The One and Only Crystal Druid (The Guild Codex: Unveiled Book 1)

by Annette Marie

  “That’ll do. Send it.”

  Hoping I wasn’t making a stupid mistake, I hit send, then pushed to my feet. “I suppose you want to sleep on my sofa again.”

  His gaze was heavy on my back as I walked over to the fridge. “Unless you want to share your bed.”

  “Come near my bed and I’ll cut off your balls.”

  He snorted quietly, amused rather than intimidated, and warmth flushed through me. An intense flashback—him shoving me into the wall, our mouths locked as his tongue aggressively stroked mine—hit me and I sucked in a silent breath.

  When I pulled Dominique’s casserole dish out of the fridge, his voice rumbled behind me. “Are you going to share that?”

  “No.”

  “You’re just going to eat in front of me?”

  “Yes.”

  “I brought you lunch.”

  My jaw clenched. I shoved the dish in the microwave, opened the cupboard, and stared moodily at my small stack of mismatched dinnerware.

  Growling under my breath, I pulled out two plates. Damn druid.

  Chapter Twenty

  He was waiting for me in the alcove, a dark shadow with the hood of his jacket pulled up.

  I didn’t know how he could stand to wear a coat in this weather. We’d first met on a rainy June night. Tonight, we were on day six of an August heatwave. Even now, shortly after midnight, the balmy warmth was oppressive, and I wore shorts and a loose black tank top, the straps of my red bra peeking out.

  Slipping into the alcove, I leaned against the wall opposite him. He pushed his hood off, his dark hair mussed. His face was clear of cuts or bruises, and it struck me—not for the first time—that he was really good looking.

  We studied each other, the muffled voices from within the building filling the silence.

  “Did you manage it?” I asked.

  Nodding, he withdrew a small object from his pocket and held it out. I took the tiny vial and held it up to the dim security light. A faintly green liquid sloshed inside the half-empty glass vessel.

  “How much will it take?”

  “A few drops,” he answered. “It smells minty, so put it in something with strong flavor.”

  “Like coffee?”

  His mouth curved up. “Coffee is perfect.”

  An answering grin flashed over my face. It seemed strange to smile while we discussed murdering my aunt, but I couldn’t suppress my elation. Her death meant freedom from fear, pain, and misery. Freedom from a future that held nothing but suffering.

  Her death meant a new future. That was scary too, but I wouldn’t be alone.

  I tucked the vial deep into my pocket with my switchblade. “What will happen when she drinks it?”

  “Numbness in her face, then violent trembling, then convulsions and unconsciousness, then death. It’ll start in less than a minute, and she’ll be dead in ten.” He shifted his weight. “I had to look it up. Never actually seen someone poisoned with it.”

  I gulped down slight nausea. “Did Bane notice anything when you stole it?”

  “No.” He grimaced. “Maybe. He was watching me this afternoon. He might suspect I’m up to something, but he’ll never guess what. He has no idea about your spell. Did … did you bring it?” he asked hesitantly, as though afraid of my answer.

  “Of course.” I patted the front of my shirt. “I never take it off.”

  He relaxed. “You wear it all the time?”

  “Yeah. My parents gave it to me, remember? To protect me.”

  His gaze drifted across my chest, then back up to my face. “What happened to your parents?”

  My throat tightened. “They were helping search for a missing hiker in the mountains north of our home. They knew the area really well … but they never came back. Their bodies were found a few weeks later. It looked like an animal attack, but no one was sure what kind of animal.”

  “Probably a fae, then,” he murmured.

  I nodded, my hand closing in a fist over the pendant under my shirt. “What about your parents? Bane isn’t your dad, is he?”

  His face twisted in revulsion. “We’re not related.” He was quiet for a moment, his gaze sliding away from mine. “I don’t remember my parents.”

  Cold tinged my veins. “Nothing?”

  “Just … my father’s name. That’s it.” He pushed his shoulders back. “Will you be okay without your artifact?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. There are no fae in the city to bother me.”

  “Not many,” he agreed.

  A twinge of hesitation stilled my hand, but I forced myself to reach for the chain around my neck. I tugged it up until the pendant came free—a dark brown river stone etched with a swirling design.

  “That’s it?” he breathed.

  “Yep.” I lifted the chain over my head. My neck felt naked without the slight pressure of the chain.

  I held it out.

  The boy took it with reverent hands. He ran his fingers across the etching, his eyes losing focus. “The magic in this is really powerful.” He looked up at me, and his mouth fell open in sudden disbelief. “You’re—why didn’t you say you were—”

  A drunken shout shattered the humid quiet. Someone was outside, near our alcove, too close.

  The boy pulled me into the darkest corner of the alcove. We huddled in the shadows as another slurring voice called out. Scuffing, uneven footsteps. Laughter. A door slammed, and silence fell.

  For a long moment, we didn’t move, then let out relieved sighs in unison. His breath stirred my hair, and I shivered, aware of his warm hands gripping my upper arms, the chain of my pendant pressed against my skin.

  Tugging the chain from his hand, I lifted it over his head, settled it against the back of his neck, then tucked the pendant beneath the collar of his shirt.

  “Tomorrow night,” I whispered, my hand resting on his chest over the hidden pendant, “we’ll meet across the street in the alley. Ruth and Bane will be dead. We’ll be free.”

  “Free,” he repeated, his eyes closing. “What time?”

  “I’m not sure. It’ll depend on when Ruth has her after-dinner coffee.”

  He nodded. “I’ll wait for you.”

  “I’ll wait for you too.” My fingers pressed into his chest. “All night.”

  “And then we’ll leave this city together.”

  “Together.”

  His eyes met mine, and my heart jolted with sharp anticipation. He leaned down. Our lips brushed. My hand slid over his collarbone, fingers curling around the back of his neck. His mouth melded against mine.

  Soft, slow kisses. So slow, because urgency pounded in both of us and we couldn’t surrender to it. Fear ran through our blood, but we couldn’t acknowledge it. Desperation choked us, but we had to keep breathing.

  We kissed until I parted my lips and he tasted me. Heads tilting. Kisses deepening. My fingers slid up into his hair. His hands ran up my arms, then pulled me against his chest.

  A door slammed nearby and we both jumped. Nervous. Edgy. Our eyes met. We didn’t speak, no words needed. Parting from each other, we slipped out of the alcove. It took only a few tense minutes to sneak into the attic.

  It was hot, stuffy, and even more humid than the air outside. In the corner farthest from the muffled voices leaking up from the den, he shrugged his jacket off and set it quietly on the dusty floorboards.

  I was in his arms an instant later. Holding him. Kissing him. Our slow, hesitant pace broke. My hands ran up and down the front of his shirt. He caressed my back. Movements faster. Mouths locking. Breath coming fast and hard.

  I couldn’t stop touching him. Couldn’t stop kissing him. Couldn’t stop myself from sliding my hands under his shirt and touching his hot skin.

  “Do you want to?” he whispered against my lips.

  “Yes.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Then he was kissing me harder. Then his hands were slipping under my tank top.

  I peeled hi
s shirt off, stroking and exploring his chest, lean but hard with muscle, my pendant hanging from his neck. And he pulled my shirt over my head, caressing my breasts, pushing up my bra, cupping me in his warm hands.

  Then we were sinking down onto the scant padding of his jacket, our limbs entangled, our panting breaths and soft sounds hushed. Quiet need. Feverish desire. His mouth tasting me everywhere. My hands touching him everywhere.

  Tomorrow, my life would change. But tonight, I was changing.

  A stranger whose name I didn’t know, his hot breath on my skin, kissing my belly as he tugged my shorts down my hips. A boy who’d somehow, so quickly, become more important than anyone else in my life. We would escape together, survive together. Be together.

  My arms wound around his neck, my fingers gripping his hair as I arched up into him, pressing our bodies together, feeling his warmth and weight and presence. My heart pounding. Blood rushing. Vivid, awakened, alive.

  I’d never surrendered to pain, to fear, to despair. But tonight, I would surrender to him—surrender everything.

  My past, already hanging around his neck.

  My present, electric with desire under his hands and mouth.

  And my future, waiting to begin.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I woke up ready to commit murder for a second time.

  My body ached with unsatisfied need, ignited by that damn druid. Rolling over, I grabbed my phone and turned off the alarm, the vague memory of whatever dream I’d been having dissolving away to nothing. Zak’s rough, primal attention last night wasn’t as easy to forget.

  And that ticked me off even more.

  Seething, I stormed to the bathroom, ignoring the man on my sofa, who watched me pass with groggy confusion. When I emerged from the bathroom, the coffeemaker was percolating, but Zak was back on the sofa, an arm over his face to block out the light.

  By the time I completed my morning chores in the stable and got ready for work, my temper had cooled. I told Dominique my truck had broken down, and she offered to loan me their old Ranger.

  At the clinic, I smiled cheerfully at my coworkers, then busied myself preparing for our first procedure of the morning, a cruciate ligament repair for a Labrador. Ríkr, lazy as ever, picked an out-of-the-way corner and went to sleep.

  The morning dragged despite the hectic lineup of surgeries, my thoughts rotating between the fae killer and our plans to revisit the crossroads, and the MPD agents circling ever closer, goaded by whatever Laney might have reported after our encounter last night. It got harder and harder to smile when my coworkers spoke to me, and I knew I needed to get out of the clinic to settle myself.

  Checking that my wallet was in my pocket, I was halfway to the back door when a voice called to me.

  “Saber!” Hailey waved from the short hall that connected to reception. “Can you come to the front?”

  “I’m going for lunch,” I called back, my hand on the door.

  “Someone’s asking for you.”

  I paused. It couldn’t be Zak bringing me another lunch. He had no way to get here, and besides that, Hailey wasn’t nearly giddy enough for him to be my visitor.

  Ríkr? I asked silently. Who is it?

  His sleepy thoughts mumbled into my head. Who? Where?

  You’re a big help, I complained as I hovered at the door, debating whether to duck outside. Just as I decided that was the safer bet, Nicolette appeared beside Hailey, a suspicious frown on her lips.

  I forced a smile. “Coming!”

  Reluctantly abandoning the door, I strode toward them. They moved aside, and I slowed as I approached reception. At the nearer end of the long desk, Kaitlynn was reviewing paperwork with a middle-aged couple, their obese pug sitting at their feet. An elderly woman sat on a chair in the waiting area with a cat carrier on her lap. And at the far end near the exit …

  Laney smiled vapidly at me, her blond hair styled in beach waves and her designer purse under her arm.

  My lips thinned. I wasn’t sure if this was better or worse than the MPD agents I’d expected. Hoping she wouldn’t make a scene in front of human witnesses, I cautiously approached.

  Her eyes glinted meanly behind her oversized sunglasses. “Look at you,” she hissed, “going about your day like you’re so innocent.”

  I said nothing, waiting.

  She curled her lips in a sneer. “If you’d just confessed to the coven last night, maybe we would’ve put in a good word for you with the MPD, but now it’s too late.”

  A good word? More like additional condemnation. “Too late how?”

  “The MPD is arresting you tonight. They’ve even brought in a bounty hunting team to take you down, like a rabid animal.”

  A surge of adrenaline tightened my gut, but I kept my expression clear. “How do you know that?”

  “I told the agents that you threatened to kill the coven.” She raised her chin, attempting to glare down at me even though I was taller. “How does it feel knowing you’re living your last hours of freedom right now?”

  “Feels like I should skip town before they arrest me.”

  “Don’t even bother. With a bounty on your head, you’re doomed no matter what you do.” She hitched her purse up on her shoulder. “I just wanted to see your face when you realized you won’t get away with killing my mother.”

  Did she really have no idea how Arla had died? Did she not suspect Jason, her convict boyfriend, in the slightest?

  “Well, now that you’ve warned me, I probably should run. Maybe into the mountains,” I added in a thoughtful tone. “No one would find me there. I’ll head north. Up Summit Trail.”

  She inhaled sharply, her shoulders rigid. “Summit Trail? Why would you go there?”

  I gazed at her silently, and her face tightened.

  “I—I’ll tell them that’s your plan,” she threatened.

  “Will you? What happens if the MPD follows me up Summit Trail?”

  “You …” She stepped back. “You’re a murderer. You’re a killer.”

  I gave her my real smile. “I am.”

  Jaw clenching, she whipped her hand out, her palm striking my cheek with a loud smack. Gasps rang through the room as everyone’s attention snapped toward us.

  “Rot in hell, you psychotic bitch!” she screamed. Whirling on her heel, she shoved through the door and ran outside to her silver Prius.

  I watched her go, my cheek throbbing. Why had she come here? Denied my confession, had she wanted to bask in my pending arrest instead? To see my reaction? To get in a little personal revenge before the MPD made their move tonight?

  As her Prius sped away, the car parked in the spot behind hers was revealed: a black sedan with a man leaning casually against it. He wore a dark suit, his face turned toward the clinic. Tall, trim, older, with brown hair cut short and dark-rimmed glasses.

  Cold spilled through my limbs.

  “Saber?”

  I started, surprised to find Hailey and Kaitlynn on either side of me, their faces full of concern.

  “Are you okay?” Kaitlynn took my arm. “Come on. I’ll get you an ice pack. Do you want us to call the police?”

  The police? That would only complicate things more. I stared through the window at the MPD agent. Would he come inside and confront me in a building full of potential human casualties?

  Where there was one MagiPol agent, others must be close by. Were they covering the clinic from all sides, waiting for the right moment to strike? They thought I had magic that could steal people’s hearts from their chests. That was the only reason they hadn’t moved on me yet—but when they did, they wouldn’t hold back.

  I waited, seconds ticking past, but the agent didn’t step away from his vehicle.

  The MPD was hunting me, and if Laney wasn’t bluffing, then my time was almost up.

  “Saber?” Kaitlynn prompted.

  “No,” I said quickly. “No police.”

  “You should press charges.” Taking my arm, Hailey tugged me into th
e hallway that led to the staff room. “She assaulted you.”

  As we left the reception area behind, Nicolette’s shrill voice floated after us. “But what did Saber do to her first?”

  I stood at the clinic’s back door. I’d changed out of my scrubs and into a pair of jeans and a racerback tank top—my spare clothes from my locker. My phone was in one pocket, my switchblade in the other, and the keys to Dominique’s truck were in my hand.

  My shift was over and I couldn’t hide in the clinic any longer. The agent watching the building from his car was still out front, and Ríkr had found another man in a suit watching the back, where the old Ranger was parked. If Laney was to be believed, there would also be an ambush waiting for me at home.

  Pretending to follow my regular routine was no longer an option.

  Ready? I called to Ríkr.

  And eager, my familiar replied, his telepathic voice coming from the direction of the rooftop.

  Be careful, I warned him. You don’t know what magic or weapons that agent has.

  I’m always careful, dove.

  I scrunched my nose skeptically. Then let’s do this.

  Keys ready, I threw the rear door open, revealing a small parking lot that ran behind the strip mall. The second agent loitered near a dumpster, wearing a matching suit to the other agent but compact and slender in build, with dark hair buzzed close to his scalp, except for a short, mohawk-like strip down the center.

  He jerked straight at my appearance, his sunglasses turning toward me—and he completely missed the white hawk plunging out of the sky above him.

  Ríkr struck with the full speed of his dive. Lucky for the agent, we’d decided against inflicting grievous wounds, so the fae used his body weight instead of his talons.

  Shouting in alarm, the man staggered, arms whipping up to shield his head as Ríkr’s wings beat at him.

  I sprinted toward the truck, unlocked the door, and leaped into the driver’s seat. The engine shuddered to life. As I slammed it into gear, the agent flung his hand out. Crystalline shards formed over his fingers and shot outward in an arc.