Blooming Black: Rosewood Academy of Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 4)

by Juliann Whicker

  Jasper walked around briskly like he was in a crisp suit instead of his smelly spandex. He knelt in front of me, took out a knife, drew it across his palm and closed his eyes. The blood spilled through the air over the glowing green lines, red and green swirling together while I waited for something to happen. I needed to shave. My glamour didn’t have stubble, but it was starting to grow through.

  “I swear myself vassal to Drake Huntsman, the green mage. I break all ties and bonds with every other and promise to serve, protect, obey and guide until death and dismemberment.”

  I stared at the usually bland mage. His glamour crackled and I saw for a moment a mage who wasn’t nearly as demure and appropriate as I’d always thought. Ambition. Had he thought of taking over Huntsman inc. after I abandoned this world for Darkside? “Yeah. I Drake Huntsman, the green mage of utter brilliance and magnificence accept your offer of fealty and service and make you my underling main man. Also, I will help you with your wardrobe.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. I smiled mildly and shrugged. I stopped smiling when the spell went through me, a shock of energy and connection that made my bond with Penny seem slightly unobtrusive. I had Jasper in my head, in my hands, his thoughts, plans, his ideals and aspirations. Ugh. He was revoltingly moral and his long love for my Aunt Ramona wasn’t something I wanted to wade through, but that he desired for power to help the powerless was why my father trusted him with Huntsman. This wasn’t the first time a Huntsman had been in his head and what I found was an inspiration to mages everywhere. At least other mages.

  I shook my head and struggled against the grip of the spell, but it wasn’t done. I had to do this thing, imbue my strength and resilience to Jasper. I put my hand on his head, gripping his skull tightly while my own fingers curved into claws that sent trails of blood down his skin to drip to his clothing. I pushed some of my own dark and hungry power at him, the paranoid self-absorbed guarded parts. The air crackled around us until with a snap the spell was in place and Jasper stood, weaving for a moment before he wiped the blood from his face and left.

  “Okay then. I suppose you’re dismissed,” I said to the empty room. Empty except for Professor Cadaver.

  Chapter 17

  Witch

  When I got back to Lilac Stories, Zach was waiting for me, scowling.

  “What?” I asked as I ducked around him, heading for my room. We were going to have the best tree date in the history of magekind.

  “You need to sign the papers.”

  “I’m not going to promise to give you everything I make. You’re worse than the vultures. Forget it. If they get too annoying, I’ll just disappear.”

  He scowled at me and followed, two steps behind. “I can’t allow you into my private studio if you don’t sign this. No more power tools.”

  “My mother’s basement is better. No offense, Zach, but your tech, while fun, isn’t worth my creative freedom. Look, you sign one of those for me, and I might consider it.”

  “Done.” He pulled a paper out of thin air and I clapped for him because I loved magic tricks way too much.

  I took the paper reluctantly. “Hm. You’re not ever allowed to breathe about or use any of the secrets you’ve learned in my lab. You already swore that. It’s very nice, but not quite on the level of what you want from me.”

  He ran a hand through his already disheveled brown hair. “Penny, I want to work with you, but the secrets of Stoneburrow can’t be shared by anyone who isn’t secured to the company. I want to protect you from the vultures. You need to stop being so fixated on tree dates and focus on what’s important.”

  I rolled my eyes. “What’s important to me is being free to do what I want when I want with who I want, except for Drake. Drake trumps everything else. Drake in a tree double trumps everything else. Do you think he’ll sing?” I sighed. “I hope he sings badly. Also well. Do you think he can do both at the same time?”

  “Penny, signing this will also protect you from Drake. You want that, don’t you? It’ll make you far less vulnerable to his contract. You’ll have me and all of my resources at your disposal. I know it feels like you’re giving something up, but I promise, it’s like joining my family.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t know your family. Families are mostly terrible, aren’t they?”

  “Not mine. I mean, the cat, you liked the cat, didn’t you? We have a lot of cats.”

  I stopped leafing through my clothes looking for the perfect outfit. “Why is this so important to you, Zach? You’ve been bothering me all week. I talked to Revere and while he said to stay away from the suits, he made it sound like you were much scarier.”

  “Exactly. I’m scarier, so join me instead of them, okay?”

  I turned to face him, gripping the front of his t-shirt. “I’m not going to join them. Ever. But signing a contract with you isn’t going to happen.”

  His eyes went all puppy dog, soft blue that wasn’t remotely real. “You signed a contract with Drake. Why not me?”

  I sighed deeply. “I only signed a marriage contract with Drake to save my mother. This way she won’t have any guilt to hold over me, you know? It’ll be me saying that she ruined my life, not vice versa. I’m really looking forward to that conversation.” I turned back to my closet. Everything was ruffled and pink which was fine, but trees required something green, more green, like Drake’s eyes. I needed suits like his. I should call Jasper and find out who made them.

  “But you’re marrying him because you love him.”

  “I love him, sure, but I’m marrying him because it’s my duty. Aren’t I awesome? I don’t have enough green.”

  He grabbed my shoulder and swung me around to face him. “What would happen to your mother if you didn’t get married? How could that possibly affect her? You don’t know, do you?”

  I shrugged off his hand. “I know perfectly well. My mother cannot leave our house. It’s like me riding in cars times a million. On my eighteenth birthday, our house goes boom if I’m not married. Grandmama insisted.”

  He frowned at me for a long time. Too long. “That makes no sense.”

  “It does if you know that my grandmama really, really wanted me to get married to a peer instead of some psychopath like my father. For some reason, she thought that me marrying someone like Drake would be so much better. She’s dead, so I can’t hold it against her. Maybe she was right. I really do love him.”

  He frowned at me. “Drake has too much Darksider in him. If you sign my contract, I’ll be able to protect you from him in case he gets crazy.”

  I patted his cheek. “Maybe I would if you told me what’s your real motivation, but you won’t, so I won’t.”

  He crossed his arms and glared at me. “When are you going to tell Drake about Pitch?”

  “It’s going to be a surprise.”

  “He knows about your hurters.”

  “You told him?” I shoved him against my kiss-or-kill tapestry.

  He only looked irritated. Of course, because I wasn’t channeling Pitch or energy, so I’d probably just hurt myself on him. Annoying. “You told him. Do you remember the night at the bar after the tourney? The one where Drake danced with Viney?”

  I hissed at him.

  He smiled more broadly. “Do you remember when I went into the woman’s bathroom? That was Drake wearing a glamour to look like me. That’s the kind of mage he is: shameless and capable of betraying every friendship over a whim.”

  I let him go and tapped my fingers on my lips. “He’s known about my hurters this whole time?”

  “Yes,” he said, pulling my fingers down. “But, I didn’t tell him. I didn’t tell him about Pitch, or the fact that you have no magic. I can be your ally, but you have to sign my contract.”

  “You still haven’t said why you want to be my ally, what your motivation is. Sorry. Now get out of here before Pitch throws you out.”

  He stared at me before he shook his head like I was too stupid and left.

  I gla
red at my closet before I pulled out my cloak, the rubber one with a lead lining. Drake had played Zach? He’d never mentioned anything, never given anything away. So he knew what I did with Zach. Would he try to take over my hurters business?

  I went to my trunk and started pulling out carefully packed boxes of my latest experiments.

  When I met Drake beneath the tree, he pulled me close, spreading his hand at the base of my spine, his warmth radiating through me. He hadn’t had time for kissing me during his extremely busy week. Not that I’d wanted to. Why would I want to kiss a manipulative, controlling, irritating…

  I pulled his head down and kissed him, hungry for his taste, his warmth, him. He held back for a second until I bit his lip, then he grabbed me. He kissed me hard, like he was as starved while his hands tangled in my hair.

  “Do you two have to do this in public?” Viney’s voice was caustic.

  I pulled away from Drake, straightening my skirt and trying to look innocent.

  “Viney! What are you doing here?”

  She scowled at me. She’d been a little bit touchy ever since the tea party, and I’d given hurters to my chem girls, also refused to give her more than one.

  That was part of why I hadn’t ever mentioned it. I didn’t make hurters on demand. It was an emotional thing that I could only do during particularly intense times, but not too emotional. After Poppy died I couldn’t make a hurter for the life of me, not when everything just melted into goo. Lotions, yes, I could do that even when nothing in the world mattered.

  Anyway, Viney scowled at me like she didn’t even see Drake. “Are you going to be out late? Zach’s worried you’ll fall out of a tree or something.” She rolled her eyes.

  “Um, late?” I glanced at Drake and he gave me a smile that sent a wave of heat through me. He’d kissed me like that when we hadn’t even been in a tree.

  “Late,” he agreed in a low voice that made my lips tingle.

  “Whatever.” Viney spun and made her way towards Lilac Stories.

  When she was safely out of sight, I gestured him closer to me. He came slowly, looking me up and down to take in my kind of strange, for me, outfit. I wore a black sweater with a flippy little black skirt above my black tights with kitty faces on the knees. That matched my pink shoes with little ears, eyes and cat nose. On my head I had a little cat ear headband with pink ears. I really did like Zach’s cat.

  He shook his head. “Is this an animal themed date or something? I have a dragon head I could wear if you want.”

  I cocked my head. “I actually have wolf ears and this super cute wolf scarf if you don’t mind.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Wolf ears? I’d rather not.”

  I gave him my big eyes and poked his stomach. “But it’s our first date as an engaged couple, isn’t it?”

  He stiffened and scratched his head. “And those should be animal themed?”

  I sighed dramatically. “Oh, I see. How awkward. I guess I could take off the cat ears.”

  I reached up but he stopped me, his fingers around mine, warmth and a low electrical current flowing through us. He cleared his throat and stared at my lips before he smiled and looked into my eyes with his soft green ones.

  “I’d love to wear wolf ears and a wolf scarf.”

  I beamed at him and pulled his head down for a quick kiss of my unsmudgeable pink lipstick. It was extremely hard to pull away from his soft lips, but somehow I managed. I put on the wolf ear headband and wrapped the scarf carefully around his neck.

  “We’re having a slight detour tonight. The trees will come later. First, we’re going down to the bottom fields to throw hurters.”

  I tugged on his hand.

  He followed, but seemed reluctant. “Why would we do that?”

  I glanced at him over my shoulder. “You’re such a bold mage, going where no mage has gone before. I’m talking about a woman’s bathroom. Why didn’t you mention anything about my hurters? You must be chomping at the bit to take over my business.”

  “It’s not a business, it’s a charity, and an illegal one at that. No, I don’t take over that kind of thing. You really should charge more, though. The things you’re peddling are war grade. You do realize that, don’t you? Huntsman inc. would love to order from you.”

  He adapted to this new information so easily. I stopped walking and let go of his hand. “Drake, how much did it cost to run the marketing for the new lotions?”

  He frowned at me. “You did say that you were going to talk business. Four million? Not much.”

  I gasped and choked and gasped again. “What do you mean, four million? Lollipops?”

  “That’s right, Penny Lane. You can pay me back in lollipops.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to him, his fingers grazing my cheek as he gazed into my eyes. “I belong to you, you’ll own half of Huntsman when you marry me. Four million is not a big number.”

  “And I owned you but you still stole Darkly Sweet from me. I’m going to pay you back in hurters. You don’t like how little I charge? Fine. A lead box full of hurters for four million but you are never going to run an ad campaign for me again. Ugh, Drake. I’ve been working so hard to make any profit at all. You come in and make all of my efforts look like nothing compared to dumping money on it. It’s depressing. Some people care about more than money, Drake. Some people care about individuality and one-on-one relationships.”

  “And some people care about the bottom line. Some people care about putting the most people to work. Some people see growth as more opportunity to make differences to others on a larger scale. I don’t think it matters, the size you’re working on, but whether or not your intent is to harm or to help.”

  “And your intent?”

  He smiled and squeezed my hand.

  “We hire people with consciences who worry about where the company is going. How about you? How is your conscience? Maybe I’ll have to make you a CEO of something.”

  I nudged him. “I’m afraid that I’ll let any red-haired mage who smells like black cherry get away with anything.”

  He tucked my arm in his. “Then we haven’t any problems.”

  When we got to the field, I laid out the blanket, pulling it out of the huge picnic basket. After Drake helped me straighten it, I knelt down and pulled out a lead box.

  “I really love those boxes,” Drake said in a low voice, his eyes twinkling.

  I opened it up showing him the clusters of small hurters.

  “They’re arranged by distance from point of impact.”

  He stared at them. “They’re all pink.”

  “No, this one is green.” I pointed to the one about the size of a walnut.

  He raised an eyebrow. “I beg your pardon. Most of them are pink. I thought they would be green to match me, or blue to match Zach. He’s your assistant, right?”

  “I know it sounds selfish, but my hurters are more about me than about mages, no matter how charmingly psychotic. Why don’t we do three, one in each range just to show you you’re getting your money’s worth?” I pointed at the group closest to the edge of the box. “Fifty meters.” I pointed to the next group. “Twenty-five, and these are five. I like to use multiples of five. These are averages. Some might be a little more powerful and I was a little bit, um, creative with some of these ones. This one for instance,” I said, pointing to a small one the size of my thumbnail that was in the fifty meter pile. “I’m kind of excited to see how it goes.”

  He cleared his throat. “Experimental?”

  I shrugged. “I’m paying you back for the money you used on my promotions in hurters, but you didn’t give me specs, so I felt free to use my imagination. I hope that isn’t a problem, Drakey Wakey.”

  He gave me a flat look. “You own me. You don’t owe me hurters, but if you want to give me them, it would be rude to refuse. Let’s take that one, the green one, and the swirly big one.”

  I handed the first one over and he sat there on my blanket in the dark wearing black wolf ea
rs.

  “I wish you had on eye liner.”

  He sighed. “Me too. Unfortunately, I’m fresh out. Is that what you want? I suppose I could find some.”

  I leaned up and brushed his cheek with my lips. “No, but you’d look a teeny bit more like a music video star, a big bad wolf in the woods. They always wear eyeliner.”

  “I’m clearly not that kind of wolf.” His voice was a low growl that sent shivers up my spine. “So, this is our first engaged date. Does that mean if we went to a restaurant we wouldn’t have to eat in separate booths?”

  “Mm hm. Um, about doing the marketing stuff for Darkly Sweet him and hers. I suppose your intentions were good.”

  He nudged me. “My intentions are never good. Not everything I throw money at does as well. Have you seen your numbers? The factory is backed up with orders. Your business was going to take off with or without my help. The market is ready for you.”

  “Do you think I’ll make five hundred thousand?” I could buy a suitable house and scads of desolate wasteland for that price to stick my mother in.

  He cleared his throat. “At least. What are you going to do with that much money? Let me guess. A monkey zoo, no a weasel habitat?”

  I shook my head.

  “A three ring circus. It’s always been a dream of yours to be a ringleader.”

  “You, Viney and Zach are already a three ring circus.”

  “That’s probably true. And we already have two shows every week. I’m sorry about Tuesday. I really hated hurrying you up, getting Chinese to go, but…”

  I made a face. “I guess it’s your turn. It’s not like you missed Tuesday entirely. Missy seemed kind of weird. I’m worried about her.”

  He frowned at me. “I shouldn’t have done that. I should never have told her about Narcollo. I was too concerned with your safety, but you’re much more capable of taking care of yourself than she is, particularly emotionally. I’ll be glad to have this business mess over. I particularly missed licking the soy sauce off your mouth after dinner. ” He squeezed my fingers, his eyes soft, voice low.