I spun in a slow circle, looking out over the courtyard. Was there ever going to be a time when we weren’t crashing into the fountain? I didn’t think so. Footsteps sounded behind me, crunching through the gold. The warmth that spread through my chest told me it was her…Zinnia. The girl who both tortured me and gave me peace.
“Hey.” Her voice was sultry and sweet all at the same time. When I spun to look at her, she shoved her hands into her jacket pockets. She titled her head in the direction Matteaus had gone in. “Was he pissed?”
I shrugged. “No more than usual.” I knew Matteaus was getting tired of the mess we were making of Evermore Academy, but at the same time, it couldn’t be helped. We had to find the scale, and we didn’t have time to do it before. I’d like to think that one day this would all be over, and we would be free of Alataris.
“I’m glad the others made it back okay. Gray looked pissed when we got here.” She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt.
“Thanks to your quick thinking. Sending them here was incredible.”
She wrapped her arms around her midsection. “I honestly didn’t mean to. It just kind of happened.”
“Zin don’t take this the wrong way, but you’ve got to have more faith in yourself. You’re gaining more control over your powers every day.” In truth, she was incredible to watch. Every day, she mastered new powers, new spells and grew more confident. I just wish she saw it.
“It would’ve been better if I could’ve figured out a way to find the scale before.” She pulled a book out from under her arm and held it out to me. “Professor Davis just gave this to me. It might help you look through all this stuff.”
I held it up and read the title. “Spelling out Spells?”
Red tinged her cheeks, and she bit her bottom lip. “Yeah, I lost the first copy in the bus fire. I had to go and tell her. Somehow, she summoned another from thin air and gave it to me. I got through more than half of it.”
“Is that how you were able to do those spells all on your own?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I just got lucky I guess.”
I handed the book back to her and smiled. “Or you’re just that good.”
“I don’t know about that. I fly by the seat of my pants a lot.” She gave a light chuckle. “I’m still surprised the elemental powers Tabi gave me are holding up.”
“I have a theory about at.” I plucked up a gold coin and tossed it in the air, then caught it. “What if you’re a different kind of Siphon Witch?”
“What do you mean?” She tilted her head to the side, looking at me like I was crazy. This was the first time the tension between us wasn’t burning out of control. Instead, it was a comfortable undercurrent of connection between us, an ebb and flow I relished. I wished we’d share it more often.
“Meaning, what if you siphon power but when you use it you keep some of it for your own?”
Her jaw dropped just a little. “That’s not possible.”
“You should know by now that anything in Evermore is possible. But that would make you the most —”
“Powerful witch of them all.” She turned away from me, and I could feel the tension return to her body. Small tremors ran over her from head to toe. “No, this can’t happen.”
I knew exactly what she was feeling. The shock, the fear, it wasn’t going to be easy on her. I walked up behind her and placed my hands on her shoulders. “It’ll be okay.”
She spun around and looked up at me with wide eyes. “How—?” A group of students walked out into the courtyard and laughed as they kicked at the coins and threw jewels back and forth like a baseball. Zinnia took a small step back from me, then lowered her voice. “How is this going to be okay?”
“Because I’m here to help you, and with the two of us working together, we’ll be unstoppable. I just know it.”
“Hey, look. I’m metal man.” A scrawny boy with black brillo-like hair and glasses too big for his face held his arms out, and the coins flew toward him like he was a magnet. They clung to him one by one until he was the incredible hulk of gold coins. His friends all hunched over laughing.
Zinnia looked at them with longing in her face, as though she wished she could be anywhere but here. Stuck in a life she hadn’t asked for and wasn’t prepared to handle, what a pair we made. A few weeks ago I’d felt that exact same way.
A smile played on her lips as she gazed at the other students. “They’re so carefree.”
“I’m sure they have their own worries just like everyone else.”
She shrugged. “I suppose so.”
“Look Zin after we fix this whole mess with the dragon and the scale—"
“Speaking of that, we have to find the dragon scale in all this mess. I kind of had an idea for that.” She held her hands out to her sides and gathered her magic in her palms.
“Zinnia, wait.” I grabbed her hands, stopping her from going any further.
“Everything okay?” She glanced down at my hands wrapped around hers.
“Before we do this I- I just want to tell you something.” I glanced down at my wrist, wanting to rip the thick bracelet from my skin and show her exactly what she meant to me. This secret pressed on me like a weight sitting on my chest. I dropped her hands and wrapped my fingers around the snap that held the leather cuff together.
“Tuck? What’s going on?” Her brow furrowed in confusion. When she looked up at me with those hypnotic sapphire eyes, I was ready to tell her everything.
The words were on the tip of on tongue. Zinnia it’s me, I’m your soulmate. I peered around the courtyard, making sure we were alone. Hidden in the shadows, or at least he thought he was hidden, stood Beckett with his hands crossed over his chest. His surfer blond hair hung from his head in a messy tangle of waves. Small icicles hung from the tips of his hair, and his coat was covered in thick layer of snow. Dark bags hung under his eyes, and his cheeks looked hollow from hunger. He took a small step out from the shadows and motioned for me to join him.
Would my life always be like this? Torn between the role I was born into and the girl I wanted? I dropped my hand from my bracelet and sighed. “I just want to make sure we’re good, that’s all.”
“Oh, um, yeah. We’re good.” She cast her eyes down at the ground and kicked at the handle of a gold-plated shield.
I tucked my finger under her chin and raised her face to meet my gaze. “I wouldn’t want anything to, you know, come between us.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” She shrugged. “There isn’t anything between us to worry about. Is there?”
I shook my head. “Zinnia,” I whispered. “There will always be something between us…always.”
Her lip tilted up at the corner. “Yeah, maybe.”
“Tuck, I need to talk to you,” Beckett called from under one of the archways around the courtyard.
I didn’t want to move from her. “I’ll be right back.” When I turned to run toward Beck, the coins jingled beneath my feet.
“Hey, Tuck!” Zinnia called out to me.
I spun on my heels to face her. “Yeah?”
She tiled her head back and held her hands out to her sides. “What is lost I now wish to find. Open my eyes through the golden divine. Direct me to what I seek. Use my vision and give me a peek.”
Gold sparks shot from her eyes while tendrils of her magic spilled from her palms and ran over the treasure like snakes in all directions. The students who’d been playing only moments ago scurried from the courtyard back under an archway.
A smile played on her lips. “Ah, there you are.”
All the way in the back corner of the courtyard, the silvery lines of her magic spun together in a cone shape, forming a drill. It shot down into the ground, sending gold coins, jewels, and precious stones flying in all different directions. They smacked into the walls surrounding the courtyard, hitting students as they passed by and denting the brick walls. A hole opened up within the gold hill. The tornado of magic dipped down and scooped up a white object the si
ze of a plate from the bottom of the pile and flew it back toward her outstretched palm.
Her magic receded back into her body as she wrapped her fingers around the object. A wide smile spread across her face. “I believe we now have the scale.”
Is there anything you can’t do?
She sauntered over to me and held the scale out. “Mission accomplished.” It was a shining pearly white with light blue all around the rim of it.
I gently took it from her hands. “I think I expected it to be bigger.”
“Yeah me too.” She beamed. “But at least now we have the scale.”
I held the scale tightly in my hand. “Thanks for finding this. It could’ve taken us hours.”
“Tuck, man. I gotta go,” Beckett snapped at me.
I didn’t turn to answer him. Instead, I looked right at Zinnia. “I’ll meet you in the library in a sec.”
“Okay.” She peeked up at me from under those thick eyelashes, then winked and strutted away. I followed her with my gaze, watching her mesmerizing hips sway in those tight black leggings of hers. I was convinced they were made to torture me or hypnotize me. Either way, I couldn’t move.
The moment she disappeared into the hallway leading to the library, I turned and jogged over to where Becket leaned against the stone pillar. He ran his thumb over his bottom lip. “You’ve got a bit of drool just there.”
“Oh, right here?” I made a show of running my finger over my lip, then shoved him playfully. “Shut up.”
Beckett shook his head and chuckled. “You got it bad.”
“Am I that obvious?” I glanced around making sure no one could hear us.
“Nah, I just pay attention.”
“Well let’s just keep it under wraps for now.” I sucked in a deep breath, then blew it out. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Tabi. I don’t know how much longer she can help control the seas. Her power is draining. The tides are shaky at best. She’s going to collapse soon, and when she does…”
“Major destruction?” I stabbed my hands through my hair. “How long do we have?”
Beckett shrugged. “Five hours, maybe less.”
I froze, and my heart leapt up into my throat. “Five hours?”
When he looked at me, his eyes were deadly serious, and his lips were pressed into a thin line. “Yeah.”
“Well, what did Poseidon say?” I shuffled from one foot to the other.
“Say? We can’t get to him. He’s been battling with that giant since you left. Tuck, we have to get that ice dragon back. We are out of time. I know he’s powerful and all, but how long can one supernatural battle against a half titan and win? I don’t want to risk it. Do you?” He gathered a blue ball in the center of his palm and opened up a portal just to his right. “Go do what you gotta do. We’re counting on you .No pressure or anything.”
“Yeah, no pressure.” I rolled my eyes.
Beckett clapped me on the shoulder. “Good luck.” He stepped through the portal and disappeared. But before I could step away, he popped his head back through. “Oh yeah, and don’t die.”
I held the dragon scale even tighter. “Thanks.”
Chapter 32
Zinnia
Niche paced back and forth in front of me. She went from nervously wringing her hands while she paced to flat out marching each time she changed direction. Normally her glasses were sliding down her nose barely holding on, but now they were downright crooked. He fire engine red hair had fallen out of its tight bun and was currently in a messy ponytail that fell all the way down to her waist. We sat in a small glassed-in room at the back of the library. There was a TV mounted on the wall in the corner. The human media was having a field day with images of rough seas. Pictures of coast after coast flashed.
The news anchor spoke in a deep, grave voice. “In other news, diplomats from all over the world are meeting in an unprecedented emergency summit in…” He paused. “Nebraska? I guess the further inland, the safer… To discuss the weather patterns the entire world is now feeling.”
I tuned him out and focused on the massive waves bearing down on the beaches around the world. The countdown had begun. We needed to find the dragon, or Alataris would destroy us all.
Niche slammed her hand down on the map we’d gotten from the furies. “I don’t understand how his location could just disappear. You said it yourself you saw the moving dot.”
“I know, but the way I figure it, Alataris has connected it to someone and wiped himself off it. That’s the only explanation that makes sense.” I walked over to stand next to her and peer down at the new map. It used to have all the locations of his vault and the key and his hidden floating island. Now all it held was a very old map of the United States.
Tucker shoved through the door in that exact moment, then slammed it shut behind him. “Bad news. We have exactly five hours until Tabi burns out.”
I motioned to the images of the turbulent oceans. “I think we’ve got a lot less than that.”
“Wait a second.” Niche’s hand splayed over the map. “If this thing is still connected to Alataris, then we might have a chance to find his location.”
“What do you mean? I thought if he hid it on the map there’s no finding him now.” I didn’t want to let myself hope there was a way to fix this. We’d been working toward this moment. I didn’t want it to slip away.
“Yes, he hid it on the map, but his magic is all over it. Like a footprint. If we could tap into that somehow, I might be able to find him.” She shoved her hand into the pocket of her jeans and pulled a long silver chain from it. At the bottom of the chain hung an amethyst stone. The light purple crystal twirled around slowly and could see every vein, color and reflection of light.
I thought I might’ve seen her with one in Hexia, but I couldn’t be sure. “What’s that?”
Niche pinched the end of the chain between her thumb and forefinger and let the crystal dangle over the map. “It’s a pendulum.”
I reached out, ready to touch the crystal, when Niche swatted my hand away.
“Don’t touch it. I have to concentrate.” She closed her eyes and bowed her head.
I sat and waited for it do something—to move, or sway, or fly out of her hand and embed itself into the map somewhere. I whispered, “Is it supposed to do something?”
Tucker nodded. “It’s supposed to drop where he is.”
But the stone didn’t move, not even a tick. I started at it, willing it to show us where he was, where the dragon was, but most of all where my mom was. I knew wherever he was, he would have her with him.
Niche growled and slammed it down on the table. “This isn’t working. We need some kind of catalyst.”
“What do you mean?” Tucker tilted his head to the side.
“If we could dip the crystal in his blood, or even Ophelia’s, that mixed with his magic on the map might work. But we need both his magic imprint on this map and his blood.”
I threw my hands up. “Well, unless he suddenly became a good Samaritan and donated a bunch of blood to the local supernatural blood bank, I’d say we are out of luck.”
Tucker stood with one arm crossed over his chest and the other arm leaning on it while he ran his hand over his bottom lip. “Maybe not.”
Niche’s head snapped up. “What do you mean?”
“Well, what if we had someone who shares the same powers as him? Would that be enough of a connection to find him?” When he met my gaze, I could’ve sworn I saw a flash of regret.
“Are you saying I have to douse that crystal in my blood?” I looked from her to Tuck and back again.
Niche nodded. “It might just work. We don’t have much other choice.”
I held my hand out, then rolled up my sleeve. “Do what you need to do.”
Tuck leaned over the table and held his hands out. “Wait a second. Once we find his location, we have to leave right away before the island moves again, right?”
Niche nodded. “Right.”
“So we need to get the crew together, and we need a way to actually get there.” Tucker’s eyes bore into mine. “Do you think you could get us there?”
I shook my head. “Getting to the vault was lucky. If I try to take us here now, we could end up in the ocean. And I’m going to be direct here. I almost drowned once this week. I’d rather not do it again.”
His lips pressed into a thin line, and the muscle in his jaw ticked. The loose strands of his dark auburn hair fell over his forehead while his honey eyes turned from liquid gold to red and back again. “I wouldn’t want to ever see you go through that again. So, what’s the plan?” He turned toward Niche.
She leaned back on her heels. “Look, guys. I’ve got to level with you. Grayson, Ash and Nova are all out helping Brax and Adrienne deal with the state of emergency. There’s a lot of people out there hurting. And well, Beckett and Tabi are still in Alaska. That only leaves you two. To face Alataris alone.” She shook her head. “And I can’t let only two of you go.”
Tucker shook his head. “You’ve got no other choice. We can sneak in, save the dragon and leave before anyone realizes what’s happened. But if we don’t go now, then all this…” He waved his hand over the map. “None of this will matter if don’t stop it now.”
She sucked in a deep breath and hesitantly nodded. “Very well.” She lifted her hand and waved it in a circle. A white fog shot up from the floor, filling the room with smoke.
Professor Davis stood before me, waving away the fog and coughing. “Honestly Niche, how many times do I have to tell you to stop doing…” She glance down at me. “Oh, Zinnia dear, so lovely to see you.”
Her hair looked like a salt and pepper cotton ball all around her face, and her chubby cheeks were red with exertion.
I raised my eyebrows. “Hello, Professor. How are you?”
“Oh, I’m alright. I’d be even better if Niche wouldn’t just summon me at will.” When she put her hands on her hips, her long hunter green dress rustled. I couldn’t understand how she’d be comfortable in a dress that had such a high stiff turtle neck and puffy sleeves that cinched in at her wrists.
Wicked Magic (The Royals: Witch Court Book 2) Page 17
