Wicked Little Things

by Emma Dean

  At some point though, she had to wonder if it was her.

  She had to wonder why none of them had chosen to trust her.

  20

  The red dress she wore wasn’t new, but it was one of her favorites. It technically still fit the description of fancy since it was floor length and accentuated the hell out of her tits, but it was flowy and comfortable.

  No heels this time, just a pair of warm black boots.

  Her coat was actually more of a fur-lined cloak. Mika pulled the hood up and held the black wool closed as she walked towards the Morrigan’s temple.

  Malachi had texted her the location, and she’d double checked to make sure he hadn’t sent some kind of typo.

  No, he definitely wanted her at the temple.

  The cloak flowed behind her as she walked, like she was some dramatic heroine in a movie. Trees whispered as she made her way through the forest, the path so familiar now she didn’t even have to think about it.

  Azrael was out there somewhere, getting ready to make his next move, but Mika had quickly learned all this stress was almost pointless even if she had no idea how to stop worrying. It was all a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’ which made everything worse.

  Yes, she was busy making sure things were as ready as they could possibly be, but there was a lot of down time and it was hard to reconcile with the sense of urgency that never seemed to leave her.

  The trees seemed to part for her, and the ocean was nearly black except for the white waves crashing against the cliff. At the top of the temple she could see glowing witchlights and Mika smiled.

  Malachi was insane to have a date out here on a night that promised thick snow.

  But she walked towards that light anyway, climbing the stairs. Each step reminded her of all the other times she’d walked up to the top to meditate with Lucien, to train with Morgana, or just to stare at the ocean as she tried to figure out her life.

  When she reached the top, Malachi was in a nice suit tailored to perfection. It took her breath away and Mika had to take a moment to admire him.

  Then she saw the picnic basket.

  “We’re having a picnic here?” she asked, raising a brow in question. There weren’t any blankets laid out and she didn’t see anything set up.

  “No.” His grin was sharp. “I have a present for you first.” Malachi held out his hand and waited for her to take it.

  A present?

  Mika considered him, and then his hand, not sure why she felt hesitant. She thought he was beautiful, caring, and loyal.

  Maybe it was the way he was now.

  Malachi’s feelings for her weren’t gentle anymore and they weren’t soft. Whatever they were…he was a reflection. Maybe…maybe she was afraid of peeling off that last layer of humanity.

  But she’d never been human. She was a warrior witch and she needed to stop acting like she was anything else.

  Placing her hand in his, she let him tug her toward the bridge.

  “Rokvash helped me set this up,” he murmured. “You’ve been worried about space, right?”

  Mika nodded, narrowing her eyes when she saw the gems on the bridge in the shape of a pentagram. “Are those power crystals?”

  “Sapphires,” Malachi admitted. “And all of them are full of power.”

  Her eyes widened. “What the hell could you need this much power for?”

  His sharp grin returned. “Do you trust me?”

  “Of course I do.” Mika had trusted him even when he’d had to hide the truth from her. Malachi had always acted in her best interest. Always. “Why do you ask?”

  “I’ve been saving these for a special occasion.” Malachi handed her a slip of paper. “Rokvash placed the rest of them for me.”

  “Where?” Then she read the spell. “Wait a minute. Is this what I think it is?”

  Malachi nodded. “It’s a very old restoration spell.”

  A restoration spell?

  “Where are the other sapphires, Malachi?” Suddenly her heart was beating too fast and Mika pressed a hand to her stomach as her nerves started acting up.

  “In the castle under the ocean. I spoke with the undine and the queen has granted us the rights to the castle again, above water.”

  “Above water?” Mika looked at the spell again. “You mean…”

  He wanted to raise an ancient castle from the depths of the ocean for their date?

  Mika stared at him, mouth hanging open slightly. “Why exactly did I have to dress up for this?”

  Malachi smirked and sketched a small bow. “Other than the fact that I think you’re gorgeous in a dress and enjoy admiring you in one, I have more than one part to this date.”

  “Where did all this power even come from?” Mika couldn’t believe how many sapphires there were in various shapes and sizes.

  “I’ve been saving it up for a special occasion. I figured this is probably the best occasion I could use it for. It’s not quite enough though, I’ll need your help.” He knelt slightly to the left of the pentagram, one knee up. He patted it and smiled at her. “Wouldn’t want you to get your dress dirty.”

  Mika felt herself blush and shook her head, wishing she could control that part of her body. “You want me to sit on your knee?”

  “I was only offering.” His eyes twinkled though, and Mika felt her heart flip flop. Why was he so fucking hot?

  Delicately she perched on his knee, trying not to think too much about how she might accidentally crush him. “So, part one of our date is to raise the castle from the dead?”

  Malachi shrugged like it was no big deal. “Yeah, I mean, you said we needed more space.”

  She did say that.

  Mika turned back to the spell and memorized it before handing it back to him. “This isn’t even a blood spell.”

  “No, just really old.” He tucked it away and held out a hand for her. “Ready?”

  “All the other stones are in place and the runes drawn?”

  “Rokvash assured me the undine had done exactly as I asked.” Malachi grinned. “Let’s do this.”

  Thankfully they had an entire season of dodgeball to fall back on. Malachi had been her teammate for months and working with him, doing magic with him, it was second nature.

  Mika placed her hand in his and focused on the stones. They both raised their free hands, palm outward toward the pentagram. A quick squeeze and they started intoning the words that would activate the power first.

  Once, twice, thrice.

  All that power was unlocked, and she could feel it spear toward the power in the castle. A quick breath and they started on the second part of the spell that would do the heavy lifting, literally.

  The words called upon the power in the stones, telling it to restore what had been broken, to put back what had been taken. All the pieces were there under the ocean. Each stone felt like a tug on her conscious as Mika felt them rise.

  It was like clicking each puzzle piece into place as they repeated the words over and over in Latin, working the power they had in the stones, and Mika poured more of her own in when she felt the spell stutter for a breath.

  Almost there.

  Malachi’s deep voice intertwined with her husky one and Mika smiled, eyes closing as she imagined the bridge knitting itself back together. The statues standing guard at the castle gates, and then the castle itself perched on a foundation above the waves that would lead right to the Morrigan’s temple.

  Almost as if the goddess and all her descendants had wanted to feel the wildness of the ocean, as if the island was too tame for them. There was nothing quite like a storm raging on the sea to remind them all of nature’s power.

  The sound as it rose above the surface was like a storm itself. Water exploded as the castle was pulled from it.

  When the stone started to click together, she opened her eyes.

  Mika couldn’t believe it. The spell had worked.

  She kept murmuring with Malachi, feeling the spell pull on her power and Malach
i’s as it repaired the bridge, filled in the gaps, wiped away the centuries under the water as if they’d never happened.

  Centuries of clan blood was steeped in every rock and boulder and Mika felt it calling to her, whispering the secrets of the past. Her ancestors were still alive in this place where they’d lived and died.

  One last tower stitched together, and she felt her hands shake when the spell finally ended.

  “There’s someone on the bridge,” Malachi murmured, his grip on her hand tightening. “Should we go see who it is?”

  Mika stood, using her new sight to inspect the stranger. Then she realized it wasn’t a stranger at all. She tugged Malachi along and he snatched up the picnic basket as he moved, grinning down at her.

  How long had he been planning this? How had he gotten the undine to help him? Did the others know about this? Mika shook her head. She had so many questions but none of them really mattered.

  Malachi had listened to her. He’d cared enough to find a solution that not only solved the problem but had done it in a way that gave her back some of her history.

  “I can never repay you for this,” she murmured, smiling at the fae queen.

  “I’m sure you would have thought of it eventually.” Malachi stopped and bowed before the undine queen. “Thank you, your highness.”

  Mika didn’t bow.

  The fae queen had already scolded her for it last time, saying no queen bows before another.

  “The castle is yours once more,” the queen murmured, inspecting Mika from head to toe. “Nothing has been taken.”

  “I appreciate it.” Mika eyed the castle with the towers spearing into the sky and wondered what the inside would look like this time. “And I appreciate you allowing me to take it back.”

  Titania nodded once, her eyes a striking blue that always made Mika feel like she was looking in a dark pool and if she wasn’t careful, she would drown in the blue of those eyes. “We are allies. This castle was built to allow our kind to communicate more freely. The underwater chambers were once mine.”

  “You are welcome to send any undine to the castle you wish,” Mika told her. “But I will be filling the spare rooms with ravens and coyotes and foxes.”

  When Titania smiled, there was a small flash of her sharp teeth and Mika tried not to shudder, but they were terrifying to see in person.

  “I have squadrons of soldiers searching the other realms for your death god. A guard will be in the undine’s receiving room every day at noon for updates. I look forward to working with another blood witch.”

  Before Mika could say anything else, the queen dove off the bridge with her spear, angling down in a sharp line. When she hit the surface there was barely a ripple in the water.

  “Blessed by an ancient fae queen.” Malachi shook his head. “I feel like Azrael should be the one who’s afraid of us instead of the other way around.”

  Mika didn’t think he was wrong, but she also couldn’t forget the amount of power her brother had been gifted. “If it was just him, I’d be inclined to agree.”

  Malachi’s smile dropped and he squeezed her hand. “Do you still want to go inside?”

  “Of course I do.” Mika pulled him along, wishing there was something on either side of the bridge instead of just a sheer drop. “Do you think the spell repaired the damage from the salt and the water?”

  “A lot of the items in there were already under preservation spells.” Malachi picked up his pace. “Which room are you going to pick?”

  She stopped before the two massive statues of warrior witches and looked up at them, wondering if they were someone Morgana knew.

  “Think it’s locked?” Malachi asked, reaching for one of the gate doors.

  It was massive and Mika studied it, remembering the way it had been rotted the last time she saw it. “Do Ethan, Lucien, and Corbin know you planned this?”

  He held the door open for her and she turned to study him in his fancy suit, wishing she could be privy to these conversations they all had without her.

  “Ethan helped me lug all those sapphires. Lucien and Corbin are supposed to keep everyone else from finding out about the castle until tomorrow. We wanted you to have time to enjoy it on your own, and then decide what to do with it.”

  “Is that why you asked which room I wanted?”

  Malachi nodded and she looked up when she felt a shift in the air.

  Snow.

  Cold pressed to her cheek and then melted. Mika stuck out her tongue and caught the next one, laughing when it melted on her breath instead.

  “We should go inside.” But Malachi was grinning as he watched her.

  Mika loved the snow. She was pretty sure it was because she spent most of her life in San Francisco where they had plenty of rain and fog, but snow was rare unless she traveled to the mountains.

  Here, on Morgana Island, they had all the seasons and Mika relished the shift every few months, but her favorites were fall and winter. There was nothing quite like it, and Mika would swear the veil between this reality and the others was thinner somehow.

  “The obvious choice would be Morgana’s room,” she finally said, walking through the massive door into the receiving room they’d come through that first time too. “But the castle is massive. Maybe I’ll pick a tower.”

  “You would.” Malachi still didn’t let go of her hand and she didn’t try to pull away.

  It was rare she got a night to herself, and Mika wanted to spend it with Malachi as if she wasn’t Head Witch, Matriarch Marshall, and Witch Queen to some. She just wanted to be a girl enjoying the company of a boy she really liked.

  A boy she might even love if she let herself take that final step.

  “It’s beautiful,” she whispered, looking up at the chandelier that had been covered with green rust the last time she’d been in here. “I’ve known I’m a witch since birth. I grew up in a high society family and have seen more of the paranormal world than most witches, and even still I forget sometimes what magic can do.”

  Malachi pulled her into the great hall and spun her around almost as if he was going to dance with her. “I know what you mean. To some degree I think we’re limited by our own power.”

  “Is that why you started hoarding it?” Mika let him untie her cloak. It was surprisingly warm inside the castle despite the snow that was starting to fall faster and faster.

  He set the picnic basket on one of the tables and shrugged as he folded her cloak. “To some degree. I wanted to have extra power in case I got in a fight and needed it to win. But when I started reading the books in the fox library, I saw some of the spells witches created in the past and I realized they were able to because of how much magic they had at their disposal. It’s difficult for the poor man to imagine all the things money can do whereas the rich man knows exactly what it can accomplish. And what it can’t.”

  “I like that metaphor.” Mika wondered what they could accomplish once this was all over. Would they develop new spells, or bring back to life the old ones that had been forgotten? Technically anything was possible.

  “Is this where you want to have our picnic?” Malachi asked. “Or would you like to explore first?”

  “How about somewhere with a view and a fireplace?” Mika smiled at him, looking forward to exploring. “I imagine we can find a few places like that. Maybe we’ll even be able to find a few good rooms to choose from.”

  The castle was absolutely massive. It was easily five times larger than her family mansion, if not more. It was difficult to quantify the sheer size as they went through the halls and rooms they’d gone through before when it had all been underwater.

  “Even the glass has been repaired,” she murmured, eyeing the stone between the glass arch and the empty one that looked out over the ocean. “I wonder how many witches it would have taken without those crystals?”

  “You’re very powerful,” Malachi murmured, his hand sliding to her lower back. “Probably not that many.”

  Mika
snorted. “Please, you had hundreds of sapphires chockful of power.”

  He shrugged and grinned down at her. “A hundred witches per the spell, but those are normal witches. It’s considered a ‘barn raising’ spell.”

  “Quaint and adorable.”

  “Difficult to find a hundred witches back in the day I imagine.” Malachi led her deeper into the castle. “There’s probably a library in here somewhere.”

  Holy shit, a fucking library.

  Mika practically ran up the stairs to the next level, dragging Malachi with her. “I hope there is one. Imagine what books there are we might not know about?”

  “If there isn’t one, you could always add it.” Malachi pulled back, forcing her to slow down.

  She stumbled into him, surprised at his strength. When she looked up into his eyes, Mika realized she’d rarely been this close to him except when they were sparring. “I can’t believe your present is a fucking castle.”

  He laughed and she couldn’t help her smile. It was so easy to be around Malachi these days. Sure, he pushed her, teased her – just like they all did. But it was becoming natural to look for him and find him standing there with Ethan, Lucien, and Corbin.

  Mika relied on him now, and she knew if he decided to leave one day, she would let him, but it would break her heart.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked, searching her eyes. “You disappeared there for a moment.”

  “I was thinking about what I would do if you left.”

  Instantly his smile dropped, and his hands tightened on her waist. “Why do you think I would leave?”

  She shrugged and stood on her tiptoes to give him a small peck on the lips. “You have the freedom to do whatever you want with your life. Why would I try to keep you if you didn’t want to stay?”

  “Mika.” Malachi sighed. “You’re such a loveable idiot sometimes.”

  “Excuse me?” She tried to push away from him, but his grip on her was tight—unyielding.

  “I’m not going to leave. Ever. So, let’s go find your view.”

  She was silent as he led her through the castle, opening doors to empty rooms that didn’t seem to have any purpose. They would definitely need to get someone out to install some modern plumbing and electricity.