Deadly Morsel: Rosewood Academy of Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 5)

by Juliann Whicker

  She sighed and pinched my ear, drawing blood. “It didn’t matter what the contract said. I would have signed anything he gave me.”

  “Why?”

  “He bespelled me. It’s the mage energy. Aberrations don’t have the natural defenses against mages that most witches have. We can manipulate their energy, but we pay for it in vulnerability.”

  “So you actually loved that monster?”

  She stared at me with those unfathomable eyes. “Love. Hate. Admire. Despise. Revere is simple. Sooth is not.”

  “Sooth?”

  “Benjamin Sooth, your father. You look like him. The hair. I will kill him someday. It’s fated.”

  I nodded. “Cool. Before or after he takes me and does whatever he wants with me? What does he want with me?”

  She smoothed her hand over my cheek leaving a burning rush of agony. “He will sell you to the highest bidder. An aberration without magic; you’re worth worlds.”

  “Worlds? That’s a lot.”

  She nodded, soberly. “He will rule Darkside, then Dayside, then on until he overreaches.”

  “So, he’s a power mage? One whose priority is power instead of influence or knowledge?”

  She nodded and frowned. “I thought he was an influence mage because it seemed as though others changed their view for him, but he changed their views in spite of them, which isn’t the same thing. Deception mages. Beautiful but so difficult.”

  I nodded. “So he just married you so he could have me and sell me to own worlds or whatever, also steal my magic?”

  She shook her head, a small frown on her face. “No. I don’t know what happened. One day he looked at me like I’d betrayed him and then we were at war. I don’t know why. It could have been madness.”

  “Well that sounds fun. What about Revere?”

  “Revere was before. He didn’t want me, I suppose like your Dragon doesn’t want you.”

  “Revere wanted you.”

  A slight smile spread across her enchanting mouth. Literally enchanting. Revere couldn’t help but want her. “We had an alliance, nothing more. Until afterwards when I was stuck in Dayside. He’d thought I needed Darkside. I thought so too.”

  I spread my fingers over a contract that was heavy enough to kill someone with. Not a mage. Such tough heads. Speaking of tough heads, Drake, my dragon. I couldn’t breathe for a moment as my shoulder ached but in the most agonizingly pleasant way. Maybe I should have stayed away last night until I figured out my next move, but I’d needed him and he’d needed me. The scent of him convinced me almost as much as him holding me against the door, breaking as I’d broken when I’d tied him to a tree. How could he want so much and take so little? Because he loved me but didn’t think he was what I needed. His ego must be suffering terribly. That was probably good for him. Maybe that nurtured the fragments of his soul.

  “Why did Drake break the contract? Why did he leave me if he wanted me? I don’t care about Darkside.”

  “His strength is there, not Dayside, not after Sooth broke his family. Daysider mages have a streak of honor that amuses Darksiders. Your dragon’s honor runs deep.”

  “He lies to me. Hurts me for no reason.”

  “Honor is a virtue. A mage cannot have very many of those. Make a seal mark on the desk when you are finished with her contracts.”

  She left me, returning to her dungeon to work on who knew what. I had no magic, so why should I care?

  I went through the contracts, my grandmother’s, but there were too many and the details were so precise. I went through the drawers and found a slim notebook that smelled like roses. Inside I found notes on each contract she’d kept. The key. Perfect.

  I heard a rumbling of an engine and pulled together all the contracts along with the notebook, sealed the empty desk closed and hauled my stash outside. The knitting man was still there.

  I went outside and Signore was waiting for me, but Teddy was with him. I stared at Teddy. He winked at me.

  I turned to glare at Signore.

  “What is this? You know that strangers aren’t allowed here.”

  Signore shrugged. “Your appointment was with this mage, yes? You may have your study session in the back while I drive.”

  I frowned at Signore. He frowned back. He wasn’t budging on this. Why in the world not?

  I shifted my glare to Teddy. He was so beautiful. The scent of black licorice stirred in the air between us as I stepped towards him. “This house is not a place for visitors. Revere will rip you to pieces that no one will ever find if you come back here or share its location with another.”

  He cocked his head and brushed my cheek with his fingers. Not fingers. Claws. Black claws. The scent of him changed, Black licorice and ashes, fire, dragon. “What Jello knows, Princess knows. Once Drake came here, showed you his dragon, well, it opened the door to so many skeletons. This house isn’t unfindable, not anymore.”

  I pulled away from him, heart pounding in my chest. I glanced back at the house, at the small man with the knitting needles. He smiled at me, no, that wasn’t a smile, and it wasn’t me he was showing his teeth to. He was some kind of guard.

  I rubbed my forehead for a minute before I shrugged and stepped past the two mages to climb into the truck. I went into the back, stuck my grandmama’s contracts under the couch and then went to the bar. I almost poured a glass of honey liquor for Teddy, but as much as I’d like to poke holes in the mage, I had business to do.

  Chapter 5

  Witch

  I sat down with two glasses, both for him and waited for him to sit next to me. I opened the book and asked him to explain the points that weren’t clear. He did. He didn’t waste time, but my skin was crawling by the time I’d gotten back to Rosewood. The way he looked at me was so very appraising.

  “We’re here,” Signore announced, coming back to loom over Teddy. “I hope your business is finished.”

  “It’s not,” I said as I fished under the couch for the contracts and the slim notebook. “We’re going to finish up in my room.”

  Teddy smiled at Signore, the kind of smile that had five different kinds of devils in it. Signore’s face went impassive.

  “This isn’t a good sort of mage to have in your bedroom.”

  “Teddy, are you a seducer, like Ian?”

  “No, I’m a killer, like Signore. You love mages like me. You can’t deny it. You like all kinds of mages, I think. Such an interesting witch.”

  “If you go with Penny, consider yourself uninvited from my next excursion,” Signore said drily.

  Teddy’s smile grew slightly more diabolical and beautiful which didn’t seem possible. “Acknowledged.”

  He turned and left and I followed, not looking at Signore. He didn’t want me dealing with Teddy without him. I could give Signore some kind of credit and claim it was for my protection, but he was the mage who had poisoned me, who would still kill me if it looked like I was going to fall into my father’s hands. I couldn’t trust him any more than I could trust any other mage.

  “Are we doing this just to irritate him?” Teddy asked once we were down the alley away from the truck.

  “Basically. Also, why did you tell me you were a dragon?” I glanced over at him. He was so beautiful, skin like polished pearls, eyes twinkling like my mother’s, lips soft and sweet, like death. He would deliver a sweet death.

  I spun around to face him. “If someone has to kill me, I’d rather you do it instead of Signore. Do you mind?”

  His smile broadened. “I don’t mind, but I think he would.”

  “I don’t think it would be good for him to kill me. It would hurt him.”

  “And you’d rather it hurt me?”

  “I don’t think it would. You don’t love me.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Signore loves you?”

  I shrugged and continued walking. “I think I’m his pet. He thinks I’m his pet, anyway. Darksiders. So idiotic. What were your parents like? I mean, their marriage contract
.”

  He went quiet and stopped walking. He turned to face me, eyes cold and empty. “They have a weird happy relationship. Sick and twisted, but genuinely happy. I have five siblings. My dad is a merc general in Huntsman, at least he used to be before he refused to swear fealty. Now he’s just a grunt. He has more vacation days. My mother likes that.”

  I frowned at him. “Your dad works for Drake? That seems so strange. I thought you were a prissy rich brat.”

  He laughed, showing his teeth. “Thank you. I’ll take that as an insult. No, I’m a poor, poor prince of a mage. Does that make me even more attractive to you? It does. You are amusing.” He took a step closer and brushed my hair with his fingers.

  I jerked my head back. “What are you doing?”

  “You are considering a marriage contract with a mage. Stoneburrow probably, but there are other mages. I promise not to make you love me. You wouldn’t get such an offer from Stoneburrow.”

  “How would you prevent it? I’m naturally disposed to love the worst mages.”

  He laughed, a sound like a knife, sinking through my skin. “I could spell you against it. I would teach you to kill. We would spend nights in a whirlwind of blood and pain. It would be very profitable. Even the Ruby would tremble at your name.”

  “Penny,” I said in an ominous breathy voice.

  He laughed, this time sounding more normal, human. “If you’d like. Pitch has more of a ring to it.”

  “No, Penny has rings, Pitch has pain. You’re mixing up your witches. You shouldn’t do that.”

  He stepped closer, his fingers sliding along my arm and the sensation like cutting. Like I was cutting him, the pleasure of hurting another before empathy cut me back. How did he do that? Darkness grew inside of me, spiraling and spinning, a bit like flying through the night wrapped in a tourney cloak.

  His touch spread through me along with the darkness, a wind of death and pain and beauty that love could never touch.

  I screamed as a different pain ripped through my shoulder. I smelled Signore but I didn’t see him. I couldn’t see anything for a moment in the darkness that swirled beneath the walkway in front of Lilac stories. Teddy. What was he that he could do that to me, eclipse the Penny and release the Pitch, not just the Pitch, the Witch inside of me?

  Signore’s beautiful glittering ruby sword was at Teddy’s throat as he raised his face from my shoulder, my blood on his chin. He spoke with a gutteral accent. “Death or Darkside. Step through or die.”

  Teddy glanced at me, winked, then stepped throughside. Darkness drifted around us like ashes while Signore picked me up in his iron arms.

  “Cara Mia, you are bleeding. Your blood is on my tongue. Tell me to take you to your room.”

  I couldn’t feel my tongue. My shoulder was bleeding heavily and I felt like I had more holes other places dripping and dripping and dripping. “My room,” I said. I’d meant to say that but it was more of a breath. More of a sigh.

  Lilac Stories was so ugly. I needed black. I needed pain. I needed death and never love again. Signore pounded on Zach’s door, the movement shaking me against him. So many rocks.

  It took a minute before Zach opened the door. Signore shoved me at him and said, “The death mage, Prince of Blackheart touched her. Bring back the Penny. You won’t mind Pitch staining your fingers.”

  Pitch. Zach. My mage. Zach’s eyes were bright blue and burning as he gripped my hip, burying his fingers in my skin, razors, needles, pain, pain, pain. As though I belonged to him or something.

  I hissed and slid out of his arms, smoke and ash before I took his wrist and crushed it. I crushed and crushed while he snarled at me, rolling me under him while he gripped my hip.

  I pressed my arm against his throat and lunged, ripping through his jaw with my teeth. Pain. His pain filled me with this drowning happiness that echoed in my laugh. Blood, pain, Pitch black, and then nothing.

  I woke up broken. Light came from far away, flickering like an old film projector we had in the dungeon. Poppy spinning in the attic, grinning at me then throwing the match that lit my happy mouse family in a conflagration. I’d ripped her face off for that. Made her smile from ear to ear. That had hurt. Me. Also Poppy.

  A tea party in the tree at midnight, the moon above us and the shadowy ground below, Poppy toasting to me and then telling me she was fighting without me. She didn’t need me. I’d shattered my teacup against her face and then shattered her. That had hurt. Not as much as her leaving.

  Poppy in the tourney, whirling around in her white cloak, whirling and whirling while I threw the hurter that would consume her, eat her away with acid she wasn’t prepared for. That had hurt her. But she liked that. She’d smiled at me. She’d always liked playing with Pitch.

  “Poppy, I’m sorry.”

  “What is wrong with you? Teddy Blackheart? I know you’re stupid, but Theodore Prince?”

  I pried my swollen eyes open and saw Zach over me, his face livid, eyes bright blue and burning, his shattered face. I’d broken him beautifully. The dark blue shone through, his real face, the cutting cheekbones and harsh mouth. The mage. I smiled and slid my fingers over the broken jagged edges I’d given him. That’s how my face looked. My teeth had torn chunks in his jaw. Ow. Yep, I could feel that.

  “You are the prettiest broken thing I’ve ever seen. Do I look so nice ripped apart?”

  He scowled at me. “No. You look terrible. Sickeningly terrible.”

  I sighed and pulled the pain out of him. It came fast, a flood of agony that lasted until Zach caught my wrists and pushed my hands against his bed.

  “You did not just heal me! What is your problem? You fixed my wrist? Who is going to fix yours? I’m not. I’m not going to fix you after you let that sickening snake into your bed.”

  “Bed? What bed? You mean Signore’s couch?”

  He hissed at me. It was such a cute little mage hiss. I smiled and would have touched his mouth if he wasn’t still holding me down. “He was in your room.”

  “I was going to take him to my room, but we didn’t get that far. He promised me so many things, Zach. He promised that I would never love him. He promised me pain, death, darkness…” I sighed as the memory swirled around me. “Pitch liked it. I liked it. Let’s face it: I’m an idiot. The fact that Drake and you haven’t completely ripped me apart has nothing to do with me. I didn’t think Teddy would do anything, though. I thought he was Drake’s mage.”

  “You aren’t Drake’s witch. You aren’t anyone’s witch, not yet. You are vulnerable, Penny. You have no idea the things I could have done after you passed out in my room.”

  I raised my eyebrows. Ow. I really had to find someone to heal me at some point. Maybe Drake. He wasn’t the best healer, but he was the best mage, or the worst one, whatever.

  I tried to sit up, but Zach held me down like I was seriously going to run off or something. It took too much effort to do anything. Even looking at him took effort. I passed out instead. The next time I came to, he was on his phone, muttering something about idiot witches. He threw the phone against the wall and came back to the bed. He still looked like Peter Pan. Had I broken his glamour?

  “You’re awake. How do you feel? I’m still pissed, but I’m going to heal you anyway. You’re welcome. I am so nice to you, mostly because you still need to do the tech suit and I need someone to hand me screwdrivers when I’m working on Rosy. That’s the car’s name. Rosy. I named it so you don’t get to. It isn’t a stupid name, either. It’s a good name. Sophisticated. Way better than Pitch.”

  I tried to sit up and succeeded in going up on my elbows. “Way better. Rosy is an adorable name. Why are you so pissed? Don’t you like it when Pitch rips you apart?”

  “That wasn’t Pitch. That was a corrupt Penny, but no, that’s not the infuriating thing. What I’m upset about is the fact that now I owe your diabolical Darksider deliveryman for bringing my witch to me when another mage tried to seduce her to the dark side. Like the literal Darkside which would
certainly kill you.”

  I frowned at him. “Wait, you owe Signore? That makes no sense.”

  “Didn’t he take you away from Teddy?”

  “Yes, but he bit me.” I put my hand on my shoulder. It was still tender, but there wasn’t any blood or open wound. “Did you heal me?”

  “I did.”

  “While I was ripping apart your face with my teeth?”

  “Yep.”

  “That’s kind of talented. I’m impressed, Zach.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’ve got skills. What will he want? Tech? A delivery deal? What?”

  I shook my head. “No. You aren’t giving Signore anything. He saved me, not for you, for him.”

  “You aren’t his witch.”

  “No, but we have an alliance. It’s unspoken, but it’s there.”

  He scowled at me and folded his arms across his chest. “What kind of alliance?”

  “I take his pain and he’s nice to me.”

  He stared at me. “He’s nice to you? What does that even mean?”

  “He says nice things. He gives me hugs. It sounds stupid, I know, but I need that. I need niceness.”

  He ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes tight. “You take his pain, like heal him?”

  “Sort of. His pain is very deep. Not just pain, emotions too.”

  “Madness?”

  I shrugged. “Probably. I can take almost anything.”

  He stared at me for a long time. “Anything?”

  “Pain, anger, fear, desperation, hunger, need, that kind of thing. Only mages. I can’t touch a witch’s pain. Too bad. I probably could have fixed my mother a long time ago.”

  “You cure his madness and in return he’s nice to you. Huh.”

  I shrugged. “It’s unusual, I know, but it’s worked for a long time. He also delivers my packages.”

  “But your buyers pay for that.”

  “True.”

  “Unbelievable. It’s not exactly hard to be nice to you, Penny.”