I hit the brakes and squealed around the curve in the driveway—and almost rear-ended an SUV parked half on the lawn. I narrowly missed its bumper and slid to a stop under the carriage porch.
The manor’s front door hung open, the interior black. A dozen vehicles that hadn’t been there before were parked haphazardly around the driveway and lawn, but nothing moved. Where was everyone? What was I supposed to do now? Panic constricting my throat, I looked in the rearview mirror. Sin lay across the seat, out cold, and Ezra lay across the floor.
The car jolted as something hit it, then my door flew open and hands flashed toward me. I gasped in a breath to scream.
“Tori!”
The hands grabbed my shoulders and Aaron’s white face came into focus. He stank of smoke and burnt blood, his face smudged with soot. Sharpie’s hilt stuck up behind his shoulder.
The back door opened and Kai leaned over my two passengers. “What happened to Ezra? Is he—”
“He’s fine,” I gasped. “I’m fine, we’re both fine, but Sin—”
Aaron released me and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Dad! Over here!”
I jammed the buckle of my seatbelt and it gave way. As I heaved myself out of the car, Tobias sprinted up to us. Aaron wrenched the other door open and the two pyromages pulled Sin out. Tobias slung her limp form over his shoulder, then ran up the steps into the manor.
“What—” I began.
“Josephine has the exorcism ritual set up. She’s waiting.” Aaron rushed around the car and helped Kai drag Ezra out. They lifted him over Kai’s shoulder, and the electramage tottered unsteadily as Aaron stepped back.
“Suck it up,” Aaron said pitilessly.
“I’ve got him,” Kai grunted. “But I’m a bit exhausted, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Aaron pushed me into motion and Kai followed with heavy steps. He wasn’t the only exhausted one; my strength was flagging too. In a big way.
“What happened?” I panted as we cut across the entrance hall. “Did you—”
“You’re back!” Valerie swept out of the living room, her black hair falling out of its elegant twist. Her beautiful silver gown had been hacked off at the knees. “Is Ezra okay? Bring him in here, Kai. A healer just arrived.”
As Kai heaved Ezra’s dead weight into the living room, Valerie hovering at his side, I called, “It’s just a sleeping potion.”
The moment Kai reappeared, Aaron grabbed my arm and hauled me into the drawing room, still decorated for the Christmas party—except the tables had been smashed and the garlands torn off the walls. A dead werewolf lay in the debris.
“It was all going to hell,” Aaron said as he shoved through the terrace door, and I realized he was belatedly answering my question. “Dad and I made it into the dorm, but the wolves were right behind us. We kept them off the students, but we were being overwhelmed.”
“They burned half the building down,” Kai added from behind us. “Valerie and I were holding out better, but not by much. The wolves wouldn’t quit—or die.”
“Just when it was getting real ugly, Josephine arrived.” Aaron shook his head. “Druids, I tell you. They’re insane.”
“Insane how?” I asked sharply, so busy watching him I missed the last step.
He caught my elbow and steadied me. “Let’s just say she and her familiar know their way around feral shifters.”
We reached the top of the sunken garden, where the druidess had first tried to exorcise Sin three nights ago. The circle was waiting, and Tobias had laid Sin in front of the fire. Josephine, wearing jeans and a leather jacket, stood ready.
Gathered in the garden, positioned well back from the circle, were another twenty mythics, all carrying weapons. Some were smudged with soot like Aaron and his father.
“Guild members,” Aaron said before I could ask. “Mom called for help. They arrived while you were gone.”
We stopped twenty paces from the exorcism site, where Josephine had just begun her chant. The air shimmered and her familiar appeared at the opposite end of the circle. His pale lilac hair swirled around him, silver magic sparking over his fingers.
“Will it work?” I whispered. “It’s past midnight.”
“She said the ritual won’t have as much power, but as long as Sin drank the potion Compton made her—”
“But she didn’t!” I plucked the third pink vial from my belt. A crack ran down the side, but thankfully it wasn’t leaking. “Brian gave her a fake version. She hasn’t had her third dose!”
Aaron paled.
I launched forward. Josephine’s voice rose, ancient words filling the quiet night. Her familiar turned as I skidded to a stop at the circle’s edge, waving the vial.
“Sin hasn’t taken her final dose!” I told him frantically.
A green glow rippled over Sin’s body and reddish wisps oozed out. Josephine didn’t falter, her voice rich with power.
Niavv studied me, then plucked the vial from my hand. He uncorked it, sniffed its contents, and wrinkled his nose in displeasure.
The greenish haze around Sin deepened, the shuddering aura forming a wolf’s head and upper body. Niavv lifted the vial, then upended it. I sucked in a horrified breath, but instead of pouring onto the ground, the potion floated in a weightless blob above Niavv’s palm. He tossed the vial away.
Josephine lifted the bucket at her feet. “Luna, lunae carmen, tuam ad lucem tuos voca liberos!”
She dumped water on the fire in the circle’s center. The flames snuffed out in a roil of smoke, and the wolf spirit lurched above Sin’s chest. Sin’s unconscious body twitched and spasmed.
Silver light spiraled around Niavv’s fingers and he swept his hands through the floating potion. The liquid coated his magic, turning it vibrant pink, and he cast the glowing threads at the spirit. They hooked into the phantom wolf.
The fae familiar heaved. The phantom wolf reared up, forelegs appearing in the twisting light. As the spirit strained toward Sin, Niavv slid a few inches across the grass. The moon’s white face mocked us.
Bracing himself, Niavv wrenched on his magical threads. Jaws open in a silent howl, the wolf spirit tore free from Sin. Her spasms died as she went still.
I stumbled backward as the fae familiar reeled the struggling wolf spirit in like a fish on a hook. He dragged it out of the circle, then plunged his slender fingers into the wolf’s transparent chest. Silver light flashed. The wolf’s aura paled, the green tinge leaching away, then its phantom body broke apart. The pale wisps drifted skyward as though drawn toward the glowing moon.
I stumbled into the circle. Josephine was kneeling over Sin, checking her vitals. The druidess looked up, a relieved smile on her lips.
“She’s okay. She needs a healer, but she’s alive and the wolf spirit is gone.”
My knees went weak, and I abruptly sat down. “Thank goodness.”
At Josephine’s wave, Aaron picked Sin up. He hurried toward the manor and, presumably, a healer. Not sure my exhausted, pain-filled body could stand again, I decided to sit there for a minute.
Flowing, silk-like fabric appeared beside me. I looked up and found pupilless opal eyes watching me. Niavv’s beautiful, androgynous face held no expression, but he gave me a slow, deliberate nod. I nodded back. What else was I supposed to do?
Apparently, that was an acceptable response, because he shimmered out of sight. Okay then.
Kai crouched beside me and wrapped an arm around my waist. “Come on, Tori. You’re looking rough.”
I intended to protest, but as he gently pulled me up, a thousand aches and pains hit me. Grimacing, I had to admit he was probably right.
Aaron met us halfway back to the terrace. He fell into step on my other side, so close his charred sleeve brushed my arm. The Sinclair guild members had moved off—scouting for stray wolves, putting out fires, cleaning up, whatever.
“A healer is treating Sin,” Aaron told me as I winced my way up the steps to the terrace. “You’re her next patient.�
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“Sounds good,” I sighed tiredly. “How’s Ezra?”
“Bruised, plus one bite, but he came up negative for any infection.”
Likely because Eterran would never allow a lowly wolf spirit to butt in on his host body.
“The healer decided it was best to let him sleep the potion off.” Aaron held the door to the drawing room open for me. “What happened out there?”
“Well, there was Brian and there were wolves and there was a lot of punching and falling down and a couple of explosions …”
“How did Ezra get shot?”
I winced, then sighed. “Um, well … that was my fault.”
“You shot him?”
I flinched again. If I told them I’d shot Ezra deliberately, I’d have to tell them why. How would they react to the news that Eterran had not only taken control of Ezra, but that the demon had been reasonably willing to fight alongside me?
The truth about Eterran hung on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t reveal anything—not yet. I still had a month to investigate on my own before Eterran’s promise to behave expired.
“It was right near the end,” I lied. “I missed a shot and hit him.”
The two mages exchanged a long look, probably debating the wisdom of giving me a potion gun.
I let them silently debate my weapons competency, my guilt-ridden apprehension dampened by exhaustion and pain. The problem of Eterran had grown more urgent, but Sin was safe. Aaron and Kai were safe. Aaron’s parents and the academy students were safe.
I’d worry about Eterran later.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Tori!” Sin exclaimed. “Seriously?”
I laughed at her scandalized expression. She held up the lingerie set she’d pulled from a candy-cane-patterned gift bag, bits of lace and strappy things hanging off it.
“What?” I asked innocently. “It’s your signature color. How could I not get it for you?”
“What do I need lingerie for?” She plucked at a silk ribbon. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Perched on the bed beside her, I shrugged. “Who knows when that might change? Besides, you don’t need a boyfriend for sexy clothes.” I waved at the gift bag. “Open the rest of it!”
“There’s more?” Warily, she dug her hand into the tissue paper and withdrew a small bundle: three pens in different colors, wrapped in a piece of paper and tied with a ribbon. “What’s this?”
“Special pens for writing in your grimoire,” I informed her proudly. “They have non-smudging, waterproof ink, and that paper wrapped around them is the alchemic recipe for making more.”
“What? No way!” She slid the ribbon off and unfolded the recipe. “Wow, thanks Tori!”
“I got Katherine’s help. She has recipes for more colors if you want them.”
Grinning, she gave me a tight hug, then hopped up and pulled her grimoire out of her suitcase. As she tucked the recipe between the pages, I noticed a bit of gold sticking out of the back cover.
I pointed. “What’s that?”
“Nothing!” she blurted, then realized her blush was giving her away. “It’s a card from Kelvin Compton.”
The super-genius alchemist had made a full recovery by Saturday morning. From what I’d seen, being poisoned by his own apprentice had inflicted no harm on his ego either.
“What kind of card?” I asked curiously.
“A Christmas card … and a get-well card.” Her blush deepened. “He also, um …”
“Oh my god!” I gasped. “He asked you out, didn’t he? That old pervert!”
“What? No, no.” She gazed at her grimoire. “He invited me to apply for an apprenticeship with him.”
I leaned back in surprise, a squirmy feeling in my stomach. “That was fast.”
“He’s not interviewing new candidates until spring, but he wanted me to think about it.”
Oh, okay. That wasn’t quite so bad. At least he wasn’t trying to replace his deceased apprentice mere days after his tragic death.
“And are you going to think about it?” I asked.
She didn’t look at me and instead poked the gold card back into her grimoire. “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s a great opportunity, but I’m not sure I could live anywhere near here after … everything.”
Setting her grimoire on the nightstand, she sank down onto the mattress beside me. The girl was so determined to be positive that I couldn’t get a read on how much the events of the past week had affected her, but I was guessing she’d be having wolf-related nightmares for a while.
I slung my arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “Give it time and see how you feel in a few months. You don’t need to decide anything now.”
“Yeah.” She shook off her apprehension and beamed happily. “I can’t wait for dinner. Lily and Anna are freaking out over how fancy it’ll be.”
Sin’s parents and older sister had arrived last night to join the two youngest Bakers. Earlier this morning, their family, the Sinclairs, Kai, Ezra, and I had gathered in the smoking room—the living room had been trashed in Friday night’s battle—to exchange gifts.
It’d been a movie-worthy holiday event. Christmas music had played softly from a stereo in the corner, and a breakfast buffet of croissants and fruit had been laid out on the coffee table. We’d had mugs of cocoa with whipped cream to sip on, and a Christmas tree—salvaged from another room—had flashed its lights as sunlight streamed through the windows.
“Have you given the guys their presents yet?” Sin asked, interrupting my reminiscence.
Nerves flitted through my belly. “They’re next.”
“I get why you wanted to give me my gift in private”—she shot an amused look at the lingerie—“but why didn’t you give them their gifts this morning?”
“Just because.” I twitched my shoulders. “I should do that before they wander off in search of turkey.”
As I stood, Sin gave me an encouraging slap on the butt. “Don’t look so panicky. Whatever you got them, they’ll love it.”
I could only hope.
Slipping out of her room, I got five steps down the hall before the three mages in question surrounded me. Aaron blocked my path, hands on his hips, while Kai and Ezra flanked me.
“Thought you could sneak off without giving us our presents, did you?” he asked in a villainous growl.
I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t sneaking anywhere. I was just going to get your gifts.”
“A likely story.”
“Haven’t you opened enough presents?”
His grin flashed. His parents had given him several exquisite suits and dress shirts—preparing him for future guild interviews, no doubt. My gift from Tobias and Valerie was way better: three bottles of fine liquor. I’d already packed them snugly in my suitcase so I wouldn’t forget them, which would be a complete and utter crime against alcohol everywhere.
Squeezing between Aaron and Kai, I waved them to follow me. “All right. Gift time.”
They shadowed me into my bedroom. Butterflies tumbled in my gut as I opened the otherwise empty bottom drawer of my dresser and withdrew three rectangular gifts wrapped in holly-patterned paper with green bows.
Gulping, I checked the labels, then passed a gift to each mage.
Aaron’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline as he weighed the present in his hand. “You got us all the same thing? Isn’t that a bit lazy?”
I folded my arms, fighting back nerves. “Shut up and open them.”
Snickering, he tore into the paper. On either side of him, Kai and Ezra did the same. Three matching photo albums with leather covers emerged from the torn paper, and the guys peered down at their gifts like they had no idea what to do with them.
My confidence shriveled.
They flipped their albums open. Aaron’s eyes widened and Ezra’s soft intake of breath cut through me, reinforcing my doubts. Maybe this had been a dumb idea.
Photos of us filled each album. I loved capturing moment
s with a quick snap of my phone camera, and on every outing—when we weren’t fighting for our lives—I took at least one picture. Usually multiples. The albums contained page after page of our grinning faces, spanning the seven months we’d known each other.
“They aren’t exactly the same,” I mumbled. “Some of the photos are, but others I chose depending on—”
Album in one hand, Aaron swept me into his arms. I wheezed as he crushed the air from my lungs, then Kai was pulling me away to squash me in his own hug. Lastly, Ezra wrapped me in a warm, gentle embrace, and I silently sniffed back the happy tears threatening to leak down my cheeks.
“This is the best gift I’ve ever gotten,” Aaron declared, flipping pages. “Ha! I’d forgotten about this photo—look at your face, Ezra.”
He tilted his album toward the aeromage, who chuckled. “I remember. We were toasting after the Yaletown vampire job and I knocked my drink off the bar.” He canted his head. “What’s that one?”
I peered upside-down at a shot of Kai scowling darkly while Aaron laughed. “Oh, we were out for lunch and two girls started crying when Kai wouldn’t let them sit with him.”
Aaron snorted. “Oh yeah! And right after you took the picture, they tried to—”
“Yes, yes,” Kai interrupted, seizing Aaron’s shoulder and steering him to the bedroom door. “It was very funny for the rest of you. You should put your album somewhere safe and get ready for dinner.”
“But I want to—”
Kai shoved him through the door, then looked back to meet my amused gaze, his dark eyes sparking with humor. “Thank you for the present, Tori.”
I giggled as he herded Aaron down the hall.
“It’s a wonderful gift,” Ezra murmured. “Thank you.”
My heart did a skip, hop, and tumble as I realized we were alone for the first time since Friday. Since the mistletoe. Since our deadly battle against Brian and his wolves.
I’d lied to Aaron and Kai about Eterran’s role in that fight without considering that Ezra’s story might contradict mine, but when he’d woken from the sleeping potion, he couldn’t remember anything past our struggle with the alpha shifter.
The Alchemist and an Amaretto: The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Five Page 21
