“Tomorrow night? At a surprise location. I’ll make some excuse to my parents. Tell them I’m working at a friend’s house or something.”
“Well, I suppose I’ll have to check my schedule, but I’m sure I can squeeze you in somewhere.”
“You’d better.” He kisses my temple. “It’s going to be good.”
I lean into him, snaking my arm over his chest. His lips move down, brushing over my cheek bone. I raise my head, and he fits his mouth to mine. My lips open automatically. I feel his hands moving along my arms, raising goose bumps as they go. He pulls me closer until I’m lying across his chest. I feel the pounding of his heart and the pressure of his hands against my shoulder blades. The kiss becomes more urgent. His fingers knot in my hair, and my hands find their way beneath the hem of his T-shirt. All sound is lost in the dizzying rush of blood through my veins.
A splintering crack sounds from somewhere above us, and Nate rolls us out of the way as a small branch tumbles down into the hollow. “What . . .” I try to catch my breath. I feel oddly not in control of myself. “Was that . . . me?”
Nate grins. “I don’t know. Do you usually break branches while making out with guys?”
Ignoring him, I sit up and look around. I can’t see anyone else up here. I can’t sense anyone either. Nate runs his hands up and down my arms. “You’re really warm,” he says. “Are you feeling okay?”
I give myself a mental once-over. “I feel . . . like I’m radiating magic out of every pore.”
Nate’s grin stretches even wider. “Awesome. Shall we see how many more branches we can bring down?”
“Uh, no. We may end up falling out of the tree.” And I’m not entirely comfortable with the out-of-control feeling.
We return to Nate’s home. “You got homework to finish?” I ask.
“Yes. As mundane as that sounds.” He kisses my forehead. “Do you have some exciting assignment to take care of now? Or are you heading home?”
“Home,” I mumble.
I hate lying to him.
*
Huddling between the rose bushes in Nate’s garden, I decide to go through with my plan. He’d be angry if he knew, but I have to try it. The eye is still tattooed onto his back, and I need to know what it means. I wait until the light disappears from his window. After a further ten or fifteen minutes, I open a doorway and peek into his bedroom. He’s asleep. I pad across the carpet to his bed. He’s lying on his side, thank goodness.
Carefully, terrified of waking him, I take hold of the edge of his T-shirt. With my heart beating so loud I’m sure his parents can hear it in the next room, I lift the T-shirt. As lightly as I possibly can, I place my palm against the eye-shaped tattoo.
Don’t wake up, don’t wake up.
I extend my thoughts, searching and feeling for the person who owns this mark. In a rush, I feel myself sucked into the person I’m looking for. A girl. Black gloves and a long black skirt. Long, leafy vines hang from the ceiling of the room she’s in. She walks between the vines and enters another room, small and dark. She smoothes her hand across the page of a book and begins chanting.
Nate’s grunt pulls me back to the present. I snatch my hand away. He turns over. I drop to the floor, whip my stylus out of my boot, and write the words for a doorway onto the carpet. Silently, the floor melts away, and I fall into darkness.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I’m Underground. I’m pretty sure of it. I have that same uneasy feeling I got when Nate and I found ourselves in the labyrinth. There’s also the fact that I’m standing in a tunnel.
I don’t like tunnels.
I write a doorway onto the wall. It works. Good, at least I’ll be able to get out of here once I’ve learned something useful. I brush my hand against the sandy surface of the wall and take a few hesitant steps forward. Torches are set into the wall at regular intervals, their flickering green flames casting eerie shadows throughout the tunnel. Everything is dry, but it smells oddly like wet earth after a summer rain. It’s a smell I find comforting; all the more reason not to trust it.
A piercing screech. Wings flapping. I duck, covering my head with an invisible shield. I start drawing power, getting ready to defend myself, but the creature is gone.
Silence.
I stand and continue forward, faster now. I need to find that girl.
I find the room first. The entrance to it is narrow, blocked by an ornate but rusted gate. It doesn’t appear to be locked. I peer inside, hoping to see something other than hundreds of hanging vines. I hear the occasional chirp and hiss of animal sounds, but nothing more. I try to connect to the girl to see if she’s still in here, but without the tattoo to touch it doesn’t work.
Carefully, I slide the bolt of the gate back. It barely makes a sound. I push the gate, cringing as I wait for the whine of rusted metal. It doesn’t come. I enter the room. The smell of wet earth is stronger in here. The ground beneath my feet is soft and mossy. I turn to shut the gate behind me, but abruptly, as though torn from my hands, it slams itself shut with a resounding clang.
Crap. That can’t be good.
“Who’s there?”
I freeze. The vines rustle as someone moves toward the gate. Hide. Now. I slip silently between the vines. Looking back, I can see her now. She’s young, younger than me, perhaps, and beautiful. The kind of beautiful men would lay down their lives for. Her hair is one color—she’s not a faerie—but I can feel power emanating from her. She turns away from the gate and looks around, her eyebrows drawing together. She moves slowly through the vines, pushing them back, searching.
We both jump as the gate clangs again. The girl whirls around. “Oh, it’s just you, darling.” She laughs. The sound is captivating. “Here I was getting anxious for nothing.” Someone walks toward her. Male. Tall. I can’t make out much else between the vines. She loops her gloved arms around his neck and pulls his head down toward hers. That’s when I see his face.
Ryn.
A whoosh of air escapes my lungs as though someone just landed a punch to my stomach. What? WHAT?
After pressing her lips to his, she steps away from him. “How did it go at the Guild?”
“Not good,” he says. “They wouldn’t let me in.”
“They? There was only one, wasn’t there?”
“You know that’s not true. They have guards hiding all over the place.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter.” She waves a hand dismissively. “My boss has his answer now, so I don’t need you to go snooping around anymore.”
Snooping around?
“He has his answer? Already?”
She nods, looking smug. “It appears my spell proved useful after all.” She lets out a contented sigh and tilts her head to the side. “What a handsome face you have.” She runs a finger slowly down his cheek. “Beautiful eyes, and lips just begging to be kissed.” She stands on tiptoe, and I notice heeled boots beneath the many layers of her black skirt. She playfully grabs Ryn’s lower lip between her teeth, then kisses him again. She presses her whole body against him, weaving her fingers through his hair. He spreads his hands across her back and pulls her even closer.
I think I may be sick.
The kiss ends, and Ryn disentangles the girl’s hands from his hair. “So you have a thing for the tall, dark and handsome, then?”
She lowers her head and looks up at him between her lashes. “Maybe I do. And fortunately I’ve got someone tall, dark and handsome standing right in front of me.”
His eyelids close as she brushes her lips along the length of his jaw. “I’ll be whatever you want me to be,” he whispers.
Oh, gross. This is so not what I came here for. Who cares? I want to yell. What the hell are you doing here? Forcing down my frustration, I move further back into the room. I feel a wall against my back and move along it until I come to a curtain. Pulling it aside, I see what looks like a window seat with no window. Weird, but I’ll take what I can get.
I climb onto the seat and dr
aw my knees up against my body. I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that Ryn is involved in this. Why? Why? What does he have against the Guild that would cause him to snoop around and spy on them? Or does this girl have him under some sort of spell?
Focus.
I’m here to find out what the eye symbol on Nate’s back means. Could it be the spell the girl mentioned to Ryn? The only way I’m going to find out is by speaking to her. I can probably tie her up in some of these vines and question her, but I’ll wait till Ryn leaves.
I lean toward the curtain and listen. Nothing. They’re probably still making out. Something moves across my foot, and I snatch it away, smothering a cry. A double-headed serpent with glittering ruby eyes rears both its heads and hisses at me. The right head strikes, smacking its nose against my hastily thrown up shield. Looking a little dazed, the serpent slithers off the window seat and under the curtain.
I wonder what other creatures are lurking about in this Underground jungle. I allow my shield to disappear with a small pop, then consider whether it wouldn’t be safer just to keep it up.
Without warning, the curtain is tugged open. “Hello there,” says Ryn. He strikes me on the head.
*
It doesn’t feel like much time has passed when I wake to a throbbing headache. I’m sitting in a chair, vines wrapped tightly around my ankles and wrists. But that’s not all. I feel magic holding me in place, almost smothering me. I look up to find Ryn and the girl watching me.
“I’m not stupid,” she says. “Two clangs means two people. Did you really think I wouldn’t look for you?”
“Honestly? Yes. You seemed a little busy losing your tongue down someone else’s throat.”
She crosses her arms and looks at Ryn. “Would you like the honor of slapping her? Or shall I?”
Ryn steps toward me. “Don’t touch me, you disgusting traitor,” I spit at him. “What are you spying on the Guild for?”
Ryn stops, looking pleased. “So you remember me, then?”
“Remember you? I’ve known you my entire life, dumbass.”
He frowns. “What do you . . . Oh. Sorry. Sometimes I forget which form I’m in. It often confuses people.” And then, right before my eyes, he begins to change. His form melts and remolds itself into a shorter boy. A boy with orange hair and eyes. “Does that help?” he asks.
Relief—Ryn hasn’t actually betrayed the Guild. Horror—I do know this boy. It’s the orange hair I recognize first, but the rest of the memory isn’t far behind. Solo assignment. Several months back. I stopped him from stabbing a human librarian before convincing him to return to the Guild with me. They stuck him in one of their rehabilitation programs, which is where he should be right now.
“What are you doing?” I demand. “You’re supposed to be working in the Guild.”
He places a hand on each of the chair’s arms and leans over me. “Do you remember promising to visit me, Violet?” I don’t respond. “Do you even know what my name is?” No idea, but again, it’s probably better to remain silent. “I owe the Guild nothing. I owe you nothing. I thought you were trying to help me, but I was just another assignment number to you.” The slap knocks my head to the side. Stinging heat burns my cheek.
“Thanks, Scarlett,” says the shapeshifter. “I have no idea what she’s doing down here, but I very much enjoyed having the honor of slapping her. In fact, I’d like to—”
“Okay, okay. Perhaps you should leave us now, darling.” Scarlett takes his wrist and pulls him toward the gate. “All the girl talk will bore you, I’m sure.”
“But—”
“I’ll let you know when you can visit again.” I hear the gate slam. “Now.” Scarlett disappears between the vines and returns dragging a tall stool behind her. She climbs onto it and crosses one leg over the other. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing in my home?”
It irritates me how calm she is. “You put some kind of spell on my boyfriend.”
“I’ve put spells on many boyfriends.” Her grin is sly. “You’re going to have to be a little more specific.”
“An eye-shaped tattoo. On his back.”
“Oh, that spell.” She swings her legs. “Why didn’t you say so? That was quite an easy spell, really. The one before it, where I had to summon him from wherever he was, took a while to get right. I was really proud of myself when that one finally worked.”
“What. Does. It. Do?”
“Ooh, getting a little impatient over there, are you?”
I say nothing, imagining myself ripping her hair out.
She pouts. “You’re no fun. Fine.” She starts swinging her legs again. “It’s an observation spell. As long as he has the eye on him he can be watched.”
“Watched?” My stomach turns. “You’re sick. Did you have fun watching him? Watching us?”
“Me?” She laughs. “I’m not the one who’s been watching him.”
“Then who—”
She holds up a hand and shakes her head. “I’m not at liberty to divulge that information. But you can stop getting your panties in such a twist. My boss has the information he requires and has stopped watching . . . Nathaniel, is it?”
“So take the eye off him!”
She looks confused. “I did. Like half an hour ago.”
“What?”
“Yeah, if you’d just had a little bit of patience, young guardian, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Young guardian? Who the hell does she think she is, talking to me like that? There’s no way she’s any older than I am. I struggle against my bonds and the magic that pins me down. She watches, amused. Eventually I give up. I can’t seem to force any of my own magic out while hers is overpowering me. “What are you, anyway?” I ask. “You’re not a faerie.”
“How very observant of you.” She smoothes her skirt out. “I’m a halfling, just like your boyfriend. Half-faerie, half-siren.” She pauses. “You do know what a siren is, don’t you?”
“Of course I know what a siren is.”
“So you know I can get your boyfriend to follow me in a heartbeat.”
“You’re only half a siren. There’s no way your skills are that good.”
Her lips turn up in a smile that chills my blood. “Evidently your boyfriend hasn’t told you about the time we’ve spent together recently.” She leans forward. “But I suppose he wouldn’t want to make you jealous.”
I throw all my anger into forcing her magic off me—and finally break through. My blast of power sends her toppling off her stool. Fire blazes in my palms, eating through the vines at my wrists. A guardian knife appears in my hand. I slash at the vines around my ankles.
Scarlett is standing now, yanking the gloves off her hands. “You’re going to pay for that,” she says. She throws herself at me. I jump out of the way, grab the chair, and swing it at her. She grabs onto the chair as she goes down, pulling me with her. Rolling on top of me, she clamps her hands on either side of my face.
Something’s wrong. I can’t move. I feel as though my magic, my power, my life, is being sucked out of me. I feel dizzy. The room begins to grow fuzzy at the edges. “Well, I’d say this has been fun, but I’d be lying,” says Scarlett, breathing heavily. “You’re rather boring, Violet. I can’t think what Nathaniel sees in you. And now, thanks to me, he won’t have to see you ever again.”
She grips my face harder. My legs feel numb, my arms, my whole body. My heart beat slows. Colors fade into white. The white darkens. Grey. Black.
Nothing.
*
“ . . . you sure . . . how . . . supposed to know that? You didn’t exactly give me any details.” I blink. The room with the vines comes back into focus. Scarlett is pacing across the floor, speaking into a hand mirror. “Yes, I absolutely was about to kill her. That’s what happens when you leave me out of the loop.” The person she’s talking to says something, but I can’t make out the words. “Yes, I know who I’m talking to, but I also know you couldn’t have done any of this wi
thout me, so this respect thing you’re talking about should go both ways.”
I try to move my arms and legs. They seem to be working, they’re just really weak. I feel for my magic. There’s barely a flicker. I’m not surprised; I don’t think I’ve ever felt this empty. Slowly, so I don’t attract her attention, I pull my knees closer to my chest. Then I wait. She’s still arguing with the person in her mirror, pacing between the vines and the broken pieces of chair. She’s almost close enough. Almost . . . almost . . .
I kick as hard as I can.
She screams as she goes down. I hear a crack as her head hits the edge of the stool. The mirror shatters. I climb to my feet and run as fast as my exhausted limbs will allow. I barely hear the gate as it slams shut behind me.
Get out of here, get out of here, get out of here.
I slide my shaking hand into my boot, but before I can draw my stylus out, I hear a shout behind me. I turn to face the voice. Damn shapeshifter. What is he still doing here? “You hurt my Scarlett?” he demands, coming toward me.
“She tried to kill me!” I’m so weak, so tired, but I see he’s going to fight me. I reach into the air and take hold of a guardian knife in each hand. It’s all I can manage. No great displays of magic from me for at least another few hours.
I slash a clumsy X through the air and he jumps back. He shifts, and suddenly he’s Nate. My hands shake harder. “That’s not fair.”
“Oh, but guardian weapons are fair?” He pulls a short dagger from his boot. He lunges forward, swipes, and steps back. Blood blooms across my forearm. I stumble backward, trying to remind myself that it’s not Nate who’s attacking me. “You’re not looking too good, Violet,” he taunts. “Did Scarlett give you a taste of her special magic?”
It was more than a taste, all right. I throw one of the knives at him. He dodges. The knife sails over his head and vanishes. He ducks down and slashes at my legs, missing by barely an inch. I kick, and my boot connects with his forehead. He sways, puts a hand against the wall for support, and grabs one of the torches. He holds it up, illuminating the gash on his head. “Why are you hurting me, Violet?” he asks. “Why? Don’t you know that I love you?”
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