by Larisa Long
“My heart has only belonged to you.” He throws the pillow back at me.
Liam leans in the door again. “Hate to be that type of lion nag, but weren’t you supposed to be studying runes?”
Blist clears his throat and returns his attention to the book.
“Also …” Liam begins again.
I snap my fingers without looking at him, and the next room is filled with food.
“Respect.” Liam clears his throat. “And …”
I finally look up at Liam who is still standing in the doorway. “Any chance that hot witch was a hybrid?”
Blist sighs. “Did you detect shifter?”
Liam shrugs. “Sometimes I’m clueless about those things.”
“No, you’re not, and no she isn’t.” Blist motions for Liam to leave which he finally does after hanging his head, sighing a few thousand times and then forgetting about everything when the meat aroma tempts him.
“Okay …” Blist turns the pages of his rune book several times. “Now, I’m going to test you on the runes for—”
“Found him,” Professor Sway rushes into my room.
I jump up. “Found him?” I glance around to see shifters and vampires paying pretty close attention to us. “Him? My …?” How do I ask without everyone knowing? “The other Z?”
Professor Sway nods. “He must have sensed something was up. He says you two have always been connected.”
I think about that. Since I hardly remember him. I have no idea. “Fae the curses.”
Professor Sway can’t stop smiling. “Do you know what this means?”
War. Bloody coups. Violence. Chocolate shortages. Sorry, I ramble nonsense when stressed. I suddenly feel sick again.
“S’up?” Liam saunters in and leans against the door as he finishes off another chunk of meat. “Why are we so excited in here?”
“Professor Sway just announced the rune test has been cancelled.”
The professor looks at me as blood drains from his face.
That news is greeted with cheers in the next room.
“Zalia.” Professor Sway shakes his head.
I quickly grab a notepad and scribble out every single rune stuck in my brain along with official meanings, hidden meanings, history, usage, magic. I hand the professor the note, and Blist looks over his shoulder.
Blist steps back and smiles.
Professor Sway looks at me with wide eyes. “How did you learn all of these?” He leans in close and lowers his voice. “You didn’t use magic, did you?”
“No.” I point to Blist. “It’s a lot easier learning from Blist. No offense, but his green eyes make me concentrate more.”
Blist blushes.
The professor chuckles. “No offense taken.”
“Still so not a rune girl, but will that count?”
“Counted. You pass the class. Everyone passes the class.”
I take a deep breath but suddenly get very tired. “What day is this?”
“Tuesday,” Blist says. “Why?”
I can’t stop yawning. “This usually doesn’t happen until Friday night. Fae.” I feel myself slipping, and that’s the last I remember.
Chapter 9
The first thing I hear is Xury’s giggle and Blist’s sigh. I open my eyes.
“There she is,” Xury says quickly.
I realize I’m in bed. Xury and Blist dragged a table into my room and are playing some kind of game. My door is open and various shifters peek in.
“She’s up,” Vax yelps to cheers.
“How long have I been asleep?”
“Two weeks.”
I sit up quickly. “Two weeks? Again? What’s with the two week thing? It’s already January?”
Xury frowns. “It was January before you went to sleep.” She looks at Blist. “Is she alright?” She looks back at me. “Do you realize it’s February?”
I grin at her.
Xury rolls her eyes. “Shifters with their drama. Honestly. Pixies me off.”
Blist laughs. “Everyone came to see you. Even the fates. Witch’s Fate.” He thinks about it. “And Shifter’s Fate. They determined you just needed rest.”
“They think the curses are beginning to fall, and your body is compensating.” The way Xury said that made it sound like she’d memorized the speech. “Whatever that means.”
“That means …” Blist throws down his cards on the table and sits on the edge of the bed. He takes my hand in his. “That we can touch longer than thirty seconds.”
I study him. His reaction. His face. His eyes. I noticed before that his eyes would pulsate like he was trying to control his shift the more pain he was in, but his eyes are normal. No pulsating. No threatened shift. After a few minutes, he kisses my forehead.
I flinch. No one’s ever kissed me before. I mean besides Raks who did so because he’s an idiot. But no one would have dared risk their lips catching on fire.
“Hello?” Xury smiles. “How’d that feel?”
I jump up and run into the bathroom to look at myself and almost scream. “What the fae is wrong with my hair?”
Xury laughs as she walks into the bathroom and looks at my reflection. “Welcome to the real world, Zalia.”
Every single strand of my hair is clumped in a different direction. “It’s like it’s staging a revolt.”
“Do you think it’s effortless to look this good?” Xury motions to her face and hair. “It takes so long.” She thinks about it. “But totally worth it.”
I look down at the counter. I open up every drawer. I don’t even have a brush, a comb, anything. Never needed one. I try to smooth out my hair, but it’s in permanent tangle. “It looks like it’s been combed with a wet sponge.”
I also notice my hair’s not nearly as white as it used to be. “Huh.” I run out of the bathroom and watch Blist. “If the curses are lessening …”
He shakes his head. “Don’t even think of talking about what kind of hybrid you are. I won’t take that risk.”
“Such a buzzkill.” Xury walks around me and sits back down. She grabs her cards again.
“What are you doing anyway?”
She holds up her cards, and they are blank but for various descriptions.
“Guess the species?”
Xury nods. “I had three banshees, an incubus, a troll, a dragon shifter and one of those dangerous hybrids I’ve heard about. I think that’s unprecedented.”
“Has Professor Sway been in?”
Xury coughs. “Why on earth would he be in your room?”
I glance at Blist who shakes his head. Okay, we’ll speak in code. “So, no word about the rune test?”
Blist shakes his head again. “You know how these things work. Some things move fast. Others are glacially slow.”
Xury snorts. “Don’t I know it.” She moves Blist’s chair so she can stretch out on it. “Do you know I ordered a special pink lip gloss like two months ago, and the ingredients still haven’t been sourced.”
Blist gasps and puts his hand over his heart. “The horrors. How do you survive each day?”
Xury grins. “It’s a burden, but I manage.”
There’s a noise in the next room, and Vax and Liam run into my room and shut the door.
Liam looks at me. “Can you zap yourself invisible?”
“What’s going on?” Blist asks.
“Hide in the bathroom? Make yourself small?”
“What is going on?” Blist asks again.
“They’re here.” Vax looks at me. “I’ll fight them if you want me to.”
Faeries quickly show up and hover. They’re worried.
“Who’s here?”
Liam curls his hands into fists. “Say the word, and the shifters will shift right here and defend you.”
I back up. “What the fae is going on?” I look up at the faeries who motion to me exactly what’s going on. “Fae.”
“What is it?” Blist moves in front of me and takes my hand. “Tell me.”
&n
bsp; My door is thrown open, and several warlock guards wait in full riot armor. “Zalia Witch, you’ve been formally charged with treason.”
Xury gasps.
“Everyone here is charged with—”
I hold up my hand, say the spell, and nod to the faeries who sprinkle one of their potions over the guards.
The guards sneeze, cough and shake their heads. They leave my room and then reenter. “Zalia Witch, you’ve been formally charged with treason.”
Xury glances at me. “What’s with the do over?”
“You and you alone will be arrested. No one else has helped you or will be charged in any way.”
I nod to the faeries to thank them and point to the drawer with my secret chocolate stash.
Blist ignores the guards. “Let me come with you.”
“Not a chance.” I put my hands out, and one of the guards tries to carefully place some very large handcuffs over me. He treats me like I’m a vicious spider who will pounce on him any second to venomize. He hesitates, takes a deep breath, tosses the handcuffs near me, cusses, takes another deep breath.
“For fae’s sake.” I pick up the handcuffs and clamp them on myself. “Happy?”
The man doubles over as he catches his breath.
“That’s right,” Xury winks at me. “The fire curse.” She shivers.
“How are you so calm?” Blist asks Xury. “Your best friend is being arrested.”
“Calm?” Xury stomps her foot.
I look at Blist and shake my head. “Don’t.”
He looks at me like he has no idea, but then it occurs to him. “Oops.”
“Yeah …” I nod at him. “Oops.”
Xury goes full on pixie. She stomps and fumes and fusses and throws the table this way and that. Cards fly everywhere.
The faeries mimic her reactions as they study her.
The guards look at her and don’t know whether to hide or pull up a chair and watch.
I motion to them. “Shall we?”
Blist follows me as we leave the room. Once we’re out, Xury slams the door and we all hear the sounds of full on pixie destruction. Pixies use a lot of energy to remain calm. With all the sugar water they consume, they’re usually on emotional overload.
Every pixie must find their own balance. One that allows them to live with other species but still retain their pixie nature. Anything that upsets that balance … any undue or unusual stress, and their sugar water reserves run out. Then their systems shift to pure pixie blood which fuels their meltdowns.
That’s the reason I remained so calm when the guards arrived. I’m scared out of my mind what’s going to happen, but I couldn’t show it in front of Xury. As I turn around to face a room full of angry shifters who watch me for any sign of fear or worry, I have to remind myself to remain calm still. The warlock guards are armed. They all carry lethal weapons. They wouldn’t hurt a witch or warlock, but they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt a shifter. I can’t risk my new family.
“It’s fine.” I try to smile. “Just a misunderstanding.”
One of the guards snorts. “Traitorous witch.”
The oxygen in the air starts to flee. I can feel the air change. Any second, they’ll shift. “Please,” I plead to Blist. “Calm them.”
I can tell from the way his eyes are flickering that he’s barely keeping it together. He faces the shifters. “This is not the time. Everyone, calm yourselves. Now.”
The guards watch everything happening.
“Can we leave?”
The guards look at me like I’m nuts. “Why? I want to see them shift. It’s been ages since I’ve killed one of them.”
Blist’s body tenses.
“Sleep,” I whisper to the shifters who all collapse.
“Fae,” one of the guards says. “I wanted to kill ‘em. I wanted to kill ‘em all.”
“Well, aren’t you a bloodthirsty little warlock?” I look him up and down. I have to get their attention from the shifters. I wouldn’t put it past the warlocks to just open fire. “Over compensate much for other inadequacies?”
The warlocks growl.
One of them even stomps his foot like he’s going to charge me.
I plant myself. “Go for it.” I motion to a closet. “The broom’s in there. You don’t look like you’d produce too much ash.”
One of the guards points to me and then to the door. “Move, traitor.”
I smile and bat my eyes. “Since you asked so nicely.” I skip to the door. I have to act as weird as possible to keep the warlocks off kilter. I don’t want them to get any ideas concerning the shifters or Xury who’s still tearing apart the room.
As soon as we’re out the door, I say the spell that locks the door. No one in and no one out.
“Wait.” One of the guards stops and stares at the door. Behind the door are unconscious shifters. “I want to take one of the blood spongers and maybe a bear shifter. I need one for my wall.”
“Fae it all.” I say the spell which allows the handcuffs to slip off my hands, and I race down the darkened hallways. I wait until I know all the guards are behind me, and I keep running and don’t stop until I’m up the stairs and out the lobby.
Then I stop. I have to. In front of me is every single witch, witchlock and warlock, and they’re waiting just for me.
Chapter 10
The guards catch up to me and raise their weapons.
“Stop,” Professor Kreyl says. I remember she was at the half party when we first met the banshee. “You know the rules. You cannot hurt a witch.”
The crowd murmurs. Some throw rocks at me.
Well, they try to throw rocks. Rocks are of nature, and they don’t take kindly to being used for violence. Neither do the sticks they try to toss.
“She’s a traitor,” one screams.
Another slams his fist into his hand. “Tried to hurt the King.”
“How?” I ask. “I’ve been asleep for two weeks.”
Dray Penn steps forward. “Two weeks in your bed all alone … well not alone …” He rubs his hand on his chin. I guess that’s his way of pretending to think. “Two weeks?”
I wait for whatever he’s going to say.
“That should have been what …” he glances around him at the warlocks waiting for him. “Doing about forty or fifty customers. An hour.” He leans in close. “Must have made a fortune.”
I pretend to lunge at him, and he falls backwards and slips trying to get away.
“Faehead.”
He jumps up and stares at me. “Witch.”
I open my mouth. “Why don’t you worry about your teeny, tiny, itty, bitty problem and don’t fae with me.”
His face contorts in anger, and his body shakes.
I put my fingers up and wind them around.
The crowd parts as Queen Ama marches towards me. “You do that, and I’ll have the guards cut your fingers off.”
“So dramatic.”
Everyone screams as Dray Penn is stripped again.
Queen Ama glares at me.
“Good witches don’t need to snap or twist or clap. It’s just for effect.”
The faeries above me smile and try to throw things at the crowd. Unfortunately, they throw strings and fluff and bits of cloud which all manage to fall to the ground or evaporate before reaching the target.
The witches and warlocks hiss and snarl as they get as close to me as they can.
My necklace heats up. The necklace the King gave me to protect me is working overtime. From the hatred and contempt on every single witch and warlock’s face, they are throwing spells and curses at me like it’s a requirement to graduate.
I put as many protection spells up as I can, but I can’t out spell this many at once. I look up at the faeries who are shaking. Some have already put their hands over their eyes so they can’t see.
The chants and curses and spells overlap each other, and it becomes so deafening I squeeze my eyes shut and put my hands over my ears. All of a sudden everyone
stops.
I slowly drop my hands and realize the King is standing in front of me. Then I realize he’s holding the necklace he’d given me. I reach for it, but it’s not around my neck. Fae.
The King grins at me and then nods to the Queen. She glances back at the crowd, and the chants begin again. This time, I can feel every curse and spell and ill wish directed at me. My insides feel like I’m being torn in two. I drop to my knees as my head becomes a quadruple migraine. My bones start to quiver, and a few break. My blood begins to heat up. I scream which doesn’t stop the chanting.
“Enough,” someone says.
I look up to see a beautiful witch standing before me. Witch's Fate. Opposite her is another, but he’s a warlock. Must be Warlock's Fate. They stare at each other and speak in a language I’ve never heard before. After a few minutes, the witch leans down and helps me up. “Zalia. The curses are gone.”
“Gone? They never should have been installed in the first place,” she says, while sharply glancing at the warlock who smirks.
“What will their punishment be?” He asks.
“Punishment?”
Warlock's Fate rolls his eyes. “So, glad someone so incompetent and slow isn’t on our side.”
The group of warlocks laugh, and I notice the witches … or at least the good witches have moved behind me to be on the side of Witch's Fate.
“My child,” Witch’s Fate strokes my hair. “You can determine the fate of your cousins who cursed you. It is the rule. The law of the realm. It is what must be done to preserve the balance.”
The same warlock guards bring forth B1, B2, and B4 in front of me. Queen Ama shakes her head and drops to her knees. “No.”
“What will it be, child?” Witch's Fate asks.
“My curses are actually gone?”
She nods.
“All of them?”
“Yes. And you know what that means.”
“I can kiss Blist.”
The faeries giggle.
“I will not get into it here,” Fate hisses. “Choose their punishments.”