Page 31 of Wicked Ties
“I don’t.”
“Yes, you’ve got the whole cold thing going.” She scanned me from head to toe. “How’s it feel to feel nothing?”
“I think you answered that question.” I looked past her. “Do you know where Astrid is?”
“Yep.”
“Are you going to tell me?” For some reason this situation intrigued me. She wasn’t trying to stab me, so what was she trying to do?
“Depends.”
I wrinkled my nose. “On what?”
“If you are my friend, then I will tell you where she is.” She swayed from side to side. “Those are my terms.”
“Are you . . . are you blackmailing me into being friends with you?”
“How else do you make friends?” She shoved the lollipop into her cheek then crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you have a better idea, demon girl?”
Vague memories of friendship entered my mind, but I felt nothing when it came to them. How did I make those friends? How did I manage to make Astrid my friend?
“No, I don’t have a better idea.”
“Good.” She turned to stand next to me then looped her arm through mine. “Then we are friends. I’ve always wanted a demon friend, but Cross wouldn’t let me trap one. So you’ll do.”
“All right.” Was that how it was done? I didn’t know, but I was going with it so she would take me to Astrid.
Ophelia tugged me along, through the courtyard, past the fountain that made me want to gag and shit, all at the same time. Then down another hall to a set of stairs that led into a dark basement. This place I remembered. I recalled pinning some kind of creature to a wall when it threatened Astrid. I remembered sitting there while they tried to figure out how to bring the walls around the world back up. Even then the only thing I wanted to do was sit next to Maze. When we got to the basement level, there were more dorm rooms with former students of Warwick, hanging out.
Ophelia stopped at a closed door then shoved it wide open. When it banged against the wall, Astrid’s head snapped up along with all the other witch queens. Her brows rose in surprise. “Tilly, hi.”
I gave an awkward wave to them all. “Hi.”
Ophelia sauntered into the room. “We’re best friends now.”
Astrid glanced from here to me and back again. “It looks like you are.”
“She blackmailed me.”
The others all chuckled. Power rolled out of the room toward me, and it felt like getting pulled under water and stuck there. I would know. They stood around a long rectangular wooden table. At the center of the table was a map of the world. Zinnia leaned over it, and strands of her long midnight hair fell onto the map. Silvery magic twinkled within the dark strands and around her body, like it just flowed about her unconsciously. Tabi, queen of elements, stood across from her, and she, too, had ribbons of yellow magic winding up and down her arms that lit her dark skin with a golden glow. It wound up her body and into the tight curls that stood away from her face.
She pointed to a place on the map. “Here, too.”
Serrina pointed to another spot on the map. She was model beautiful, with long streaked blond hair, bright eyes and full red lips. “Also, in this place.”
Astrid took her eyes off me for a second. “I’ll be back in just a second. Mind if we take a break?”
They all nodded and stepped back from the table. Zinnia, Tabi, and Serrina began to speak to each other in hushed tones. Astrid motioned for me to join her in the far corner. We wound our way through the empty tables all the way to the corner.
She turned back to me. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head. “Not really.”
“What can I do?” She bit her bottom lip and when she looked up at me with those emerald eyes, they were almost pleading for me to give her a job to do. But I had to tell her something first.
“Astrid, before I ask you to help me, there’s something you should know. I think I hurt someone. A young woman. I-I might’ve killed her.”
She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “Might?”
