wanted to swipe the food from his hand. “It’s not like we don’t have other snacks here. Why are eating off the floor? The germs alone, man.”
“Alas germs are not how I’m going to die. So you see, dirty won’t actually hurty.”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” Maze rose to his feet and looked down at the mess he was about to leave. “Where’s the damn thieving cat when you need it.”
“You can’t feed a cat those things.” I motioned for him to follow me up the stairs.
“You can feed a devil cat anything,” Maze muttered.
“Devil cat?” I climbed the stairs two at a time.
He grabbed onto the railing and followed me up. “Stole my chicken nuggets . . . what kind of monster does that? A devil monster, I tell you.”
I turned down the hall and marched toward my father’s office. The moment I walked in the smell of old books filled my nose. A single desk sat in the middle of the room and to the right of it another door to a secret room stood wide-open. I’d discovered the room when I was a small child. It held all he secrets the warlocks of Evermore wanted to keep. I walked into the dust-covered room and gazed at the books lining the walls and stacked precariously around the floor.
Maze stopped just inside the doorway. “What exactly are we looking for here?”
There in the back corner of the room sat a book as thick as two Webster dictionaries. The cover was a hunter green with gold writing on the cover that read A History of Warlocks. I grabbed it with both of my hands and dragged it over to my father’s desk, where it landed with a loud thud. Dust flew up at us. I waved it away and cleared my throat of the bits I inhaled.
Maze hunched over and sneezed. “Stupid dust bunnies.”
“You know what this is, right?” I opened the book and flipped to the table of contents.
“Yeah, they made us read it when we were kids. It’s the stuff of nightmares. The origins of the entire warlock race.” He scoffed. “Hard pass on the history lesson.”
“Just wait.” I flipped the book to the page I was looking for. I pointed to the picture of a beautiful woman with long blond hair that ran from the top of her head down past her hips. The dress she wore was a deep green color straight out of King Henry the 8th’s time period. The neckline fell across her shoulders. The corset cinched in at her waist and the dress puffed out at her hips. She was beautiful, with a straight regal nose, large round emerald eyes, and milky skin.
“Penndolyn Fairmont.” Maze whistled. “She was a looker for sure. But oh the things she was capable of.”
I sat back in my father’s chair and read the text. “She was the first warlock ever. The one to walk away from the witches and join Alataris’ side. She betrayed them all.”
“Yeah, but think of it this way. If she hadn’t then we wouldn’t exist. Warwick wouldn’t exist.” Maze clapped me on the shoulder. “Ballsy, very ballsy of her.”
I pointed to a line next to her name. “And the only one on record to have the dream walker ability. So how is it possible that I have it? And why Astrid?”
Maze pointed to the picture. “Beck, man, look at the mark.”
I narrowed my eyes and leaned in closer to the book. “Is that . . .”
“The same one Astrid has . . . yeah.”
I shoved away from the book. “Shit.”
Chapter 41
Astrid
This is going to be fine, totally fine. Just going on a mission to get my powers back. Nothing more, nothing less. So why did I feel like I had to puke and poop all at the same time? My insides were in knots and I wanted to turn around and walk away from the door. Instead, I sucked in a deep breath and knocked.
“I thought Beck told you not to knock.” Maze pulled the door open and didn’t even look up at me. The smell of cookies wafted down the hall and he held a spoon covered in batter in one hand and a bowl in the other.
I walked past him and paused in the foyer. The fires were lit in both sitting rooms yet no one was there. I glanced up the stairs, looking for Beckett. “It’s awkward to just walk in now.”
“Why?” He scooped some batter onto the spoon then shoved it into his mouth.
“Because, you know.” I walked over to the hall leading back to the kitchen and glanced down. “Where is he?”
Maze walked past me and down the hall. “Wasn’t my turn to watch him.”
My boots clicked on the hardwood floors as I followed him. I walked into the kitchen behind him and froze. “What happened in here?”
Flour littered the island and floor. Cookie sheets were stacked in piles and laid out across all the available counter space, and scores of cookies were strewn about in various states of preparation. I walked over to a stack of chocolate chip and grabbed one. It was still warm in my hands. Maze stopped what he was doing and pointed the spatula at me like he was going to smack my hand with it.
I slowly brought the cookie to my lips and made a show of taking a bite of it. It was warm and gooey. The chocolate melted and stuck to my fingers. “Maze, these are delicious! But why so many?”
“Cookies are a huge part of life, Astrid.” He gave me a deadpan look. “Do I have to teach you everything?”
“Really? I’m pretty sure you haven’t taught me anything so far.” I leaned back and looked down the hall. Still no Beckett. “We were supposed to leave tonight. It’s not like him to not be where he says he’s going to be.”
“I’m sure you know exactly where he is every night.” Maze chuckled to himself as he bent over and opened the oven. He reached in and pulled out a cookie sheet. When I didn’t laugh, he glanced over his shoulder at me. “What? To soon?”
I pursed my lips. How could he blurt that crap out like it wouldn’t be embarrassing? I sighed and sank down onto a stool next to the island. “Gee, you think?”
He pointed toward the door. “In three . . . two . . . one . . .”
“Astrid, hi.” Beckett strolled into the room looking finer than ever in his dark blue jeans, combat boots, and his sun-kissed skin stood out against his crisp white V-neck shirt. He tugged his sleeves up to his elbows.
“Hey, you ready to go?” I didn’t meet his gaze. I couldn’t, not yet.
“Yeah.” He lowered his voice. “Don’t you think we should talk first?”
I wasn’t ready to deal with this. I rose to my feet and walked back toward the hallway. “Nope.”
Beckett followed behind me. “No?”
“No.” I shook my head.
“Astrid, we have to talk about this.” As we walked back into the foyer, he grabbed my arm and spun my around to face him. “Please.”
Please? We had to talk about what happened, about the things we said to each other and where that left us now. I so
ftened my voice. “We will, but can we just focus on one thing at a time? I’ve messed up a lot lately, and I want to prove to Matteaus that I belong here and I deserve to have my powers. Hell, I want to prove it to myself and to you.”
“To me?” He slid his hand down my arm and wound his fingers with mine. “I always knew you belonged here.”
Heat sizzled between us and for a moment I wanted to forget the task at hand and just lean on him. Let him take me in his arms and tell me everything was going to be okay. But I couldn’t, not yet. I had so many questions. Why was he so open with me only in his dreams when I needed him to be open with me in real life?
I glanced down at our joined hands then back up at his deep ocean eyes. Something clicked inside of me. This was right between us, yet we kept on denying it. “Okay, then let’s get this over with so we can figure us out.”
“Yeah, it’s about time.” He smiled down at me. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
“Us or the mission?”
He shrugged. “Both.”
“Since when do we do anything easy?” I squeezed his hand and for the first time had the guts to do something I’ve wanted to do since the day I met him. I wound my other hand into his shirt and tugged him down toward me. When his lips met mine, my insides went wild and I pulled him closer to me. He lifted our joined hands up and held them over his chest, close to his heart. This kiss wasn’t the frenzied ones we’d shared before. No, this was a slow burn. A melding of lips and tongues that made me feel things down to my toes. That burning connection we shared in our dreams, the need for each other and desire for so much more. I moaned into his mouth and he took my lips harder.
“Glad you two made up!” Maze bellowed from the kitchen.
We jumped apart and I glanced around the room, then lowered my voice to a whisper, “How did he know?”
Beckett sighed. “He’s an insane psychic, that’s how.”
Wicked Wish (The Royals: Warlock Court Book 2) Page 20
