Wild magic book four, p.21
Wild Magic Book Four, page 21
Mirabella was close enough that I felt her eyes on my face. As for Argyle, he shifted into his wolf form slightly, I swear. A yellow-green force touched his irises.
He’d be using his werewolf senses to track my feelings.
I grated my teeth, wanting to scream at them this was better.
That would achieve nothing. Plus… hadn’t I learned my lesson?
“Fine. Argyle, you’re with me. I think I have a lead. Mirabella, you stay with William. You’ll be safe in the mansion. For now at least,” I said, voice dripping with disappointment.
“Where are we headed?” Argyle snapped. You’d think he’d snarl at the fact I was suggesting leaving his partner in a risky situation. Not Argyle. Not considering he knew full well that the loss of the mansion would lead to the loss of everyone’s lives.
I didn’t speak. I looked at William one last time, trying to convey that I had this under control. Then I shot toward the door.
Everything came back to the bridge. Not just for me, but for Bella.
I’d taken her bridge root away. She’d been the first to claim that bridge. I’d just put my root over the top.
But why would she put her bridge root down there? It was on the estate’s grounds. It was right on the edge. And it would be convenient. You could access the mansion but also the forest beyond.
Bella wouldn’t be opening sub-gates directly into the mansion. She’d be doing it from there, I swear.
“You will call me when you find her, Lillian.” William’s words were soft. They lacked their usual force and certainty. When William argued with me, he used a voice audible from the moon. Now you couldn’t hear it from a meter away.
I turned, breath in my throat, heart in my feet begging me to run and get this done in the little time I had left.
I still stared at him. He still stared back. And something in that gaze made me snap. I nodded, and it wasn’t just to get him off my case.
As Argyle and I shot out onto the grounds, Mirabella grabbed William and led him away.
Winter was back. With a vengeance.
A blast of wind shot against me, and it buffeted me backward. A few trailing splatters of sleet sliced across my face. As I darted my head up, I detected the thronging clouds above. They pressed low from the horizon, as menacing as gods in chariots.
“Nice weather. Where to next?” Argyle demanded.
“My root,” I snarled. I ran down the garden path. I cut through the rosebushes. It was by now a familiar route for me.
I soon skidded to a stop in front of my bridge. A stupid part of me expected Bella to be standing in the middle. She couldn’t access it until she removed my root, and as arrogant as it sounded, I didn’t think she could do that. She could try. But the only way to actually remove it would be to kill me.
And mark my words, that was her goal.
I approached the bridge wearily anyway, stepped onto it, closed my eyes, and waited. When nothing happened, I gestured Argyle forward.
“She’s on the estate’s grounds. This is right at the edge. She’s clearly not here. Unless you think she’s in the spirit realm? Can you see into the spirit realm yet?”
The way he said yet wasn’t an insult. It was as if he expected I could do it by now.
I didn’t know how much Argyle knew about the spirit realm, but only two individuals could see into it. William and Bella. And the last was supposition. As for William’s abilities to penetrate the spirit realm, who knew?
He’d certainly seen me multiple times. But only close up.
“Not yet,” I said. Then I frowned. “Sometimes my intuition can detect a sub-gate. I did it in Detective Stanza’s hospital room once.”
“Good. That means this isn’t your first time. Now,” he jerked his hands up and waved them, “do your magic.”
He was a werewolf. His entire form was essentially magic, but from the look on his face, it was clear he thought I practiced woo-woo. I guess I did. It would be nicer to be a vampire. Someone who could just click their fingers – or their teeth – and practice their force. Mine was so indistinct. Sometimes it felt like lugging around a giant stone – at other times, it felt like gathering the faintest sparks in my fingers and trying to encourage them into an inferno.
I knew now was not the time to doubt. Every moment wasted with that emotion would give Bella more time.
I couldn’t feel the mansion’s damage from here, but its desperate breath still played around me. It begged me to hurry.
I clenched my teeth. I somehow calmed, and I let my breath weave its magic. As it sank into my belly, a few sparks of intuition rose. They guided me to the left.
I stepped off the bridge, not onto the dirt path beyond. For all I knew, Bella had left a trap. I headed back onto the estate’s grounds. Argyle shifted away, feet crunching over the gravel to give me room. He said nothing, but I felt his watchful gaze on me.
I navigated to the right side of the bridge. I’d never walked down to the river.
I did now. With my eyes closed, no less.
Argyle grunted and pressed close. Hopefully, he’d pluck me back if I looked like I’d swan dive into the raging water.
I somehow navigated down the steep side, clutching onto the twisted trunks of the denuded elms and oaks. I almost slipped at one point, but Argyle grunted and grabbed my arm. Then I slid down to the bank.
“What are you doing?” Argyle asked in a demanding voice.
I chose not to answer. Sometimes it’s better to simply act.
I twisted around the side of the tree closest to me. I had to hug it with all my might not to fall into the river behind.
The wind still whistled, more violently than it had all day. It carried the promise of cold from the mountain tops.
I knew by the end of tonight, it'd snow again. The thick kind of coating snow that would leave the mansion as nothing more than a frosted cake.
A few flakes touched my cheeks now.
I soon navigated under the bridge.
Argyle shut up. He wasn’t exactly screaming. But even his breath became quiet and still. He could feel something, couldn’t he? Because there was definitely something here.
Bella shouldn’t be able to access the bridge at all. But I didn’t know who the space under the bridge belonged to. The mansion couldn’t claim the river. It was fast-moving water. At no moment was it ever the same. Even the rocks would move if the weather was wild enough.
I stood upon a rock now and almost slipped on the slimy surface.
I opened my eyes and stared dead ahead at one of the arches as it plunged deep into the riverbed.
From a certain angle, I swore I saw the beginning of a sub-gate.
I grabbed Argyle, but not for support, and didn’t bother to tell him what I wanted to do next.
I twisted two fingers to the side and opened a gate. Argyle swallowed a breath. He did not jerk away.
As I slipped into the spirit realm, I gave myself that moment of release. Bliss engulfed me. I wanted to say I’d felt nothing like it. It was alarmingly like William’s kiss. It took me beyond all of my troubles. It promised me a better world waited. I only needed to struggle back into its embrace.
It couldn’t last. Bliss never does.
We arrived in the spirit realm. Bella wasn’t here. The sub-gate was.
You could only just see it above the water line. Considering that the water was often higher in winter, most of the time, it would be beneath the river.
Clever Bella. She thought of everything, didn’t she?
I reached out.
Argyle grabbed my hand. “William wanted you to call him.”
“William is in a hell of a state. He’s also Bella’s intended target. She’s doing this to claim him.” My voice hardened. And I knew around a super sensitive werewolf, that meant a lot. I was practically slapping my claim on William.
“It’s not what he wants,” Argyle said softly.
I was surprised by his change of tone. Werewolves didn’t take you aside and have gentle conversations. They scratched you until you understood or barked and howled at the moon.
I could’ve dealt with an argument better. His soft words got to me, making my hackles rise and fists clench. “There’s no way I’m going to let Bella have him. William’s weak. She knows that. She wants him to come out.”
“But what does he want, Lillian?”
I almost wanted to say I didn’t care. Then I remembered the look William shot me. When he’d known I was going out to fight, the fear in his eyes had engulfed him. I swore it had acted as a window back to his past self. I’d seen the little boy thrown in that crypt and forced to grow up on his own. I would’ve given anything to go back into the past and soothe him, to pull him out, to give him a different life.
Couldn’t I give him a different life now?
The world kept telling William he was powerful, yet it’d steal away his choices just when it mattered most.
I sighed and shoved a hand into my pocket. I pulled my phone out and, without another argument, called William.
He grunted he’d be down in a moment. I looked at Argyle. He crossed his arms. He balanced perfectly on the points of two slippery rocks as the river raged around him, as high as his ankles.
I balanced, too, but I leaned against the bridge for support. I also knew that if I inevitably slipped, he'd grab me.
Now he was too busy looking proud. His cheeks were plumped like ripe apples. “You did it. You actually did it. You’re starting to learn you’re not on your own. Nice, isn’t it?”
I pouted at him. “Of course I’m not on my own. Why would I need to learn that?”
He arched an eyebrow that said he didn’t want to reveal the obvious. “You know why packs are so important to wolves?”
“Because you’re genetically primed to believe in them?”
He shook his head. “Because after a while, everyone realizes that power is only part of the equation. It’s not the important part, either. It’s what you can do with power – it’s who you can save.”
“I want to save William,” I said quietly, not needing to use my full volume. If I screamed, the whole city would hear.
“Yeah, but William doesn’t want to be saved by you. He just wants to be by your side.”
Argyle looked right at me like I was an idiot. And look, maybe I was.
His soft admission brought me back to William’s kiss.
The kiss that should’ve been predatory. The kiss from the monster that should’ve led to him biting my neck off. But the kiss that still stuck in my head as a window to something else.
We can imagine the consequences of our actions. Or we can go out there and find out what will really happen.
William didn’t take long. He was stronger now. He arrived on the bridge with Mirabella. She did not come down.
“Head back to the main mansion,” William said to her as he navigated easily down to the river.
He said nothing as he leaned right past me. He said nothing with his lips, at least. His eyes locked on me, and I felt a rush like I passed a test.
A longing, prideful look from William was one thing. If I led him right into Bella’s trap—
The sub-gate activated.
It opened, and we were whisked inside a dark tunnel. It might not be in the mansion, but I knew it was. The feeling of it coated every surface and swirled around me like snow.
William coughed. I thought he’d fall to a knee, but he clenched his teeth hard. “I don’t know what this space is. I’ve never seen it. My parents never warned me of it. I don’t even know if it’s part—”
I leaned past him, grabbed his hand so he didn’t have to stabilize himself, and whispered, “It’s part of the mansion. Don’t ask me why it was divided from the rest, but it’s still a part of your estate. And we’re still going to take it back from Bella.”
I’d called William. I still wanted to take the lead, still had to. The mansion called to me.
I couldn’t tell you why we had such a connection to one another, but I could tell you it needed me. Maybe it proved what Argyle just said. There’s no point in being a lone wolf. After a while you realize your power is there to save others.
And the mansion needed my help more than ever.
Remarkably, William let me take the lead. Quite possibly because he was only acting. He was still weak. He stood tall, and he never wavered, but that was irrelevant. I read his fatigue in every twitching movement.
We struck a dark tunnel.
There was no light, even when William tried to create glow spells.
Fine. I’d already encountered a tunnel exactly like this today.
I moved through it. I wanted to assume I could navigate perfectly, but this wasn’t the anchor church. I fell and cut my knee. I pulled up to my feet, and William clutched my shoulder. “Careful.”
I rubbed my knee. The cut felt different. “William—”
“Wherever we’re going is technically connected to the mansion, but it hasn’t been connected to my life force. It may be…” he became quiet.
“What?”
“Hungry.”
I clenched my teeth and palpated my injury. Blood slid down it. I didn’t know if this was just an impression, but I swore it wouldn’t heal quickly.
Argyle grunted hard. “Is Mirabella going to be OK? We left her in the spirit realm. That confusing place could kill her.”
“She’ll be fine in the mansion,” William spoke with authority.
Authority only he could hold.
He was right. Even though the mansion was compromised right now, the spirit realm version would be the safest place for Mirabella. She wasn’t an idiot. Presumably she’d go back home to the gardener’s house and hide somewhere until this was all over.
Or knowing Mirabella, she’d return to working on the cure for C9R Omega.
We fell into a precipitous silence. I took the lead but kept tumbling. I’d cut myself, and the deep injury felt like hell.
William clutched me to heal the cut, but it wasn’t working.
The mansion was my safe haven. I couldn’t abide by the possibility that a part of it was evil somehow. No, wrong word. Just hungry and abandoned. It gave me the same impression of the young William. I was more determined than ever to find the secret room and bring it back into the fold.
I wouldn’t have to search for long.
We soon came across stairs. They descended sharply. William clutched me back before I nosedived down them. “We’re approaching something important – I can feel it.” His hand slid down my arm, and wordlessly he grabbed my fingers. He locked his palm in so tight, I could never have squeezed free and didn’t want to try.
Then we walked down the wide stairs, two abreast.
The air changed. It was less musty but still ancient. It promised something epic.
Argyle began to twitch. I heard him scratching at his arms. “Where the heck are we going? Magic is building in the air.” He tasted it with his tongue. “And I don’t like it.”
“We’ll be fine,” William lied. His voice betrayed fear.
It was one thing for Bella to gain access to a mansion storeroom. She’d stolen a lot of William’s potions. It wasn’t diabolical, though. But this staircase led to a critical part of the mansion. And if Bella had it—
William suddenly clutched his chest. I spun, blocking him from tumbling headfirst down the stairs. I couldn’t see anything – that didn’t matter. As his face pressed close, his cold and weak mouth sliding against my cheek, I still stared into his eyes. “It’s alright. We’ve got this.”
It was my turn to grab his hand and guide him down the stairs. With each step, it felt like I was facing some important chapter in my life, some inflection point. I could turn or push right through.
I pushed right through. We reached a door. My fingers slid over a handle. I imagined it may have remained locked to me in the real world. Not in the spirit realm. I grabbed it and yanked it open. Then I walked into a chapel.
Chapel didn’t feel like the right word. I knew over the years, vampires must’ve married here, though. The room was so grand, I’d never seen its like.
Even the anchor-point church couldn’t match it.
The ceiling must be above 50 meters. It was domed like other Gothic architecture, and the massive iron-framed glass let in the cold hues of night. They bathed the chapel.
The internal architecture was filled with half pillars and spires. A polished black marble floor unmarred by furniture spread out to the back of the chapel. A giant wall of intricate spires led the eye toward the back dome. While all the other domes were clear, that one boasted red panes glowing like blood.
The walls were primarily stained-glass windows, and though it was night, they let in this dull, quiet glow.
There were only two candles lit in the entire gargantuan room. They were right at the back. There was no dais. This wasn’t a church. This was a place to wed.
Underneath the intricate spires at the back sat a single arched window. While everything else possessed elaborate tracery, it didn’t.
The window was split into two sides as if it were for a couple. Two candles were beneath it, their strong flames dancing.
They were on a step raised slightly from the polished marble black floor, and someone sat on it.
Someone with sumptuous blond locks wearing a long blue hood, camel leather boots, and dark jeans.
Bella slouched against the window as if she owned it, like this chapel was wrapped around her fingers.
William’s breath caught in his throat. Argyle spun out to the side of me until he pressed close. His muscles bristled, and I could tell he was moments from transforming.
Bella did nothing. She slouched further back, then thumbed her cowl off her face. She might be hiding from others in the spirit realm, but not from William. Never from William.
She smiled as her stunning hair fell around her porcelain white skin and high cheekbones. She leaned to the side, plucking up both candles. They lost a little of their wax, and it dripped down her skin. Her perfect skin. Only… what? Half an hour ago, she’d burnt both her hands down to her forearms by bashing on my barrier. The injuries were gone. Because Bella had so many hidden powerful potions around the spirit realm, she could resurrect herself 1000 times.
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