by Tasha Black
But I was home now.
Everything else would fall into place.
For the first time since my fall, it actually felt like everything was going to be okay.
34
Bella
The sun was high in the sky by the time we made our way through the labyrinth and back toward the school.
Luke was on my left, holding my hand with a casual possessiveness that made me want to drag him right back to bed instead of back to school.
Luke had made some calls before we left, so we had some company.
A giant of a man called Reed walked on my right. He was big and burly with a playful twinkle in his eye. I liked him right away. Luke had referred to him as his brother, but I knew their brotherhood had been forged by battle, not by blood.
Behind us, a contingent of other guardians followed. I knew that some were reluctant, and some were glad to be with us. And I was impressed that they all obviously respected the decision they had come to after they had voted on it this afternoon.
When we emerged from the maze, it seemed liked the entire school had gathered in the courtyard. Headmistress Hart was addressing them. The tone of her voice, low and urgent, carried across the cobblestones of the courtyard, though I couldn’t make out her words.
I could see Lark, Cori, Anya and Kendall standing together in a group. They had spotted me and were whispering like crazy.
Headmistress Hart turned and did a sort of double take when she saw us. She shook her head once and then began striding over, her cloak and gown billowing out behind her in the afternoon breeze.
Suddenly, my friends were heading our way too, running at top speed.
Luke growled under his breath and I realized it was a protective instinct.
“They’re my friends,” I whispered to him.
Kendall reached me first, her long blonde ponytail whipping. She wrapped her arms around me.
I was a little shocked that she had apparently missed me so much. We weren’t really great friends. At all. And I wasn’t overly fond of her other friend group.
“Do you have that godforsaken book?” she hissed into my ear. “Give it to me now if you do so I can put it back before Hart catches you with it. Cori and Anya have been sick over this.”
Quick as a thought, I slid the book out of my gown and handed it over.
Kendall pocketed it, and then jogged back toward the school as if she was just happy that her friend was okay.
Cori, Anya and Lark arrived just as Kendall was leaving. They were all smiles and questioning glances.
Well, Anya and Lark were all smiles and questioning glances.
Cori had frozen in place and was staring at Reed, as if she were transfixed.
Reed stood as still as she did, his eyes smoldering as he observed my sweet friend.
“Girls, go back with the others,” Headmistress Hart called out.
They scattered, though Anya had to half-drag Cori away.
“Lord Protector,” Headmistress Hart said as she approached. “You are refusing the bond with my student?”
“Quite the opposite,” Luke said sternly.
“I don’t understand,” the headmistress said, looking back and forth between us. “Why are you returning her?”
“I have claimed her,” Luke said, causing the blood to rush to my cheeks. “The bond is sealed. But the terms of our agreement have been modified.”
“I have not agreed to modify any terms,” Hart said.
“You’ll agree to this one,” Luke told her plainly. “Bella is to continue her studies. She is to have her freedom.”
Hart’s eyes went wide, and she glanced over at me.
I smiled and nodded once, to show her I was happy with this arrangement, and that it wasn’t a trick.
“I believe I do like that modification, Lord Protector,” she said with a wry smile.
“She is still my mate,” he cautioned her. “She will return to me each evening.”
“Agreed,” Headmistress Hart said.
She lifted her palm as if to give him a high five. He lifted his and they pressed their hands together.
I felt a shiver of magic shimmer in the air and then it was gone.
“It is done,” Luke told me, his eyes so bright and pleased that I could barely restrain myself from kissing him.
There would be plenty of time for that later. Right now, I had so much to catch up on at school.
“See you tonight?” I asked.
“See you tonight,” he said with a smile, leaning down to kiss the top of my head.
He turned and his brothers turned with him. A moment later, they had all disappeared back into the labyrinth.
“Alright then, Bella,” the headmistress said fondly. “I don’t know what you did, but I’m glad to have you back. You need work, but I’ll make a witch of you yet.”
35
Bella
Following our afternoon class, Anya, Cori and I went to see Nina, who had spent the day in her dorm room.
We knocked on the door and Lark opened it.
“Hey guys,” she said.
I nodded to her and jogged over to Nina’s bed. She was curled up with a book, which should not have surprised me.
“You’re okay?” I asked her, relief washing over me as I sat on the edge of her quilt.
“I’ve got a pretty nasty bump on my head, and I had a headache all morning,” she said with a wry smile. “So I didn’t go to class, just in case. But I’m totally fine now.”
“Thank God,” I said, meaning it.
“Was that guy really a warlock from the Order of the Broken Blade?” Cori asked. “I thought all that stuff was history.”
“That’s what Luke says,” I told her. “The guardians aren’t happy about them being out in the open again. He thinks they’re planning something.”
And the information Luke and I had just discovered made it pretty clear what that something was.
“I’m just glad we have the book back,” Nina said. “It was totally worth it.”
“I’m so grateful to you guys for that,” I said, knowing that I had to tell them the bad news. “I’m grateful for everything. But there’s a problem.”
“What’s wrong?” Anya asked.
“The man who was trying to take the book managed to rip a page out,” I told them. “Luke and I looked at it today and we realized which page it was.”
They all leaned in.
I hated to tell them, hated to leave them with this threat when they had saved my life and saved the rest of the book. But they deserved the truth.
“It was the page claiming to be a spell to wake the Raven King,” I said softly. “And we can’t even try to predict what they’ll try to do next because the page is gone. I’ll never know what it said.”
“Actually,” Nina said thoughtfully. “Someone grab my notebook?”
Cori scrambled for the notebook on Nina’s desk and handed it over.
“I saw that page for a second right before he hit me,” Nina said. “I’m not sure, but I think… maybe…”
We all watched as she closed her eyes and began murmuring a spell under her breath.
Words faded into existence on the paper in front of her. By the time she opened her eyes again, the entire page was filled with arcane scrawlings.
“Oh, wow, Nina,” I said.
Most of the writing was in a language I didn’t understand, but it looked like instructions for a spell, including a circular diagram and a list of components that would be necessary to cast it.
“What are you guys up to?” Kendall’s voice cut the air as she stepped into the room.
“Hey,” I said, rising immediately. “Thank you so much, for helping me with the book this afternoon.”
“Don’t mention it,” she said. “I got it back to the library, but I might have, uh, shelved it in the wrong spot.”
“What do you mean?” Nina asked, sounding upset at the idea of a book being misfiled.
“I figured
if you stole it, you must need it for something important,” Kendall said, shrugging. “I thought it would be good if it was easier for you to get to it next time. I can show you later.”
“Thanks,” I told her again.
“So what are you all up to?” Kendall asked. “I want in.”
“It’s nothing, really,” Lark said quickly, pushing her purple glasses up her nose.
“Look, I helped you guys out,” Kendall said. “Whatever is going on, it seems like you could use another friend.”
Everyone looked at me. I guessed they were right to, this was my mess to untangle.
I locked eyes with Cori, who was normally the victim of Kendall’s aggressions. This was going to be her decision.
She nodded.
“Okay, Kendall,” I said. “Come on in.”
She grinned and sat beside Cori, giving her a friendly little shove. “Thanks,” she whispered.
Cori rolled her eyes, but she smiled back.
We were kind of an odd gang, but we would have each other’s backs, I hoped. And we would have the help of the guardians.
Somehow, we would find a way to stop that madman and his craven organization from waking the Raven King.
36
Bella
I clung to Luke’s arm that night as he drove us down the winding road to the village below Primrose Academy.
“Have you talked to Jon since you got to school?” he asked.
I shook my head, too emotional to speak.
“Thank you for telling me about him,” he said softly. “I want to know everything about you, and about him too, since he’s my brother now.”
I swallowed over the lump in my throat. “He doesn’t even know about the school. And he’s been really down. He hasn’t been responding as much as he used to. I don’t think he’ll want to talk to you. But I’ll tell him about you, of course.”
“There’s no rush,” Luke said quickly. “We have as much time as you need.”
“Thank you for taking me to town,” I said. “I know that’s not how you wanted to spend this night.”
“All I want is to help you shoulder your burdens,” he said. “You know that right?”
I leaned against him and let the waves of happiness wash over me.
Sure, I was conflicted, thinking about my brother’s unhappiness at the same time. But it was impossible to be near my mate and not feel content.
Luke pulled into the main drag of the little village and parked the truck.
“There’s a park,” he said. “We can sit there, and you can call. It should be pretty quiet at this time of night.”
I let him take my hand and lead me down the block and into a small grassy courtyard with a swing set, between a coffee shop and a toy store - both of which were closed for the night.
I sat on a swing and pulled out my phone.
Luke patted my hand, then began to pace out the perimeters of the park. I didn’t know if he was giving me space, or trying to protect me, but either way I was grateful.
Jon and I were usually text people - not phone callers. I hoped that making his phone ring might get his attention.
As we descended the mountain, my phone had gone crazy with all the notifications I’d missed while I was under the blocking magic of the school. But not one had been from Jon.
I touched his contact and held my breath.
He picked up on the second ring.
“Bella?” he said, his voice upbeat.
“Hey, Jon,” I said. “How’s it going?”
“Sorry I didn’t text you back,” he said quickly. “It’s just been…crazy here.”
It wasn’t just my imagination. He sounded happy - like, really happy.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“You know that app I was working on when you left?” he asked.
“Yeah, the one for finding cheap parking in Philly, right?” I asked him.
“That’s the one,” he told me. “Phil and I think we cracked it and we’ve been approached by an investor. I think we’re going to go wide with it. There’s a lot of beta testing first, of course. But it’s a great chance.”
“Holy crap, Jon,” I breathed. “That’s amazing.”
“Yeah, and there’s something else too.” He blew out a breath, as if he wasn’t sure how to say it.
“What?” I asked.
“There’s a girl,” he said. I could hear the smile in his voice.
“Oh yeah?” I asked.
“It’s not serious yet, but she’s… amazing,” he said softly.
“I’m really happy for you,” I told him, tears prickling my eyes.
“Thanks,” he said. “But we shouldn’t be talking about me. My little sister is at college. How’s that going?”
“Jon,” I began, trying to find the words. “You know why I wanted to be a nurse, right?”
“Not really,” he said dubiously. “I always thought that was kind of a weird choice for you.”
“I wanted to help you,” I said, trying not to cry. “I’m so sorry I fell out that window and ruined everything.”
“Bella,” he said sharply. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s my fault you went into the military instead of college,” I said. “It’s my fault about your accident. It’s my fault about your legs. I want to help you, I want to make it right.”
He took a deep breath, and I waited. I had said everything there was to say, even if I hadn’t said it well.
“What you’re saying is very sweet and all,” he said carefully. “But you’re wrong. About everything.”
“No, I’m not,” I said.
“First of all, my choices are not your fault,” he said. “You fell out a window because you were a teenager and you wanted to have some freedom. It had nothing to do with me.”
“If I hadn’t done that—” I began.
“If you hadn’t done that things might have been different now, sure,” he said. “But if I’d been in college, I wouldn’t have met Phil at rehab. We wouldn’t have been following our dreams right now and getting our big break. And I wouldn’t have met Annie either.”
Tears burst from my eyes and ran down my cheeks.
“But Bella, I’m even more worried about what you said about being a nurse,” he said. “You don’t have to fix me, little sister. I’m not broken.”
I was weeping openly now.
Luke walked over, a concerned expression on his face.
“I like who I am,” Jon went on. “I want you to like who you are too. Because I like who you are a lot. As a matter of fact, I love you, scamp.”
Scamp.
When was the last time he called me that? Not since before his accident, back in the good times.
It’s funny, but that one little word was what sealed it for me. Jon really was happy. And that meant I could be happy, too.
“I love you too,” I told him.
“Please promise me you’ll drop out of that shitty school and come home,” he said. “We need to figure out what you really want out of your life.”
“I already know what I really want,” I said, looking up at Luke. Even blurry through my tears he was beautiful.
“Then do it,” Jon said. “Fucking go for it.”
“I’m on it,” I told him. “Can I call you again tomorrow night?”
“Of course,” he said. “I’m going to make a point of picking up.”
“Please do,” I said. “I’ve missed you, Jon.”
“I miss you too, scamp,” he said.
We hung up and I looked down at the phone in my hand for a long time.
When I looked up at Luke, he was studying me quizzically.
“You okay?” he asked.
“More than okay,” I told him. “Can I tell you over dinner?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” he said. “But first, I want to make you fly.”
For one crazy second, I thought he wanted to make out in the park.
Then he moved behind m
e and gave me a push.
The wind caught in my hair and I laughed as he swung me higher and higher, as if I might touch the stars.
For the first time in a long time, nothing was holding me down.
37
Bella
The air of the cottage was redolent with spices and the scent of a wood fire.
I was warming apple cider and cinnamon sticks in a pan while Luke read to me from one of the magical texts we had borrowed from the Brotherhood’s small library.
Though the witches unquestionably had the better collection, the Brotherhood’s books were ancient and included more shifter and fae lore.
We were determined to stop the Order of the Broken Blade from bringing back the Raven King, and I felt a personal responsibility to spend every waking hour working toward that goal. We studied and schemed pretty much any time that I wasn’t in school.
But it was Luke who made our pursuit fun. He made sure I knew he saw it as an adventure, something important we were doing together. He reminded me there was no reason not to go for a walk while we talked about it, no reason not to have hot apple cider on a cold fall night while we read from the ancient tomes. No reason not to love each other, even as we struggled to protect our world.
There was a gentle knock at the door and we both looked up.
Luke’s shifter brother Reed visited once in a while, but his knock was loud, and until the first time he caught us in bed, he generally just walked in after knocking. This was too soft and tentative to be any member of the Brotherhood that I had met.
Luke placed the book on the counter and headed over. Though his movements were as lazy and graceful as ever, I could sense the power coiled in him, feel his senses expanding to protect me.
Luckily, he opened the door to reveal a happy sight. Anya, Cori and Kendall smiled up at him and then peered inside to wave to me.
“Ladies, come in,” Luke said. “You’re just in time for hot apple cider.”
