by G. K. DeRosa
Garrix finally ushered me inside and as I stepped into the stark, barren interior I wondered how many others had actually seen his home. Like his personality, it was a faceless, empty canvas with bare walls and minimalistic furnishings. My father had worn so many faces and assumed so many different personalities, had he lost his own identity?
A shiver cascaded down my spine. I never wanted that to happen to me.
“Something to drink?” he asked, drawing me from my musings.
“No, I’m okay thanks.” I sat on the edge of the pristine white leather couch, scared to scuff it up with my jeans. “So what’s on the magical agenda for today?”
“I’d like to work on a few darker enchantments—the kind that Cillian would never allow to be taught at the academy.” He snapped his fingers and a thick, ancient tome appeared on the glass coffee table. “With Luxora still on the loose, it’s spells like these that will keep you safe.”
I gulped. I wasn’t sure how I felt about crossing over the line into the really dark stuff. I was in no hurry to wake the latent demon lurking inside me. The skinwalking was creepy enough.
I decided a change in topic was needed. “How’s everything going in the human world by the way?” According to Logan, the situation had been pretty tense after the debacle on the White House lawn last semester.
He grunted and sank down into the chair across from me. “Not good. I have Congress breathing down my neck to repeal the supernatural voting act, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Every day the anti-supernatural coalition is amassing more votes to their side. It won’t be long until they push for an appeal of the entire merger and close off the borders.”
My brows shot up. “Seriously? I hadn’t realized it was that bad.”
“And the attacks are only getting worse. There’s only so much covering up I can do. The Gargoyle Guardian Council doesn’t have the manpower to patrol the streets and your team, well, there’s only eight of you. I’m meeting with Cillian next week to discuss assembling more teams.”
“More teams like the supe slayer squad?”
He nodded. “The angel has an entire school full of talented students. There’s no reason that wealth of power shouldn’t be tapped.”
My head snapped back. “Um, yeah there is. We’re just kids. Or I mean, young adults, but still. What we do is dangerous. Lives can be lost.” I knew that first hand. Memories of Ash’s death still plagued my nightmares.
“We must all make sacrifices, Luna.”
A twinge of anger uncoiled in my gut. It slithered through my insides until it demanded to be unleashed. “That’s easy for you to say. You’ve always wanted this merging of the two worlds, but how about the rest of us? We never signed up to fight your battles.”
He frowned, uncrossing his legs and sitting forward. “Don’t you see how important this is?”
“All I see is your thirst for power. You long to control the humans and the supernaturals. You’re the President of the United States for goodness sake, you’re the head of the Coven Council and you sit on the Etrian Assembly. This is only about power and control to you, isn’t it?” I leapt up, unable to keep still any longer. How had I not seen this before? He didn’t care about the good that would come from merging our two worlds, he just wanted the absolute authority he’d gain from it. “You’re no better than Luxora,” I spat as I darted toward the door.
“Luna!” Garrix’s footfalls pounded behind me, but I didn’t stop.
I conjured a portal as I ran and jumped in at the edge of my father’s property. His shouts fell away as the swirling winds consumed me.
Chapter 5
I tumbled out of the portal in front of the coffee shop I’d gone to with Garrix the first time he brought me to Maginaria. Portals were fickle like that. If I wasn’t focused on a destination, it would make its own decision frequently following a subconscious stream of my thoughts.
A dark-haired man seared me with his deep maroon eyes as the portal closed behind me. A deep V formed between his brows as his gaze followed mine. The hair on the back of my neck prickled until I turned the corner and was out of his line of sight. Weird.
Anger still clouded my mind as I stomped down the cobblestone streets. This shouldn’t be bothering me so much. I’d known my father for a while now and pretending his motives were purely altruistic was just stupid. This whole Drake thing had me in a mood. What was I still doing here anyway? I should’ve returned to the academy, but a day pass from Cillian was nothing to pass up. At least I could do some exploring instead of moping around the dorm as Cinder had so gently put it.
It had only been a day, and I already missed Drake. Anxiety swirled in my gut every time my phone dinged. He’d only texted me once since he left, and he still hadn’t spoken to Elrian at that point. So for now, I had no idea when he was coming back or why it was so urgent for him to return to the Winter Court.
“Is that you, Luna?” A raspy voice drew my attention to the towering man walking toward me.
My eyes lifted to meet a pair of smoky gray ones, his silvery-white, flowing beard like the newly fallen snow in the winter realm. “Oh, Draven, right?” I hadn’t seen the sorcerer friend of my father’s since he determined the full implications of my warlock blood almost a year ago.
“Yes, exactly.” His wrinkled lips lifted into a smile. “What brings you to Maginaria?”
“I was visiting my father.”
“Ah, wonderful. How is he doing? He’s been so busy—” He lowered his voice “—with the human world that he barely comes to the Coven Council meetings any longer.”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen him much either.” I figured telling him the story of our little spat would not be smart. Although, I did have a few questions for the sorcerer. He and my father seemed close, and I hadn’t met anyone else I could say the same of. “Do you have a second to chat?”
“For you? Of course, my dear.” He motioned to a bench down the block that sat in front of a marble fountain. It was surrounded by a lush garden with exotic flowering plants in every shade of the rainbow.
As we settled down on the wrought iron bench, I organized the jumble of thoughts scattered around my mind. “Has Garrix always wanted to be the president?” So much for building up to the big questions…
The wizened sorcerer’s wild eyebrows scrunched together. “Your father has always craved power if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t know at exactly what point he decided to go after the coveted position, but like everything the man does, he did it after much careful consideration.”
I nodded. “Were you for the integration?” I remembered hearing the Coven Council had been particularly split on the vote.
“I was not. We’ve survived for centuries without each other, our two realms functioning independently and I didn’t find it necessary.” He paused, twirling his handlebar mustache. “Also, I feared for what is happening right now. The Underworld has long struggled against their inequality in Azar. It was only a matter of time before they would resent their exclusion from the human realm.”
“Maybe we should just go back to how things were.”
“It’s too late for that, my dear. There’s no magic strong enough to erase the knowledge of our existence in the humans’ minds. What has been done can never be undone. Now, we must simply do what we can to survive.”
A shadow coalesced over me, and I didn’t need to turn around to see who it was. My father’s dark tendrils of energy danced over me, puckering my skin.
Draven cocked his head to face our visitor. “Ah, Garrix. We were just talking about you.”
“All good, I assume?” He arched a pointed brow at me.
“Of course,” I muttered.
“If you don’t mind, Draven, I’d like to have a word with my daughter.”
“Certainly.” The old sorcerer stood as another man appeared from nowhere.
I recognized his deep maroon eyes from outside the coffee shop when I landed in the center of town.
“Oh
, Malaki, it appears it’s a Coven Council reunion.” Draven slapped the newcomer on the back.
His freaky eyes were still pinned on me. “Did I hear correctly, Garrix? This lovely lady is your daughter?”
My father’s jaw tensed. “Yes, that’s correct.”
The man reached for my face, but I staggered back, the darkness swirling around him more ominous than my father’s. “I don’t really like it when stranger’s touch me.” The words popped out before I could stop them. And for once I was glad. This guy was creeping me out.
Garrix extended his hand and closed his fingers around mine. “Gentlemen, I’ll see you at the next meeting.” With a nod, he dragged me away.
“Who was that guy? I saw him earlier, and he was cree-py.”
Garrix halted and spun me around to face him, backing me against a red brick wall. “When did you see him?”
“When I portalled from your place and landed in the middle of the cute little town square.”
He dragged his hand over his face and exhaled a frustrated breath. “So he saw you coming through the portal?”
My father’s frenzied state finally began to make sense. I quickly shook my head. “Well, yes, but just because he saw me come through the portal doesn’t mean he knows I created it, right? Especially now that he knows I’m your daughter. You could have sent me through it.”
“Malaki is much older than his youthful appearance portrays. He’s nearly Draven’s age and equally as powerful. He’s very familiar with my magical signature, and he would’ve known it wasn’t my portal.”
Crapsicles. “So did I just out my warlock-ness to this guy?”
He sucked in his lower lip, and I could almost see the gears grinding in his head. “It won’t be his immediate conclusion. Similar to when you met Draven, he may sense strong warlock powers in you, but he won’t automatically assume. As you know, you’re the first female so it wouldn’t be a supposition he’d immediately jump to. But if I know Malaki, it would’ve been enough to pique his interest.”
I pushed off the wall and folded my arms over my chest. “So now what?”
“Now, we hope he doesn’t figure it out.” He placed his hand on the small of my back and steered me through the cobblestone streets once again. “I’ll have to make sure I make my presence known at the coming council meetings so that I can keep an eye on him. If Malaki does discover what you are, he won’t keep it to himself. You think I’m power hungry? You haven’t seen anything the likes of Malaki.”
I snagged my lower lip between my teeth. I was feeling a little guilty about the whole blow-up now. If I hadn’t stormed off, we wouldn’t have yet another problem on our hands.
“I apologize for speaking so flippantly about your team. I know what a sacrifice you all make to fight my war. But you see, Luna, it isn’t just mine. It’s all of ours now. The human and supernatural worlds are irrevocably tied, and I’m making it my personal mission to assure its success. No matter the costs.”
I glanced at my father from the corner of my eye. “Even if the cost is my life?”
His lips narrowed, his jaw clenching together.
I wasn’t delusional enough to believe my father loved me, but I didn’t think he’d want to see me dead. His silence spoke volumes.
“Come, Luna. We have a lot of practicing to do.”
Ice rippled across my veins, but I followed him anyway. He was right after all. The only way I’d survive this was by beating Luxora, and that meant becoming more powerful than both her and my father.
Three hours later, and I could barely feel my fingertips from all the magical energy that had been zapping out of them. Before returning to Garrix’s house, we’d taken a skinwalking tour of Maginaria. I’d taken over the unsuspecting bodies of a newbie witch and a young warlock. It was my first time possessing magically-inclined supes and it had been a heady new sensation. The unending cascade of magic flowing between my own and theirs was almost overwhelming. Now I understood why Garrix had waited for me to jump into a magical body.
“And for your final lesson of the day—”
I cut him off with a jerk of my hand and slumped down on his living room couch, not even caring about the fine leather upholstery this time around. “I’m dead. I can’t do any more magicking.”
He closed the distance between us with three forceful strides. “Your magic is never truly depleted, Luna. You must only learn to stoke the dwindling embers.”
“Well, it feels like someone dumped a bucket of water over the ashes.”
His lip curled into a half-smile before it was swapped out by its stern replacement. “Stand up, Luna. This is important.”
I groaned and closing my eyes, lay my head back against the soft cushion.
Garrix cleared his throat as his foot thumped the marble floor. “I’m not playing around, young lady.”
A wave of energy slithered over my skin, raising every hair on my body. My eyes snapped open and I was drifting over the coffee table, suspended in mid-air. I flailed around for a second before my magical ride came to an end, and I landed in a heap on the unbending marble floor.
“Ow!” I whined as sharp pain jolted up my tailbone.
“Now are you ready?”
I huffed as I pushed myself off the floor. “Fine. What do you want me to do now?” I glanced at the clock on the sleek widescreen TV. My day pass had nearly expired. “I don’t have much time to get back to the academy.”
“Don’t worry. This shouldn’t take long.”
I eyed him curiously as his brow arched. What was he up to now?
“I want you to try to possess my body.”
My eyes bulged out of my head as my jaw nearly hit the floor. “Are you kidding me right now?” After feeling the power of the newbie magic folk I’d overtaken, the idea of Garrix’s heady magic was enough to steal my breath away. I whipped my head back and forth and shot my father my best are-you-insane look.
“I said try, Luna. I don’t honestly expect you’d be able to do it. All the others were completely unaware of what was happening to them. I’ll be fighting you, and I simply want to see how much of a battle you can put forth.”
For some reason the fact that he didn’t think I could do it pissed me off. What did he know?
I slapped my hands on my hips and narrowed my gaze at him focusing on the flickering embers of magic that still remained in my core. As a mischievous smile lifted my father’s lips I realized I’d been played. Maybe my father knew me better than I thought.
My skin began to itch, and the familiar snap of my essence untethering from my bodily confines heralded the transfer. My spirit floated upward as I watched my limp figure grow further away. Garrix’s body called to me, his physical form beckoning me forward. I curled my translucent fingers around his hand and hit a block. Normally, I would’ve immediately gotten sucked in on contact.
But my bastard father was blocking me.
Focusing my non-corporeal form on another body part, I attempted to make my way in through that stupid grin playing across his mouth. Again, it felt like I hit a massive stone wall.
“Again,” Garrix commanded.
My essence swirled around his, testing every nook and cranny for a weak point but there was none. My father’s body was completely impenetrable. I would’ve screamed if I could have, but apparently my spirit didn’t come with vocal chords.
After another ten futile minutes, I returned to my body, disappointment coursing through my ghostly form. Once my essence was resituated in its old home, I spun at my father. “How’d you do that?”
“Just like everything else, my dear. With power and practice.” He sat beside me on the couch. “Taking over the body of an enemy is no easy task, but it can be quite handy as you can imagine.”
“You think I could be strong enough to overtake Luxora?”
He shrugged. “Possibly. It’s all up to you.”
Chapter 6
Everything’s fine. Just because Drake hasn’t responded to any of your t
exts or calls for three days now doesn’t mean you should be freaking out. Everything’s fine.
But it wasn’t.
No matter how many times I repeated the mantra, the molten pit of dread that had taken residence in my gut only grew more fiery by the day. The only thing that kept me from a complete meltdown was the constant flicker of Drake’s lilac cord. Whatever was going on, at least he was alive and well. Which meant he was ignoring me on purpose. Which made me madder than hell.
I pummeled the punching bag even harder, visualizing the ice prince’s face. I was a mess. One minute I was pissed at Drake and the next I was terrified for him. What could possibly be going on at Winter Court? I vowed to show up unannounced if I hadn’t heard back by the end of the week.
Punch, uppercut, roundhouse, duck. Punch, uppercut, roundhouse, duck.
I repeated the drill until sweat poured off my brow, and my arms and legs were like jelly. Panting, I took a quick sip from my water bottle before continuing. If I pushed myself, I could get in another half hour before the rest of the team showed up for training.
The only good thing about Drake’s absence was that I’d gained back all the muscle tone I’d lost during spring break. That, coupled with my mystical training sessions with Garrix was turning me into a lean, mean magical machine.
The creak of the training room door opening echoed through the vast space. I spun toward the sound, my sweaty bangs whipping across my face.
“Whoa, what did that punching bag do to you, mini minx?”
I grunted, rolling my eyes as Ryder strolled in and continued my assault. He sauntered up beside me until he invaded my peripheral vision. The corner of his lip twisted up as he watched me.
“Do you mind?” I hissed.
He leaned against the wall, standing a few feet away from the punching bag. “No, not at all. I like watching you sweat.”