How does one greet a supernatural being who was as old as time itself? Do I rise and bow? Do I stay seated? I have no idea.
I shot to my feet and walked up to Taliam and extended my hand to him. “Mr. Taliam, pleasure to meet you.”
“Yeah, it’s just Taliam.” He rubbed his hand over the dark stubble on his jaw, then grabbed my hand and gave it a quick shake.
The queens, Ashryn and Adrienne all sat gaping at him. Even Zinnia’s interest was piqued by him. I’m not jealous, not one little bit…nope not at all. “The dragon is yours?”
Taliam shrugged. “Sort of, but you cannot kill or hurt that dragon. The fate of the world, not just Evermore, depends on her survival.”
Zinnia arched an eyebrow at him. “Her?”
“Yes, her. If there were only boy dragons, then we wouldn’t have more dragons in the world, now would we?” He glanced around at us all gathered together. “This is an interesting court for this cycle.”
Interesting good or interesting bad? What did that mean? “What do you mean?” It was odd for him to be standing in the library with us. For starters, he rarely appeared in the Academy and then to just show up. All kinds of warning signs were going off in my mind.
Taliam waved my question away. “Doesn’t matter. You all are going to save my dragon, or you’ll be answering to the Fallen directly.”
“Excuse me, but why can’t you help us save her? I mean, she is your dragon.” Zinnia stepped away from the book stacks she leaned up against and rested her hands on her hips. The others sucked in shocked breaths. No one, not even a queen, questioned the Fallen.
A light chuckle escaped Taliam’s lips, and he pointed toward Zinnia. “I like her…The answer is simple and yet complicated at the same time. Because, sweet. The long and short of it is, if the Creator doesn’t command my interference, then I may not interfere.”
Zinnia leaned toward him. “But what if —?”
“The time for questions is over. You’re all off to Alaska. Pack your bags. It’s going to be a chilly ride.” He gave a mock salute and headed for the door. Without turning around, he called over his shoulder. “Don’t fail. You’d hate to see me when I’m angry. Oh, and I’ll have a friend meet you where the Bering Glacier meets the sea in two hours.”
Zinnia’s eyes widened. “Two hours? We’re going to get across the entire country in two hours?”
“I’ve got this covered.” Beckett rose to stand beside her. “I’ll portal us there. Nova, I’m gonna need your help to be able to picture where we need to go, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” Nova sagged against Serrina’s side. She cast her eye to the floor. The curtain of her white blond hair fell over her face, hiding the way she was biting her lip a second ago. She tugged her elbow-length red gloves further up her arms. “I haven’t been home since I got here.”
I knew Nova hadn’t seen her family in a while. She didn’t really talk about it all that much and I never pressed the subject. Now looking at her nervous face, I knew I should have. “Nova, are you gonna be okay with going?”
Her head shot up, and she pursed her lips. “Yeah, it’s going to be fine,” she snapped, then made a bee line for the door without another word.
Note to self: next time, ask in private.
Adrienne raised her hand, drawing my attention to where she sat between Brax and Ashryn. Her long thin braids hung down from her head in a waterfall of shining ebony that matched her skin perfectly. When her midnight gaze met mine, I could see the concern in them. “I don’t think all of us can go. I mean, have you looked outside? It’s not just the school covered in snow. It’s the whole New England area, the city, and Jersey. Some of us are going to have to stay behind and help with damage control.”
She was right, but there was also another reason I wanted her to stay. We only had four out of five queens we needed to defeat Alataris. Ophelia, the Queen of Spells, had already fallen under Alataris’ rule, and now Niche was trying to substitute her with Adrienne, one of the Knights. She was brilliant and formidable. As the daughter of Athena, she was even able to do a little magic. For the sake of us all, she had to stay behind and continue her training while helping out. “I agree. Adrienne, you’ll stay behind. Anyone else willing to stay?”
She nodded then elbowed Brax in the side. He shrugged. “What? I want to go and save the dragon.”
“You’re one of the strongest. Reason dictates you stay to help me deal with the pile of crap all around here.” When she gave him her bright smile, I knew he was a goner. Our gentle giant couldn’t say no when someone truly needed him.
He sighed and leaned his head down on the table. “Fine. I’ll miss seeing the big ice dragon. But you own me one.”
Adrienne raised her eyebrows. “I own you an ice dragon?”
“No, you own me a visit to see the ice dragon once they save it.” Brax rose to his feet and offered Adrienne his hand. “Come, we go see what needs to be done.”
“Before you go, keep in mind the rest of us who are outside of the school will be able to be reached by cell…hopefully.” I gazed out at my crew, knowing we were about to do something dangerous that some of us might not come back from. When my eyes landed on Zinnia, my heart shuddered just thinking about losing her. No. I had to keep my head in the game, though she was my greatest distraction. “Go and pack. We’ll meet in the courtyard in an hour and a half. Backpacks only, people. This isn’t a vacation.”
Chapter 12
Grayson
I paced back and forth outside of Zinnia’s dorm room. Inside, I could feel her nervous energy as if it were my own…it was damn exhausting. Whether this little plan I cooked up was going to work or not was yet to be seen. Part of me didn’t want to do it now that we had to face the prospect of trying to free an ice dragon from Alataris. Who knew what we would face over the next few days? But then again, when did I ever play anything safe? Game on…I raised my hand and knocked on the dark wooden door.
“Just a sec,” Zinnia’s sweet voice called out. I could hear her scrambling about the room. Then the distinct sound of a thump then a “damn it” came from the other side of her door. I knew her heart was racing and her secret hope of who it was waiting for her at the door.
“Come on, love. We haven’t got all day. We’ve got to go about rescuing a dragon and all that. Haven’t we?”
The noise on the other side of the door stopped. “Grayson?”
“Where you expecting someone else?” I leaned my shoulder up against the doorframe, waiting.
When she yanked her door wide open, I glanced over her shoulder, noting the utter disaster her room was. “Has your closet had an accident then?”
She stepped into the doorway and pulled the door shut just enough to hide her room but not close it completely. She glanced over my shoulder as though looking for someone else. “What’s up? Is everything okay?”
“Um, yes and no. May I come in?”
She pulled the door in a little tighter to her body. “Maybe you could just tell me here.”
With my vampire speed, I reached up, pulled the sleeve of her sweatshirt down, then unsnapped the clasp of the bracelet hiding the mark I knew was on her wrist. I held the bracelet up in front of her face, then waved it back and forth. Then pointed toward the mark on her wrist. “Can I come in now?”
Her lips turned down into a frown while she stepped back and held the door open. “It’s a mess, but I guess come in.”
I walked through the door and was immediately hit with her sweet vanilla sugar scent. All around, clothing littered the bed and the chair for her desk. At the foot of the bed sat a backpack with not a single thing in it. “I thought you were supposed to be packing?”
“I was when you interrupted me.” She held her hand out and wiggled her fingers in a come-hither motion. “Can I have my bracelet back now?”
I dangled the silver chain in front of her face. A tiny phoenix was at the center of it with a sapphire perched in the belly of the phoenix. Marking your terr
itory, Tuck? I dropped the bracelet into her outstretched hand. “You do realize what you’re hiding, don’t you?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Not at first, no.”
“Do you know who it is?” It was crucial to me to know if she knew who her soulmate was. Based on the feelings she’d been sharing with me through our blood tie, I thought she didn’t know or understand who it was.
She shook her head. “I just stepped into this world last week, Gray. I barely know what’s going on with my own powers, let alone anyone else’s. And I’m guessing it’s a soulmate mark because my mother…” She choked up for a second, then cleared her throat. “My mother used hers to distract Alataris.”
I motioned for her to give me her wrist. “Let’s see it then.”
Zinnia turned her face away and extended her arm out to me. The soulmate mark was thin and looked like a bunch of infinity signs all connecting together with tiny drops of silver in each circle. I turned her wrist over in my hands, studying it. Before I could let go, she yanked her hand away. “I think you’ve seen enough. Is it what I think it is?”
“Oh yeah, love. You’ve got yourself a soulmate alright.”
“Wonderful.” She shook her head and sighed. “Why are you here, Gray?”
“First, to help you pack.” I sped around her room, tossing all the clothing and supplies she’d need for the trip to Alaska. Once everything was neatly folded on the bed next to her backpack, I lay out on her bed with my hands folded behind my head and my legs crossed at my ankles. Zinnia’s bed was surprisingly cozy with a fluffy black and white comforter, plush pillows and soft sheets. “Now like I was saying, I have a proposition for you.”
Zinnia stomped over to the bed and began slamming her things into the bag “You mean, besides going through my underwear drawer? There is such a thing as privacy, Gray.”
I could feel her annoyance churning inside of her. “Oh, I’d love to give you privacy. Believe me. But there’s this little issue between us…”
Zinnia gasped and took a step back, clutching her wrist to her chest. Her eyes darted around the room like she was looking for an escape. “It’s not you…is it?”
“Ugh, don’t look so put out.” With both hands I fluffed the pillow behind my head. “I’m a catch.”
Her brows furrowed, and a sick green look came over her face. “Then it is you?”
“Psh, don’t flatter yourself, love. Generally speaking, soulmates are within the same species in Evermore. So, unless you’ve got a pretty little set of fangs hiding being those boring teeth of yours, I’d say you don’t meet my criteria for a soulmate. Plus, there’s that pesky little bit of my family curse you wouldn’t get by. No, sweet, I am not your soulmate. But I know a way to figure out who is.”
I already knew how her soulmate was. It was obvious her and Tuck where meant for each other.
“You said he’d have to be in my own species. That means it’d have to be one of the boys in my craft classes or Beckett.” She wrinkled her nose, and I swear I could almost taste the disappointment rolling off of her.
“I’m not sure. I think this cycle is changing things up. I know you’re disappointed it’s not me. But it could be someone outside of the witch casts. There’s only one way to find out who it is for sure though.”
Zinnia arched her eyebrow at me. “Now this I’ve got to hear.”
“Basically, you should be my girlfriend.” I gave her a toothy smile and waited for her jaw to snap shut.
Five long minutes later, Zinnia shook herself. “Wait, say what now? But you just said—”
“That I wasn’t interested in you. I mean, you’re beautiful and all that.” Her cheeks burned bright red. I ignored it and continued on. “But you belong to someone else, and frankly, I think it’s about time you found him.”
“What’s in this for you?” She zipped her backpack shut and pulled on her fur lined thick black leather coat. Large buttons ran down the front of her in two identical rows, and the coat cinched in tight at her waist. Then she pulled a sapphire-colored hat over her head that matched her eyes perfectly.
I rose from her bed and scrubbed a hand over the back of my neck. “Yeah, about that. We might’ve formed a tiny little”—I coughed into my fist—“blood tie.”
She froze while pulling on a black leather glove. “Blood what?”
“Well, you see, after you, you know, healed me the other day, I might have completely unintentionally, through no fault of my own, formed a blood tie with you.”
“Spit it out now, Gray. What exactly does that mean?” She pulled her backpack over her shoulders and faced me.
“It means I can feel all your emotions…like, all of them. And the way I figure it, if you act like my girlfriend, then we can hide that little fact better as well as smoke out who your real soulmate is.”
Zinnia stood with her fists at her sides. She held her breath…and held it…and held it. Her Fury smacked into me in wave after wave. “Grayson Shade, I have no idea how the hell this happened, but you make it unhappen right now. Do you hear me? Right now!”
“I can’t. It has to wear off on its own.” I shrugged.
“How long?” She stomped her foot.
I held my hand out in front of me, trying to calm her down. I lowered my voice to a whisper. “I don’t know.”
Zinnia dropped her bag on the ground and marched over to a book shelf full of text books from the school. She pulled one off the shelf, thumbed through it and then tossed it into a pile on the floor. I rose from the bed and walked over to her. “Bit late to be studying, no?”
“Oh, I’m not studying. I’m looking for a spell.” She pulled another book down.
I looked up at the two large book cases that stood side by side in her room. After only being her for less than a week she’d nearly filled them all. “What kind of spell?”
She slammed the book in her hands shut and leaned toward me. “The kind of spell that’ll turn you into a frog or a pig or some animal I can put in a cage!”
A nervous ball formed in my throat. I’d never seen her so angry before. “That’s a little hasty I think.”
She spun on her heels and began digging through the piles of papers on her desk. “I know it’s here somewhere.” She scooped up a pile of papers and looked through those. “And no, I don’t think it’s hasty. I’ve been here for all of a few days, I’m having a hard-enough time fitting in with the others and now this.”
She threw the stack up into the air. The loose-leaf papers fluttered around us, falling to the ground one by one. I could feel anxiety rolling off her so much it nearly choked me. I didn’t know how to comfort her. She jabbed her finger in my chest. “No one knows about this, Gray. Do you hear me? The last thing I need is for anyone to know I’ve formed a blood tie with you. It’s difficult enough not controlling my powers fully and everyone being afraid of me. I don’t need this too.”
I nodded. “I get it and I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
“Swear it on this blood tie thingy.” She motioned to my body like it was all my fault. In reality it was a complete accident but if it made her feel better I would do it.
“What does swearing it on our blood tie accomplish? Rather odd don’t you think?”
“I don’t know, but if you tell anyone then in my mind I’ll believe it’ll boil your blood or something.” She bounced around from one foot to the other. Her energy was all over the place full of panic and worry. She shook her hands out. “Just do it, it’ll make me feel better.”
I nodded. “I swear no one will find out.”
A knock on the door sounded, and I froze in place. Zinnia pressed her finger to her lips, then mouthed the words shut up. I pressed my lips together and nodded. She sighed. “Who is it?”
“It’s Tuck. You all set?”
Her heart sped, and excitement coursed through her body at the sound of his voice. Bloody hell women can feel every emotion in a matter of moments. If I didn’t find it so cute…I might vomit. Still, I
said nothing. Those two needed to be pushed together. Tuck didn’t know it, but I knew what his life was like before he became a Knight. He deserved a little happiness, and she was just the girl to bring it to him. He just had to get out of the way of himself. Forbidden rules be damned.
“Um, yeah. I think so.” She glanced around the room.
“Oh, um, I was going to see if you need any help?”
Oh enough of this already. I sauntered over to the door. Behind me, Zinnia scrambled to stop me, but I was faster. I yanked the door open and smiled brightly at Tuck. “Think we’ve got it all figured out here.”
Tucker stepped back with a small gasp. “Oh, Gray. Didn’t know you were here.” He wiped the shock from his face, then looked over my shoulder to where Zinnia stood, then back to where I stood. When he narrowed those honey-colored eyes at me, I knew my plan would work. I just needed Zinnia to be in on it.
I hurried to her side, then grabbed her arm and hustled her forward. “Yep, she just needed a bit of help packing. Isn’t that right?” I ran back to where her backpack lay on the floor, plucked it up and handed it to her.
Zinnia hesitated a moment, glancing from Tuck to me and back again. “Yeah, sure.” She took the bag from my hand and hiked it up on her shoulder.
“Oh, I see.” Tucker turned around and strode down the hallway, then called over his shoulder. “We leave in ten minutes.”
I wrapped my arm around Zinnia’s neck. “So you in or you out?”
She tugged my arm over her head and placed it back at my side. Then she jabbed her finger in my face. “I am in until this thing wears off. And you better tell me the second it does. As much as I want to know who my soulmate is, I’m not sure making whoever it is jealous of us is going to work.”
Wicked Magic (The Royals: Witch Court Book 2) Page 7