I chuckled. “You’re like the only person who wants me to mess around with my powers.”
“Yeah, let’s do it and pizza too. Okay?”
I yawned and though it was morning I felt like it was midnight. “Yeah, for sure.”
“You look tired, so just text me when you’re coming over, okay? I’m available at any time.”
“Oh, I definitely need girl time with pizza.” My eyes felt heavy and exhaustion ate me.
“K.K. chat later.” She disconnected the call and I rolled onto my back.
Odin walked up next to me and curled on his side against me. “Sleep. I will keep watch.”
For some strange reason that made me feel better and I let sleep take me under.
Chapter 13
Astrid
I paced back and forth in my room. The grimoire sat on the foot of my bed wide-open. After I slept for nearly a whole day it was late afternoon and I’d already spent the past few hours reading my grimoire trying to make any of it work for me. But nothing was happening, nothing but a blown-up pillow, a ton of smoky magic, and frustration coursing through me. And I was only on page two.
Odin sat on my desk and knocked a bottle of nail polish on the floor. Then he moved to a cup full of pens. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m a cat now, it’s what we do . . .”
“You like being a jerk? Seriously?” I shoved the pens back into the cup. They clattered together when I slammed them back on the desk.
“I am a demon, so yep.” He licked his paw and ran it over his head.
“I’m going to ban you from videos, mister.” I turned back toward the book and leaned over it. “Just have to figure this out.”
A knock sounded on my door and I called out, “Yeah.”
“Can I come in?” Beckett called back.
“Sure. I’m dressed this time.” I didn’t turn to look at him. My eyes were locked on the pages of the book. I bit my bottom lip. “But how do I . . .”
Beckett leaned in next to me and his clean fresh scent hit me. “Anything I can help with?”
I shook my head. “No, I can get this. I know I can.”
He pressed his hand to the small of my back and electricity shot up my spine. He leaned in. “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Just let it come naturally.”
I turned to face him. “How can you say that? Last night I blasted you with power. Who knows who else I’m going to hurt! And did you see the hole in the ceiling in the kitchen, because I sure as hell did.”
He took a small step back and held his hands up in surrender. “Think I know what you need. Just give me like an hour and we’ll get this all straightened out.”
Chapter 14
Astrid
A short time later the sun had gone down and I’d spent the whole day trying to do one little spell and it just didn’t freaking work. There was another knock on my door, but I just didn’t have time for it. “Beck, I-I just want to be left alone, okay?”
The door flew open and smacked into the wall with a loud thump. Odin flew off the bed with a start, his back arched and his fur puffed out in straight spikes. My head snapped up to see Ophelia standing in the doorway. “Wrong answer!”
She had a big sack hooked over her shoulder. “Where should I put my stuff?” She stepped into the room and walked in between the side of my bed and the windows. I opened my mouth to ask her what was going on, but she cut me off with the wave of her hand. “Never mind, here is good.”
She grabbed the bottom of her bag then turned it upside down and dumped the entire thing on the floor. Vials, clothes, a pillow, and several books spilled out. She dropped the bag then hopped on my bed. “Okay, I’m good.”
“Jeez, O, don’t you have a room down the hallway?” Zinnia strolled in with a small backpack on her shoulder. She dropped it on the ground just beside the door and looked up at me. “Is this okay here?”
“Um, yes?”
Nova came in next in a pair of baggy black men’s sweatpants that swallowed her tiny waist and dragged on the floor. She too dropped her bag down on top of Zinnia’s. “Wow, Astrid, you have a nice room.”
“Thanks?” I turned to face them.
Serrina followed behind Nova. She had her hair pulled into a messy bun on top of her head, a ripped up Guns N’ Roses T-shirt and a pair of dingy worn-in leggings on. Though she wore no makeup, she was still one of the most beautiful girls I’d ever seen, with model good looks. She smiled down at me. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Um, nothing. What’s up with you?” I sat on the foot of my bed and watched Tabi enter next. She wore a tie-dyed shirt and pants matching set. “It’s been a while since we’ve had one of these.”
I looked at them all. “One of what?”
“I do believe this is what the ladies like to refer to as a sleepover, love.” A boy walked through the door with so much grace I had to do a double take. His hair was shorter but fell back from his face in unruly chocolate waves. He was as tall as Beckett but had an air of class about him that I hadn’t seen in any of the boys here. When he smiled at me, I felt the blood rush to my face.
Are those fangs?
“I-I didn’t plan a sleepover.” I didn’t know what to make of all these people in my room. No one had warned me and I really had no idea what to do.
With so much speed I barely saw him, the boy raced across the room and lay out on my bed with his hands behind his head and his ankles crossed. “No need to plan. I think we’ve got the right of it. We come over and we sleep here. Isn’t that right, ladies?”
Oh God, that British accent was delicious and those deep brown eyes with mahogany in them. This guy was fine. Though he lay in my bed, he didn’t rumble his black jeans, the white shirt, or that black jacket. Beckett strolled into the room, and with the wave of his hand, he picked up a pillow with his magic and tossed it at the boy, hitting him right in the face. “Grayson, I don’t recall you being invited.”
“He can stay if he wants to.” I threw my hand over my mouth. Did I just say that out loud?
The muscle in Beckett’s jaw ticked yet he said nothing. Grayson hunkered down on my bed and sighed. “See that, mate. I’ve been invited.” He waved his hand toward the door. “Now sod off and leave the rest of us to it.”
“Grayson.” Beckett growled in a warning tone.
“All right, all right.” He gracefully came to a stand and walked over to me. He held his hand out to me. “Grayson Shade, from the House of Shade at your service.”
I placed my hand in his. “What’s the House of Shade?”
“Vampires, love.” He winked and brought my hand to his mouth and pressed a light kiss to the back of it. “And you are as lovely as Beckett said.”
“All right, that’s enough.” Beckett grabbed Grayson’s shoulder and yanked him back then shoved him toward the door. “Aren’t you supposed to be home dealing with things? I do recall Matteaus sending us both back.”
Grayson shrugged. “Things are complicated. Besides, with you here we were one knight down. I couldn’t very well leave the lot of you shorthanded, could I?” He ran his eyes over me then over Beckett. “Perhaps we should stay?”
“Out.” Beckett chuckled as he shoved the vampire toward the door.
“Bloody hell, man, I’m going.” He took a step down the hall. “You’re a right git for spoiling my fun.”
Beckett rolled his eyes. “Sorry about that. He kind of goes where the queens go.”
I took a step toward Beckett and lowered my voice. “What are they all doing here?”
He leaned in closer to me. “You were kind of freaking out, so I called in reinforcements.” He took a step back and grabbed the doorknob. “Have fun.”
With that, he shut the door, leaving me alone with five girls I barely knew and apparently we were having a sleepover? When I turned to face them, I plastered a smile on my face. “Um, hey, guys. Thanks for coming. I didn’t know Beckett called you.”
Ophelia bent down and looked
Odin in his eye. “Your cat has one eye.”
“Yup.”
“I like it.” She scratched him under the chin. “So are we all sleeping on the floor or what?”
“Oh, I could go out and look for some air mattresses or something?” I honestly had no idea what to do here. The only sleepovers I’d ever had were with Tilly and she wasn’t here. If she were, this would be going a lot smoother.
“Do you think you have to?” Zinnia sat on the floor and crossed her legs. “I think you can do it from there.”
I glanced around at the others and they all sat expecting something from me. “What do you mean?”
“I mean you have all this power. It’s time to use it. Hell, have a little fun once in a while. You just have to relax and let it, you know, flow.”
If only they knew . . . that’s what I’m afraid of. This churning darkness in me just waiting to come out. But I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of the most powerful witches in the world. I closed my eyes and pictured five cots set up in a circle to include my own bed. There was a round of “nice, sweet, whoa, and thank God, I did not want to sleep on the floor.”
I peeked my eyes open and sighed with relief. There were five perfect beds, each with white fluffy blankets and huge pillows. Zinnia sat on hers the same way she’d been sitting on the floor. Tabi stood in the middle of her bed for a second before she dropped down. Serrina lay out on hers like it’d always been there.
Ophelia picked up the stuff she’d dumped on the floor and threw it all on top of the bed she claimed, “Why did I bring so much crap again?”
Zinnia rolled her eyes. “So was it as difficult as you thought?”
I shook my head. “If only the book were that simple.”
“All right then, you want us to look at it and give you some pointers?” She looked so normal with her crazy hair and sitting there in her pajamas and yet she was a freaking queen of all witches. People followed her, followed her rules, and she was going to sleep on a cot in my room. If anyone could help me, it was these girls.
I reached back on the bed and grabbed the book then walked in the middle of them all and opened it up. “Honestly I keep trying these spells and nothing is working.”
“You know what would really help this situation?” Ophelia leaned in closer to the book. “If I could actually see the pages.”
“Oh, right.” I opened up my magic and my palms warmed as golden smoked seeped from them.
The pages filled with words once more and there was a collective gasp from the queens.
Tabi chuckled. “It’s got built-in protection. Cool.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Your grimoires don’t do this?”
“Honey, we don’t have grimoires just stacks of books that we have to filter through. I wish we had grimoires for our casts. It would’ve made learning our powers much easier.” She sighed then sat down on the floor in front of her bed. “Circle up.”
They all grabbed pillows and blankets from the beds and dragged them to the floor. In a matter of minutes we had a soft lounge on the floor and were hanging out. Nova curled her legs under her. “You know what we need? Pizza with extra cheese.”
Ophelia shook her head. “Nah, we need French fries with melted cheese. You can’t go wrong with anything potato.”
“Popcorn.” Serrina laughed. “All fun nights include popcorn.”
Zinnia pulled her cell from her back pocket. “I don’t think we can get delivery out here. This isn’t the City.”
“No need.” I didn’t know why, but I figured if I could make beds for them all, why not a mini buffet? I waved my hand and let my smoke pour over the floor and an array of food appeared: four boxes of pizza, bags of piping hot steak fries with multiple dipping options, bowls of popcorn, and cookies.
“Is this like one of those play pretend things and it’s there or is this legit?” Ophelia grabbed a bag of fries and reached in. She shoved them in her mouth and groaned around her bite. “Oh, it’s real.”
Zinnia shook her head. “Leave it to my sister to shove things in her mouth and ask questions later.”
Ophelia threw a fry at her. “I’m not the one sleeping with a bird.”
“No, you’re the one torturing a deadly warlock until he goes crazy.” Zinnia grabbed the fry off her shirt and popped it into her mouth.
This was all so normal and not at all what I expected. “You guys are not what I thought you’d be.” I grabbed up a slice of pizza and took a bite. The cheese was nice and hot with a crispy crust, just the way I liked it.
“What did you think we’d be like?” Zinnia held a slice of pizza in each hand and took turns taking a bite from each one.
“I don’t know, dancing around under a full moon making blood sacrifices or something like that.” I shrugged.
Ophelia turned dead serious. “Oh no, Astrid, that’s not what witches do . . . that’s what warlocks do. Didn’t Beckett tell you?”
I nearly choked on my pizza. “What? Sacrificing what? Like animals?” Panic rose up in my throat.
“Oh yeah, there’s a barn in the woods behind the house where they keep the animals. I can’t believe he didn’t tell you.” Ophelia shook her head and sighed. “Yeah, lots of goats.”
I dropped my pizza. “I think I’m going to puke.”
The others broke out into fits of laughter. Serrina reached into her bowl of popcorn and tossed a few pieces at Ophelia. “She’s messing with you. There aren’t ritual sacrifices in the warlock world. At least not while Beckett is around. I can’t say what the resistance is doing, though. That’s a whole other breed of bad.”
“Why are they resisting?” I knew Zinnia had killed her father, their leader, only a few weeks ago. But from where I was sitting, she didn’t seem like the bad guy.
Ophelia cleared her throat. “There are those who oppose Zinnia’s rule. Only because she is a queen witch and not a warlock. There are others who wish to claim what’s left of our father’s followers for their own greedy needs. But don’t you worry, I’ll be handling that soon enough.”
A dark smile crossed her face and a shiver went down my spine. Whoever was on Ophelia’s shit list really had it coming and soon. “So am I the reason the warlocks have resisted so far? Like are you all waiting for me?”
I suddenly felt an immense amount of pressure to become all-powerful to help these girls.
Zinnia shook her head. “Nah, they’re just crazy. And Ophelia is overprotective because we are all each other has.”
“Oh, I know how that is. My mom is gone and, well, my dad is pretty much MIA. Is your mom gone too?”
They all froze and glanced from Zinnia to Ophelia and back again. Zinnia’s gaze fell to the floor and her eyes held a sheen of unshed tears. “My mom is very sick and she hasn’t been conscious for a while now.” She sniffled. “We are really close and I miss her a lot even though I go to see her almost every day. It’s not the same when she can’t talk to me. But I have faith she’ll get better soon. Beckett is helping me and so is O.”
Silence hung in the air around us and I instantly regretted bring it up. “I’m so sorry.”
How was Beckett going to help? It just made me that much more curious as to what exactly he was supposed to be doing for Zinnia besides get the warlocks under control. I didn’t know how I felt about it, knowing he had so much on his plate yet still tried to help. Somehow it made me feel softer toward him.
“Let’s not talk about it, okay?” Zinnia shook herself and plastered a smile on her face. “Come on, let’s play with that book a bit?”
I sucked in a sigh of relief. I wasn’t the best at getting myself out of socially awkward situations, especially ones that I caused. I grabbed the book and pulled it back into my lap. “I just don’t get how this works. I keep saying the spell and nothing happens.”
Nova reached over and took a handful of popcorn and shoved it into her mouth. “Let’s hear it.”
Glad to put on a show for you. I was the noob in this group and
I felt like I was standing in front of a classroom . . . naked. I cleared my throat. “Eyes to see, ears to hear, touch and taste as my senses do appear. Change it now by fire light and appear to the world which I envision as my sight.”
I glanced around and shrugged. “See, nothing happens.”
“There’s a rhythm to a spell. You need to have feeling behind it, believe in what you’re saying.” Zinnia motioned for the book and I handed it over. She thumbed the page I was looking at then turned toward me. “Okay, so this is a glamour spell, right? But what were you picturing you were changing?”
“I don’t know. I was thinking about making myself blond or something.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t ever go blond. Red suits you. But let’s make it more fun. How about you give Serrina a beard or something?”
Serrina giggled and sat up straight. “I was hoping for a smaller ass, but I’ll take a beard. Hit me.”
“Okay, now here’s something different I’m seeing in your book. Apparently because you’re part of the manifestation class, once you master this spell you won’t need to say it. You can call it to your powers and let it flow. Which means once you master the spells in this book you might master your powers.” Zinnia’s eyes were bright with excitement. “That’s cool.”
It actually really was cool. “Okay, so I have to say it with conviction?”
“Close your eyes and really picture Serrina with that beard.” Her voice was soft yet commanding. I closed my eyes and pictured her with a long full beard. Like a lumberjack who hadn’t shaved in years. Zinnia continued, “Now let your magic go, don’t be afraid of what it can do, especially in this room. We will all be fine.”
I sucked in a deep breath and spoke each word carefully.
“Eyes to see.
Ears to hear.
Touch and taste as my senses do appear.
Change it now by fire light.
Appear to the world which I envision as my sight.”
I felt it flowing through me, my power. It rose up and crashed in my chest. I peeked my eyes open and Serrina sat across from me with a beard that ran down to her knees. She broke out into laughter and started braiding it. “This is hilarious.”
Wicked Wish (The Royals: Warlock Court Book 2) Page 6