“Oh, Dari, I don’t want to go back there and look at weeds. Can’t you sent someone to fetch it for you?” His mistress tugged on his arm, pulling him in the opposite direction.
He shook his head. “Some things need to be dealt with personally.”
She tugged him even harder, pulling him off balance. Yet he leaned away from her.
I pulled the tent flaps closed. “Any minute now.”
Nova nodded and held her swords at the ready. She looked like an epic assassin waiting for her next kill, with her sari hanging off her body. Her onyx eyes were laser focused, and her swords were polished and well cared for. Yes, she was the queen of the death cast, but right now she looked as though that’s what she dealt in twenty-four seven.
Outside, the sound of raised voices drew my attention toward the flap. A moment later, Dario’s mistress came tumbling through. She fell backwards, taking the tent flaps with her. I stood frozen, my eyes locked on Dario’s. All around, people stopped and stared at the falling tent, the messed-up table and me standing with my magic swirling around me. Dario tilted his head to the side and growled, “You.”
“Dari, who is this? Huh?” His mistress whined at my feet.
I didn’t know if she was a witch or some other kind of super, but I didn’t have time to find out. The words rushed from my mouth. “Moon above shine bright and take her mind to the middle of the night. Relax your mind and let your body flow free until the moment I wake thee.”
Her body fell limply onto the threadbare carpet. “Watch her!” I barked at Nova before I took off after Dario. He spun around and ran for the main street.
Beckett dropped down beside me and kept pace as we chased after Dario. Above, I saw Grayson and Brax leaping from one roof to the next. Serrina and Tabi followed behind us. We all raced to capture the one man who was our last hope at saving Tuck. I pumped my arms harder and threw a ball of my magic at him. Dario zigged to the side. The ball missed him by inches.
“You’re going to kill him,” Beckett snapped at me.
“No, I’m not.” I sucked in deep breaths as I sprinted to catch up.
Dario knocked over baskets full of powders and stones. They flew at me like missiles. Still, I didn’t stop. Dust burned my eyes, and I stumbled over those tiny pebbles. But if I gave up now, there would be nothing left for Tuck. Up ahead, I could see a gap between the buildings. The sun shinned down on it like a finish line I had to reach as he did. I could feel the magic thickening as we got closer.
“What’s that?” Beckett glanced toward me.
“I don’t know, but we have to get there before he does.”
Beckett threw a blue orb a few feet ahead of us, then grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the portal. “This way.”
I didn’t hesitate. I ran headlong for it. My body was pulled and twisted in all different directions. I thought for a second I would be torn apart, and then suddenly, I was put back together. Out we popped in that opening between the buildings. I spun in a circle, looking for Dario, when he skidded to a halt right in front of me. “What do you want?”
I chanted my head to the side. “Oh, Dari, isn’t it obvious?” I narrowed my eyes at him and let my magic flow down my arms. “I want you.”
He stumbled back and held his hand out in front of him while shaking his head. “No, you can’t.”
“But I can. And I will.” I raised my hands above my head, ready to take his magic. I shot my streams of silver toward him. They wrapped around his body, and I felt the pull of his magic. It was so dark, so thick. A heavy copper taste filled my mouth. Blood? He gritted his teeth and held on to his powers, cocooning them around his body. Electric waves pulsed through my body, and I felt my feet lifting up off the ground. My hair stood on end, and I fought to take what he had.
I needed Dario. I couldn’t fail. I wouldn’t. I hovered a few feet off the ground. My muscles shook with the effort I was using to fight him for his powers. A bellow ripped from his throat, and he fell to one knee.
“Zin, you’ll kill him!” Beckett screamed from somewhere nearby.
“No, I won’t.” I knew I wouldn’t kill Dario, and the one and only reason why I wouldn’t was because I needed him to save Tuck. Nothing else mattered.
Vivid orange light cracked from the wall behind Dario. It shot out in a bright array like looking at the sun. Beckett ran headlong at Dario. “Now or never.”
Grayson and Brax dropped in beside him. Ashryn, the noble elf and the one person I hadn’t seen the whole time we were here, melted from the shadows. Her entire outfit was the color of sand, and she had her long sandy hair braided down the side of her body. She pulled two small daggers from the holsters on her thighs. As one, they charged toward him while I held him with my magic. The fissure in the wall behind him shot wide open, and fifteen thralls spilled out around him. They wore black from head to toe with neon green accents and their black sunglasses. Five more warlocks flowed out behind them.
“Shit.” My feet touched down on the ground just as Beckett, along with the other guardians, skidded to a halt. We were outnumbered and outmanned. I pulled my magic back in, letting Dario go for only a moment. “Surrender now and no one has to die here today.”
“I was going to tell you the same thing.” Dario rose to his feet and rolled his shoulders.
Serrina and Tabi slid in beside me. Red smoke drifted from Serrina’s hands toward the warlocks beside Dario. She pursed her blood-red lips into a kiss and blew across the palm of her hand, sending it drifting over the ground toward them. Her streaked blond hair bounced with each of her movements. Her voice went low, lulling, tempting, and beckoning to them. “You want to come to me.”
The warlocks closest to Dario took a step toward us. Dario held his hands up. “No, don’t.”
They hesitated at his command, but Serrina doubled the amount of smoke coming from her hands. “Dario, take a step toward me.”
The Queen of Temptation wielded her power and bent his will. The fissure crackled and more light poured through. Then Alataris ducked his head through the hole and chuckled. “Dario, it appears you need some assistance.”
“Alataris,” I growled. I wanted to leap forward and rip him all the way out of that fissure.
He said nothing. Instead, he reached his hand out toward Dario. “Today is not the day for this. They have no hope for the future.”
Dario didn’t hesitate. He grabbed Alataris’ hand and followed him back through the portal. Like a receding tide, the others flowed back into the hole.
“No! Not this time.” I ran to follow him, to dive through that portal after him. A heavy arm wrapped around my waist, holding me back and stopping me in my tracks.
“Stop, Zin! You’ll get us all killed.” Beckett tightened his arms around me, holding me back.
I slung my arms and legs forward, trying to fight to get to Alataris. As the crack in the wall began to close, the last thing I saw was Alataris’ smiling face. The fight left my body, and I sagged against Beckett.
He pulled me in closer, hugging me. “It’s okay. We’ll find another way. I know we will.”
I shoved him away. “That’s it! There is no other way!”
I turned from him not knowing where I was going or what I would do, but I marched down those streets. People scurried out of my way, yet I couldn’t think. I’d lost Tuck again, and this time it would cost him his life. I knew it. My breaths came in panicked puffs as I found myself back where it all began. Back in that merchant tent.
Nova stood over Dario’s mistress with her swords still at the ready. When she took one look at me, she dropped them. “What happened?”
“We…um…we lost him.” My words were halted and hurt each time I said one. I wasn’t talking about Dario. I was talking about my soulmate…
Nova launched herself at me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pulling me in tight to her. “It’ll be alright. We’ll figure this out. Let’s just wake up the bimbo and get back to school to Niche. There has to be so
mething else.”
As I looked down at that big hair, I froze. “No.”
Nova let her arms slide away from me as she looked up at me. “No?”
“Take her with us. She might be useful after all.”
Chapter 14
Zinnia
“We aren’t Alataris. We don’t take hostages!” Beckett paced back and forth in the one room in the world where none of our magic would work…the detention room in Evermore Academy. The walls were a nondescript beige with a single window. The floor where the mistress laid was cold hard linoleum. The kind of linoleum you found in a public restroom. This was the only room in Evermore Academy that didn’t look like an ancient castle and I wondered why they went to the trouble of updating it. Was it part of the non-magic enchantment or was it simply a late addition? Light rectangular oak tables lined the room each one had a single chair at it facing the wall. Serious detention room. You can’t even look at someone else?
The others had gone off to either clean up or find Niche, leaving only Grayson, Nova, Beckett and myself to stand watch of Dario’s still sleeping mistress. “She isn’t a hostage.”
He threw his arms up. “Oh no? Then what is she? Because from where I’m standing, that’s exactly what she is.”
By the time we got back to the school, it was the middle of the night and everyone was sleeping. The moon was full and round, shining through the window and illuminating the room in nighttime blues. It tinted Beckett’s blond hair a light shade of violet, which he now jabbed his hands through.
I stood over her. “She’s just a bargaining chip. If Dario finds out that we have her, he might—”
“Might what? Turn himself over to free the woman he loves?” Beckett motioned toward her sleeping on the floor. Her blond hair fanned out around her and even in sleep her face looked like it was glowing because of the amount of makeup she wore. “Newsflash: men don’t love their mistresses, Zinnia. They keep them for one reason and one reason only.”
I pressed my lips together, wanting to fight against every word he said. “You don’t know that!”
“What the hell is going on here?” Matteaus shoved through the door, slamming it against the wall. It bounced off the wall leaving a dent behind it.
My jaw dropped open. How could he have known we were here in this room? I glanced at Nova then Grayson, who both shared my jaw dropping shock.
Matteaus crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t act so surprised to see me. This is my school and I know everything.” His stormy eyes swirled with knowledge and power. Then moved down to the floor where Dario’s mistress was. The muscle in his jaw flexed as he ground his teeth and muttered, “Kids, who decided I should work with kids?” He looked up toward the ceiling and clutched his hand into a fist as he shook his head.
I shuffled from one foot to the other. How was I going to explain kidnapping a woman and holding her prisoner in the detention room of my school? I might get expelled for this one. “W-we need her to help find a cure for Tuck’s hex.”
As he met my eye he sucked in a deep breath and huffed it out. His wings ruffled behind him. “Do you have any idea what you’ve brought into this school?”
“I know it’s Dario Malback’s mistress, but I promise we will get rid of her as soon as we can. I just need to find a way to get the spell they have over Tuck, and she is our only option.” I wanted to pace from one end of the classroom to the other, but I held still, forcing myself not to show an ounce of the nerves I felt. Awkward silence hung in the air as he looked from me to the woman and back again.
Matteaus rolled his eyes. “You know nothing.” He waved his hand over the still sleeping mistress. The air around her wavered as though she was lying under water. Her blond hair began to melt away to long straight black tendrils. That overly tan skin faded to a snowy pale, and her clothing went from barely there to a thick gray sweater dress and black leggings.
I sucked in a sharp breath and shoved back from the girl sleeping on the ground. This wasn’t Dario’s mistress. This was an even bigger bargaining chip than I could imagine. A thrill of terror and excitement went through me. “Ophelia!”
Matteaus jabbed a finger in Ophelia’s direction. “She can’t stay here. You need to take her back to wherever you got her from.” He didn’t wait for me to say anything else. He turned around, muttering under his breath, “Build a school, they said. It’ll be good for all the kids, they said. No one ever mentions the kidnappings…” When he turned for the door, black feathers fluttered to the ground behind him. Then he slammed the door so hard the wall shook. Ophelia lay at my feet with her curtain of straight black hair fanned out around her. The light of the moon gave her skin an ethereal blue tint. Grayson raced from the back of the room to perch on the teacher’s desk in the front of the room. He looked down at her with wide, round chocolate eyes. “Oh, now you’ve gone and done it. You kidnapped Alataris’ bloody daughter.”
I am Alataris’ daughter, I wanted to yell back at him, but I didn’t. “It’s not like she was our target. How were we supposed to know it was her the whole time?”
Nova crouched down beside Ophelia. “You know, when she sleeps, she doesn’t seem that terrifying. Should we tie her up and drop her off a cliff or something?”
“Nova!” Even though Ophelia was as evil as Alataris, she was my sister, and a small fraction of protectiveness overcame me. Like the smallest fraction ever.
She shrugged. “I was joking. Well, kind of. But not really. No, I was joking.”
I rolled my eyes. “We aren’t going to hurt her.”
“Then what are you going to do with her?” Nova came to stand in front of me. “We can’t hold someone like her. We’re all queens, and we all have a huge amount of power. But this girl, she’s dangerous and unpredictable. Not to mention she’s the daughter of our sworn enemy. She can’t be trusted.”
I hesitated. Would they all feel this way about me once they found out I was her half sister? Would they want to toss me out too? I had his blood running in my veins. I was a queen siphon witch and he was an evil siphon warlock king. If anything, they should worry about me. I wanted to defend her parentage, but who was I to say anything? I couldn’t.
“Who her parents are have nothing to do with who she is,” Beckett growled. “It’s her choice to be who she is.”
“Hold up.” I raised my hand to cut them all off. “This is a castle, right? There has to be a dungeon somewhere.”
Grayson, Beckett and Nova all shared nervous looks, yet none of them spoke. I didn’t have time for this. We needed answers, and we needed them now. Tuck’s life depended on it. “What?”
“Matteaus said to get rid of her, Zin. We can’t just hold her hostage here.” Grayson tiptoed around her like she was a snake about to strike.
“Look, this might be the only chance we get to find something to help Tuck, and I don’t know about you guys, but I think we owe it to him to try anything.” I looked down at her. “And I mean anything. Are you with me?”
Before I even looked up, Nova moved to stand at my side. “I’m with you.”
I smiled at her and turned toward Beckett. “Becks?”
He rolled his head on his shoulders and sighed. “Yeah, I’m with you.”
“Gray?”
“As your former fake boyfriend, how could I deny you?” A grin spread across his face, and he moved to stand over Ophelia. “Off to the dungeon with her then.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Lock her up, boys.”
Chapter 15
Zinnia
I’d gone from average teenager, to a queen witch, to an official kidnapper. The worst part about it was…I didn’t care. In a hidden basement of Evermore Academy, I stood in front of thick metal bars that were jabbed into the heavy stones, holding them in place. The only light in the cell was the blue moonlight drifting in from the small rectangular window.
I slowly paced back and forth in front of the bars, debating on what I would do or say. Grayson and Nova left us
the moment the door slid shut on Ophelia’s cell. Beckett stood just outside the room standing guard. Though I could only see the back of his shoulder I could tell his back was stiff and unmoving. Maybe I wasn’t the only one nervous about what were doing. My boots scraped against the stones with each step I took, and the damp basement smell invaded my nose. I pulled my hoodie tighter around my body. I didn’t know what I was going to do with her or what I to offer her in exchange for the information I needed.
“Are you freaking kidding me?”
I startled and turned toward the deep voice rumbling behind me. “Headmaster Matteaus.”
He melted from the shadows behind me. I knew it was impossible, but he seemed bigger in this small space. He towered over me, and his biceps were the size of my head. He put his hands on his hips and leaned back against the wall. “We aren’t in the habit of keep teenagers prisoner in this school, Miss Heart.”
“I know that. But I honestly couldn’t think of anything else to do.” I held my breath, waiting for him to yell at me, waiting for my expulsion.
He closed his eyes and let his head fall against the wall. “Zinnia, this school is here to teach you how to use your powers. What you choose to do with them is up to you. Whether you embrace your darker side or not is up to you.” His gaze bore into mine. Did he know who my father was? Did he know I was willing to go as dark as I had to in order to save Tuck?
“I have no intention of embracing my dark side here. I just want to find out what she knows so I can help Tucker. That’s it.”
“She isn’t lying.” Another man larger than Matteaus marched through the doorway of the jail. He stood a few inches taller than Matteaus, with wavy black hair that fell just past his shoulders. Three days’ worth of stubble covered his strong angular jaw, and a jagged scar ran through his eyebrow. When he looked at me with swirling emerald eyes, I felt like he was reading my soul. Oversized black wings peeked over his shoulders, each feather was dark as night and ended in a vivid purple. In my mind, I immediately pictured him on the back of huge Harley with shitkickers on and a leather vest. A pair of noise-cancelling headphones were wrapped around his neck.
Wicked Hex (The Royals: Witch Court Book 3) Page 8
