Page 52 of Wicked Warlock
“Terror.”
Terror? “Wait, what?” I wanted to grab the phone from Cross, but I curled my hands into fists at my sides, holding off.
“He scared him to death… Ridge’s heart basically exploded in his chest. I saw it. Pretty cool actually.”
Ophelia lowered her voice to whisper to Maze, “I want to terrify someone to death.”
“It’ll happen at some point.” Maze gave her a reassuring nod.
Logan chuckled. “Impressive for not being a charmer and making him feel it.”
“Listen up, that’s not why I called,” Maze snapped, getting everyone’s attention. “You need to get to the crone now. You better hurry.”
“What the hell is a crone?” I looked around at all their pale faces.
“Ophelia, get her there and stop him,” Maze commanded.
“On it.” O saluted the phone.
“And Astrid,” Maze called out to me. “Don’t let Beckett pay the price.”
Before I could ask what that meant, he hung up the phone. A jolt of terror went through me. What price is my soulmate about to pay?
Chapter 25
Astrid
“What the hell is that music?” I spun around in a circle and was surrounded by cages that were covered in long black cloths.
Cross stood waiting outside a small tent in the center of all the cages. “It’s the circus of freaks. Maze grew up here.”
The sound of growling animals came from behind those curtains, and the cages shook and rattled. Ophelia and Logan walked out behind me and moved to my sides. Logan raised his hand and his magic filtered from his fingers. “Interesting magic laying around here. Calming to make people complacent, pliable even.”
Ophelia practically bounced next to me. “I’ve always wanted to come here. Can we go see all the things? All. The. Things.”
“We’re here on a mission,” Cross reminded her. He leaned in closer. “I’ll bring you back later.”
“See, I told you, you loved me.” She beamed up at him.
I wanted to scream, to tell them we were here for Beckett and he needed us now more than ever. But this was Cross and O; I couldn’t expect anything less. Tucker dropped down from the sky in flaming phoenix form. He morphed from phoenix to human and straightened the collar of his coat. “Are you ready for this?”
“No. But let’s do it anyways.” It was time to bring him home once and for all. I needed to find out what happened to him in Unseelie and get him back to the Beckett I knew before this whole thing started. I needed him, needed us to be okay. He was my soulmate, and we were destined.
Tucker pulled open the tent flap for me and I walked in. An old, decrepit-looking woman with stringy white hair, barely any teeth, and a hunched back stood over a bowl on her altar-like table, swirling it round and round.
“Astrid Lockwood. You are not welcome.” The crone looked back down into the bowl, acting as if I wasn’t there.
“Lucky I’m not here for you.” I glanced around the small, shitty tent. Had I not just been in Jiovanni’s torture chamber, the animal skeletons hanging everywhere might’ve freaked me out. “I’m here for Beckett. Where is he?”
Her voice was low and shaky as she spoke. “In three… two… one.”
A bright blue portal opened up in the middle of the tent and I froze. I knew that magic and felt him coming toward me. My heart quickened at the thought of seeing him. Somehow the hours that he was missing made me feel like he was light years away. Kylian was the first to step through, and I wanted to grab him by the throat and throttle him. How could he have done this with Beckett?
“You’re right. You’re worse than her.” I motioned to Ophelia.
His lips parted in a smile. “Red, you have no idea.”
He reached back into the portal and grabbed at something, then yanked his arm forward. A man staggered out from the portal with Beckett right behind him. Beckett placed his hand on the man’s shoulder and shoved him to his knees before the crone. He placed a knife to the man’s throat and held it there.
