Deadly Morsel: Rosewood Academy of Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 5)

by Juliann Whicker

  I sat down with my elbows on my knees and stared at the swirling dust. Could I do it? Could I stand at Zach’s side and watch him take my witch? It wasn’t possible. The rage stirred and rippled inside me, turning my fingers to claws and my mouth into the jaws of death. I spit acid that pocketed the earth while I struggled with the rage, the green anger that swelled and swelled like an ocean inside of me.

  Did Penny want me at the ceremony? I was part of the contract. I had to be there to make sure that Zach followed through and take his place if he didn’t. I blinked the rage out of my eyes and licked my lips with a sinewy tongue that shifted back into some semblance of humanity. I ran my claws through my hair until they returned to fingers and I chased the blood back into my skin.

  Was there any chance that Zach would betray her? He was a mage. His nature was twisted by his parents and by Pitch. She’d tamed the Prince of Darkness. She could tame a baby Daysider. I scowled at my knees. I needed to finish her wedding present. I needed to take care of the legalities. I needed to do it today.

  I stood and stepped Throughside, coming out at the business offices where the Huntsman employees watched me with a hush that followed my footsteps. I didn’t come here often enough. This was Jasper’s domain. I took an elevator to the real estate floor. They should be able to take care of everything in twenty-four hours.

  Chapter 26

  Witch

  My dress went up to my chin and fell over my wrists in a cascade of ruffles and silk satin that fluttered with every movement. Was this traditional? It looked like one of my tea party outfits only with a skirt that swept the ground, swaying over the layers and layers of underskirts.

  My hair was half up, twisting into an elaborate curl like some kind of pastry with ringlets down my back and over my shoulders. Diamond pins glittered like the sparkles on my eyelids. The bodice and sleeves were extremely tight-fitted while the skirt poofed out, covering the tourney-grade white boots. The woman who dressed me and did my hair and makeup, didn’t talk. Good because I wasn’t sure I wasn’t going to burst into tears at any moment.

  What if Zach stood me up? What if he didn’t? What if my father crashed the wedding and slaughtered everyone? What if Drake changed his mind and dragged me away into Darkside on his dragon and ended up fighting Signore? That thought made my heart tighten. I wanted his head on my lap, his green eyes gazing at me like there wasn’t anything else in the world. He shouldn’t have kissed me. He should have kissed me longer. I’d watched the horror movie with Viney for company. She did not appreciate my clinginess.

  She worried me. All my Chem girls did. I didn’t understand their motivations. Did I understand Zach’s? Ian, Teddy, even Lester wanted alliances. That made some kind of sense, but what did the witches get out of being nice to me? Other than hurters, and tech, and lollipops.

  My stomach ached as I sat there, staring at my reflection, the beautiful bride-doll just waiting for her groom.

  I closed my eyes and for a moment saw Drake standing in my mother’s conservatory, dressed in his tuxedo, waiting for me. I opened my eyes wide before I started to cry or something irrational like that. Where was the woman? She’d told me it would be five minutes but that had been hours and hours, or maybe it just felt like hours.

  “Cara Mia, are you ready?”

  I stumbled from the chair and into my old friend’s chest, gripping his lapels and breathing in and out, trying to keep it together. This would be fun. Lots of cake and stuff at this wedding.

  He pressed a hand to my head, like rocks avalanching over the rising panic, calming me down. He didn’t say anything, just held me in his immovable grasp until my heart stopped, changed from sharp and piercing to a dull ache that I could almost breathe through.

  I pulled back and gave him a bright smile. “Do I look pretty? No one else will say anything nice.”

  “Beautiful.” He nodded soberly.

  I bit my bottom lip and grabbed him around the neck, raising on my tiptoes to stare into his eyes. “This is your last chance to steal me away.”

  “Cara Mia, do you want to live in the dark, drinking blood and death like you eat lollipops?”

  I blinked at him as I considered. “How dark?”

  He laughed and pressed his thumb to my forehead, somehow getting out of my grip without seeming to pull away. He held out his arm to me, like he’d picked up how to be a gentleman in the course of delivering packages.

  I put my fingers on his forearm and let myself walk like I was a princess or a ballerina out of the small room and into the main hall. The church was much larger on the inside than it seemed from the outside. It was another church I’d never been to. How many churches did Fairfield have?

  The music was light and airy, like the room. The sun shone through stained glass, gold and blue like jewels. A dove flew past me, brushing my arm with a rustling wing.

  There were so many people. They were dressed beautifully with elaborate coifs and elegant dresses beside sober gentlemen in black suits. How peculiar. It was like the set of a movie. Were real weddings like this? My eyes slid over the guests and down the aisle towards the red-haired man standing with one hand in his pocket, the other holding a lollipop. Black cherry. He’d kept one?

  Drake’s eyes met mine over the lollipop and he winked at me before glancing over at the mage who stood in his tuxedo looking a bit villainous to be perfectly honest. Zach’s hair was slicked back, his glamour gone, leaving his eyes electric and deadly, his mouth a curve of amusement.

  My feet stopped working. Signore’s hand covered mine and I felt a pulse of comfort and strength, but it didn’t help. My mother married my father when she loved Revere. I loved Zach with his Peter Pan face, but all that love would twist inside of me, like it had twisted my parents.

  I remembered something else, something Scratch hadn’t shown me.

  My mother gasped from the front where she drove. Ahead of us in the dark road a figure stood, a man in a long black coat that flickered in the wind. When the headlights illuminated his face, he stared at my mother, his eyes filled with obsession, desire. That look.

  I blinked the church back into focus, fighting off the fear, the nausea. Zach looked at me like my father looked at my mother. Right before he ripped her to pieces and cursed me, a curse that she had taken the brunt of.

  I would never be able to resist Drake if he came to me and put his head on my lap. Or held me against the door and bit my neck. At the same time, I loved Zach, trusted him, was vulnerable to him the way my mother was to my father.

  If I married him to save Drake, not only would it make Zach vulnerable to my father, it would turn him into him. My mother had loved me more than him. That was her betrayal. Her ability to love another. I already loved someone else. I couldn’t help but betray him, however much I tried not to.

  “Cara Mia,” Signore whispered.

  I gasped and looked up at him. His eyes were so dark with a red rim around the pupil. I pulled away from him, ash and smoke for a moment as I spun away and ran back down the aisle, my boots gripping the dusty pink carpet beautifully.

  He’d made me such beautiful boots. It was such a beautiful wedding. I broke through the doors and out into the sunshine. I kept running, down a small road that I didn’t remember in Fairfield. We were somewhere else. How annoying. I ran along the road until I saw a meadow on the side with horses grazing behind the high fence. I waded through the long grasses and gripped the white rail, hanging onto it while I tried to think, to breathe, to not be in this ridiculous situation.

  “I think you’re supposed to have a maid of honor or something to run after you. I guess I’m stuck with it.” Zach spoke quietly, leaning next to me, staring back at the road.

  I gripped the rail tighter before I grabbed his hand and dug in my nails, cutting a pattern into his skin. “Tell me that you aren’t in love with me, Penny, that you’re just marrying me to secure your place as my hurter assistant.”

  He sighed and pulled his hand out of mine. “Putt
ing me under mage oath without my permission is against the law, Penny. Even if you aren’t a mage so it should be called something else. I thought so. It’s the Peter Pants face. Freaks you out.”

  I snagged his hand his blood on my skin. “Zach, tell me that you don’t love me.”

  He was quiet for a long time. “That was me saying that. I can’t even say what I can’t say. You have strangely strong oath skills. You could be a mage cop with your skills.”

  “You do love me? Why? Was it the sunbathing suit? I never should have worn that. I am such an idiot.”

  “I felt guilty for a long time. Pitch. I loved her. I would always love only her, but then you came with your short skirts and lollipops. Nothing like Pitch, but I looked forward to seeing you, talking to you, messing with you. You brought me back to life after Pitch killed me.”

  I slumped against the fence with my eyes tightly closed. “I can’t marry you.”

  “Okay.”

  I opened my eyes to stare at him. “Really? What am I supposed to do then? I can’t marry anyone. I’m too conscientious, too prone to guilt.”

  “You feel guilty for letting anyone else touch you when you belong to Drake.”

  “That’s part of it, but also how could I break anyone else, turn them over to my monster father or worse, turn them into him?”

  “You think I’ll be like your dad? I’m not a deception sorcerer. I do love you and stuff, but you make me happy. Being with you, working in the lab or on Rosy, it’s enough for me. It makes life sweet. You make my life sweet, not just bearable, not just a miserable existence lit by moments of bright violence, sweet.”

  I ran my hand through my hair, snagging on diamond pins. I hated them. I yanked my hair apart, letting the star drops fall to the fresh sprigs of grass.

  “You’re insane. How can you like Pitch and Penny?”

  “It was always you.” He shrugged and smiled sweetly. He was wearing his nice boy face, the one that was a complete lie, except not always. He was good with animals.

  I reached out and touched his face, the smooth skin. I stepped into him and pulled his head towards mine.

  I kissed him. He tasted sweet, his lips soft and pliant. His hands found my waist then my hip, the bond flaring to life as I gripped his wrist completing the circuit. The kiss ended soon, tasting more bitter, less sweet as we pulled away.

  “What was that for? You don’t want to marry me but you want to kiss me?” He shrugged. “I guess I can put up with it. It’s not as annoying as you putting your feet in my face.”

  “You don’t act like you love me.”

  “I don’t love you like Drake. He’s a romantic idiot. I idolize Pitch, he idolizes his mother. She was gentle, sweet, like you when she wasn’t stark raving mad. The fact that you have no magic, that you’ll never go mad, that makes you a million times more priceless to Drake. I don’t care about that, but he does. If you’re not going to marry me, you’d better marry him.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t. He doesn’t want to, and it’ll make a mess of his life, with my dad and…”

  “His life is already in shambles because of you. He’s giving you up to keep you safe. You’re trying to marry me to protect him. You two are clearly in desperate need of someone sensible who can make certain you don’t ruin each other’s lives out of altruism. I’m just the mage for that.”

  “I’m not going to marry Drake. We already tried that.”

  “Do you have another mage in mind that you won’t mind letting your father destroy? A mage you can’t love? Jackson would be an ideal candidate. But he won’t marry you. Even if you have his bond, it’s not that strong. I also won’t let you marry anyone other than Drake.”

  “Why do you find it so essential that I get married?”

  He cupped my chin and stared at me, his eyes still soft, but his mouth in a firm line. “I love you. I love you a million times more than I love Pitch. I died without her. What do you think would happen if I lost you? If you don’t marry a mage by the time you’re eighteen, the curse will consume you. I’m fine with being your friend or whatever, but if you die, I die. If you run off to Darkside and Signore kills you, he’ll have to kill me too.”

  I exhaled and put my face against his neck, breathing in the scent of him. He didn’t smell like anything other than nice clean pine soap. “You don’t even smell like you want me anymore.”

  “Nope. There are spells for things like that. I knew it would freak you out. If I could feel guilty about betraying Pitch, there’s no way you wouldn’t be ripped apart by guilt about Drake, your true love, marrying another even to save him. Your conscience is much further developed than mine will ever be. Also, you shouldn’t talk about smelling people’s desire. It’s super creepy.”

  I pushed away laughing at him before the laugh ebbed out of me. “I can’t marry Drake. I won’t let you die with me. I guess we should create a few more options.”

  He grinned and gripped my shoulder, ripping through the dress to the skin beneath. I gasped at the sudden flare of pain and then Drake was there, still sucking on his black cherry lollipop.

  “You could have texted,” he said drily, frowning at my shoulder.

  I shifted it uncomfortably, like he’d touched it with burning flames of agonizing tenderness instead of glancing at it casually.

  “Penny won’t marry me. That puts you up.”

  Drake raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think so. We could just spell her so she goes through the rituals.”

  Zach scowled at him. “And that wouldn’t be against the contract?”

  “It would be before the contract goes into effect. You couldn’t spell her to manipulate her after the wedding, but before, it’s perfectly fine.”

  I sighed. “You are both so adorable. Too bad I’m not going to marry either one of you.”

  Drake scowled suddenly. “Zach won’t let you marry Lester.”

  I shook my head and grabbed his hand. I held on tight. My heart started pounding and I couldn’t breathe very well. How could I risk him? I glanced at Zach. I couldn’t hurt him either.

  “Drake, what do you have on Sooth?” Zach asked, crossing his arms. “I know you’ve been messing around in Darkside ever since your botched wedding.”

  Drake frowned. “Not enough.”

  “I think it’s time to go on the offense. You’ve been swearing all those Darkside mercenary mages fealty. You have a dragon. I have an arsenal that could wipe Darkside out of existence. You have an alliance against Sooth with the Devil of Darkside and the Prince of Darkness. What does Sooth have? Why haven’t you crushed him yet?”

  Drake eyed me before he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t hurt him without it hurting her.”

  Zach raised his eyebrows. “There’s no way around that?”

  “I’ve been working on collecting his debts, but Hale is a problem. His son is slated as Penny’s Darkside husband. All the powers of Hale are against us.”

  “Excuse me, my Darkside what?”

  Drake glanced at me in faux shock. “You didn’t know that you were bound to marry the son of a sorcerer? Maybe it was supposed to be a surprise. Surprise!”

  Someone cleared his throat behind us. I turned expecting Signore, but instead Lester lurked, looking strangely at home in the bucolic scenery.

  “She isn’t going to marry you,” Zach said, pointing at him with a glower.

  Lester smiled slightly but raised his hands. “That’s convenient since I don’t have a contract. The guests are getting restless. The doves are nesting in people’s hats. You might want to cancel the wedding. There are still a few weeks until Penny’s birthday.”

  Zach snapped his fingers and the contract appeared in his hands. He muttered under his breath and the whole things turned itself inside out before settling back down into his arms.

  “Drake, sign this. Lester, as much as I despise you, you aren’t a completely idiotic mage. Any ideas how to defeat the deception sorcerer and save Penny from a fate w
orse than death?”

  “Or just death,” I said.

  Zach shot me a dark look. “No death for you. You must live so I don’t die without you. Lester?”

  He inhaled deeply before he shrugged. “The um, Darkside fiancé, have you made any contact with him?”

  “If I had, he’d be dead,” Drake said with a slight smirk.

  Lester raised his eyebrow. “He’s the son of Hale. Kind of notorious in his own way. Not as gossip worthy as the green mage, but you might want to be a little more humble if you do encounter him.”

  “Does he have a name?” I asked. “Other than Son of Hale.”

  Lester shrugged. “I don’t know. Names are slippery things in Darkside.”

  I rubbed my forehead. It didn’t help my headache even a little bit. “Okay. So, all I have to do is convince this ‘Son of Hale’ that he doesn’t want to marry me and then he can ally against Sooth and we win? Great. Where is he, how dead would I be if I talked to him, and also, why does he want to marry me?”

  “His father thought it would be an advantageous match,” Drake said, sneering for a moment before it faded and instead stared at me with gleaming eyes. “You’re an aberration with no magic. He wants his son to be happy. You’re the best chance, the only chance any Darksider has for happiness.”

  “I didn’t think Darksiders were into happiness.”

  “Sorcerers are different, and he’s married to a human.”

  “So his son is a Daysider.” I shook my head. “So he probably doesn’t really want to marry me anyway. If we can give him something even more valuable, maybe he’ll change his dad’s mind. Maybe he’s in love with some Darkside witch who rips him apart every full moon. Maybe he’s being forced into a loveless marriage against his will and will kill himself in a dual suicide with his true love on the night of our ill-omened wedding.”

  Lester cleared his throat. “Maybe.”

  I lowered my hand from where I’d flung it dramatically across my brow. “You don’t think so?”