Crap.
Sage swung her legs off the table, and I lowered my hands to my sides. All four of us sat straight, ready to defend ourselves against a possible attack.
King Devin said nothing. He just stayed where he was and readjusted his jacket.
“Hmm,” he said, pulling at the jacket again.
Was that a good hmm or a bad hmm? Definitely a bad one. Why was I even thinking about it? I’d just flung a ball of magic at the king. I didn’t know why he hadn’t attacked me already. He technically could have, and claimed it was in self-defense.
I was so totally screwed.
Thomas stood and rested his hand on the back of his chair. “Your Highness,” he said, bowing his head slightly. “Apologies for the ruckus.”
King Devin stared Thomas down.
Then he laughed.
“Sir?” Thomas questioned.
“I just walked inside to a glorious display of your wife’s figure upon my table, and a spell that made my favorite jacket fit like a glove.” He pulled at the cuffs, looking pleased. “It’s one of a kind, as it’s woven with strands of Arachne’s silk web. My tailor could never get it to fit quite right. But that magic seems to have done the trick.” He looked to me, sheer curiosity in his eyes. “Tell me, dear,” he said. “How did you do it?”
I sat there, shocked, before realizing that everyone was waiting for me to speak. “It’s a spell created by my Aunt Bella,” I said quickly. “To make any shoe as comfortable as a sneaker.”
“I see.” He raised his chin. “A very practical spell. But this jacket is woven with mythical silk. It can’t be affected by magic.”
“That’s the thing about the spell,” I said. “It doesn’t change anything. The shoes—well, jacket, in your case—remain the same. It’s only your perception of how it feels that changes. I guess you could say that the spell isn’t actually on the jacket. It’s around it.”
“And this spell will remain around the jacket forever?”
“No,” I said. “It only lasts for one wear.”
“Pity.” He frowned. “I’ll have to have you teach it to my head witch, so she can perform the spell after you leave.”
I bit my lip. Aunt Bella would not be happy with my sharing one of our coolest family spells. Only powerful witches could create spells to begin with, and those spells were most always kept within the family—or circle, depending on how close the circle was.
But King Devin had made a demand, not a request. And given the situation, I was sure Aunt Bella would understand.
“Will do,” I said, and King Devin looked pleased once more.
“I’ll be sure my head witch keeps the spell a secret,” he said. “I know how dramatic you witches can be about keeping your spells in the family.”
I tensed, saying nothing. How was he able to insult people, be respectful, and shut them down all at once?
“Now,” he said, making his way to the chair at the head of the table. “We have much to discuss, and we’ll get to that later. Because first… we dine.”
32
Selena
Julian ignored me the next day. So did Bridget. Julian and Bridget ignored each other, too.
It was safe to say that our alliance of four was officially broken up.
Luckily, I still had Cassia.
“Felix has been in Octavia’s suite all day.” Cassia frowned, glaring at the stairs. “What are the two of them doing up there?”
I had a pretty good idea of what they were doing. I also knew Cassia didn’t want to hear about it.
“You know the only reason he’s on your mind is because of his magic,” I said. “Right?”
“I don’t know.” She pressed her lips together, her eyes troubled. “We talk sometimes. We get each other. I know you don’t believe me. But it’s true.”
She was right. I didn’t believe her.
Because if she was right and Felix wasn’t using his magic on her, I had a feeling she’d be more concerned about my going to arena this week than about Felix spending most of his time alone with Octavia.
She stopped talking about Felix after that, apparently not wanting to face the fact that he was using his magic on her.
I so badly wanted to talk to her about what was happening between Julian and me. But Cassia was a hopeless romantic. If I confided in her, I knew what she’d say.
Go to Julian tonight.
I didn’t want to be influenced one way or the other. So I didn’t bring it up.
The decision was mine, and mine alone.
And I was still torn on what I wanted to do.
Knowing that Julian was in the back yard waiting for me, I couldn’t have slept that night even if I’d tried.
I held out for a bit. But eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore. Julian had done as promised and gotten me to create bolts on command.
It would be stupid of me to turn down his help.
At least, that’s what I told myself as I sneaked out of my room, unable to stop thinking about how close we’d come to kissing last night.
He was waiting right where he’d promised, and he smirked when he saw me. The glow of the moon shined upon his perfectly sculpted face and dark blond hair. He was way too tempting for his own good.
Well, for my own good.
“I knew you’d come,” he said once I reached him.
“This doesn’t mean I’ve agreed to team up with you in the arena this week,” I said, even though I knew in my heart that was a lie. “But I do want to get better at using my magic.”
“Smart,” he said. “Not like I’m surprised.”
I tilted my head playfully. “Are you complimenting me or yourself?”
“Both,” he said, and despite not wanting him to believe I enjoyed our time together, I gave him a small smile. “Now, let’s get to work.”
I was officially hopeless.
“Come on,” Julian goaded. “You’re in the Otherworld because of me. You’ll likely die because of me. You hate me. Harness that hate. Feel it. Relish in it.”
I tried. Trust me, I tried. I replayed every moment I’d spent with Julian, starting from when I first saw him at the end of Torrence’s driveway. I tried to harness each moment, thinking one might make me angrier than the others.
When he’d kissed me, even though it was all an act.
When he’d dragged me through that portal.
When he’d run away with the bag of money.
The memories hurt. And yes, they made me angry. They made sparks flare to life within me and electricity rush through my skin.
But there were no bolts.
Because I wasn’t as angry as I’d been before his apology last night. Now that I was thinking about it, he hadn’t been anything but kind to me since we were selected for the Faerie Games. And I was truly grateful that he was spending his time helping me when he could be resting up for the arena.
Not like I was ever going to give him the satisfaction of admitting it.
Three hours later, I was sweating and burnt out. I hung my arms to my sides in defeat. “This isn’t working,” I said, grabbing the bottle of water that Julian had thankfully remembered to bring out with him. “Maybe we should stop for the night and try again tomorrow.”
“We only have one night after this one before the fight,” he said.
“I know, I know.” I sat down on the ground, too tired to stand.
He plopped down right next to me.
For a few seconds, we sat there in companionable silence.
Even though I felt burnt out from calling so much electricity into my body, his being so close to me made the sparks flare up once again.
I shouldn’t have been thinking about my attraction to Julian when there were so many other important, serious matters to deal with. But my body constantly betrayed me around him. I pulled my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, as if I could put out the flames within me.
It didn’t work.
“You’re really okay with th
is?” I finally asked, needing to somehow break the silence.
“Okay with what?”
“With the fact that Bridget will most likely die in the arena on Friday.” I could barely say it. I could barely bring myself to think about it. But I couldn’t ignore it, either.
“Of course I’m not okay with it.” He turned to look at me, his eyes shining with sheer honesty. “Especially because I’ll be the one who does it.”
“We’ll be working together,” I said. “We’ll both be the ones who do it.”
“But I’m taking the killing blow.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but no words came out. Because I didn’t want to take the killing blow. When the time came, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it.
“I’m going to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible,” he said. “She’ll be gone before even realizing what happened.”
That shouldn’t have been comforting.
But somehow, it was.
I said nothing. What was there to say? Instead, I just sat there, unable to look away from his intense, raw gaze.
He might not have said it out loud, but his decision to be the one to take out Bridget was tearing him up inside. His struggle swirled within me, almost like it was my own. And when my elbow unintentionally touched his, comforting warmth made its way through my entire body.
He didn’t move away. Neither did I.
Without realizing I was doing it, my eyes traveled to his lips. There might not be anything to say to make this better, I thought. But there is something I can do…
My breathing slowed. His did, too. It was like we were both in a trance. I kept moving forward, and the next thing I knew, my lips brushed lightly against his.
He stilled, and I worried that I’d done something wrong. But then his arm was around my back, and he pulled me up onto his lap, his tongue parting my lips and connecting with mine.
I let out a soft moan, sinking into him and kissing him back with everything in me. Our bodies fit together perfectly. He was warm and loving, and in his arms, my mind turned to mush. There was no magic practice session, there were no Faerie Games, and there was no arena fight to worry about. There was only Julian, and there was only knowing that in this moment, everything felt right.
My hand ran down his body, needing to explore every inch of him. The soft skin of his cheek, his perfectly sculpted chest, and his hard, defined abs. His hands tangled through my hair, sending warm tingles deep into my stomach and leaving me wanting more.
With no space left between us, the kiss intensified, until somehow, I was on the ground with him on top of me. We moved together like a dance, perfectly in tandem. Every inch of my skin buzzed with excitement. On instinct, my hand lowered even farther, until it was just above his hip—the same location as my clover birthmark.
Suddenly, he pulled himself off of me, and his expression hardened. Whatever he’d felt a few seconds before—if he’d felt anything at all—was gone.
I breathed shallowly, the warmth sucked out of me as I sat up as well. How was he so close one moment, and so far away the next? Had he felt anything I’d felt? Or had I just been a pretty girl throwing myself at him, bringing his primal instincts to the surface?
The thought, along with the cold way he was looking at me, made me lower my head in shame.
“We should head back and get some sleep,” he said coldly. “We’re both tired, and you fried yourself out. We’ll return to practicing tomorrow night, once we’re thinking clearly again.”
He stood, not reaching out a hand to help me up. It was like the sheer thought of touching me disgusted him.
I pushed myself off the ground and wiped the dirt off the back of my ridiculously skimpy fighting outfit. But I straightened out the skirt, wanting to look as unruffled as he did.
As we silently walked back, he made sure to walk a few steps ahead of me. Heated sparks rose up in me again. Not from anger, and definitely not from happiness.
This time, they were from the deep embarrassment of rejection.
33
Selena
Dinner the next night was the same as every other dinner since Octavia had become Empress of the Villa.
It was taken over by Octavia and her followers.
A line had been drawn in the sand, and it was a visible line when we all sat at the dining room table. Octavia sat at the head of it, and her crew surrounded her. Pierce, Emmet, Antonia, and Felix.
Julian, Cassia, Bridget, and I sat at the opposite end. None of us really spoke to each other through the meals. Cassia made a few attempts, but they were futile.
In the middle of the two groups was Cillian. It didn’t seem like anyone knew where his head was at.
“I’ve got a secret,” Pierce said mysteriously once the desserts appeared. His voice echoed loudly through the room, bringing the attention where he liked it most—on himself. “And I think everyone at this table will be interested in hearing it.”
We all looked to him. The orbs circled around him, too.
He grinned, relishing in the attention.
What a camera-whore. He was just as bad as Emmet.
He rubbed his hands together, smirking as he met all of our eyes. He made sure to smirk at the orbs around him, too.
He took a deep breath, looked at me, and said, “Selena can’t create lightning bolts at will.”
Octavia snickered from the head of the table.
“That’s not true,” I lied.
“It is true,” Pierce insisted. “Someone saw you practicing last night. A trusted source. They watched you try and fail to create bolts—repeatedly. You can’t do it.”
I glanced around everyone sitting around the table. Who could have been spying on me and Julian?
No one met my eyes. Not even Julian.
Did Julian sell me out to Pierce?
My heart dropped. I didn’t want to believe it—even though it seemed to be the most likely scenario.
“I can do it.” Heat sparked through my veins, and I held Pierce’s haughty gaze. “Everyone at this table—no, everyone watching the Games—has seen me create bolts. Or did you forget the Magic Demonstration Ceremony? The arena fight where Molly was murdered?” Anger rose in my voice, and I braced my palms on the top of the table. “The Emperor of the Villa competition a few days ago?”
“I remember them all,” Pierce said. “You didn’t create those bolts at will. They just shot out of you, wild and uncontrolled. You’re uncontrolled.”
Octavia sat back and crossed her legs, looking at me in amusement. “This is why I selected you to go to the arena this week,” she said. “You’re dangerous.” She glanced around at everyone sitting around the table, staring at them until they had no choice but to meet her gaze. “If any of you don’t see how dangerous she is, you’re an idiot, and you deserve to go to the arena next.”
Electricity flooded my body. Everyone disappeared into the background—all I saw were bright flashes of white, mixed with blue magic.
A second later, the brightness subsided.
The table—and everything that had been on it—was gone. All that was left was a pile of ashes on the intricately woven rug.
Everyone remained in their seats. Some of the champions still held their utensils in their hands. They all looked at me in shock, and the orbs flew around me excitedly.
“I didn’t mean to,” I mumbled, watching the ashes rise and re-form themselves into the table. Less than a minute later, everything was the same as it had been before. Even the food and drinks had been restored.
“Exactly,” Octavia said. “You didn’t mean to. That’s the problem.”
Pierce looked at Bridget, and then at Julian. “If the two of you know what’s good for you, you’ll team up tomorrow and take Selena out,” he said. “Get back into the good graces of the rest of us in the villa. We’ll definitely owe you safety if you pull through on this one. At least for a week or two.”
Heat flooded through me, rushing straight to my cheeks. I st
ood up and slammed my hands onto the table. It shook so hard that the lighter objects jumped, some of them going straight off the ledge.
“I don’t know who this ‘source’ of yours is,” I said, zeroing in on Pierce. “But he or she didn’t see everything that happened last night.”
That was an understatement.
Because whoever this source was had failed to mention that I wasn’t practicing alone. I looked around at everyone suspiciously.
What’s their angle?
Octavia raised an eyebrow. “Are you planning on filling in the blanks?” she asked calmly, like she didn’t care if I did or didn’t.
“You wish.” I stood straighter and gave her a hateful glare of my own. “But whoever went to Pierce, I hope you come to me tonight.” I spoke slower and more intensely, making a point of meeting all the eyes at the table.
None of them looked away. Any one of them could be Pierce’s source.
And I wanted to know why his source hadn’t mentioned that I was practicing with Julian.
“You’ll find I’m surprisingly good at listening,” I said, throwing my napkin on the table to signify that I was done. “Because I prefer being stabbed in the front than in the back.”
34
Selena
After dinner, I retreated to the library with Cassia, like I had every night since Octavia had become Empress of the Villa. Cassia told me stories of the Otherworld, and I told her stories of Avalon. I also told her about Earth, since I knew a fair share about it from the books, movies, and television shows I watched that came to Avalon from Earth.
No one bothered us in the library, since they were too busy sucking up to Octavia in her suite.
But we’d only been chatting for fifteen minutes before there was a knock on the door.
My heart leaped, and Cassia and I looked at each other in surprise.
I leaned back in my armchair in an attempt to look calm. “Come in,” I said, making sure my voice didn’t shake.
The Faerie Pawn (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 2) Page 13