Sighing, he shook his head, but he merely turned the page to the spell before passing the book to me. The words were all in Latin, just like the rest of the book, which meant it might as well have been pure gibberish. I glanced across the page. No rune. There were a few vague drawings of smoke and fire, but none of it made much sense.
“You’re going to have to translate,” I said, hating that I needed his help with my own spells, especially when all I wanted in that moment was to show him up.
“The results of this spell are similar to the one the sun mages were using,” he began, “though you can’t take a building with you. And the mechanics are a lot different. The travel happens almost instantly instead of in real time.”
“So, it’s really not all that similar,” I said.
Sighing, he shut the book with a snap. “Listen, Zoe. I’m just trying to help. If you master this spell, we can go back to our lives in Boston.”
“Of course. No wonder you’re so keen for me to learn this,” I said, shaking my head. “The sooner we can go back to Boston, the sooner we can go back to the status quo. Right now, you’re stuck here in this house with me, and that’s the last thing you want. Isn’t it?”
“What I want is to keep you from getting hurt.”
Shaking my head, I backed away. “Too late.”
Despite my plan to shut myself inside the bedroom for the remainder of the day, my stomach betrayed me after several long hours, especially when the scent of roasting chicken inched its way up the stairs and underneath the cracks in the door. Sighing, I pushed myself off the bed to stare out at the waning light. Another day had passed, and we were still stuck in this castle. It wouldn’t be long before the Nosferatu began to stalk the grounds again, thirsting for a taste of shadow blood.
I really should have worked on that spell, but the pain of Dorian’s rejection had stung so terribly that I hadn’t been able to think of anything else. How could I train with him now? Knowing that he didn’t want me the same way I wanted him? I didn’t think I could be around him. But I also didn’t think I could not be around him either. Either option sounded like the purest form of torture there was.
“Hi,” I said when I slipped into the dining room. Dorian had set out a feast. Chicken, potatoes, roasted carrots, and a pot of gravy. All freshly cooked and glistening with perfection. My stomach growled so loud that it must have echoed across the plains. I hadn’t had any food in at least twenty-four hours, and I was absolutely starving.
“Sit,” he said, gesturing toward the chair at the head of the table. “You need to eat. Take this as my apology for upsetting you earlier.”
I sighed as I settled into the chair, feeling the slightest bit less hungry after his comment. “You don’t need to apologize, Dorian. It’s not your fault if you don’t reciprocate how I feel. I overreacted because…well, because I’m me. And that’s what I do sometimes. I should be the one apologizing.”
His eyes flashed. Taking my hand, he placed it on his chest as he sunk to his knees by my side. The need for him grew bright in my chest, and I had to swallow the lump taking form in my throat. This right here was why it hurt to be around him. To be so close and yet so far away at the same time.
“You think I don’t reciprocate?” He let out a light laugh and shook his head. “Oh, Zoe. You’ve misunderstood. Reach through our bond, open up your mind, and feel what I feel.”
Our eyes met, and a crushing weight pressed down on my heart. As much as we’d bonded through our shared blood, there’d been a wall I’d kept up between us. I hadn’t let myself fully open to the idea of experiencing the intense emotions of another being. Yes, I’d still been able to feel him there, but I’d tried my best not to drown under the overwhelming reality of it all. Dorian was asking me to take down that wall and let him in like I’d never done before.
“You don’t need to be afraid of me, Zoe. At least not like this,” he said in a whisper, his dark eyes boring deep into my soul. “Let me inside. Let me show you who I am.”
Something churned in my gut. An emotion that I wasn’t quite ready to put a name to, one I’d never felt before in my life. With a deep breath, I nodded and felt my body relax its grip on the tight control I had on our bond. The second I let go, thoughts and emotions that were not my own flooded through me. There were so many, pouring upon me so quickly that all I could see and feel were momentary flashes before they were replaced with the next.
My own face flashed before my eyes, lit up in a smile. My head was dropped back, my mouth parted in a moan. And then it flipped to an image of me standing on a dirt mound, my body arched back with power radiating off my skin as I fought a Nosferatu with a ferocity I didn’t think I had.
This wasn’t reality. Or at least, not reality as I knew it. It was life according to Dorian. His memories, his thoughts. It was the way he saw me, in a way that was so different than the way I saw myself. It was Zoe according to Dorian, and it took my breath away.
Did he really see me like this?
The emotions came next. A mixture of fear and alarm when a Nosferatu rushed toward me. An intense feeling of pride when I struck it down. And then an intoxicating mix of desire and need and affection. Dorian’s heart beat hard in his chest, and my own heart answered. The two of us breathed in sync, our bodies coming together as one. And that was when I knew I truly had been wrong.
Dorian wanted me as much as I wanted him. The intensity of his feelings took my breath away.
When I finally opened my eyes, I found his face only inches from mine. He strained toward me while doing his best to hold himself back. “Do you see now, Zoe?”
Nodding once, I swallowed hard. “I see.”
The next morning, I approached our training a little differently. Gone was the defiance I felt toward him. Instead, I almost felt shy, as if we were starting all over again.
“You ready to try again?” he asked as he tossed me the book. I caught it in one hand and flipped to the page. When I gave him a nod, he continued. “Good. Now, the reason this one needs practice is because it can go very wrong if you don’t get it right. You’re essentially moving your body from one shadow—” He pointed to the corner where the light didn’t hit. “To another.” He moved his finger to the opposite corner. “But you can get lost, and you can leave a part of yourself behind.”
“Neither one of those sound ideal,” I said. “But Laura and Anastasia are still stuck on that rebel base, and I’m done sitting around doing nothing. We need to find them.”
He gave me a wry smile. “On the plus side, this appears to be a pretty standard spell for shadow mages. Once you understand how it works, it should come like second nature. Your powers seem to understand how to operate pretty well without practice, but we just want to be on the safe side before you try to—”
Dorian’s voice cut off when I stepped into the corner, closed my eyes, and forced the shadows to move before me. An instant later, I was across the room.
“I think we’re good,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Ready to go back home and find our friends?”
Chapter 18
When Dorian’s familiar apartment shimmered into view before us, his sparse furniture and sagging ceiling wasn’t the only thing we saw. Magister Salvatore stood before us with two council members and three Enforcers clustered around him in a protective circle. And all five of their daggers were pointed straight at our hearts.
Dorian shifted in front of me, blocking me from view. “Magister Salvatore. I’m certainly surprised to see you here.”
“I expect you didn’t think I’d be able to break through your wards,” the Magister said with a strange smile.
“With all due respect, Magister, that’s true. You’re powerful, but—”
“Not that powerful?” Magister Salvatore raised his eyebrows. “That’s true. I had some help.”
“I assume you heard about what happened,” Dorian said quietly. “There’s no need to point your daggers at us. We’re happy to cooperate i
n any way you deem necessary.”
I couldn’t help but notice the vague meaning behind Dorian’s words. What happened could mean any number of things, though I was pretty sure we all knew exactly why the coven had waited here for us to arrive. Still, if they didn’t know the full details, no need to fill them in and make the situation even worse.
The Magister stared at Dorian for a full tense moment before he motioned for his men to lower their daggers. Stepping through them, he walked across the room until he stood only inches from us. His eyes flicked over Dorian’s shoulder, landing on me. Those eyes were cold and hard and much more unsettling than they’d been in the past. The two of us had never truly gotten along, but there’d been a shift in the past few weeks that had taken it much further than that. The guy despised me now.
“Zoe, I see that you’ve found yourself neck-deep in shit once again,” he said in an icy tone. “Any time there’s trouble, you always seem to be there. One might think there was a reason for that. They might even go so far as to say you go looking for it.”
Narrowing my eyes, I lifted my chin. Sure, he might be right about half of that, but he was more than wrong about the rest. “Of course I don’t go looking for it. And I can’t believe you’re blaming me for this.”
“Are you suggesting that you teamed up with rebels by accident?” He raised his eyebrows.
With a frustrated sigh, I stepped out from behind Dorian’s shadow. “Didn’t the Blood Coven tell you what happened? The rebels launched an attack on my bar, and they stole it with their weird travel spell. We were taken prisoner. Hell, they held a knife to Laura’s throat.”
The Magister frowned at that. Even though Laura was technically a blood mage, he’d taken a liking to my best friend. “When I spoke to Thorne on the phone, he said that his Enforcers had been attacked and thrown out onto the streets. They assumed you were involved since you then later snuck into their castle. Was that part of your rebel prison sentence, too?”
“No. Wait, kind of yes,” I said but then stopped. This was going all wrong. While I’d expected him to be angry about what had happened, I’d thought we’d have a better chance to explain ourselves. Instead, we’d started one step back, and it was impossible to catch up.
Magister Salvatore crossed his arms over his chest and glanced from me to Dorian. “Well, which is it? No? Or yes?”
I blew out a hot breath. “The rebels had a task they wanted us to do for them. Break into the Blood Coven headquarters and find a rune from their grimoires. They said that if we didn’t comply, they wouldn’t let Laura and Anastasia go.”
“Anastasia?” His eyes widened as he barked out a laugh. “That vampire girl is involved in this, too?” Shaking his head, he turned his attention to my partner. “Dorian, of all people, I never expected you to betray us like this. You’re one of our best Enforcers, and you’ve always kept a level head. How could you have put the alliance at so much risk?”
“Sir, Zoe’s story is true. The rebels insisted that we get the rune or they would keep Laura held prisoner.”
“You all know I’m fond of Laura,” the Magister said. “She’s joined our coven and showed her allegiance to us even though she has another mark. But there were other ways to handle this, ones that didn’t involve damaging the alliance we’ve all worked so hard to protect.”
“The alliance with the Blood Coven, you mean,” I said, ignoring Dorian’s look of warning. “And by working so hard, you mean by trapping an entire innocent coven’s worth of mages behind a barrier until they all starve. All to create an army of your own Nosferatu.”
Magister Salvatore levelled his gaze at me. “And now we’ve come to the real reason you broke into the castle to get that rune. You weren’t coerced, were you? You jumped feet first right into the shit pile because you wanted to demonstrate some misinformed allegiance to some mages you’ve never met instead of an allegiance to the coven where you actually belong.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said. “The rebels flat-out said they were going to hurt Laura, and yes, I do have an allegiance to her. She’s been by my side for as long as I can remember, which has been a hell of a lot longer than you.”
“You would have gone even if they hadn’t said that. Tell me I’m wrong, Zoe Bennett.”
I struggled under the weight of his gaze. Because he was right. Even if the rebels hadn’t threatened to keep Laura and Anastasia as prisoners, I would have wanted to go after that rune. “Forget allegiances. Forget covens. It’s wrong to do what they’re doing. If they don’t take down that siege wall, innocent people could die.”
“There it is,” the Magister said with a smile. “The real Zoe Bennett making a return to the surface. You know, I did worry about your character when we first agreed to take you on, but I decided to give you the benefit of a doubt. It turns out, I was right to be suspicious of you because you’ve done nothing but cause me trouble ever since I took charge of the coven. Unfortunately for you, this time you’ve gone too far.”
Chapter 19
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. “You going to lock me up and make me face a trial because I want to free some innocent mages?”
“The Blood Coven will be looking for us to imprison you,” he said. “Thorne has already expressed his desire for you to return to his dungeons.”
“They were the ones who killed Ben. Not me,” I said. “If you want to blame someone, turn your eyes on them.”
The Magister’s eyes flashed for a moment before he glanced at Dorian. “What is she talking about? I didn’t think Ben was with you.”
Oh man. This wasn’t good. The Blood Coven hadn’t told the Magister about what had happened to Ben. And if they hadn’t told him, did that mean they were hiding their part in the entire matter? Did they not want Magister Salvatore to know?
Dorian cleared his throat, glancing at me with unease. “Sir, Ben accompanied us to the castle. After Zoe and I were taken down into the dungeon prison, he took it upon himself to sneak the keys and help us escape. Unfortunately, some Enforcers caught up to us before we were able to make a clear break for it, and they lobbed a fatal spell at his head. He died almost instantly.”
The Magister squeezed his hands into tight fists and jerked away from us to stare out of Dorian’s tiny, barred window. His lips were pressed into a thin line, and a harsh glint flickered to life in his dark eyes. “Magister Thorne left that little detail out of his report. I was under the impression that Ben was still a prisoner of the rebels, along with Laura and Anastasia.”
“That’s definitely not the case,” I said. “We’d still be stuck in those dungeons if Ben hadn’t done what he did. He was just trying to help us.”
“Foolhardily,” he muttered, shaking his head and closing his eyes. “Ben was a lot like you, Zoe. Tried to do the right thing regardless of the consequences. Sometimes, this dedication to what he perceived as truth and justice was a good thing. Other times…well, in the end, it’s gotten him killed.” He shifted his eyes to meet mine. “Perhaps something to keep in mind next time you think it’s a good idea to run errands for rebels.”
I swallowed hard, cheeks blazing. “So, you’re blaming his death on me.”
Should have been expected. It wouldn’t be the first time the Bone Coven decided I should be zeroed in as culprit numero uno.
“No, I place the blame squarely on the Blood Coven. As misdirected as your actions were, they should have held their fire against a council member. They didn’t really handle themselves as our ally.”
“With all due respect, sir,” I began to say, “I think this alliance is pretty shitty, and maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if we were to call things off. The Blood Coven…well, I’m sure you know even better than I do what they’re capable of. And they’ve coerced you into holding innocent sun mages captive. For what reason? To force them to create vampires? It’s insanity.”
“It’s much more complicated than that, Zoe, my dear. It’s always more complicated than t
hat.” He sighed and gestured at the Enforcers who had accompanied him on his trip to the apartment. “Go stand outside. We need a moment, and then we’ll be just behind you.”
I raised my eyebrows as the Enforcer bodyguards inched into the hallway and shut Dorian’s apartment door behind them. The Magister waited for a few moments, listening to the creak of the floorboards as the men moved toward the front door of the building. Once he was satisfied we were alone, he motioned for Dorian to shut the blinds.
“What’s going on?” I couldn’t help but ask. The Magister was not only acting really weird, but he clearly wanted to keep this information hidden from his bodyguards. Enforcers who had been working for him much longer than I had, especially since I wasn’t even fully cleared for Enforcer activity.
“The Blood Coven has been talking about sharing our Enforcers between us, as well as our council resources,” he began. “So, we would have access to theirs, and they would have access to ours. In the past, I’ve felt confident discussing confidential information in front of the team, but things are changing. I can no longer be sure what will be fed back to the Magister.”
“Sharing Enforcers and council resources?” Dorian frowned. “But that would essentially mean—”
Magister Salvatore gave a nod. “They’re talking about operating as one cohesive unit. As one coven instead of two.”
My mouth dropped open. In all the years the covens had been in existence, no one—that I knew of—had proposed anything like this. Each and every mage felt a connection with their coven, and that part of our existence was rooted firmly in who and what we were, down to the very magic we were able to practice. A mage got a mark. One mark. Not four.
“The magic is different,” I said. “The runes. The grimoires. It would be like playing basketball and baseball on a single field.”
“And yet, we are all mages. Some might argue that we would be stronger as one unit rather than as four, although I’m not inclined to involve the shadows if our world changes to something such as this.” The Magister spread his hands. “However, for Magister Thorne, it isn’t about harmony. It’s about control. He wants us under his thumb just as much as he wants the sun mages to fight the demons when he makes that command.”
The Bone Coven Chronicles: The Complete Series Page 53