The female Magistrate who had been scrutinizing me now leaned over to whisper into another Magistrate’s ear—a hairless, severe-looking Immortal with sparkling bronze skin.
The hairless Magistrate stood immediately. “Grand Magistrate and Ruler Supreme, I present to you Luna Mae, born of the Lunar Order, currently self-exiled in the mortal enclave of San Diego, a recruit of Chief Magistrate Winter. She is, by all measures, a recruit of little substance.”
Okay, my hype man totally blows. Sheesh.
Düsternis sat and raised his forefinger. A wave of unbridled power crashed into me, draining me of every speck of energy I possessed.
By his sheer will alone, the Grand Magistrate invaded my blood cells, blocking my vital functions and shutting down my energy core. I clutched my stomach with both hands as it twisted with burning, suffocating pain.
I thought I’d faint. His force clamped down on my skull. I feared it would crack and shatter, but as a scream formed on my lips, the force seeped down my neck, then spilled onto my shoulders and dove down my back, like sharp, jagged knives jabbing into my flesh.
The pain in my belly burned like the flames of hell. I crumbled to my knees and vomited green bile all over their plush carpet.
It serves you right, assholes.
Two black boots stepped in front of me. His boots. Winter. I raised my eyes, doing my best version of a fearless stare. Rage bubbled inside my skull. I could kill him with my bare hands.
Except, I couldn’t.
The bastard winked at me. Who does that?
I closed my eyes and shook my head to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Nope, he was there, smiling and apparently in grand spirits. His back was to the Magistrates, so they probably missed the whole rousing show.
Yet, there was no gloating in Winter’s smile, no arrogance for a change. Should I have been encouraged? Were we playing this game together? Were we somehow, beyond my understanding, winning?
He spun back and with one leaping step cleared ten feet of stage to bow to Düsternis, then took a seat behind the other Magistrates. There was a whole second row behind the first that I hadn’t noticed.
The tall blonde turned back and whispered to Winter. He nodded twice, then whispered back. She stole a glance at me. Her face had become even more sinister. She nodded after Winter said something else.
Were they talking about me?
The pressure inside my skull and stomach intensified again, emptying me of all pointless thoughts. The swelling agony was so overwhelming it would cut me in two if I didn’t find a way to push back.
My eyelids fell shut and did not reopen. Winter’s face found me there in my private dark, smiling, winking, trusting. Even if it was a trick, it was good to think he had some faith in me and in us.
Gathering every particle of energy that I had left, I focused on a tiny pain-free spot on the top of my head. I guided my feeble reserves to that very spot and willed it to expand.
My teeth clenched as I began to tremble, forcing me down onto all fours. A blazing heat oozed out from the top of my head all the way to my toes, gradually cooling my sweating body and relieving the internal pressure.
I had held the Grand Magistrate’s power in check, freeing my body from his vicelike possession. His terrible hold ebbed and shrank as my own power built itself up slowly but surely.
Düsternis motioned me with his right forefinger.
I stood up, meeting his gaze.
“Adequate,” he said. “Your pure energy control and training in the sorcery arts of the under realm are sufficient to fulfill the task at hand.”
Immortals and their goddamned tests.
“I am Magistrate Argos,” the bald one said. “Magistrate Winter has briefed you on the nature of your cooperation. On the sixth day of the month of October, Selene will enter her metamorphic phase. You shall be present at the epicenter to exert your power in order to diminish the impact.”
“Are the particulars clear, child of Selene?” Düsternis asked.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” I said.
I feared I came off sarcastic, but he just nodded, then drew in the Magistrates to form a circle around him.
“Excuse me,” I heard myself say. “There’s just one thing.”
Their heads turned so slow I thought they all shared a single brain.
Winter would not be pleased. He had specifically told me to say nothing unless asked a question, but to hell with him.
I put on my innocent face. “Will this have to be done every century?”
The Grand Magistrate’s eyes turned into tiny slits, burning with disdain.
“What is your meaning?” Argos said.
“I mean, in a hundred years or so, upon the next metamorphic Moon, wouldn’t the morphs be in hiding somewhere waiting to give it another try?”
Argos jolted back as if punched in the chest. “There won’t be another try.”
No, there won’t. It dawned on me that the plan was to kill all the morph shifters when they were at their weakest, in mid-morphing, and probably capture, or kill if they could, as many rebel Immortals as possible.
They wanted me to be the catalyst for a genocide. Or, at very least, extreme wartime atrocities.
The end justifying the means is bullshit logic in my book.
I chose my words carefully. “You will slaughter the morphs and my magic is needed to facilitate the slaughter.” Winter was about to burst at the seams, but there was no stopping me. “You tell me they’re evil, that they must be stopped, but how do I know you’re any better? Why should I take your word?”
“They kill for sport,” Argos said, his face turning into a red ball of rage. “They are not charmed, not even human nor beast. They are flesh rippers.”
The look on all their faces was the same. “You are afraid of them. Why?”
I stole a glance at Winter. His face was unreadable, revealing none of the fear that the others, even the Grand Magistrate revealed. He, no doubt, expected my insolence. Already, he knew me too well.
Winter stepped in front of Argos. “Once they shift, if they shift, the morphs will have a forty-eight-hour feeding frenzy to spread like wildfire, eating every basic they see until they sniff out the other realms, including the Deep Down. Their hunger will not cease. Does that answer your question?”
Winter does not play. Should have remembered that.
I had a compulsive defiance that kind of felt like a death wish just then with half a dozen or more Magistrates glaring at me.
“Dare not test our patience, lunar witchling,” Düsternis hissed. “You will do as commanded or you will die and then many others will die because you did not assist us. If you comply willingly, our magnanimity will allow you to return to your San Diego. Your name will be erased from the Eternal annals. You will have the basic life of the sickly human, as you desire.”
Magnanimity? Ha! These people were accidental comedians. If only he knew I had heard with my own, well, with Faion’s ears that their first impulse was to murder me.
“What about my Order?” I said.
“What about it?” Argos said.
“Will you stop hunting us? If I help you, will there finally be peace between us?”
There was a long silence. Not a popular question.
“That depends entirely on the Order,” the blonde said. Her voice was deep for a woman but melodic and with strange accent, almost Nordic. “We can only stay out of your Order’s way if they stay out of ours.”
Okay, that Immortal bitch was spinning some fake news right now. The Lunar Order would have happily stayed out of the Immortal way if they had not caused so much death and destruction over the last thousand years.
The Lunar Order would never turn away from the tyrannies of man no matter who was behind it and the Immortals probably knew that.
For now, the fact they had negotiated with a lunar witch was better than nothing. It was a definite first. I’d take it.
“Bind me to the oath,” I said.
&nbs
p; All Magistrates stood. A cone of red light flooded down on me, trapping me inside its blinding glow.
“The light burns in your heart,” Argos said. “Break the oath and both will be extinguished.”
He walked to me and pressed on my temples with both hands. “You are bound to the Seventh Council until the end of your days. You will not speak of the Eternal Beings, you will not profess deceits to the Magistrates of the Council, and you will not run or hide from us.”
“Yes, I so pledge,” I said, my voice barely audible.
The ancient words of the oath spilled forth from his mouth and then I repeated each word three times.
Herrat.
Laiman.
Forethor.
Manghas.
Ferom.
When the blade pricked my left palm, I screeched. Argos bent over and licked the blood clean off my hand.
WTAF!
“You are bound to the Council of Eternal Beings,” he said. “Your blood magic flows inside me now. You shall return to this spot to be released upon completion of your task.”
***
The guards led me to a room with a small table, two chairs and a lamp.
When they left, I let out a sigh of relief I had been holding back since Düsternis stepped onto the Court stage.
I held onto my amulet with both hands. “Faion, if you’re listening, I think I might have just made the biggest mistake of my life. On the bright side, I may have seen the last of that egotistical ass, Winter.”
Too late did I realize that he had stepped into the room behind me.
I was not the same frightened girl he had first met. I refused to even acknowledge he was in the room.
I would tell him to go to hell, but we were already here.
He reached from behind and grabbed the amulet. He brought it to his mouth and spoke into it like a microphone.
“Mr. Trice, we will speak soon of your impression of today’s session. As for your friend, she will never stop seeing me, for I am not a man that any young woman can ever forget. Each night she will find me in her dreams.”
My mouth gaped wide open as he sauntered out of the room.
CHAPTER 19
____________________________________
The Immortal bastard told Faion I’d find him in my dreams and took off without a word. I needed him to speak to him while awake, regarding the details of the upcoming night of the morphs just nine days away.
Better him, than that uptight Argos dude.
Three days had gone by since my oath and not a word from Winter or Argos or any of the Magistrates. Every day I grew a little more furious.
And what about Winter’s promise to escort me home every night to protect me from those gnarly beasts and their sordid handlers?
It wasn’t like Winter to pull a disappearing act. Could he have made a misstep? Had something gone wrong? There’s no way such a calculated sonofabitch would leave a college girl to her own devices when it came to subduing the metamorphic Moon.
No, something must have detained him. Maybe Chaos led his renegade army of Immortals straight to the heart of the Magistrate Court and all hell broke loose. At least that would explain why Winter (and the entire Council for that matter) had lost interest in me.
That would not, however, explain why the Deep Down had yet to issue a warning to all magic users. A brutal insurrection among Immortals would not stay hidden from witches, sorcerers, diviners and telepaths—not to mention the insane reverberations that would have disturbed the orbs.
A new clarity dawned on me. This was yet another test.
Fucking, Winter. You need to grow up.
My heart jumped when I heard a muffled sound outside. I hoped it would be him. How pathetic.
The sound got louder, feet running on pavement and then stumbling into something, a rubber trash bin maybe. That ruled out Winter. Tripping over his own feet would not be a thing of which he was capable.
Perhaps it was Emmet, trying to grab my attention without having to knock on my door. So many conflicting emotions surfaced. That whole Emmet thing was so messed up. I didn’t want to think about all that.
Whatever we had going between us was based on a string of half-truths and omissions—if not downright lies. If he was a shapeshifter, he probably knew I was a witch. And now he knew I hung out with Immortals. There was no way he’d knock on my door. It’d have been nice to get some answers from him, but, then again, the fact he hadn't reached out was probably the only answer I needed.
And he claimed he’d move to Sweden to be close to me. Men.
Another sound outside—thump, thump, thump—like fingers tapping glass or hard plastic. I caught a glimpse of movement outside the window, flapping wings whizzing by in a flurry.
Shit. I felt it now. An unfamiliar etheric field outside, circling my home.
Filling my lungs to steady my nerves, I opened the window and leaned on the windowsill to have a peek outside.
A knock at the door startled me, causing me to jerk my head up and smash the back of it against the window.
I rubbed my head and walked to the door. Something warm wet my fingers. Blood. I had cut open my scalp. Perfect.
Magic hissed in my ears. “Calm down,” I whispered. “We got this.”
The peephole framed Lily’s lovely face like a renaissance painting.
I let her in. She strolled to the sofa with the casual assuredness of a girl who was not being asked to fight against flesh rippers anytime soon.
“Hey, baby girl,” she said, taking off her peach, zip-up hoodie.
“Hey, Lil, what’s up?” Before she took notice, I managed to wipe the blood off my fingers with brown Panda Express napkins.
“Did you lose your phone?” she said with a pout. “Or is it your plan never to text me again? I blew up your phone with messages. And every text was extremely important in the moment I hit send.”
She wore a blue skater skirt and a black and white striped tee that highlighted her striking curves. Her radiant skin gleamed with lightly applied bronzer and aqua-blue eye shadow.
In contrast, I was wearing the old San Diego Chargers shirt I had slept in and it was past noon. I hadn’t showered or brushed my teeth, even though I had to be at work in less than an hour.
“That’s exactly what happened,” I said, sitting next to her. “That and I’m just buried lately. Look at me. I’m just tired.”
“You do look like the hottest of messes right now,” she said, studying all my ratchet qualities. “I thought you’d be shacked up with Emmet the Frog.”
Not a frog exactly, but you’re in the ballpark, Lil.
“That’s done,” I said.
“Sophie…” Lily looked hurt, and she really was, because she wants good things for me, because she’s a real one. “What happened?”
“Another time,” I said.
“Wait, did you chase him off?”
I rolled my eyes. “Why do you always think I chase them off?”
“What? I don’t always think that,” she said. “I might have maybe once or twice mentioned that you should let them fall in love before you make it clear you are the funnier and smarter one. You know about the male ego.”
“I do, but it was nothing like that. Not this time.”
She studied my face with suspicion. “You sure this has nothing to do with that tall drink of muscle milk I saw here last week? Uncle Viking?”
“Gross. Lily, no. How about we talk about your love life?”
“Thought you’d never ask,” she gloated. “Rocco asked me out.”
Wow. I didn’t see that coming. “Holy amazeballs, Lil. How? Why?”
She bent her face. “Did you just ask why?”
“Come on, Lily. You know I didn’t mean it that way.”
She smiled ear to ear and hugged me. “You totally should have meant it that way, because I’m not worthy. Rocco’s a fucking god!”
We hugged and even jumped a little like girls.
“First things f
irst.” She pulled out an antique jewelry box from her purse. “Lucia went shopping. She found deals and thought you would like this.”
She offered me the box. I scooched back on the sofa, feeling dizzy. Lucia buying me a gift was strange; accepting it would be crazy. Even if Faion was wrong about her, I couldn’t be too careful. The fate of the world and all.
“What’s the matter?” Lily said with a frown.
“Um, I… whoa, your mother bought me a gift.”
She shrugged. “People buy people gifts, yeah. I’m the delivery girl. Gifts are often thought of as a good thing, Soph. A friendly gesture to make our days a little bit brighter. It’s Lucia, she’s very impetuous. Zero clue what she’s thinking, your guess is as good as mine.”
“It’s kind of surprising.”
“Yeah, I think that’s the point. C’mon, open it. Lucia said she immediately thought of you when she saw it and had to get it.”
She had me cornered. No witty way out. I took the box—my fingers fumbled with the bow wrapped around it. Seemed harmless enough. It’d be hard to fit anything truly evil in such a small container.
I untied the bow. Inside the box, there was a colorful llama brooch made with bread dough and glue according to the label.
“It’s really… nice,” I said, biting my lip.
Lily took the brooch out of the box. “Ah, it’s Ecuadorian bread dough art. Lucia has good taste. Here, let me pin it on you.”
The moment she clicked the safety pin on my shirt, an aggressive wave of power streamed through me, crashing against my magic. My body shivered as my elemental energy fought back, pushing out the intruder.
Quickly, I ripped the llama pin off my shirt and stepped on it, again and again, until it turned into a gooey mess.
The hostile magic got severed from me like a broken string, but my magic still whipped around in my veins, shocked and threatening to tear my body apart and strike out at everything in sight.
I picked up the mangled llama and set it on fire inside the kitchen sink, then washed the debris down the garbage disposal.
Luna Page 13
