Dread Delight: Rosewood Academy for Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 2)

by Juliann Whicker

  Professor Vale stared at me, at my hand where I held Penny’s. I hadn’t loosened my grip on her hand through the entire procedure until Jasper lowered her with effort back to the bed.

  “She stays here.” I answered Vale’s unspoken question.

  She scowled, but nodded and scribbled something on a piece of paper that she left on the table by the couch along with a few bottles from her large black bag. “She trusted Stoneburrow as well. Hopefully this goes a little better.”

  Her tight smile showed who she suspected of breaking Penny’s protection spell. Yes, that would explain Zach’s guilt. Maybe Penny would ask me to break him. That would be my pleasure.

  I spent the next two days weaving and reweaving the same spell, over and over again. Jasper came and checked on me, explaining the findings of his research on the inventor of that madly brilliant spell we’d used on Penny. There wasn’t much to find about the mysterious creature, but he had collaborated with a few mages that perhaps would prove less difficult to track.

  I sat there with my eyes closed weaving the strands of the spell tighter around her with Jasper standing, arms crossed over his chest, staring at me.

  “Am I doing this wrong?”

  “Very right. You’re a quick learner when you’re motivated. I wasn’t sure that we’d ever find something to motivate you. Are you sure about her?”

  I opened my eyes to stare at him. “Do you think it’s my curse?”

  “Spell.”

  “You’d call it a curse if your family had it. You know how self-absorbed I am. It’s not like me to notice another person, to remain so fascinated for so long.”

  He glanced down at her relaxed face, the dark circles beneath her eyes, the red-gold curls tangled over my black sheets. “I believe your own love of gold is the culprit, but a three-quarter Darksider witch would be a temptation for any mage. Do you want me to continue my pursuit of her family?”

  I inhaled and nodded, but I was frowning as I studied her. She had the same eyes as the woman, Penelope L. Rose. “How long until the spell is completed?”

  “How much strain is the sleep spell? It was too flashy.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I asked you to do it. To be perfectly honest, this is hard. No wonder all the Sophis mages are emaciated and lurky looking. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up.”

  His lips thinned. He was a Sophis mage if ever there was one. “I’ll bring some dinner. You should work the spell as long as you can. It’s been over twenty-four hours already. If you don’t wrap up today, you’ll miss your Chemiss tourney.”

  I shook my head. “I’ve gone over this spell so many times, it almost makes sense to me. I’m going to hold out as long as possible. It will be interesting, don’t you think?”

  He stared at me. “Make certain you don’t collapse. If the spell became unwoven…”

  I waved my hand at him. “Such a nervous mage. I think the witch was impressed with you. Does she strike your fancy?”

  He made a sound. “From Blackheart, isn’t she? Has a different approach than a Rosewood witch. She didn’t ask questions, just acted competently.”

  “Speaking of Rosewood witches, do you know who founded it?”

  “Penelope Rose and Hubert Wood are the cofounders of Rosewood Academy.”

  “And…”

  He smiled slightly. “It’s unexpected of you to have such an interest in great historical leaders. Madame Rose…” He got an odd expression on his face. “I met her once. So much sweetness didn’t seem possible in a witch. She charmed everyone and was one of the propagators of the great Darksider Humanity interests treaty.”

  “You mean the Devil’s Law? The law about sending humans back to Dayside who accidentally get lost in Darkside?”

  He nodded. “No one knows how she was able to arrange a law like that in Darkside when they feel so strongly about the proper place of humans.”

  “Interesting.” I stared at Penny, her face soft and vulnerable in sleep. So much sweetness didn’t seem possible.

  It was Sunday morning when I was trembling from the extent of my exertions, sitting there, holding her hand, weaving the spell again and again and again. I wove in the spell, the precise way Jasper had shown me, and was deeply satisfied by the snap as the spell went into place. My whole room was fuzzy, but her face was not. I passed my hand above her face and called the sleep spell out of her, green sparks shooting out of her skin and back into my palm.

  I slumped back into the chair while she stirred, the fingers in my hand flexing while she shifted, murmuring under her breath. I stared at her, for a moment tempted to lean down and kiss her, to break the spell, to show her that she was safe, as much mine as I was hers.

  I’d never pretended to be the prince. I had a vivid memory of her face when she realized what she’d done to me in the woods, the look right before she’d turned and run, not coming out of her room for five days. Yeah. This process would take a little more finesse and cleverness than that. If I couldn’t convince Penny Lane that she couldn’t live without me, I wasn’t worthy of the name, Drake Huntsman.

  Chapter 5

  Witch

  I woke up feeling stiff and still tired. From making hurters. I was always wiped out after making hurters. I rolled over and reached up to stroke Señor Mort between the ears. The pillow was empty, but my fingers felt warm, like Señor Mort had slept in my palm all night. Not Señor Mort. Poppy. She would hold my hand sometimes when it got really bad.

  “Poppy.”

  “No cats, just a wolf.”

  I sat upright, staring around me, searching for the source of the voice. He sat on the couch at the bottom of the broad steps, facing away from me, typing on his computer.

  “Drake what are you…”

  He held up a finger. “One moment, please.”

  The pounding of my heart receded as I stared at him. It was hard to feel threatened by someone sitting on a couch writing on a computer. I shoved my hair out of my face, and checked to see how much clothing I was wearing. I still had on my black silk gown, was barefoot and tucked into Drake’s bed.

  I’d made hurters, taken them down to town, and then… Pitch. I inhaled sharply and dug my nails into the mattress. The women. I had a vague recollection of a horse with green sparking hooves and neon green eyes, and Drake, holding me in his arms. So that hadn’t been wish fulfillment.

  It took him a good three minutes to close his laptop, stand up, and turn to face me. I tensed, waiting for him to come close, but he stayed by the couch.

  “What am I doing here?”

  He smiled slightly. “I don’t know the code for the lock on your room.”

  I frowned at him while I gripped the blanket in my fists. I scraped my bottom lip with my teeth. “Drake, what am I doing in your bed? How did you find me, what did you do to me, and why am I in your bed?” My voice was a little loud and shrill at the end.

  He smiled widely. “You seem upset. Don’t like being vulnerable in the hands of a mage? Do you worry about what a black soul like me would do to a sweet and delicate morsel such as yourself?”

  I stared at him. He stared back. I sighed and slumped down when a wave of dizziness washed over me. I grabbed his other pillow and put it over my face then felt the mattress dip when he sat beside me. I held my breath while he took the pillow off my head.

  “I came to your rescue when you called, like a regular knight errant. Don’t you remember?”

  I stared at him. “I called you?”

  He held up his phone and I read a garbled message that took me a minute to decipher. “Oh. Right. Number four threw my phone, but I found it.”

  “Right.” He nodded like he knew what I was talking about. “That explains everything. Now if you’re feeling better you can get out of my bed and go…Wait, there was something.” He turned around, eyebrows low over his dark eyes. I couldn’t see any green in them. Maybe the light was dim. That made sense.

  “Before you leave me and my excellent bed, you’re suppos
ed to take a noxious potion that Professor Vale left for you.” He made a face, wrinkling his straight nose and looking kind of adorable before he turned and went back to the sofa, the table, and mixed something that looked like orange tar when he was finished. Mm.

  “Professor Vale was here?”

  “Oh, yes, and Jasper. We had quite the party. I’m not sure you can call a party a success when the guest of honor is unconscious, but it had that spark that Penny Lane gives to everything.” His coppery head was bent over the drink as he stirred the contents, like it was resisting the process.

  “Spark?”

  “You know, the bite of a weasel, the kiss of the stairs, the taste of separate booths, the thing that makes everything a little weirder.”

  “Oh, that spark. Professor Vale was here, and who’s Jasper?”

  “Jasper is a very talented mage. He does that Sophis stuff, the spellwork, the careful plodding that so many mages seem to take seriously. I’m not that kind of mage.”

  I smiled sweetly. “A smart one?”

  He glanced up at me and shook his head as he carried the glass up the stairs towards me. My heart pounded as he came closer, then stopped when he perched on the edge of the bed.

  “Drink this. Be a good little girl and do as Professor Vale asks.”

  I grabbed the drink and tried to drink it without tasting, but it was a lot of really strong and conflicting flavors, mallow root being the strongest of all. I didn’t like marshmallow. It reminded me of all the times Revere had tested me to see if my magic had come back. Like that was ever going to happen.

  After I’d managed to gag the entire contents down, he took the glass, patted my head and stood up. “You are a good girl. She’ll be so pleased.”

  I ran my hand over my head where he’d touched me. It was weird. “So, you came to rescue me when I called you? Why?”

  He stared at me, hands strangely still. I wanted to take his hand in mine, but I didn’t feel any trace of fear, not even in his bed with him standing there, a clear threat that I didn’t feel threatened by, not unless you call a tightening in my stomach and a tingling in my fingers a threat. Why would I want to hold his hand when I wasn’t afraid?

  “Why did I go out into that miserable weather in search of my fair friend? What an excellent question. I’m afraid the answer isn’t nearly as good.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Macaroons and bonbons, can’t you just spit it out?”

  He smiled widely. “You’re interested in my spit? A sweet little girl like you?”

  I threw his pillow at him. It hit him in the face which surprised both of us. He grinned broadly, tossing the pillow lightly in his strong hands. “What I want to know is why you asked me to come and rescue you instead of your mysterious Darkside Lover.”

  “He’s not my lover.”

  “No, he’s only someone you snuck out of Rosewood to visit in the middle of a storm, someone who let you borrow his jacket, a jacket that is so beautifully spelled I’m tempted to steal it from you myself. No mage would give something that valuable to an acquaintance.”

  I stared at him. “You found me unconscious in a circle of four dead witches, and you want to know why I didn’t call Signore Ludi instead of you?”

  He shrugged and put the pillow back on the bed beside me, leaning over me so I caught the strong scent of black cherry before he sat back up. “I never get involved in witch business. I’m curious whether you intend to make a habit out of having me rescue you when you go see your lover.”

  “He’s not my lover! Would you stop saying that? Give me your computer. Now. Go get it. If you won’t believe me then I’ll have to show you. It’s business. Just business.”

  He brought me the computer, holding it out while I struggled to sit up. So dizzy. Annoying. I focused on the screen, making my fingers type. It didn’t take long before I was at Darkly Sweet, my online shop.

  “That is a beauty shop. Are you saying that I’m not already beautiful enough?”

  I scowled at him. “Lotions and potions, hurters and healers, are you trying to give me a headache?”

  He looked up, his eyes large and specks of green flaring brightly for a moment. “This is yours?”

  I hesitated before I nodded. “I know it’s stupid, but I did it all on my own. I’ve been so behind ever since I started school. I was just trying to catch up.” I didn’t mention the hurters, the serious ones that I’d worked on along with the shop’s inventory.

  He glanced down at the computer screen then up at me a few more times before he pulled the computer on his lap and started typing rapidly. I watched as a few different screens came up, Darkly Sweet on all of them. He nodded over lists and figures that he shouldn’t have had access to.

  “Hey, what are you doing?”

  “It’s a good business. Solid, loyal customer base, steady repeats, growing word of mouth. Your numbers aren’t bad. So, all this time you’ve been running your secret business? That’s what you’ve been doing locked in your room?”

  I shrugged. “It’s not really secret, I just don’t like talking about it.”

  “Like you don’t like mentioning the curse, or the protection spell, or the Creagh who are after you?”

  I stared at him. He was talking about the hole inside of me, the lack of magic, what made me different, apart from both witches and humans. He wasn’t the only one who called it a curse, but it wasn’t, not technically.

  He stood up and brushed his pants, like he’d gotten lint on them. “It’s unbelievable. You’re even more adorable than I thought you were. It’s like the tea party all over again. I think I have things figured out, and you introduce a sparking new element to the game. You snuck out all stealthy to stock your business instead of to meet your lover? All this time you were a stealth entrepreneur?”

  I stared at him. His reactions weren’t exactly predictable, either. “I’m not adorable.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I beg to differ. Look at you, in the bed of an untrustworthy mage, and you aren’t even screaming yet. You are far too adorable. If you don’t get out of my bed very soon, I can’t guarantee that I won’t insist on joining you.” He leaned over me, gazing down while green sparks came to life in his eyes.

  “You are already on your bed with me.” I swallowed hard because the scent of black cherry reminded me suddenly of the last time I’d seen him, in the woods after I’d cut him bloody and left him tied to a tree. I wanted to do it again, only maybe…

  I pushed back the blankets and rolled out of his bed, onto the floor. I lay there, blinking up at the black ceiling. “You can’t call me adorable after what I did to you.”

  He laughed and flopped down so he was leaning over the edge, staring at me. “I can call you whatever I like. You’re talking about having your way with me. That look in your eyes; you’re appalled by your behavior. You’re going to say something like, ‘but I hurt you, Mr. Big-Bad-Wolf, and you were supposed to hurt me. How can you ever forgive me for my shocking lack of decorum?’” His falsetto was seriously annoying.

  “I don’t sound like that.”

  He grinned, showing his white teeth. “I’ll have to work on it. You never know when I’ll need to impersonate you, put on my little skirt and ribbons, and suck on lollipops.”

  “That’s not who I am.”

  He cocked his head as he stared at me. “No?”

  I took an unsteady breath. “No. You saw me after the dance, the darkness. I’m not really a stupid little bonbon.”

  He flashed another smile. “Stupid? Penny Lane? Are you saying that all this time you really do know how to operate a washing machine? Such deception. I’m intrigued.”

  I blushed, which was stupid because I had no reason to blush, but he was so annoying, and I was lying on his floor with him above me like he was about to fall down on me at any moment. “No, I don’t know how to do that kind of thing.”

  “Oh, but you were only pretending to be petrified of cars.”

  I glared at him. “You know h
ow I love to fake throw-up.”

  “But you don’t really like tea parties, or teaching weasels to drink like gentlemen.”

  I hesitated before I sighed. “No, I like tea parties and I’ve always trained the vermin to have parties with me. I also like pink. And ruffles.” I winced because what was more humiliating than that?

  He shook his head, sighing. “I see. So, you don’t have any more shocking revelations for me today. It’s just as well. I don’t think I could take any more surprises after the secret businesswoman thing.” He shook his head, his eyes growing large and moist as he stared at me. “What happened in the woods didn’t surprise me. You’re a witch. That you actually like visiting sick children, that surprised me. That you haven’t put any effort into seducing me when I’ve made myself so agreeable, also a surprise, but the darkness…” He reached out a hand and brushed my cheek before he curled his fingers into a fist. “You are Darkly Sweet, precisely as advertised. Now that we’ve got that cleared up, you need to get out of my room.”

  I scowled at him. It was strange to scowl at him whenever I felt like it, but he didn’t seem to notice. Maybe I hadn’t been as good at not scowling as I’d thought I’d been. “You don’t make any sense. You want me out of your bed, and off your floor, but you don’t mind if I tie you to a tree?”

  His eyes drifted down from my face to my body, his gaze locked on my chest. I glanced down, because there wasn’t much to see, and realized that what he was staring at was the little half-moon imprinted over my heart. Pitch.

  I rolled onto my feet then struggled to stay upright when the dizziness hit. “Where’s the coat?”

  He grabbed it off a chair and tossed it to me. I caught it and pulled it on over the dress.

  “My shoes.”

  He nodded to the shelf beside the bed where my pink flats sat looking thoroughly sad and battered.

  I put them on, hopping around while I tried not to fall over, and then stumbled down the steps and towards the door. I hesitated with my hand on the knob. I turned around to stare at him where he lounged on his bed, his eyes gleaming as he watched me, like he would pounce on me and drag me back at any moment.