Page 7 of Wicked Warlock
I broke into a sprint, pumping my arms, running to where I saw Niche pushing at the students and tossing them aside. “Will you all move!”
Yet they stood like statues, blocking her from whatever they were gathered around. Ophelia rushed up next to Niche. “MOVE NOW!”
The crowd parted instantly, and Niche threw herself forward. The other students dropped to their knees and then I saw her… Serrina.
I lifted up my hand and without saying a word, Tuck’s fire wings exploded from his back. He grabbed my wrist and lifted me up off the ground. We shot over the crowd huddled around Serrina, and he dropped me down right next to her. She lay on the ground with her blond hair spread around her like a halo. Her normally red lips held a pale blue tinge. The color left her face, leaving behind a gray pallor that held the look of death. Niche pressed her fingers to Serrina’s neck. She pressed her fist to her chest and rubbed her hand in hard circles.
“Serrina! Serrina! Can you hear me?” Her voice rose with each word.
Ophelia stood over Niche with her lips pressed into a hard line. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Did she get hit by something? Magic?” She looked at the crowd.
Brax, who’d been so silent, so stoic until now shook his head. “No, I’ve been with her the whole time.”
“You’re sure? Not even a needle?” Niche ran her hands down Serrina’s arms and legs, then turned her on her side, examining every inch of her from head to toe. She ran her fingers over her back and shoulders, then down each pant leg.
“No, I was with her. Nothing happened. She just collapsed, fainted.” His Russian accent was so thick with emotion I could barely understand him. I’d never heard him speak so many words at once and look so devastated at the same time.
Niche rolled Serrina from her side over to her back. She clasped one of her hands over the other and started doing compressions on her chest. Her eyes were wild and her glasses began to slide down her nose. “There’s explanation for this.”
Ophelia grabbed Niche’s hair and began to tug at the strands. “Do something!”
“I am doing something! I’m pumping her damn heart because she’s not!” She pressed hard.
“Magic! Use some healing shit on her!” Puffs of gray smoke drifted up from her hands and she shuffled from one foot to the other.
“Like what?” Sweat beaded Niche’s head and began to run down the sides of her face.
Ophelia began to pace back and forth behind Niche, her cheeks turning an even brighter red as she flipped open her potion pouch. The sound of clanking vials filled the air and three potions tumbled to the ground one after the other. The crowd sprang back as the potions burst into small puffs of smoke.
“I-I don’t know what I have here. Tell me what you need!” Ophelia’s frantic words cut through the night. “I don’t care what you have to do, just do it.”
“This is what I am doing. There’s no explanation for one of you just dropping dead!” Niche’s words ran over my body like shards of glass. NO!
“DEAD!” Ophelia lurched toward Niche and Cross seemed to appear out of nowhere. He wrapped his arm around her hips and lifted her up off the ground, holding her in place. She kicked out her legs, fighting his hold. “You fix this! You heal her now! I will not lose any more of my family tonight!”
“Shhhh, O. Shhhh.” His arms constricted around her. “It’s gonna be okay.”
She threw back her head connecting with his nose. The sound of cracking bone made me wince, yet he didn’t let go. He dropped to the ground at Serrina’s feet and cradled Ophelia in his lap, holding her as tightly as he could until there was no more fight left in her.
“I will kill whoever did this to her.” Her words were a whispered threat that I felt deep in my soul… soul…
“Tuck.” I patted his arm. “Check her wrist.”
“What?” His brows furrowed in confusion.
“Check. Her. Wrist. Just do it, please.” I held still as a statue.
He dropped to his knees beside Serrina and pulled up the sleeve of her sweater. “Nothing.”
“Move the bracelets.” I wanted to be strong, to be the queen they all needed me to be. But this was too much.
He grabbed the thick cuff and slid it up her forearm revealing a twisted mark that encircled her entire wrist. A collective shocked gasp filled the air. Niche stopped the compressions and at sat back on her heels. Tears fell from the corners of her eyes and ran down her cheeks, falling onto her lap. Tiny gasping breaths escaped her lips as she fought to not all-out sob.
“There’s nothing… There’s nothing I can do.”
Grayson knelt down beside Tuck’s side, gently taking Serrina’s hand from Tucker. He laid her fingers across his and held up her arm, examining the mark.
