Blooming Black: Rosewood Academy of Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 4)

by Juliann Whicker

  I stepped throughside with it so I could read it in the comfort of Ian’s room. I crashed on his bed and let the spells sunk into its black bones rejuvenate me. The pictures were very clear. Serene Night was a beautiful witch. She did black and white well with her black and haunting eyes surrounded by a frizzy mass of platinum hair. She didn’t have as much hair as Penny, but what she had was impressively wild and willful. She looked like a Darksider witch, but also not. Her features were fine, symmetrical, delicate almost. Penny had the same mouth and pointed chin, but the nose was different, Penny’s slightly stronger, and of course Penny had much more color.

  I leafed through the newspaper after reading the headlining article and stopped at the picture of a much younger and far less grim Revere. He was smiling, had no shirt, and held a sword. The Prince of Blackheart, the Chemiss captain had been Revere? The spellmaster was also a fighter? No. There was a name there.

  Oswald Creek. It didn’t take much searching on my phone to find his obituary, only two years after that newspaper clipping. I couldn’t find anything else about Serene Night. My stomach started to get tight and anxious. This was starting to look like the kind of love triangle that caused most wars and mass destructions in Darkside. Penny’s father was someone who could seduce a witch who already had the love of the perfect Daysider mage. And if Signore was the Ruby, like Teddy insisted, then it couldn’t be a coincidence that he’d been in Penny’s life, could it? No. Was he working for her father? Was the Subtle Sorcerer him? So many questions piling up and the biggest one, would Penny sign my contract? She hadn’t even read the fine print of the last contract I’d given her, just signed it while she tried not to throw up from the effects of the curse. Would marrying her break it? Once all of the Huntsman family protection spells transferred to her, it might do something.

  My aunt was concerned that sweet, delicious Penny Lane had a Darkside heart beneath that ruffled bodice. I hoped so. Otherwise I would consume her much too quickly.

  Chapter 9

  Witch

  My first class was supposed to be tech magic with Zach. I smoothed down my skirt and pulled the boxes of witch hair the mage’s green garments out of the trunk. I carried them through the halls towards my room in Lilac Stories. Drake hadn’t come back last night, but the note made it clear that he’d see me at lunch. Did he think I wouldn’t let him sleep if he spent the night in his room with me?

  In Lilac Stories, I went towards my old room before I hesitated. I was going to design the mage coat for Drake, tech married to energy. I hadn’t fiddled with that much new tech for awhile, but it would give me a good challenge, something to focus on in place of my tech class with Zach. It was a pity because Zach had such great tech.

  I smiled and turned towards his room. Zach wouldn’t be there. I picked the lock and went inside. I stopped when I saw Pitch’s defaced poster. Seriously? There was the traditional mustache, which was fine, but what was with all the expletives and pathetic put downs? Like ‘Fat Sadist’ in dark purple marker? They needed more practice defacing posters.

  I was working on laying out the hair in a perfect grid when the door blew open and Zach came in wearing a coat around his waist and nothing else. I ignored him.

  “What are you doing in here? I’m taking off my coat! Aren’t you terrified of nudity?” His face was going quite red.

  I shrugged. “Do what you want.”

  “What are you doing here? Get out! You freak! How dare you use my equipment after you hung me from the top of the flagpole naked?”

  I turned around to frown at him. “That wasn’t me. That was Pitch.” It had totally been me.

  “Yeah?” His eyes were so neon blue, like they were going to shoot bolts of lightning at me any second. “I know Pitch. Beating me unconscious, that was Pitch. Hanging me from a flagpole naked, that was Penny. Why would you do that?”

  I shrugged and turned back to my work.

  “Penny, are you completely insane?”

  “Yes. I am. I’m also into equality, the stupid kind. Since you saw me naked, the whole school gets to see you naked. Don’t worry. I kept my eyes closed while I hauled you to the top of the flagpole. How long did it take you to escape the tech bonds?”

  “Was I supposed to be timing myself?”

  “I could have done it in forty-five seconds. I left a perfectly sized piece of metal taped to your face.”

  “Yeah, that was really thoughtful. How was I supposed to get it off my face with my hands in those… what were those?”

  “Security. Sometimes I’d have to tie up Poppy so I could do a project without interference.”

  “That’s what they’re called?”

  I shrugged. “I name pets, not thingies. Do you have something that can relay magnetic waves in a cycle?”

  He glared at me but went past me and pulled out this big machine, his muscles bunching and flexing while he set it up for me. I didn’t notice his bare back. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing until he grabbed my face and jerked up my chin.

  “You’re in my room. Why? We’re having an epic feud.”

  I blinked at him. “Can I be honest with you? I don’t do feuds. I feel okay now. I ripped apart all the Chem girls, I mean Pitch ripped them all apart, and I tormented, tortured, and humiliated you. I’m okay now.”

  “You’re okay? I healed you! And you, why aren’t you hurt?”

  “Ian. He’s an excellent healer and he doesn’t ask any questions. I think he’s the kind of mage who might be able to follow rules, so long as they aren’t something about only sleeping with one girl. What?”

  He blinked at me, his mouth open like he was going to say something, but didn’t know what it was. “What about Drake? You moved in with him.”

  “Yes. But I get the idea he doesn’t spend a lot of nights there. He isn’t with women, like Ian, is he?”

  “No. His focus is completely captivated by Penny Lane, even if he only knows half of you.” He pulled on a pair of pants, staring at me the whole time. He had the coat tied around his waist, so it’s not like I saw anything. Not like I was looking. I was serious about hauling him around with my eyes closed. It had been the kind of outing that Poppy would have loved, ripping apart all the girls who smelled like Zach, and then finding him in the hall when he came in smelling of alcohol and blood. It had been difficult to keep him conscious as long as I had.

  “Good. Although it is so fun to make witches scream. I forgot how much I like that. I mean Pitch.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Yeah? You look so perfectly fine, it’s hard to believe you really hurt them.”

  “Oh, I did. So much hurting. Ian’s going to be passed out in my bed for a long time. Maybe he should just stay there in case of emergencies.”

  He ran a hand through his hair before yanking off the coat tied around his muscular abdominals. “You are insane. Seriously insane. What are you making? Because you tied me up like that, naked at the top of the pole, I’m keeping Security.”

  “That’s not its name.”

  “Now it is.” He headed to the little fridge and opened it, pulling out an apple before he bit into it. “I can’t believe you think that we’re even. You owe me massive gratitude. It took ages to heal you.”

  “I didn’t ask you to. I specifically told you to go away. Instead, you carved your ugly logo into me. Why did you have to make it so ugly? I’m not one of your little tech gadgets.”

  “You’d like it to be pretty? Like this?”

  He twitched and his glamour disappeared revealing Peter Pants, the wild and wicked mage with the lightning eyes and vicious sneer. He also had Pitch’s Bitch written on his forehead.

  I shrugged. “I told you, I feel much better now. It was only permanent marker.”

  He shook his head and in that movement, his glamour fell around him. “Permanent marker? You used the piece of metal taped to my face! That’s why it was covered in my blood. I don’t want you to feel better. All of this has been about getting you away from me.
I want to live my own life, without some psychotic witch I was stupid enough to fall for before I knew any better. I need to move on, Penny.”

  “Then you should sleep with Witley and not my Chem girls! Why would you do that? You know that I can’t let you get away with that!”

  “Why not?”

  “Because,” I said, gripping a metal rod and stepping closer to him. “You belong to Pitch.”

  He stared at me. “Like Poppy belonged to Pitch?”

  I blinked at him and lowered the rod. I turned away from him. “I should go.” I packed up the boxes and headed out. I’d stick them in my room until next time.

  “Penny,” Zach said, grabbing my arm.

  I froze and felt a wave of nausea that had me bending over and dropping the boxes.

  “What’s wrong?” His eyes were concerned, his fake face so nice.

  I shook my head. “I need to lock her up.”

  “Who? Poppy?”

  “Pitch. She’s stronger than I am. She’ll destroy everyone I care about. They screamed, Zach. So much.”

  I shuddered and my legs gave out. I put my forehead on my knees and wrapped my arms around them. He hesitated, sighed then sat on the floor next to me. He put a hand on my hair, stroking me like I was a cat. I fell over onto his shoulder crying like a complete idiot.

  “I’m sorry, Zach. You’re right. You gave me a cat. I gave you Security. I can’t believe I did that to your forehead. I think I thought it was a marker.”

  “It’s okay. It’s fine. I mean, I know Pitch. You’re right. She had to hurt me and your Chem girls. Just knowing that you’re her, it made me forget who she is. You were Pitch that whole time? Who did I kiss?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have an awareness of what Pitch was up to when she wasn’t inside of me. She did whatever. Now she’s back. If girls try to trip me and stuff, she’ll rip them apart. Maybe not. She’s kind of satisfied right now.”

  “So, I never actually kissed you.”

  “No, and what were you doing kissing Pitch, anyway? She’s pain.” I lifted my head to frown at him. I stared at his forehead. I ran my fingers over the letters I couldn’t see. He shuddered and pulled me onto his lap, putting his hand on my hip where he’d given me a logo. I gripped his wrist, the bumpy scar that ached so much. I could feel his ache. I pulled his pain into me and slumped against his shoulder.

  Someone knocked on the door. I scrambled away from Zach. The door opened the rest of the way because apparently it had been ajar.

  Ian stared at us with his golden eyes.

  “Ian,” Zach and I said in unison.

  “Morning. You have a very enchanting bed, Penny Lane. The woods sounds were a little bit conducive to weird dreams, but other than that… Was I interrupting something?”

  “No.” Zach and I said at the same time. He grabbed a shirt and pulled it on while I grabbed the boxes and shoved them into an empty cabinet.

  I straightened too quickly and got dizzy. Zach caught me around the waist and then pushed me at Ian and slammed the door on us with a thud that made me jump. I stayed leaning against Ian until the warmth of his skin broke through my own dizzy, weird, Pitch hangover.

  I straightened up and headed for the outside door. I needed to get to my second class. It would be fine. Worlds’ History or something. I unwrapped a lollipop with shaky fingers.

  “Where exactly did he brand you? His hand was definitely up your skirt.”

  I shot him a glare. “It was not. My hip.” I shook my head. “It wasn’t what it looked like.”

  “Penny, I am constantly in compromising positions. It was exactly what it looked like, namely, the two of you taking a moment out of your epic hatred to diminish the mutual agony of a strained binding. Still, Drake isn’t going to like him putting his hand up your skirt. We probably shouldn’t mention it.”

  I exhaled. “Why would you say that? If you say we shouldn’t, then we definitely should. Your moral compass is constant.”

  “Pointed in the wrong direction? That hurts.” He laughed. “Are you going to interrupt my nocturnal adventures every night?”

  “Do you mind?”

  “Not particularly, I’ll just have to reschedule my romantic encounters.”

  “Don’t you get sick of it?”

  “Yes. It’s an addiction. The longest I’ve been able to go without…”

  I covered his mouth then pulled back and shook the feel of Ian’s lips off them. “No ‘S’ words. Macaroons and lollipops, I do not want to know about your intimate life.”

  “I know. The thing is that I feel you’re less likely to want me if I am frank bordering on vulgar.”

  “No ‘V’ words. You don’t want me to want you?”

  “No. I’m incredibly easy to seduce.”

  “Well I didn’t need to know that. I’m incredibly difficult to seduce. Apparently. No ‘S’ words!”

  He laughed. “Drake not taking advantage of you.”

  “No. I’m determined to throw caution to the wind and revel in my self-destructive obsession with Drake. How can I do that without him?”

  “Do you want me to set up a 3-D holograph for you?”

  I thought about that. “No, it’s okay. Thanks for last night, Ian. You’re really excellent at what you do.”

  I said that to him at the door to class. Witley passed behind me, bumping into me, sending me against Ian. Rugby girls.

  Ian glanced at her then winked at me. “My nights are yours, as many as you’d like.”

  I blushed and opened my mouth to say something, but he only turned and left, looking exactly like he’d walked me to class after we’d both missed our first ones together, and what had I said that Witley had overheard? Perfect. Just perfect.

  I slipped into my seat and sucked desperately on my lollipop. Wit turned her head to look at me, her black hair a glamorous swoosh around her still cut and bruised face.

  “Why aren’t you healed yet?” I asked before I remembered that I didn’t want to talk to her.

  She shook her head, hair swinging like a silky curtain. Her hair still looked ridiculously good. “I’m letting it heal naturally. I’ve never learned so much in such a short amount of time as I did fighting Pitch. Tell me about Ian. Is he behaving?”

  I blinked at her. This whole thing was new. And old. And new again. She was like a yo-yo, one minute trying to explode me with pure energy, the next all chatty. “He’s fine.”

  She flashed her teeth in a harsh smile. “He is, but I didn’t think you noticed. Aren’t you desperately in love with Drake, or is that all over now that you live with him? What about Jackson? It’s such a pain to own mages. I can’t believe how much less stressful it is to not have to use any of my mental space on them. Ian took up so much of my head, and now I’m free to really consider what I want.”

  “Good for you.” How did she know that I owned Ian? Pitch was supposed to be the one who had them.

  She smiled glintingly. “Isn’t it? Can you sense Jackson at all?”

  I shrugged. “Not really.”

  “He must still be in Darkside. You can summon him, but it takes so much effort, and he can still resist you if he wants. It does make them uncomfortable, but like I said, not worth the effort. So, you and Pitch are friends?”

  I swallowed. “We’ve met a few times.”

  “Right.” She stared at me with her beady sapphire eyes and reminded me of Drake’s aunt.

  “Do you know Drake’s aunt, Ramona?”

  “Not personally, no. Why?”

  “I just wondered what her thing is.”

  She smiled a sharp smile. “Doesn’t like you? Too bad. I don’t suppose everyone can adore you. What are you going to do about your Chem girls?”

  I blinked at her. I had a sudden memory of muffled screams that made me nauseous. I swallowed hard. “Foot scrub?”

  She laughed lilting and lovely. It reminded me of how she sang. With Drake. “Last night Pitch broke all of them. I can’t imagine why she would do that s
ince it’s all over the school that Pitch and Zach broke up, but if so, why is Pitch hurting all the little witches Zach’s been playing with, and why did he pick your Chem girls? It’s almost like he wanted Pitch to rip them apart to hurt you. Did you hear about someone tying him up naked to the flagpole? Pitch is such an excellent climber.”

  Yes. Zach had wanted to hurt me, to hurt Pitch. Those screams. I was going to be sick.

  She turned around when Professor Vale cleared her throat, dark eyes bright beneath the black spiky hair. “Miss Lane, take your seat.”

  I forced myself down, but my nails scraped channels in the wood while I missed her lecture no matter how immersive and brilliant her lesson plan. After class, Witley rose and left without looking at me, the self-satisfied smile showing that her job here was done.

  “What’s with that witch?” Viney asked, glaring at Witley’s back.

  “Nothing. She just wanted to tell me…” I closed my eyes and put my head on my desk. I did not need Zach to mess with my Chem girls, not when he knew that I was Pitch. He’d done it just to hurt me, but it had hurt them. What kind of monster would show affection and attention to girls he was setting up to be ripped apart? What else would he do now that he knew my ultimate vulnerability and helplessness? “I need to heal my Chem girls. Rhoda. She’s going to be really ugly.”

  She put her hand on my shoulder. “Do you want me to help?”

  I sat up and searched my bag for a lollipop. Lavender and dirt. “Would you?” I sucked on it and stared at her, my stomach tightening and tightening.

  She held out her hand. “Give me tiramisu.”

  I pulled out a handful of tiramisu.

  “And a hurter.”

  I froze before I stood and shoved my stuff into my bag. I walked quickly, stretching my long legs, but Viney’s legs while shorter, had no trouble keeping up.