I loved being this close to him, loved the freedom of not hiding anything from each other. “I can’t see why he’d drop us here, in this love shack, but I’m not going to object.”
“Me neither.” He turned on his side to face me. Then reached up and grabbed a piece of my hair and tried to unwind the crown from it.
“What are you doing?” Loose strands got caught in the branches and the crown wound itself tighter to my head. The tugging pain singed my scalp. “Ouch! Maybe give that a rest for a sec.”
“Just wanted to make you comfortable.” He shrugged and dropped his hands. His voice was so smooth like a calming balm. “That’s all.”
I laid my hand over his chest and felt the soft rhythmic beat of his heart in my finger tips. “Oh yeah? Don’t you think we need to get going?”
He placed his hand over mine and held it there for a long moment. My heart soared. “Not yet. We should stay just a bit longer.”
“Why?” I didn’t want to go either.
He leaned in closer and his breath fanned over my face. We were so close I could feel the heat rolling off his body. “Maybe I just want to spend some time with you before we have to get back to our lives.”
This wasn’t like Beckett. He was always duty before personal stuff. But here he was lying with me cuddling in a huge bed. I threw my leg over his hip. “Maybe for just a few minutes.”
“That’s it, just relax.” His fingers were firm on my leg as he ran them higher and higher up my thigh. I wasn’t used to Beckett’s touch, only in my dreams, but I’d never felt him be so dominant with me. Desire bloomed and I wanted him the same way I knew he wanted me.
He wrapped his hand behind my knee and pulled my leg higher on his hip. We were nearly nose to nose. “Just one kiss.”
I wanted it, wanted him. I leaned in then paused. We were on a mission. Each one had a lesson, so what was the lesson here? He tried to take my lips and I pulled back, pressing my hands to his chest. “Wait?”
“What?” His eyes darted toward the door. “We have all the time in the world. It’s just us.”
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up. “We have stuff to do. Get my magic back, get to Matteaus. We can’t just give in to desire.”
Beckett jumped up from the bed and crossed to me. He grabbed my hands in his and pulled me to him. “But we could for just one second.”
“No.” I shook my head and tried to squirm out of his grip.
“Astrid.” My name was a prayer on his lips, and I wanted to give in, but something in my gut told me not to. He yanked me to him and slammed his lips over mine. Chocolate . . . he tasted like chocolate. Deep, rich, and delicious chocolate.
Ice ran through my veins and I froze on the spot while he mushed his lips against mine. I held my mouth still then pulled back from him. My clothes were in a ball just next to the door and I lurched for them. I grabbed my sweater and yanked it down over the crown. It pulled at my hair, but I didn’t care. I had to get out of here.
Beckett followed behind me. “Where are you going?”
“I’m leaving.”
He grabbed my arm and yanked me back. “Don’t you want to stay with me?”
“Buddy, I don’t even know who the hell you are. But you sure as shit aren’t my Beckett.” I pulled my arm free from him.
In an instant the Beckett before me morphed into something else, someone else. This guy was beautiful and not in the bad boy surfer way I liked. No, this guy was straight out of a teen movie. With midnight hair combed back from his face, piercing blue eyes, and a jaw so chiseled I could cut glass with it. His lips were full, pink, and begging to be kissed. He stood before me in a black silk robe and matching pants that hung open from his body perfectly, exposing his muscled torso. His lips parted in a breath-taking smile that showed perfect white teeth.
He grabbed my hand once more and held it to his lips. “What gave me away?” He met my eye as he kissed the back of my hand.
“I know the way you taste,” I mumbled in captivation at his sexy deliberate moves.
He chuckled. “Excuse me?”
“I just know Beckett.” I pulled my hand from his grip. “And you are not him. Who are you?”
He took a small step back and bowed. “Eros, cupid, son of Aphrodite. Depends on the day, really.”
“Well, Eros, I’m out of here.” This time I did grab the doorknob and yanked it wide-open. I marched out into the hall and paused. Doors, so many doors going in both directions. It was like a bad hotel that never ended.
Eros walked out behind me and leaned against the doorframe. “Welcome to a Hotel California of a sort. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”
“That’s cute.” I narrowed my eyes at him and held out my hand. “Now if you’ll give me my token and my Beckett, then I will gladly be on my way and you can continue with whatever you’ve got going on in this place.”
“Mother said you’d be difficult, but I assured her I’d get the crown from you and I don’t like letting her down.” His eyes drifted to the top of my head. “Though I didn’t expect it to be magically bound.”
My eyes locked on the thin chain around his neck I hadn’t seen before. A little heart with wings coming out of it hung between his pecks. Before I could think I reached out and snatched it off, breaking the chain clean off . Eros grabbed at it, but I tossed it up into the crown before he could get it back. The vines did the rest of the work, winding around the heart and pulling it into the magical confines of the crown tangled with my hair.
“Thanks.” I spun and ran down the hall. “Beckett!”
Eros ran after me. “You’ll never find him.”
“Beckett!” I yelled even louder. How was I going to find him in the house of doors? I knew he was somewhere in here but where? I stopped and closed my eyes for a moment, letting my magic flow. In my mind I pictured a big compass pointing in the direction I would find Beckett. When I opened my eyes there was a compass in my hand and the damn arrow was pointing due north. I ran toward it. The arrow banked left down a hallway and so did I. A large pane of glass sat at the end of the hall and when I reached it, the arrow spun to the right toward the last door in the hall.
I didn’t know what I was going to find. All I knew was Beckett had to be okay and he was behind that damn door. Eros jumped in front of it and held his arms out to his sides. “You might not like what you see.”
“I don’t care.” I opened up my hand and shot magic straight at him, knocking him down the hall.
I shoved the door open and froze. Beckett was strapped to a four-poster bed by thick red sashes. No wonder Eros could morph into him perfectly, because he lay there in nothing but his low-slung jeans. His feet and hands were spread and bound, a sash tied around his head, gagging him from saying a word. But the worst part of it all was he wasn’t alone. No, he was surrounded by five—five!—girls who looked like me. Five Astrids all in different outfits I’d worn over the past few weeks. It was like looking in five mirrors. Two hung from the bed post at his feet. Two lay on either side of him on the bed and one, the worst one, straddled his hips.
“What in the actual . . . you know what? I don’t want to know.”
Beckett’s head snapped up and his eyes bugged out. The muscles in his body coiled with tension as he screamed at me through the gag in his mouth. His face turned an angry shade of red and he opened his hands. Blue smoke poured from his palms and fell down the sides of the bed.
“Screw this.” I threw my magic in with his and the Astrid clones flew away from him, pinned up against the wall.
Beckett’s magic wound up the bed and snaked around his bindings, untying them one by one. He pulled his arms free and sat straight up in the bed then yanked his gag out. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Where the hell have I been? How about what the hell have you been doing?” I dropped the Astrids to the floor then grabbed his clothes from the pile next to the door. The same pile where mine had been. I threw t
hem at him as he climbed from the bed.
Beckett caught them and tugged his shirt over his head. “I woke up like that!”
“You and me both.” I waited as he slid his feet into his combat boots.
He froze. “Wait, what?”
“Eros, we are where ever Eros’ layer is.” I glanced down the hall and saw him storming toward us.
“You guys didn’t . . .”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “Ew, no.” Eros was closing in. “We need to go.”
I pulled him out into the hall and Beckett stood there looking from Eros to the glass window behind him. “How do you feel about jumping?”
“Anything is better than going back into any of those rooms.” The door across the hall clicked open and a beautiful woman stepped through. She shook her head at Eros and he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Hi.” She smiled and I swear she was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen. Her blond hair flowed in shimmering waves down past her hips to the back of her knees. The sun had kissed her skin to a perfect tan and her sparkling emerald eyes made me want to lean into her and do what, I didn’t know, but I was having a hardcore girl crush at the moment. She wore a baby doll T-shirt that exposed her entire stomach. Across her bust in glittering pink rhinestones it said “heartbreaker.” Her jeans were so low I was sure I was going to see something I didn’t want to if she twisted the wrong way. She reached into her back pocket and handed me a piece of notebook paper folded into a little square.
“Hey, can you give this to Matteaus when you see him?” Her voice was light tinkering that was so sweet to my ears. She looked past me toward Beckett. “I would give it to you, but I doubt you’ll survive.”
“What?” I glanced from the women to Beckett and back again.
Beckett ground his teeth together. “Lucky I don’t give a shit about anything you say, Aphrodite.”
She did a little wiggle then slid the note deeper into my hand. “Your boy needs to learn some manners.”
I grabbed the note and slid it into the side of my combat boot. “There, I got it. Now let us go.”
The door Aphrodite had just come out of opened once more and a man with long raven hair stepped out. The deep widow’s peak at the top of his head gave his face a severe, angry look. He was only a few inches shorter than Beckett, but I could feel the power rolling off of him. Long black cloaks flowed from his shoulders down to the ground. But there was something about him that look familiar.
Beckett stiffened beside me and held his hands at the ready. “Dario.”
“I prefer Mr. Malback.” Fast as lightning he reached out and yanked me toward him. He spun me around and pressed my back to his chest. A flash of silver and he had a knife to my throat, pressing to the side of it. A sharp sting pinched the side of my neck then I felt the warm trickle of blood down my skin.
My heart raced and I found myself getting more pissed off by the second. I wasn’t scared. Beckett was here and I had my powers. Powers I’d learned how to control. “What the hell, Aphrodite? This is supposed to be Matteaus’ quest. You’re supposed to listen to him.”
“He never gives me what I want, so why should I give him what he wants? Besides, when I choose a side I like to choose the winning side.” She shrugged and patted Dario on the shoulder. “Make it quick.”
She left us all standing there to go back into the room. When she walked through, I spotted a cloaked figure out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t tell if it was male or female, but the feel of power rolled toward me. The person motioned for Aphrodite to sit and she dropped down on the bed like a trained dog and the door clicked shut.
Beckett took a step back and held his hands up. “What do you want, Dario?”
“Such a simple question for such a complicated answer.” He clucked his tongue. “I want nothing more than for things to stay as they were intended to be. The way Alataris intended them to be before you all got in the way.”
“You mean before we killed him?” Beckett snickered. “No.”
He pressed the knife to my throat hard and I felt the point of it go deeper. “Um, Beckett. Maybe we don’t piss off the mad man.”
Dario’s fingers dug into my arm. “Listen to her. Only one of you has to die here and she seems rather important to you.”
I struggled against his hold. “Go, Beckett, the warlock world needs you.”
He shook his head and spread his arms out wide. “And I need you.”
Dario tossed me to the side and took one large step toward Beckett. He planted his foot and kicked him square in the chest with the other. He flew back toward the window, which shattered on impact, and Beckett flew out backward. Freezing air whipped through the open window and I lunged forward, reaching for him. “Beckett!”
Dario spun and pointed his knife toward me. “You’re next.”
He drew the knife back about to stab me. I spun and ran toward the window. Two steps and I swan dove out after Beckett. We were on a sheer cliff face and he looked like a limp rag doll as he fell. One large shard of glass pierced his shoulder and crimson blood seeped across his shirt. I tucked my arms into my side and forced my magic to propel me faster toward him. The ground rushed toward us as I collided with him in midair.
His eyes rolled in his head. “Astrid.”
“Portal, Beckett. NOW!” My words were laced with power and a single blue orb fell from his hand. It was small and we both might not fit, but I pulled him in tight to me and we fell through it in a twist of bloody limbs. I didn’t feel the twists and turns. All I knew was we were both falling and at some point either we’d die or stop.
The portal opened into a room and we crashed into the middle of a bed . . . his bed. I scrambled to his side. That piece of glass was nearly ten inches long and protruding through his back and from his shoulder. His head lulled to the side and his eyes were closed.
I patted him on the cheek. “Beckett, come on, Beckett!”
Nothing, he was ghostly white and his breathing were shallow. “Oh God.”
I ran to the dresser and grabbed a towel then wrapped it around the glass, making sure not to move it. Tears fell from my eyes as my body quaked from head to toe. “Somebody help me!” I screamed so loud it ripped at my throat.
Footsteps barreled toward Beckett’s room and my eyes grew focused on the blood seeping between my fingers and spreading over the bed sheets below us. “Don’t worry, they’re coming, Beckett. They’re coming, just hold on.”
I threw my head back and screamed as tears poured down my face. He was going to die with my hands coated in his blood. “God help me!”
Chapter 52
Astrid
Five hours later…
I sat with my back pressed against the wall and my knees up. I rested my arms over my knees and stared at my hands. Beckett’s blood dried over my fingers long ago, yet I couldn’t bring myself to leave to clean up. Niche, Zinnia, Cross, and Matteaus shoved me out of the room when they arrived and I sat here waiting. The door clicked open and I jumped to my feet, ready to race back to his side. But Matteaus filled the doorway. He held his hand out and motioned for me to back up. His lips were pressed into a hard line and his brows were drawn low in a grave expression.
I took two small steps back and sucked in a hitched breath. “Oh God, is he? Is he . . . ?”
“He’s going to need a lot of recovery time, but he’ll live.” His large black wings twitched and for a moment I thought I saw his eyes swim with unshed emotion. “He’s going to live. Niche got all the glass out and he’s patched up. Zinnia is feeding him a shit ton of magic to keep his vitals up. You might want to go in there later and give her some. Speaking of which.” He handed me an empty glass orb. “Here you go.”
I reached up and grabbed it with both of my hands. “But it’s empty.”
“You always had most of your power, Astrid. Zinnia only took a very small amount in the beginning so you would live through you ascension and to motivate you to learn to control yourself faster. Now you
have it all. Congratulations.”
After all this time it didn’t seem to matter anymore. Beckett was injured and I had to be with him to help him recover. “Thanks.” I tried to step by him. “Can I see him?”
“Just a second, Astrid. I need to know what happened to him. This was supposed to be a mission of lessons. No one was supposed to die or come so close to it.” He crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
“Let’s just say your Greeks tend to do whatever the hell they want and Aphrodite was no different.”
His brow furrowed deeper. “Aphrodite? She wasn’t supposed to be there.”
“Neither was Nemesis, Hecate, Dionysus, Hermes, or Fortuna. Although Fortuna was helpful.” I was anxious to get to Beckett and my words spilled out.
“I will kill all of them.” He growled.
“By all means feel free. All of them were a pain in my ass!” I said a little too loud, but I wanted to get this over with. “But at the end with Eros, Aphrodite showed up and asked me to give you this.” I pulled the note from my boot and handed it to him. “Then she gave both of us to Dario Malback.”
Matteaus grabbed the paper and curled his fist around it. “Hold that thought.” He opened the door and crooked his finger. “Cross, front and center.”
Cross walked out the door looking pale and worn out. “Yes?”
“It’s time.” Matteaus opened his phone and held it to his ear. “Phoenix, come up and bring Ophelia.”
Cross jumped on the balls of his feet. Only moments ago he looked completely worn out, but whatever Matteaus just said got him all amped up. Two sets of footsteps came up the stairs and Tuck rounded the corner followed by Ophelia. Tuck’s face was deadly serious. “Is he?”
I reached out and placed my hand on his shoulder. “No, he’ll live thanks to Zinnia, Niche, Matteaus, and Cross.”
He let his head fall back and he sucked in a deep breath. “Good, that’s good, we need him.”
Matteaus nodded. “We need all of you, which is why it’s time to send Ophelia and Cross on a man hunt.”
Wicked Wish (The Royals: Warlock Court Book 2) Page 26