Grayson stopped to stand right next to me. “Yeah, mate. Not cool.”
Before he stepped into the portal, her delicate hand popped out, wrapped in his shirt and yanked him forward to follow her.
Damn it!
Chapter 17
Tucker
Back in the library at school, I couldn’t concentrate on anything, not while Zinnia was pissed at me. Though she sat all the way on the other side of the table, I could feel her anger rolling off of her in waves. The glow she’d gotten from the infusion of magic lightened to a small hum, but I could feel it crackling around her. Each time she looked at me, she’d narrow her eyes and pursed her lips. Gray sat at her side, murmuring things to her. Sometimes her lip would pull up into a half-smile. At others, she’d roll her eyes at him. It was killing me not knowing what they were saying or what she was thinking.
“Tucker! Are you with us?” Niche snapped from the head of the table. When I turned to look at her, she stood with her hands pressed to the wooden surface. Her hair, which was normally smoothed back from her face in a tight bun, was falling out in strands around her face. As always, her overly-large glasses slipped down the end of her nose.
I nodded. “I’m with you.”
When she tilted her head to the side and raised her eyebrows at me, she might as well have said yeah right out loud. “Moving on. I’ve narrowed the possibilities of where Alataris would be hiding the dragon heart scale down to two places.”
“Wait a second. I thought it’d be obvious that he’d have the scale on his floating island with him.” Whenever Zinnia spoke, my whole body stood on edge, so aware of every inflection in her tone, of the way she said things and the emotion behind it…it was maddening.
Niche nodded. “Logically speaking, yes, but before all of you ascended to become Knights and queens, I was studying Alataris for twenty years. And I am one hundred percent sure he wouldn’t keep the scale on the island with him. It’d be too easy for a group like us to take it and free the dragon. No, that evil genius has spread himself out.”
I leaned over the map she had laid out over the table, though it didn’t look like any world map I’d ever seen before. “So, where do you think he’s got it hidden?”
“Rumor has it that he keeps a vault hidden somewhere in the world.” Niche waved her hand over the maps.
“Yeah, that narrows it down a lot, love. Somewhere in the world could be anywhere. How do we find it? And once we find it, how do we break in to a centuries-old vault that only has one owner and is magically protected?” Grayson leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.
“I wasn’t finished, Mr. Shade. Years ago Alataris had, let’s say a fling, with a Fury. Rumor had it for decades he trusted her to keep one of his most prized possessions.” She pushed her glasses back up her nose.
Ashryn, who sat across from me, looked down at the maps. “You can’t possibly want us to go there.”
“Go where?” I glanced from Ashryn to Niche.
Niche didn’t answer me. Instead, she nodded to Ashryn. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. If you knew you were going mad, wouldn’t you leave clues for yourself about where you’ve kept your most important artifacts?”
“Go where?” I insisted, yet they didn’t even look at me.
Ashryn’s long sandy hair fell over her pointed eyes as she nodded. “I would indeed. But what makes you think it’s there?”
I shoved my hands in my hair. “Where?”
“I believe he gave her a map with clues on it for safekeeping. The only thing is, once you give something to a Fury…there’s no getting it back. Unless she would have a reason to give it up. Like a scorned lover…”
Ashryn sat back in her chair. “Interesting theory. Are there truly such things as scorned lovers? In the Windelos the elf kingdom we do not have these things. We simply have a battle of either wits or swords to settle our differences.”
I glanced over to where Zinnia and Gray sat too close for my liking. There could indeed be scorned lovers. It was an interesting theory for sure. “So you want us to go meet this Fury…”
“Her name is Tisiphone, yes,” Niche finished for me.
“Tisiphone…and simply ask her to hand over the map to Alataris’ vault?” I tipped my chair back, making it rest on only two legs.
“I’m sure there’s something you’ll have to negotiate with. But essentially, yes. You need to go to the den of Furies and ask her for it. Actually, Megaera is the lead Fury and she’ll have just as much say in this as Tisiphone, her sister. But honestly there is no other way.” Niche shrugged.
I held my hand up. “There’s one thing you have yet to tell us.”
“What’s that?”
“Where exactly is the den of Furies, Niche?” I arched my eyebrow and again glanced down at the odd map in front of her.
She reached her arm out over the crinkled browning paper and pointed to a spot on it right in the middle of it. “Right here in the…” She paused, looking straight at Nova. “Underworld.”
Nova shifted uncomfortably. “Really? We have to go there?”
After learning about all the different casts and what they all represented, I never thought I’d get a Queen of Death who actually didn’t like anything about it. She hated Reanimants. Those zombie-like creatures made her gag. She wrinkled her nose at skeletons and squeaked whenever a spirit would speak to her.
Zinnia stood and walked to the other side of the table to stand between Niche and me. When she leaned over the map, her sweet vanilla sugar scent hit me so hard I nearly reached up and wrapped my fingers in the ends of her hair.
She pointed to the same spot on the map. “How exactly do we get down there?” She looked to Nova.
“Oh, don’t look at me. It doesn’t work like that. The underworld is ruled by Hades and, well, the other one we don’t talk about. But yeah, I can only open a door to get down there, but we have to get to a door for me to open.”
Zinnia shrugged. “Okay, well, Beckett is still in Alaska helping Tabi and Serrina control the seas and giant. So where is the closest door? Because we only have four days.”
Niche zipped over to another bookshelf and pulled an old tome from the stacks. Its red binding was as thick as my thumb and covered in dust. She blew across the top of it, sending dust particles everywhere, before she rejoined us at the table. When she slammed the book down, the noise broke the quiet of the library.
Niche turned to the other students studying across the way, who shot dirty looks at her. “Oops, sorry.”
Niche opened the book and thumbed through the pages until she landed on the right one. Then she pressed it flat to the table.
Zinnia read the title out loud. “Entrances to the underworld can be found all over the world. The major ones will be obvious, as the souls who could not pass onto the next life would haunt those places.” Her eyes widened. “So we need to find a place that has a history of being haunted?”
Niche nodded. “Yep.” She pulled a folded piece of paper from her back pocket, then handed it to me. “Thanks to Google, this is the place that is the closest to us and is one of the most haunted places in the entire country.”
I opened up the paper and read it. “Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly?”
Nova hid her hands in her face. “Ugh, violent spirits. There has to be someplace else.”
Niche shook her head. “No place that we can get to in only a few hours. Get ready. There is a bus waiting outside for you all.” She held her wrist up and checked the time. “If you leave within the hour, you’ll get there just after midnight, which will be perfect.”
“Why perfect?” Zinnia had already begun walking to the far end of the table and collected her jacket.
“Because you can’t just walk into a tourist attraction in the middle of the day and open a door to the underworld, silly.” Niche smiled.
Zinnia chuckled. “Of course. No doors to other worlds should be opened during the day because that would be far less
creepy and practical.”
Niched began to collect the books and maps up off the table. “Exactly. Okay, off with all of you. The bus will be outside waiting. Good luck.” She stuck her hand in her pocket. “Oh, and Tuck.”
She tossed a set of keys to me. “Be careful.”
I caught them and shoved them in my jean pocket. “I will.” I wanted to stay and talk with her longer, but at the same time, I wanted to go after Zinnia…Zinnia would always win out.
Chapter 18
Grayson
The good news? My plan was working accordingly. Tuck was good and jealous. The only problem was Zinnia was so angry at him I could feel it like they were my own feelings. Hell, if I didn’t know it was coming from her, I might’ve slapped the poor sod myself. Even now as we walked side by side toward the courtyard, I could feel her hesitations.
“Gray, I’m not sure this little plan of yours is a good idea.”
Behind us, I felt Tucker’s nervous energy. If only the two of them could tap into their soulmate bond just as easily. My guess was they overthought every move they made with each other and it stopped them from seeing it all as clearly as I did. The benefits of being a vampire, we were always calm, cool and collected. Unflappable, even. “I think it’s had its benefits.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Look, we have so much to do now, and this whole thing isn’t working for me, okay?”
I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her. “Are you breaking up with me?”
Her mouth dropped open, and she froze. “I-I don’t recall us ever saying we were actually dating.”
I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and dragged her next to me. “Zinnia, love. You’ve got to trust your old vampire friend. I know about these things. And I’m telling you this is nothing.”
“Beckett almost died, we all nearly drowned, Poseidon is fighting a freaking giant, Taliam has blatantly threatened to throttle us if anything happens to Aldesse, his dragon… I mean, don’t you think dating seems a bit insignificant at this point?”
She had a very good point.
“Nope.”
She threw her hands up. “Honestly, this mark on my wrist or whatever it means can wait.”
I still had my arm around her shoulder when I pulled us to a stop. “Imagine, if you will, that we don’t make it through this—”
“Yeah, that’s not morbid at all.” She ducked out from under my arm and pushed it away.
“Just hear me out.” I glanced behind us to make sure Tuck hadn’t gotten close enough to hear us. “What if you lived the last days of your life never knowing who your heart truly belonged to? I don’t know about you, but I’d like to know before I go.”
Her sapphire eyes went wide. “Gray, I had no idea you were so…romantic.”
Me, romantic? No. “What, me? Nooooo. Just doing a friend a solid.”
In truth, I was doing it for us all. In the vampire kingdom, soulmates were very rare, but they made each other infinitely more powerful. If we could harness the power Zinnia and Tucker could have, we might stand a chance of winning against Alataris. Sure, it’s for the team Gray…and not even the least bit entertaining…not one bit…
Tucker was about ready to pounce, and I didn’t want to be here when he did. “Listen, you just wait here for a minute, alright?”
Zinnia looked up and down the hall then out to the courtyard. “I mean, aren’t we supposed to”—she pointed toward the front of the school—“you know, get going?”
“I need just a moment to clear my mind.” I patted her on the shoulder. “Alright, good, yes?”
When I turned away from her, she took a step to follow behind me. I spun around and held my hand up, stopping her.
She looked at me with wide eyes. “Gray, what is wrong with you?”
Tucker popped his head from around the corner, then took a step back into the shadows. I threw my hands up. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, woman. Count to ten then come on.”
“What are you—?”
“Just do it.” I cut her off and whirled around, then strode out into the courtyard into the falling snow.
Chapter 19
Zinnia
I counted to ten just like Grayson demanded me to, then began making my way to the bus. As I walked down the hall of Evermore Academy, I felt the magic the others had shot into me like an extra layer of skin. Pins and needles crawled over me, waiting for me to use it, begging for me to use it. I lifted my hand up and absently twirled my fingers, letting small silvery streams of magic wind around my fingertips. Grayson was only a few steps ahead of me, and I stared at his back, trying to calm my angry nerves. How could Tuck have loaded me up like this without a second thought, without even asking? And how could trying to dump my fake boyfriend go so wrong? I was pretty sure I said I wanted to break up and he said no. Can a person actually say no to breaking up?
Just as I was about to walk out into the courtyard, I pulled my jacket higher on my shoulders, getting ready to face the snow mounds falling over the courtyard. A warm grip wrapped around my elbow and tugged me sideways into a hidden hallway closet. When the door snapped shut behind me, I was lost in total darkness. The woodsy smell I craved to be around flooded my nose. “Tucker?”
He snapped his fingers, and a small flame hung in the air just beside us like a floating candle. We stood staring at each other. The flame bathed his face in warmth, and I could see the flickering reflected in his honey eyes. A lock of his auburn hair fell across his forehead into his face. My hand twitched to brush it away from his face, yet I stood motionless.
“Hey.” His voice was smooth and calm. But when I was this close to him, I could feel the turmoil running through his body. I wanted to pull him into me and wrap my arms around him. But I stood holding myself back even though I didn’t want to. That was the way it was every time I was around him. Always wanting more and never getting it.
“Hey.” I stood waiting for him to say something else, wanting him to say something else. The tension between us cracked and sparked. “Why am I in a broom closet?”
“Are you with Gray?” The words tumbled from his mouth so quickly I almost asked him to repeat himself.
I wanted to scream that I wasn’t, or was I? That I only needed to be with him. “Why do you want to know?”
“Has anyone ever told you answering a question with a question is evasive…and frustrating?” He reached out and brushed his hand over the end of a lock of my hair, then wrapped it around his finger and toyed with it. My thick black waves were so dark compared to his pale skin.
“No.”
“Well, it is.” He took a small step closer. The heat coming off his body seeped into my skin. “So, are you with him?”
“I can’t see how that mat—”
He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine, cutting off my words and every thought I could possibly have. Electricity shot through my body, and I threw my arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Like two puzzle pieces coming together, we fit perfectly. A low moan escaped my lips. The moment his tongue brushed against mine, my heart leapt into my throat and I pressed my whole body to his.
Tucker ran his hands down my hips. Each of his fingers pressed into me. I wanted him to hold me tighter and never let me go. He stepped in closer, backing me up against the wall. When my back bumped the shelves, I lift one of my legs and wrapped it around his hip and pulled him closer with it. All the while, he held me to him with one of his hands on my hip and the other wound in my hair.
A deep growl vibrated in his throat. It was primal and called to me in a way I didn’t think possible. Heat bloomed in my stomach, and I never wanted this to end, never wanted him to let me go. In that moment wrapped in his arms, with his lips pressed to mine and our tongues wound together, I felt nothing like this ever before. The connection was so strong it nearly staggered me. The world fell away. I forgot all the things that plagued us and only felt him in my arms for a single perfect moment in time…
One
second his lips were on mine, and the next he pulled away from me. He leapt back and pressed himself against the wall opposite me. His chest heaved up and down as he sucked in deep breaths. He held his hand out in front of him, warding me off as if I were the one who started this. “We can’t.”
“Why? Because it’s forbidden? Do you know how stupid that sounds?” I threw my hands up, then turned for the door.
“Zin, please.”
I froze with my hand on the doorknob. “Please what?”
“I just…” He shoved his hands through his hair and grunted.
“You just what, Tucker?”
“I just can’t…I can’t…” The muscle in his jaw ticked as he pulled at his hair.
“Can’t what? Say it, Tuck, or I’m leaving now, and I won’t look back.” As I turned the doorknob, it creaked. It was a warning I meant what I said.
“Ugh, fine. I can’t be without you. Okay?” He sucked in a deep breath. “Did you ever stop to think what would happen if we got caught for even a second?”
I dropped my hand, then turned to face him. “Tell me. What would happen?”
“Best case scenario they send me away…and worst…” He shivered. “I don’t want to think about it.”
This was so unfair! Why would I feel this way about him if I wasn’t supposed to be with him? Send him away? To where? I didn’t know how to deal with this new information or if it even made sense to me. “Then I guess you’d better stay away then.”
“Zinnia—”
I yanked the door open and stepped out, slamming right into Gray’s chest.
His eyes widened, and he raise his eyebrows. “Everything okay, love?”
I shoved by him, my fake boyfriend, to run away from the guy I wanted to be my real boyfriend. I hiked my backpack up on my shoulder and gritted my teeth. “Just fine.”
Chapter 20
Wicked Magic (The Royals: Witch Court Book 2) Page 10