I gasped.
Henry VI.
With my heart pounding in my chest, I swam over to it as fast as possible. I threw the lid open and grinned. I recognized the golden coins inside in an instant. They were identical to mine. Sure, they lacked the hidden message, but I didn’t think it was a coincidence. I shoved my hand inside and dug through the coins, but it was hard to look while holding on. I needed both hands.
“What’d you find?” Cooper asked as he dropped in on my left. His eyes widened. “These look like your coin…”
He must’ve caught on to my thoughts because without another word he dove in and started scooping huge handfuls of coins out. Together, we searched the entire chest, emptying it of coins completely. My heart sank. My hope deflated. There was nothing inside.
“Damn it, I thought you were onto something.” Cooper sighed and leaned back. He gripped the edge of a wooden chair covered in barnacles.
“Actually, I think you are.” Bettina swam over and held on to the side of the chest. “It’s like an escape room. This is a clue. We just have to figure out how it connects. Tegan, come help us. You’re the best at this stuff.”
Tegan was lounged on what looked like a bed tucked inside a nook. Her whole body still glowed. She crossed her ankles and put her hands behind her head. “I’m just here for epic magical shit, y’all.”
Bettina scowled, but then she shook herself and looked back to us. “Okay, the pipe had to be used, right? So it stands to reason the coin does, too. And not just to give you the lotus sign, I think. Maybe. I could be wrong. But either way, something on this chest has to be important to your quest. We just have to find it.”
Tegan hummed. “Like the Spy Store.”
Bettina gasped. “YES!”
I shook my head. “Pardon me, what?”
“It was the hardest escape room we’ve ever done,” Bettina said with a grin too wide for the words she’d just said.
“Okayyy…what did you do—”
Bettina held one pointer finger up and stared at the ground. Her eyes darted around, like she was seeing something that wasn’t here. Then she pulled her hands back and slammed the chest lid closed. She leaned over the top, and her eyes widened. “Jackson…hand…here.”
I had no idea what she’d just thought of, but I went with it. I lifted my left hand, the one with the rose tattoo, then placed my palm on the top. There was a click then a heavy thud from inside the chest. I jumped back, and Bettina threw the lid open. My jaw dropped. There was a secret compartment in the chest that opened after I’d put my hand on the lid. This new part covered the opening of the chest, and in the middle, there was a wooden steering wheel that matched the one on the upper deck. In the center, there was a golden circle— I gasped.
“The coin!” Bettina and I shouted at the same time.
I reached in my pocket and pulled Michael’s coin out…then I placed it on the golden circle on the wheel and— POP.
“OW,” Cooper yelled then cursed. He rubbed the back of his head and turned. “What the—”
His eyes widened.
Bettina and I dove toward him.
A wooden drawer had popped out of the desk and hit him in the head. We jumped up and peered inside. I frowned. There were little squares inside. Some of them had black lines, some didn’t. Cooper reached in and pulled one of the blank ones out and lifted it up close to his face. I glanced over and spotted a single curved black line on the back.
“Flip the blanks over!” I said and dove for them.
My heart was pounding in my chest as adrenaline rushed through me. It took me all of two seconds to flip the blank squares over. But then I just stared. I hadn’t considered the next step. All we had here were pieces of wood with black lines on them.
Cooper frowned. “Is this some kind of puzzle?”
Bettina’s eyes widened. “Yes! Good eye, Coop.” She smiled up at him.
I looked away, but now I couldn’t see the puzzle. All I could see was Cooper kissing her on that balcony.
“Wait a second…” Bettina reached in and moved a few squares. “Look…what does that look like to you? A flower petal!”
Oh, bloody hell. She was right. My mind flashed the image of the lotus flower outline, the one I’d been seeing since this started. That was the image of the puzzle. It had to be. Without another word, I went to work. It took me a few minutes to get all the pieces lined up, but when I put the last square in line, there was an explosion of cracks and thuds.
Four thin planks shot out from the other end of the desk.
I pushed off the floor and swam over. The planks were blank on the top and bottom, but on the inside edges, there were five numbers. But they were on a dial of some kind, like on a lock or a safe. Like a combination.
“SHARK!” Bettina screamed and dove away. She grabbed Cooper’s shoulders and wrapped her arms around him.
My stomach turned.
“Pretty fishy,” Tegan said as she appeared out of thin air by the window then leaned out of the ship with a wide grin on her face. She stuck her hand out and ran her fingers over the shark’s striped side as it swam by. She roared like a cat. “Guys, it’s a tiger shark.”
Bettina squealed. “As in the ones that eat the most humans?”
“I won’t let them eat us, B.” She leaned farther out the window so she was hanging over, then she yelled, “Hey, do y’all know Cota? We’re good friends.”
“Cota was the hippocampus we met on her first quest.” Cooper sighed and looked to his sister. “Tegan, got any tricks you can help us out with here? We need you.”
She threw her palms up. “I’m just a secondary character here, y’all.”
Cooper sighed. “We’re not book characters, Tegan. We’re real people.”
“That’s debatable,” she murmured as two white-tipped sharks swam by.
I shook my head and turned my attention back to the four wooden planks. The first three planks required an eight-digit combination. The bottom one was only three.
I tapped my fingers on the plank I held on to. “Guys, what type of numbers come in eight digits?”
Cooper shook his head. “It could be anything.”
“It doesn’t make any sense.” Bettina lifted her head off of Cooper’s back, but her arms were still wrapped around his torso. “In escape rooms, there’s usually a cipher of some kind. Something to base the combination off of.”
“This isn’t an escape ro—”
Tegan gasped and jumped back inside the room. Her eyes were wide…and clear. That goofy, drunken look she’d been wearing was gone. She grabbed the crystal hanging from her neck. There was a flash of light, and then the Book of Shadows sat in her hands. She sprinted over to us – like we were on land - then dropped to her knees beside me. She placed her palm on the cover.
“Lancaster.” She spoke loud and clearly. The Book flew open, and pages flipped on their own before stopping. Tegan shoved the Book under my face and pointed to a hand-drawn image in red ink. “You know this? I don’t, but it shows up on every page where the Lancaster name appears.”
My breath left me in a rush. All I could do was stare.
I know that. I bloody know that.
It was the Lancaster red rose and our family crest—not the one used by the humans, but the secret one for only the arcana in our line. It was a simple drawing, one that would be easy to draw on anything. My ancestors had wanted it to be able to be drawn small, so we could conceal it within things.
Like inside a red rose tattoo.
I held my left hand up. To an unknowing eye, the symbol would be invisible—cloaked within the flower. But to those who knew the symbol, it was plain as day.
Tegan picked my hand up and inspected it. “Guess that’s a yes,” she said with a chuckle.
“But what does it mean?” Cooper asked, leaning over the Book.
“It’s his line’s secret symbol,” she said softly. “Each of the founding lines have one. The Bishops included. And no, I’ll show
you ours later.”
Bettina gripped my sleeve. I didn’t look up; I just recognized the feel of her hands and the heat from her body. She hung on to me. “How does this symbol help with the combination, though?”
I can’t believe it. All this time. I reached forward and turned the dials. As I set the last digit on the first panel, there was a loud clicking noise. I shook my head. They knew.
“Who knew what?” Bettina asked in my ear. “Who are they?”
I moved on to the second panel and moved the dials. “There’s this little song that goes with the symbol, one my father and grandmother used to sing to me when I still lived in London. My entire family knew it, like every single Lancaster knows it. We all sing it. I always thought it was our weird little family joke. But it wasn’t. It was Henry’s way of passing this combination down without anyone being the wiser.”
“Wicked,” Bettina whispered.
The desk clicked as I finished the second combination.
A heavy silence fell over us as I put in the last eight digits on the third panel. It clicked again when I finished. Then I moved to the fourth and final panel. The song repeated in my head over and over. I heard my grandmother’s voice as she sang it to me. The end was always my favorite part. I used to tell my grandmother it was my song because the end said my birth date. She always used to laugh and ruffle my hair.
Oh my Goddess. It IS my song.
“Jackson?” Bettina shook me. “Are you okay?”
“It’s my birthday,” I heard myself whisper. I reached for the last dial. “Twelve and two. That’s my birthday. December 2.”
Bettina gasped in my ear. “That’s your birthday? That’s in TWO days.”
I nodded. She was right, but I couldn’t think about my birthday right now. I turned the very last digit to 2— A brick dropped from the underside of the desk and slammed into the wooden floor, then exploded into a ball of golden light. The floor creaked and clicked, then opened up, and a metal box lifted through the opening.
For a second, I just stared.
Bettina and Cooper dove for it, then dragged it over and set it in front of me.
I placed my hand on the top, and the side wall of the box fell open. My eyes widened.
Sitting inside of this small box…was a crown.
I pulled it out, and my heart fluttered. My jaw dropped.
Bettina leaned over my shoulder. “It looks like the crown jewels, but different.”
“It belonged to King Henry the VI,” I whispered and ran my fingers along the glistening gold. “It was thought to be lost.”
There was a ring of dark red garnets along the bottom of the crown. On each of the little spikes there were clusters of garnets set to resemble a rose. There were small golden citrines and emeralds along the sides, and amethysts on the top. On the back, right in the center, was an etching of a red rose. I ran my finger along the lines of it and smiled. My family told legends of this crown, a secret gem among our family that not even the humans knew about.
But in the front there was a big hole, where a particular stone was missing.
Cooper stuck his finger through it. “What goes here?”
“A massive ruby.” I stared down at where the missing piece went.
“There’s only one rose on it.” Bettina leaned closer. “The prophecy says rose marked twice. What are we missing?”
There was only one rose. I didn’t know why the prophecy said two. It didn’t make sense unless…unless I had to find more than one thing. My stomach dropped.
“Guys…” Tegan said with a humming noise, like she was singing. “The sirens are here.”
Cooper shook his head. “No, no, no. You’re just hallucinating still.”
“No, no, no,” an unfamiliar female voice purred from out of sight. “We are here.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
JACKSON
“Come out and play,” another female voice sang from behind us. Long fiery red hair floated through the first window…and a blue scaly fin swished around the third window.
“We have to get off the ship!” Tegan screamed. “Now!”
“What? Are you crazy? We’re shielded by the ship in here!” Cooper shouted back.
Tegan spun around with fire in her eyes. “You wanna fight a siren while swimming? I can’t help you in here. Out there I can put you on your feet.”
The ship rocked side to side, and the wooden floors creaked.
My pulse skipped a beat. I slid my ancestor’s crown on my head and prayed it stayed there.
Bettina grabbed my arm and pulled herself closer. “They’re going to bring the ship down on top of us.”
Cooper cursed. “Get us out of here.”
Tegan threw a ball of magic at the side wall of the ship. Then she flicked her wrist, and the three of us shot toward her. She jumped through the hole in the wall, dragging us with her. A split-second later, my feet hit the ground, and sand flew up around us.
Relief washed through me. I knew how to handle myself on the ground. I pulled my sword out of the holster strapped to my back. The hilt was warm in my hand and pulsing with energy. Without speaking, the four of us turned our backs to each other.
“I thought you were on some drunken high?” Cooper growled and pulled his daggers out of the holsters on his thighs.
“I was until you pulled me out of the Strait. Then I faked it.” Tegan grimaced. “I’m not allowed to help. Not really.”
I flinched. “What do you mean?”
“Michael warned me, after I was chosen by the Cards. He said I wasn’t allowed to help.” She sighed. “He warned me that if I helped too much, or in the wrong way, your quest would get harder. I’m not risking that unless I have to.”
“You can’t help at all?”
“I was only sent to help in the areas where no Lancaster ever could have…like breathing underwater…” She threw one hand down, and light shimmered in her palm. A second later, a shiny gold and silver dagger appeared in her hand. “Or like fighting sirens in their den.”
Bettina twirled her fire opal sword in her hand. “What kind of harder are we talking about? What will happen?”
“I have no idea. That’s part of the quest, to make the right choices.” Tegan glanced over her shoulder at me. “This is your task, Jackson. I can take down the sirens my way, or we can fight them off the old-fashioned way. It’s your call.”
My call. I was not a fan of that. The idea that my quest would get harder for seeking her help was just wrong and terrifying…but these were sirens. They were no easy enemy. We could try to fight them off like any other demon, but someone could get hurt that way.
Live today. Fight tomorrow.
Besides, I had to get back on that ship to find the other rose-marked item, or this whole thing was a waste.
I took a deep breath and prayed this was the right call. “Show no mercy, Tegan.”
The water turned thick and hot. The blue color changed to a coppery orange. The sand scorched under my feet, burning through the rubber soles of my boots. I had to keep moving my feet. I glanced left and right and saw Bettina and Cooper were, too.
Maniacal laughter echoed around us. There were flashes of bright red and dark blue shadows. I whipped my head back and forth, but they were moving too fast. The water began to swirl around us, then it picked up speed until it sped by like a tornado.
Two dark objects moved through the whirling water, and my pulse went into hyper speed. The sirens swam toward us like great white sharks about to strike. They had long, candy-apple red hair that slithered through the water like eels. Their faces were all sharp angles and bones. Pale skin stretched so tight it turned transparent. Their eyes were black marbles, sunken in and bloodshot.
We turned toward them, to face them head-on. Tegan stood in front of us with a dagger in one hand and a ball of rainbow magic in her other.
The siren on the left opened her mouth, and all of her teeth were shaved down into fangs. Her fingernails were blood-stained a
nd sharp like razors. The water vibrated, like it was electrocuted.
“If you cut them off before they start. That’s what that last prophecy said. We have to stop them from singing their song,” Cooper said in a rush, his green eyes darting around. “Tegan!”
“Block our ears!” Bettina cried from my right. She held her sword up, ready to fight.
The siren on the right dashed forward. She opened her mouth wide and screeched. It was a high-pitched wail that shot toward us. The water pulsed and vibrated. I raised my sword and braced myself for…for whatever temptation they saw within me.
The water pulsed in front of me, and then my air bubble flashed bright neon rainbow colors.
Tegan chuckled and it sent a chill down my spine. It was the most sinister sound I’d ever heard. She twirled her wrists, and her dagger vanished. “My turn.”
She threw her magic in rapid fire without pausing for breaks. The sirens hissed and screamed. They ducked and tried to dodge her attack, but Tegan was vicious. She anticipated their moves, lighting them up as they moved.
Rainbow magic shot out of Tegan’s back like ropes. In the flash of a second, it wrapped around each of our waists and pulled us in closer. I braced myself just as the ground wobbled under me.
Magic of every color fired through the ocean.
One of the sirens dove for Bettina, but a huge wave rolled by and sucked it in, carrying it away. The other siren screamed like a banshee and shot toward me. I zeroed in on her, ready to slice her damn head off if she got close enough. But just as she got within two feet of me, I saw something glowing red on her neck. It was a red rose hanging on a brown cord.
My heart stopped.
Tegan flicked her wrist, and a wall of water slammed into the siren’s chest and pushed her straight up like a rocket.
“Did you see her necklace?” I turned to them. “Did you see it?”
The Wild Witch (The Coven: Academy Magic Book 3) Page 18
