He pouted like a sad puppy when I removed my hand from his grip, and it was that that put a smile on my face when I turned to face Edith as she hurried over to us with a stack of books in her arms.
Her face brightened. “Oh, good. It is you!”
“Um, yes. It is me.” I cleared my throat and waved. “Hi, Edith.”
“Bugger, I barely recognized you – if not for the Uggs I might have kept walking,” she half-shouted from fifteen feet away. I knew the very moment she actually saw Malachi because her steps faltered for a second and her face fell. She looked him up and down and then turned to me and made that goofy face of hers I adored so much. “Chloe.”
I chuckled. Edith had been like an older sister to me since I started uni. If anyone else had approached us, I would’ve hid or something. I tucked my hair behind my ears and bit my bottom lip. “Morning, Edith. Where you off to?”
“Oh, never mind that rubbish. Who is this?” She adjusted all of her books into one arm, then grinned up at him as she held her hand out. “I’m Edith. Who are you?”
“Hello, Edith,” Malachi drawled in that raspy voice of his that I knew Edith was going to text me about after we walked away. He shook her hand. “I’m—”
“Masen,” I said for him. “This is Masen Martin. He’s an old family friend who dropped in for a surprise holiday.”
“Surprise holiday, how nice for Chloe.” She pulled her hand back and gave me a goofy grin that was definitely obvious to anyone within a hundred-foot range. “So, Chloe…where have you been? I went by your flat last night to drop your bag but Rolland was there by himself. He asked me where you were, which I thought was odd. I told him I hadn’t seen you since I dropped you off for your morning shag—”
“Edith,” I hissed through clenched teeth. My face was burning.
“Oh, sorry…” She grimaced.
I glanced back at Malachi.
He arched both eyebrows and smirked. “Ah, so that’s why you were there so early.”
I turned back to Edith and shook my head. “Well, turned out Rolland was already in the middle of a morning shag when I got there. I took off and then ran into Masen. We went back to the estate for the night.”
Edith’s jaw dropped. She pushed her tortoiseshell glasses up her nose. “My, my. What an upgrade, I’d say.”
“Thank you, Edith.”
“Well she’s not wrong,” Malachi said behind me with a chuckle.
I gasped and turned to him only to find him grinning. I shook my head and looked back to Edith. “Anyways, I was just showing Masen around a bit. You off to the library?”
“Several of them, actually.” She rolled her eyes and readjusted her books. But then she wagged her eyebrows. “You know, Masen, Chloe here has the most comfortable bed. I’ve crashed there a few times over the years—”
“Edith,” I whispered.
“You’ll thank me once you’ve shagged him, dear.” She shrugged and started to walk off. “Well, got to run. Make sure to hydrate you two, stretch the legs a bit every once in a while. Eat something other than each other before the sun goes down.”
My jaw dropped. Not that she noticed. She was already hurrying toward the door under the sundial. I turned to my soulmate and grimaced.
Malachi chuckled. “There are a lot of questions there, but I think it’s best we save those for later?”
I sighed and scrubbed my face with my hands. “Bloody bugger. I don’t know what got into her.”
“That’s on me.” When I looked up he just shrugged. “Angels make mortals nervous. Princes of Hell unravel them entirely.”
“Oh…”
“So Masen Martin?”
My face warmed again and I knew my blush had returned. “Well I couldn’t exactly tell her your name was Malachi. Not precisely a common name. Masen just…I don’t know, came to me.” Because it’s Edward Cullen’s birth name and it’s now a little inside joke for me that you probably won’t find funny.
He nodded and shoved his hands in his jean pockets. “Okay. There’s more to that but we’ll get to it later. However, I never told you my surname was Martin.”
I frowned. “Your surname is Martin— oh yeah, it is. I knew that. I remember. Oh my God, Malachi, I remember you from before. I remember liking that both your names started with an M. Except you had long hair and no scruff on your face. And your ears were pointy.”
“The pointy ears vanished when I died.” He smiled and shook his head. “Give it a few days with your magic and I bet you’ll remember a lot more from those years.”
“Not sure I want to, unless it’s of my father.” I shuddered. “Speaking of, shall we find our first rose?”
“After you.”
I looked up at our surroundings and nodded. We stood on the inside of the great quadrangle – a circular lawn with four stone buildings around it. Straight across was an archway tunnel that led out to Catte Street. The iconic domed roof of the Radcliffe stood high above the walls of All Souls College. To our right was Codrington College. In the center, raised above the tall glass windows, was the sundial.
But below that, right on ground level, was a massive wooden door.
And the rose mark.
I hooked my arm around his and led him along the gravel pathway until we got to the doorway. “By any chance do you have the ability to make us not visible?”
“I enabled it as soon as Edith left.”
“Brilliant. Sorry about that.”
“I’m not. Now I can’t wait to try your bed.”
I gasped and playfully elbowed him.
He laughed. “I meant to sleep, but evidently you enjoy morning shags—”
“Oh my God. I’m going to kill her.” I shook my head and hopped up on the top step. “So, what do you think is supposed to happen? Do I touch it?”
“That’s what the journal said to do.” He pulled the journal out of his pocket and read again. “Henry says touch to unlock the path. It also says Fifth Rose marks the spot.”
I frowned and stared at the mark on the wall. “So this quest…when we get to the fifth rose, that’s where we know we have to bury it?”
He nodded. “This is the first one.”
“So, let’s find the second one.” I took a deep breath and shook my arms out as a sudden rush of nerves rolled through me. Dad wanted you to do this. He wouldn’t intentionally hurt you. “Brilliant. Right. Here goes nothing…”
The rose was carved into the stone archway over the door, up high and tucked into a crease. Unless you were tall and looking, you probably would miss it. I wasn’t even sure how I ever found it. I threw my hand up and pressed my fingers to it.
Bright red light flashed out of the wall like a laser alarm system found in museums and banks. I flattened myself against the door and my jaw dropped. It was just like the images that popped out of books when I opened them now, except entirely red. A crimson holograph of an empty hall with intricately carved vaulted ceilings, tall windows, and two rows of wooden doors beneath them. But then the image sparkled from the right side. A door, the fourth on the right, was glowing a brighter red. That had to be our target, our clue.
“Tell me you’re seeing this?”
“I am, yes.” He made a weird face. “Does this look familiar to you?”
“Yes. This is where the painting in The Red Rose bookstore led to. The one you followed me to yesterday morning.”
“Ah, yes.” He took my hand and then everything went dark.
A second later we stood in the center of the hall, in the exact spot I’d landed yesterday morning. To my left was that wooden bench, but the journal was gone. There were no other people around, which was good but also strange. I walked over to the third door on the left, the one with a rose on the bottom corner, and opened it. Lancaster Estate glistened in the morning sunlight. With a smile, I shut it and turned to face the hall of doors.
I wondered where they all went and why, but I knew I didn’t have time to think about that right now. I had to get
this damn locket off of me.
“Chloe, look.” Malachi stood in front of the fourth door on the right and pointed to a rose carved into the top of the door. “The second mark.”
I hurried to his side and then frowned. “Yesterday Granny told me to find the door with the rose and it would bring me home…but there are two doors marked with a rose. What if I’d gone through this one yesterday?”
“This one couldn’t be seen until we touched the first one.” He shrugged and took my hand in his. “That’s how your father operated.”
I bit my lip and yanked it open. Darkness greeted us. “We won’t get separated, right?”
He wrapped his arm around my waist, lifted me off my feet, and then jumped.
When my feet hit the ground I was still wrapped in Malachi’s arm, his chest pressed into my face. I grinned and popped up on my toes to kiss his mouth. “Thanks, Masen.”
He smirked. “Is that how it’s gonna be?”
“Figure out where it comes from and I’ll stop.” I stepped out of his arms and shrugged. I opened my mouth to tease him more when I realized the sky was black above us.
Black black. No clouds or stars. Just a wall of black.
“Where are we? It was daylight back home—”
He pressed his finger to my chin and pushed my face to the right. My gaze slid over and then widened. Bright lights flashed and sparkled. A road was not far from us and it was bumper to bumper full of cars. And then I saw the Eiffel Tower…but no, that wasn’t right. It was too small, and surrounded by other buildings. We were definitely not in Paris.
I let my gaze slide more until I spotted the neon sign that read Caesars Palace. And then it hit me. “Wait, is this Las Vegas?”
“Sin city itself.”
“Why lead us all the way to America—” I screamed as sharp pain slammed into my chest.
The pain was so piercing that my vision wobbled. It shot down my legs and my body just gave out. I crashed to my knees, but Malachi caught me before I hit the pavement. I cried out and gripped my chest. Blue light shined out from me like the bat signal. Electric shocks ripped down my spine, making my limbs tremble and flail. My back arched, my hair falling over my head to hang down to the pavement.
DEMONS. That was what this pain meant.
Malachi cursed and gently laid me on the ground. My arms and legs curled into fetal position. Sounds of the world around us were drowned out by a sharp high-pitched ringing. I looked up into my soulmate’s face as I lay beneath him, between his legs. The blue crescent moon of Lilith’s locket reflected on his black shirt.
A dark object jumped out of nowhere. At the last second I saw glowing red eyes and three inch-long fangs. DEMON. I tried to scream to warn him since his eyes were locked on me. But Malachi just threw his hand out and caught the demon by the face. It thrashed around to try and break free. Black smoke billowed out of Malachi’s palm and the demon dropped dead. It vanished into dust before it ever hit the ground beside me.
I tried to get up. We had to move, to get to safety.
“Stay,” he rumbled. His black wings blacked out the buildings behind him. A loud, fierce growl burst out of him that made the ground tremble under me. His eyes shined brighter than the sun and I had to look away. “Come and get her.”
The air pulsed out of him like a giant shock wave.
Half a dozen demons charged for us on each side. I gasped and tried to get up but my body was locked down. The pain seared sharper, hotter, like I was being burned at the stake. I couldn’t even scream. My throat was too raw. There was no oxygen in my lungs. Tunnel vision was creeping in.
The demons surrounded us and were moving closer with every breath. They were only a matter of feet away. This was it, we were going to lose. I was going to die right here on the pavement. But then Malachi threw his hands out and black smoke poured out of him like a fireman’s hose. It hit each and every demon at the same time. They shrieked and hissed and exploded into dust.
The pain vanished. My body unlocked. I sucked in as much air as I could. Cold air coiled around my body and my face was buried in something warm. I coughed and snuggled into it, shivering as my muscles spasmed and trembled. I sniffed and the scent of smoke from a bonfire seeped into my lungs.
Malachi.
And then my face was cupped in his hands and those bright gold eyes were shining down on me. “Are you okay now?”
I licked my lips. “I forgot you could do that death smoke thing.”
He snorted. “Okay, but are you all right now? Are you still in pain?”
“Um…” I did a quick mental scan of my body. “The pain is gone.”
He sighed and pulled me back into his chest, then wrapped his arms around me tight. “We have to get that damn thing off of you,” he growled in my ear.
I nodded. I took five deep breaths and then stepped out of his embrace. “That’s two roses. Let’s go for three.”
“I figure it won’t be far from here.”
Here. In Las Vegas. I’d always wanted to come here but definitely under different circumstances. I spun in a slow circle, trying to take everything in. It wasn’t until I turned nearly all the way around that I saw their version of the colosseum, which looked a lot like the pictures I’d seen of the real one. “So before you mentioned that arcana home country, Eden, was in Italy for a while…where?”
“Eden’s been in Italy more than once. But during the Renaissance it was in Rome. The colosseum was used but obviously not created then.”
I wonder…I took his hand and dragged him down the street with me towards the colosseum. Bright white lights lined every archway and formed a ring around the top, the glow coming off of it seemed like one giant blob. We were on some kind of side street that seemed to be closed to the public because not a single car had turned this way. The Vegas-Colosseum was straight ahead with the rest of Caesars Palace on our left and a glittering sign that read The MIRAGE on our right. A driveway stuck out from the colosseum and connected to the road we were sprinting down.
“Can you sense if anyone is out here?” I shouted over my shoulder as I ran for the driveway.
“No one close enough to be a concern to us,” he said back calmly, like he wasn’t exerting in the slightest bit.
The second my feet hit the driveway, red light flashed up ahead…filling one of the entire archways. I squinted to try and make out the image but it was just a blob of red lines. “You see that, right?”
“I do.” He wrapped his arm around my hips and lifted me in the air — and then we were suddenly right in front of it. He sat me on my feet. “You’re brilliant, you know that?”
“Thanks.” My cheeks warmed and butterflies danced in my stomach. Focus, Chloe. I turned my attention back to the wall in front of me. The lines were intense and overwhelming to look at, especially up close, so I took a step back. And then I spotted something familiar at the top near the point of the arch. I gasped and pointed. “Look! A rose!”
“Rose number three. Excellent.” Malachi cocked his head to the side. Then he backed up to stand beside me. “But where does it want us to go?”
It looked like a sketch but drawn in red. The image was simple, no intricate details or designs or artistic flair. Almost like it was simply an outline. I squinted again so the glow wouldn’t hurt so much to look at. It looked like a road leading out from the archway with a wall on either side. The road made a sharp left turn right before a strange shaped building. It was rounded, like maybe the building itself was circular in shape—
“The colosseum,” Malachi breathed at the exact time I thought of it. “This is the real colosseum. That’s why it sent us to Vegas, to throw anyone off if they tried to follow the clues.”
I nodded and wrung my hands together. “Okay, okay. The real one is in Rome. We just need to get to Rome. Can you travel us that far with that smoke travel thing you do?”
“Myself? Yes. I have never tried to bring a mortal that far with me. I would not like you to be the guinea pig.”
“I get that. Absolutely. It’s fine. There’s got to be an airport around here.” I frowned. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Dad wouldn’t have known planes would be a thing. So why show us this red painting of the rose and the colosseum—”
“Chloe.” He gripped my shoulder and ducked down to meet my eyes. “It’s a painting.”
“Yeah, I know. In the archway, I see it — bloody hell. It’s a painting!” My pulse quickened. I leapt over to the wall and stopped…then slowly slid my hand out in front of me. Cold air washed over my skin as it passed through the archway. I grinned. “Malachi. Look. He wants us to go through — which means he knew I would be the one going.”
He stepped up beside me and took my hand. “And he’d be proud of you.”
I smiled up at him. “On three?”
“Three…”
“Two…”
“One…JUMP!” I shouted and leapt through the archway like I was going to platform nine and three quarters.
Cold air slammed into my face. I squeezed Malachi’s hand so tight I felt his knuckles crack. Bright light pierced through my closed eyes — and then everything went still.
I opened my eyes and my breath left me in a rush.
We stood in the middle of a two-lane road that was sitting at a standstill. Scooters zipped up the street, weaving unconventional paths around the cars stuck in traffic. Pedestrians walked the pavements with old-fashioned cameras hanging from their necks that had big zoom lenses. It reminded me of my photography classes my first years at uni. A much simpler time.
The sky was blue but there was a hazy white cloud stretched thin across the sky. It was chilly but not unbearable, despite the fact I’d just realized I left my coat back at home.
The colosseum stood in front of us, standing tall and proud and making the rest of the world go around it.
“Of course. Henry always said this place was special and that humans would never let it be destroyed.” Malachi rolled his neck. “I can feel Holy Ground from here. We go inside and I bet we’ll find it. And I bet that’s where we’re supposed to bury this.”
“I guess we find the fourth rose first?”
The Rose Witch (The Coven: Old Magic Stand-Alone Novel Book 1) Page 16