I stormed forward. “I think I’ll be okay.”
The others snickered under their breath, but followed my lead. Up ahead, I felt a familiar swirl of magic blocking me from moving forward. I reached out and brushed my hand over the barrier. It gave under my touch, then forced my hand back out. “This is where the barrier surrounding Hexia ends. Beyond that should be the spell, somewhere further in the tunnel.”
Serrina walked up beside me and pressed her fingers into it. “We need to open it for only a moment. But if we mess this up, the whole thing could come down.”
“Any idea how we do that?” Nova pointed at me. “And don’t say you suck the power out of us and use it as a key. Because ouch.”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t going to say that. And just to be clear, I don’t like doing it either. It hurts and makes me feel like I want to explode.”
Tucker sighed. “It just so happens I have a plan for this.”
Tabi threw her hands up. “I can’t wait to hear this.”
“Instead of Zinnia sucking the power out of you guys, why don’t you force your powers into her so she can combine them and use it to open a curtain in the barrier? Niche and I talked about this before we left. The Elders might be able to feel you do it, but they’ll allow it just this once.”
“I’ve got nothing else.” I shrugged. “It’s up to you guys.”
Serrina rolled her eyes. “Fine. But if I pass out again, I’m gonna make every guy in Evermore Academy become infatuated with you.”
“Yeah, and I’ll… well, I’ll…I don’t know what I’ll do, but it’ll be bad.” Nova narrowed her eyes at me.
“All I’m saying is if I feel like I’m being ripped apart one more time, there will be an Amazon in your dorm room, ‘mkay?” Tabitha pursed her lips at me.
I held my hands up. “It’s not like I was trying to do any of that. It just happened.”
Tuck came to stand behind me, then placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me to face the barrier. “Zin, just focus as best you can.” The heat of his touch seeped through my jacket and into my skin. A wave of calm washed over me, and that electric connection I felt each time he was close to me flared to life.
“Okay, I’m ready.” When the first shot of energy hit my back, I stumbled forward. “Gently.”
“Sorry,” Nova whined. “I’m trying.”
I gritted my teeth. “It’s okay.”
Then another stream hit me, knocking the breath from my body. This time I said nothing, just waited for the third to slam into me. Then boom, there it was, red hotness. I closed my eyes and pressed my hands up against the barrier. The magic within me swirled together, and I ran my hands from the top of the barrier all the way to the bottom. Using the magic like a small knife, I felt it slide through, making a cut. I pressed my hands forward and grabbed each side of the barrier then pushed it outward as though opening a curtain. It burned the palms of my hands. Yet I didn’t let go.
I forced it out to the sides, holding it open. “Okay go now.”
The queens stopped pushing magic into me and ran under my arms. Then Becks, Grayson and Brax.
Tucker stood at my back and whispered in my ear. “Will it stay open once we pass through?”
My body quaked as I shook my head. “No.”
He ducked under my arm and faced the group. “We can’t keep opening and closing the barrier. If we do it’ll grow to weak and come down. Someone will have to stay behind to keep it open.”
Serrina motioned toward me. “Let Zinnia do it. She’s already holding it open.”
Tuck shook his head. “We are looking for a spell only the Siphon Witch can use. We’re going to need her.”
Beckett stepped forward. “I will do it.”
Tuck glanced at the others. “He’s going to need help.”
“Ugh, fine. I’ll do it.” Serrina stepped in beside me and placed both her hands on one side of the barrier.
She quickly pulled them off and shook them out. “Ouch, it’s hot.”
“You think?” I shoved my arms out even harder to keep holding it up. The weight was so immense I thought I might crumble under it. My legs shook, and the muscles in my back strained with the effort. I gritted my teeth together. “Now or never guys.”
Beckett and Serrina pushed in beside me, taking their places to hold the barrier open. The moment I dropped my hands and stepped out of the way, the two of them collided into each other.
Beckett’s face turned bright red. “This isn’t going to work.”
I reached out and placed one hand on each of them then forced the power they’d put into me into Becks and Serrina. Slowly, they both stood straight and pushed the wall away from their bodies, holding it at bay.
Serrina tilted her head toward the end of the cave. “Just make it quick. I don’t know how long we can do this.”
Without a second look, I turned away from them and began to run down the cave in hopes of getting back in time. I cold hear the others’ footsteps banging behind me. Up ahead, I saw water reflecting off the walls… Was there a pool?
Grayson shoved me to the side. “Do you hear that singing? It’s…lovely.”
Chapter 22
Tucker
A meaty hand landed on the back of my neck with a slap. I was lifted off the ground and thrown into the wall. Before I hit it, I shot my wings from my back, stopping myself. I turned and shoved Brax up against the other wall. “What are you doing?”
“They’re mine, and you can’t have them.” His fangs extended past his bottom lip, and fur sprang out over his body. His muscles bulged, and his hair lengthened and turned orange with black stripes.
On the opposite side of the cave, Nova and Tabitha had Zinnia pinned to the wall. Nova held her up by the throat, while Tabith summoned vines to bind her to the cave by her wrists and ankles. Her cheeks began to turn bright red as she fought to breathe. I dropped Brax to the ground and raced up behind Nova and Tabi. I was sworn to protect them, even from each other. I grabbed the sides of their head and smacked them together, knocking them out.
The second their hold on her dropped, Zinnia hunched over, sucking in gasping breaths. She coughed and hacked. “What’s wrong with them?”
“I don’t know.” I pointed to the thick vines hanging from her wrists and ankles. “Give me those. We have to tie them up.”
She bent down to helped me bind them together. Zinnia glanced over her shoulder. “Where’s Gray?”
“I’ve got an even better question. Where is Brax? Last I saw, he was turning into a tiger.” I rose up and grabbed her hand. “We can’t turn back now.”
Zinnia intertwined her fingers with mine. “Then let’s go.”
As we walked further into the cave, it grew brighter. Lights moved over the walls as though the rays were reflecting off water. Zinnia leaned in and whispered. “Do you hear that?”
“Yes, I hear it.” Singing so beautiful it tempted me to drop her hand and move forward without her. But I didn’t want to let her go, ever. “I’m gonna need my hands.”
She dropped my grip and peeked around the corner. There, before us, was a hidden beach with waves gently lapping over silky white sand. At the center of the pool was a small rocky island. Behind the island was an opening out into the sea. Sunset was falling upon us, and soon it would be night.
Zinnia stepped out from behind the corner. “Oh, look, mermaids!”
I grabbed her arm and yanked her back. “Those aren’t mermaids…They’re sirens.”
Her eyes went round. “What?”
“Look over there.” I pointed toward the shore where Brax lay sprawled out on his back like a house cat. One of the sirens, a half woman with the tail of a fish, lay next to him. Her long blond hair fell over his stomach as she rubbed his chest in rhythmic motions. He purred like a kitten for her. She leaned down, whispering in his ear.
On the other side of the beach, another siren with blue hair down to her waist and blue seashells covering her breasts had Grayson
lounging on a large flat rock. She ran one of her pointed nails down his chest, carving a crimson ribbon in his skin. She’d done this over and over again, and lines of blood ran down his sides and across his torso. Yet he lay back with his hands behind his head, smiling like he’d been lying in the sun, getting a tan. Soft words drifted from her mouth down to him.
Zinnia wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Why can’t they stop them?”
“They hear the song that was meant for only them. It calls to them, controls them. We need to get everyone out of here now, before something worse happens.” I looked out toward the island once more, and this time I saw it. Sitting at the very top of a rock pile was a scroll so ancient the paper looked like it would turn to dust at any moment. “Look! There’s the spell.”
“We need to get to that. Wait a second. Why aren’t you falling under their spell?” Zinnia looked me up and down. “Is there something wrong with you, or did you somehow train for this?”
In truth, they couldn’t warble their little tune to me because my heart was no longer my own. It belonged to her. But Zinnia couldn’t know that. “I’ve trained for lots of things.” Technically not a lie.
“Then how come it doesn’t affect me? I’ve never trained against them before.”
I dared not hope that her heart was no longer hers. I had to believe it was something else all together, because if I thought for one minute she might be mine…No, I couldn’t think about it.
I shook my head. “Maybe because you can absorb magic, theirs has no effect on you.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She turned to look out over the island. “We have to get the scroll and get out of here before that siren digs a hole straight through Gray.”
“I’ll distract them, and you go get the scroll.”
She leaned in closer. “What’s your plan?”
“Watch.” I summoned my swords to my hand, then released the fire within me, setting them a blaze. I walked out on to the middle of the beach and whistled at the siren who lazily petted Brax. “Yo, beautiful. Want to come and play?”
Her lips drew back from her jagged shark-like teeth. She hissed, and then bent down to say something to Brax. He sprang to his feet and prowled toward me.
I called over my shoulder. “Now would be a good time to run.”
Zinnia
I pulled my boots from my feet and sprinted toward the water before Brax or Grayson could get to me. I dove in, swimming as quickly as I could toward the island. Water shot up my nose and into my mouth, burning me from the inside out. But I kept on going. Halfway to the island, a scaly hand wrapped around my ankle and dragged me under. I sucked a mouthful of water deep into my lungs. Panic flooded my body, and I kicked out with my arms and legs, trying to fight my way to the surface. When I shot up out of the water, my whole body was tossed end over end. I screamed out for Tucker, but he was fighting his own battle. He fought both the giant tiger Brax had become and Grayson, who seemed to be running circles around him, getting in small quick blows.
My back slammed into the water as if I’d leapt from a diving board and belly flopped down. An arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me further down. I watched as the surface grew dimmer and dimmer. There was a flash of a fish tail and a mix of blond and blue hair obstructing my view. I knew I was going to die. If I didn’t do something, this would be the end of it all for me and for Hexia. I reached out and wrapped my hand around one of the Siren’s wrists. I didn’t close my eyes or try to be gentle about it. Instead, I used my magic to find hers and ripped it from her soul. I felt it, like a cold dead fish blocking my throat.
I started to hum as I thought about exactly what I wanted them to do. Take me to the surface. But only one responded to my command. The other floated like a belly-up goldfish at the bottom of the sea. Her golden hair drifted around her body as she sank to the bottom. Did I kill her? I had no idea. All I knew was my lungs were burning to the point of exploding. I shot to the surface and sucked in huge gasping breaths.
The siren next to me shook her head as if fighting my hold on her. I began humming once more, and she drifted into a trance. Come closer. She moved toward me. Give me your hand. She reached out toward me, then suddenly yanked her hand back. I kept humming, but it wasn’t working. My hold on her seemed to be wearing off. The blue-haired siren lunged toward me and wrapped her hands around my throat. I pressed my hand to her sternum and found that pit of magic deep in her soul. I called out to it, claiming it for my own. It shot into my body and once again settled into my throat.
The blue-haired siren’s grip on my neck fell away as her body drifted off with the tide. I turned and swam toward the island. Once I reached it, I pulled myself up on the rock and lay there for a second catching my breath. I glanced up, expecting the spell on Brax and Gray to be broken but what I saw was something else.
Tuck lay on his back with his swords across his body, barely holding the tiger at bay. Brax bared his teeth and struck out with his paws, yet Tuck avoided the strike. A few feet away, Grayson lay motionless with a gaping wound across his torso.
I held my hand up. “Stop!”
Brax froze in place.
I waved my hand at him. “Go lie down, Brax. Bad kitty!”
The tiger dropped his head and strode away with a whine.
Tucker staggered to his feet and waved to me. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“Zin, do me a favor and don’t talk until that wears off.” He hunched over, sucking in deep breath. Sweat poured from his body.
I turned away from him and scrambled to the top of the rocks. The scroll lay before me. I grabbed it up. The paper wasn’t thin; it was wax covered. Old school water proofing…nice. When I glanced up, Tuck had torn the shirt from his body and ripped it into pieces. He pressed them around Grayson’s torso. I wanted to ask if Gray was going to be alright, but I stopped myself. Instead, I looked down and read over the spell. We’d found what we were looking for.
“Zinnia! Behind you!”
I spun on my heels only to get cracked across the cheek. My head snapped back, and I fell to the ground. Pain radiated out from the side of my face across my head. I pressed my hand to my cheek. “What the hell?”
“Oh, yes, I am a bit hellish, don’t you think?”
Ice-cold fear ran through my veins. “Alataris.”
He held his hand out to me. “The scroll, if you please.”
“Over my dead body.” I ground out, then turned and ran for the edge of the small island. I might’ve not been able to get away from Alataris, but I sure as hell would make sure the scroll did. I reared back and threw it toward Tuck. It fell short into the water. With the last bit of magic I’d taken from Tabitha, I sent a wave to carry it the rest of the way.
Alataris grabbed my wrist and yanked me around to him. “Stupid girl.”
A smile spread across my face. “You might have me, but you will never get that scroll.”
“We’ll see about that.” He snapped his fingers, and black smoke rose up around us.
I felt my body go weightless. Blackness swarmed my eyes, and all I could hear was Tucker’s agonizing bellows.
Chapter 23
Zinnia
From one cave to another. Except this one had bars on the walls and held me against my will. All around the room were dozens of beings from Evermore. Each one was held behind bars. At the center of the room sat a lone throne made of different colored pieces of metal. Rusted reds, dark blues, faded yellow, barely-there purple and the lightest shimmering silver covered the medal of the chair. The smell of blood, dirt and decay hung in the air like a disgusting perfume.
Alataris paced back and forth in front of my cell. “What to do with you…What to do?”
If this was the end, if this was how I was going to die, I wasn’t going to do it cowering in fear of him. I rose to my feet and walked over to the bars. “What do you want to do with me?”
He paused, then looked around the room. “Are you talking
to me?”
“You’re the only one standing here.” I shrugged.
He tilted his head back, laughing, then abruptly stopped. Like the strike of a snake, he wrapped his hands around the bars in front of me and pressed his long oval face up against them. “Oh, she’s funny. Don’t you think?”
I glanced behind him, but no one was there. “Who are you talking to?”
He lunged forward and grabbed my shirt, curling his fist into it. He yanked me to him. “You’re the only one standing here, aren’t you?” His rancid breath invaded my nose, and I fought the need to gag. Brush much?
Then he shoved me away. I stumbled back, catching myself on the wall behind me. “Oh, you are funny. But here’s a thought.”
He cupped his hand around his ear. “Yes?”
“If you’re going to kill me, then just do it.” I crossed my arms. “Otherwise stop playing around.”
“Playing? Who’s playing? Not I, surely you must see.” He narrowed his eyes at me and growled, “I don’t play, little girl.”
I was too angry and tired to be afraid anymore. I leaned back against the wall. “Then what do you want?”
Alataris straightened his too-tight suit coat, then made a show of dusting off the dress pants that stopped just above his ankle. “In truth, I’d like to drain you of all your powers and see if I can keep them for my own.”
“But you’re a Siphon Witch. You and I have the same power.” The seventies called. They want their suit back. I rolled my eyes.
Alataris stepped back from my cell and began pacing back and forth. “Are you not frightened of me?”
“No.” I lied. I was terrified, but what more could I do? I was here, I was his prisoner and I would eventually be killed…unless. “So, what do you want of me?”
Wicked Witch (The Royals: Witch Court Book 1) Page 15
