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

by Juliann Whicker

  “Um, thanks for rescuing me. I…” I swallowed hard. “I owe you.”

  He laughed. “Yes, you probably do, but I wouldn’t admit it, if I were you. Run away, quickly before you decide that you want the wolf to gobble you up.”

  I froze for a second before I gave him my brightest smile. “It would only be fair, after all, last time I was the one nibbling on you. Unfortunately for you, I have no intentions of playing fair.”

  I spun around and was through the door, but even with it closed behind me, I could hear him laugh, his voice making my skin prickle in the most disconcerting way.

  Chapter 6

  Witch

  I was smiling as I headed back to my room, at least for a few steps. Then I realized what I was wearing, that I had no protection spell, and the witch who stood in front of me with the cruel curved lips was going to make me hurt. I would throw up all over her.

  But, when she aimed her finger at me, instead of a curse, nothing, I felt nothing and that familiar look of frustrated fury turned into her lobbing a pencil at my face. I snatched it out of the air without thinking then stared at her while she stared back. Who was I? I smiled at her sweetly as I snapped the pencil between my fingers and tossed it back at her.

  “Did you lose this, dearie? Be careful you don’t lose something important one of these days.” Like fingers. I exhaled shakily as I continued down the hall. Signore Ludi had said that the protection spell was broken. It made sense that Zach had broken it. You couldn’t do a searching spell and a protection spell at the same time. But if I had one now, that meant that someone had cast a new one. Jasper, Professor Vale and Drake? No. It wasn’t possible that Drake would perform that kind of intense and draining thing on someone he barely knew, someone who tied him to a tree, someone he thought was having an affair with a deliveryman.

  I stood in the hall for a long time until I realized that I wasn’t moving. I was hungry, starving and so dizzy. I should have stayed in Drake’s bed. Right. That was a genius plan right there. I’d flirted with him at the end, tempted him to be the one tying me up to a tree. The way he’d looked at me with those gleaming eyes and parted lips, I seriously needed a lollipop to hang onto. And if he’d repaired or replaced my spell…

  I headed to my room. Hopefully the door wouldn’t be blown off. People kept staring at me, which was probably because of my coat and black silk gown, not because they knew that I’d been sleeping in Drake’s bed, and that for some reason he was helping protect me instead of hurting me. I was going to pay for that. Mages didn’t do favors without charging heavily.

  I walked into the Commons and stopped for a moment when I saw Zach and Viney on the couch playing video games. A wave of anger made my hands tremble and I gripped my skirt in both hands and smiled brightly.

  “Look at you two, level twenty-seven? Nice! See you later!” I held onto that smile until I was across the room and to my door. My heart pounded as I waited for the scanner to read my handprint, feeling like Zach was going to stop me. He didn’t, and I was through my door, slamming it closed behind me. I leaned against it and tried to breathe, but Señor’s scuffling became outright assault on the cage wires.

  I brought the cage down, opened the door, and he sprang out and then up my arm until he reached the back of my neck. He nipped me several times, but probably didn’t draw blood.

  “What’s wrong with you? I fed you while I made hurters, didn’t I? No?” I reached back and rubbed his head and got nipped before I grabbed his favorite snack and fed him bits which would end up in my hair. I needed a bath, anyway. I’d take a bath and pack up for my new room, but only after I’d eaten. A lot.

  I pulled out my computer while feeding Señor, and then went to my secure email, where several messages were from my hacker friend, dating two days ago.

  Two days ago. I stared at the date, three days from my ill-fated trip down to town. Three days I’d been unconscious in Drake’s bed while they put a spell on me, a spell that would do who knew what. If Professor Vale was involved, certainly it wouldn’t be too bad. Would it? Three days in Drake’s bed? No wonder he’d been so anxious to get me out of it. He must be exhausted. If he’d wanted me, he’d had three days to take me. Three days at his mercy, and he’d reset my spell. Revere had been wiped out for weeks after the first time he’d done that. My mother had been even crazier than usual.

  I groaned and wanted to hurt someone. Drake oddly enough. I hadn’t asked him to do that. He’d kept me unconscious for three days. What did he want in return? He hadn’t said anything, just watched me with that look, the wolf. And I wasn’t only at his mercy, I really did owe him. I needed to talk to Revere. My phone. I’d texted Drake, but I didn’t have it in his bed. So, it was in the woods somewhere, or Drake was keeping it as a trophy.

  I’d have to email Revere, and he might not check it for a week. Annoying. I opened the first email from my hacker friend and scowled at the screen like it could feel my wrath. She got the room changed. Great. The next email, the change had been reversed. Two more times she tried and each time, the change was manually undone and my account marked. She apologized, but since there was apparently some real live person who didn’t want me to move rooms, she couldn’t hack into their brains and change their minds.

  I slammed the lid closed and rested my head on the silver surface. Awesome. I thunked my head harder and Señor Mort nipped me. I growled because I was going to bite him if he didn’t stop. Yeah, I’d left him alone for three days, and he worried about me, but it wasn’t like a weasel couldn’t last for weeks without food. Water?

  I sighed and got off my bed to fill his water and food bowls. My hands were shaking so I sloshed water all over his cage. Finally, he scampered back in, but he gave me a dirty look before he turned and focused on his feast.

  “Señor Mort, I’m sorry, but you’re not the only one who hasn’t eaten in three days. I’m going to die, or kill, and that would be very sad.”

  I made a face as I saw my reflection in the mirror. So that was what people had been staring at. I looked like death warmed over, hollow-eyed and cheeked, the black coat and gown extremely ragged and evocative of decomposing clothing. I looked like I’d clawed my way out of a grave. So cute. Can’t imagine why Drake had kicked me out of his bed looking like that.

  I whipped my filthy hair into a braid, threw on some adorable little outfit with tights to cover my still healing gashed up leg, and then sucked on a black cherry lollipop while I put on makeup. Finally, I was ready to face the world of Rosewood Academy for wealthy brats once again Penny Macaroon Lane.

  No one was in the Commons when I left my room. Good. I didn’t want to face Zach on an empty stomach. I sucked on my lollipop and smiled brightly at everyone I saw on my way to the dining room.

  I tried not to feel nervous as I stood in line. Wit saw me from her place where she sat and laughed with her friends. She nudged the girl beside her before she rose and came towards me, so graceful and perfectly manicured.

  “Penny Lane, everyone said that you’ve been wandering around in black. Have you converted for good? Maybe someone died.” Her blue eyes were bright, angry and I wanted to eat her.

  “I feel like I died. I’ve never had such a bad flu, being in the hospital for days eating hospital food, is there anything worse?” Apparently that was my lie. I should have gotten my story straight with Drake, but maybe no one would ask him.

  “Aw, poor Penny, you’ve gotten sick so much at this school. It must not agree with you. Maybe you should pack your bags and go home.”

  I smiled at her because she was angry, and that made me happy. “I have trunks, not bags, silly Wit. You looked so cute in that little dirndl outfit. I’m so glad we traded. I’ve never worn an honest to goodness gown before.”

  Her face tightened while her eyes grew larger, more terrifying in her pale face. “I’m so glad you enjoyed it. It seemed like Zach and Drake liked it as well. I didn’t know you were so ambitious, teasing Drake and Zach at the same time. Too bad
that Viney didn’t like you stealing her man and her obsession.”

  Zach and Viney, the whole horribly awkward ball scene. I shrugged instead of screaming and ripping off her face. “Zach and I were only hanging out until Drake got there. He had some things to do as Chemistry Captain. Viney was super pissed because she wanted to play this new online game, and Zach wanted to eat refreshments first. Viney is so obsessive about her online games. I don’t blame Zach, though, those refreshments were amazing. Did you see the goat duck thing? Wow!”

  Her eyes narrowed at me. “Why did you run out of the dance if everything was so super fine between you and Drake?”

  I paused wracking my brain. “Well, I got sick, eating too much and dancing too much. I was in the woods puking my guts out. So gross. Not exactly how I planned to end my date with Drake.” I winced and didn’t have to fake it because the tying him to a tree thing had been a million times more traumatizing than throwing up on him would have been.

  She frowned at me while I turned and went to the counter, piling my tray with pretty much everything, including eggplant parmesan. Mmm.

  “Viney’s eating right over there. I guess you’ll go sit by her since you two aren’t fighting over Zach and Drake.”

  I gave Wit a slight smile before I glanced at the corner table where Viney was hunched over her food wearing a triple terror scowl. “Of course. She doesn’t look so good. I hope she’s not getting sick.”

  I walked boldly towards Viney, keeping my smile on my mouth before I slid into the chair beside her.

  I shoved food in my mouth right away and it was creamy, slightly spicy, delicious eggplant parmesan, so I had a perfectly good reason to not talk.

  When she looked up at me with a sharp glare I gave her a close-mouthed smile and waved. I kept my mouth full, I ate, and ate, and ate, hardly noticing her stab her raviolis viciously. When my food was gone I did the only sensible thing and went to get more. When I came back, Viney was gone. Relief. I ate until the dining room closed, then I reluctantly headed back to Lilac Stories. Maybe Viney and Zach wouldn’t say anything. Maybe they’d pretend like nothing happened. I could live with that. I didn’t need to room close to someone to get them to marry me. I had to figure all of that out, but later.

  When I got to Lilac Stories, I took a deep breath before I headed in, lollipop in my fist and smile on my face. Zach leaned against the couch, arms crossed over his chest. I froze before I gave him a cute wave.

  “Nice shirt. Blue looks so nice on you, brings out your eyes.”

  He raised an eyebrow and gave me a sweet smile that made me flinch. “You’d probably like that, bringing my eyes out on a tray for you to gobble up. Unfortunately, the only thing I have for you today is this.” He lifted his hand and held up a black rectangle that looked kind of scuffed, probably from number four throwing it against a tree.

  If Zach had my phone, that meant he’d been in the woods, and seen the bodies, and knew I was involved in the deaths of four witches. I couldn’t deal with rabid Pitch fans, not with everything else going on. Did he know anything about Pitch? I couldn’t tell. The way he looked at me was weird, but not quite psychotic.

  “Where did you find that?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t remember details, it’s all so fuzzy, somewhere with dirt and leaves, probably a tree or two.”

  And four dead bodies along with at least one severed head. Nothing very memorable. What was he playing at? “It could be my phone, but it might not be.” Particularly if it was incriminating evidence.

  He smiled a little wider, a wolf smile that showed his teeth. “I’ll leave it on the coffee table so whoever it belongs to can retrieve it.” He turned and reached his long arms over the couch to the table, the movement smooth, quick, as dangerous as his gleaming eyes were when he turned back to me. Oh he knew that I was connected to Pitch, all right. He was just a little less stupid than the four Creagh. He would try to get her through me, but he would play it slow, tortuous, psychological warfare and all that.

  Bonbons and ho-ho’s I was not in the mood. “How did you find out? It was the hurters, wasn’t it? I did too many of them. Sometimes it’s a compulsion.” I shrugged and smiled sweetly. “I’m not going to give you Pitch. I don’t care what you do to me, what you threaten me with. You have absolutely no idea what you’re asking for.”

  He cocked his head. “I didn’t ask for anything.”

  I nodded at the table. “Your threat, your promise, your blackmail, all implicitly implied. I know you’re obsessed with her. I know that you think you love her, but you can’t love Pitch. She’s not lovable. She’s pain. That’s all.”

  He scowled at me, sudden, so fierce that I almost backed away. “She saved you. How can you hate someone who saved you?”

  I laughed only it was my bubbly happy near-hysterical laugh. “Oh, yes, Pitch saved me because no one is allowed to hurt me like she is. If she had you, she would break you. Even if she didn’t know what you did to me.”

  He swallowed and looked nervous. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

  I cocked my head. “No? Just a friendly little soul-rape? Shut up. I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t want to talk about anything, not with you. I don’t care what you threaten me with. I trusted you! How could you do that after I trusted you? You almost deserve her, but no one deserves what she would do to you.”

  I dashed into my room before I started to cry. I was close. I’d left my phone on the table. I waited until the tears were gone before I went to get it. Zach was gone but my phone was there. I picked it up in limp fingers. I needed to rest. I shouldn’t be upset with Zach. I shouldn’t feel anything, particularly the overwhelming panic when I thought about Drake, the immensity of my debt to him. I sat down on the couch, curled into the corner with a purple velvet pillow on my knees.

  I was like that when Viney came in. I didn’t look at her, but I saw her in my periphery while I stared at the black screen, sucking on lollipops. She hesitated before she came over to me.

  “Can I sit down?”

  I shrugged.

  She sighed and sank down on the other side of the couch, her legs crossed. “Zach is an idiot.”

  I nodded, still staring at the screen.

  “Did he hurt you very badly? You could report him, get him kicked out of school and imprisoned, if you have proof.”

  I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

  “Clearly. I’ve never seen anyone eat so much, and I’ve seen you eat before.”

  I turned to stare at her. “What are you doing?”

  She scowled back at me, but not a very angry scowl, more concerned, black eyes worried beneath her spiky black hair. “I was worried about what Zach would do to you. That’s why I stopped him. I know it looks bad, taking him away from you, leaving you in the middle of the dance floor without a partner, but it would have been worse. Zach’s dangerous.”

  I gave her a wan smile. “Yeah, instead I was rescued by Drake.” Another debt.

  She scowled harder. “Who is even more dangerous, but at least you knew that. Did Drake hurt you?”

  I shook my head. “No. I think he’s amused by me, all the silly things he can’t predict. I really hate him.”

  She snorted. “Right. You looked like you hated him, dancing in his arms like that. So much hate.”

  I shoved her over and she looked surprised before she grinned at me, a quick flash of teeth before she shoved me back.

  I stared at her for a minute before I smiled a real smile. “Viney, I need to date someone nice. Are there any nice guys at Rosewood?”

  She shrugged. “I think that nice is the wrong word. Disciplined, someone who knows how to subjugate their baser instincts, someone who knows how to give as well as take. That means Sophis instead of Chemiss.”

  “What is the difference? I don’t think I quite understand it.”

  She scowled as she picked at the holes in her fishnet stockings beneath her black jeans. “Good question. There are different kinds of mages, mor
e than just Sophis and Chemiss, but that’s the basic division. A mage who is interested in the theory behind a spell would be more Sophis, and a mage who is more interested in using spells and mixing them with physical elements for practical purposes would be Chemiss. The distinctions seem stupid to me. I tried to introduce you to the brainy bunch. They’re as different from Drake as you get at Rosewood.”

  “In that case, I want to date Lester. Does he have a girlfriend?”

  She cackled and rubbed her hands together. “That’s going to really piss off Zach and Drake. I’ll do some research on your Heathcliff hottie and get back to you.” She patted my knee which made me wince. “You should get to bed. You still look like crap. Were you really in the hospital?”

  I stared at her for a long time before I shrugged. “No. I was in Drake’s bed unconscious for three days.”

  She stared at me, her face going pale. “Three days with Drake?”

  I curled up tighter on my side of the couch. Could I tell her about the Creagh without mentioning Pitch? I could have taken them out if it hadn’t been for number four, but it didn’t seem likely. I wasn’t going to tell her about the hurter making. Viney would insist that I make them for her. I didn’t like people insisting things. I wanted Viney to be my friend, but I couldn’t trust her no matter how much I wanted to. I could, however, tell her about the protection spell, about owing Drake.

  I smiled slightly. “Pretty weird, huh? I got caught in the storm. Almost died from exposure.”

  “He’s so weird about you. Maybe he thinks of you like a mascot, a weird, magicless mascot.”

  I stopped breathing while I stared at her.

  She glanced at me then away. “I heard you and Zach. Also, there’s no way you could have resisted cursing Wit if you could.”

  I put my head on my knees and struggled with tears. Witches didn’t cry, not like this, but frustrated anger needed some kind of outlet.

  She thumped my shoulder with her fist. “You obviously don’t want to talk about it. Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. No one else knows although Oscar asked about you, how you manage to get past Drake’s shield so effortlessly. I didn’t know, but it makes sense because… Sorry. You don’t want to talk about it. Hey, let’s play video games. Unless you’re tired.”