Page 4 of Wicked Thirst
Blinding light filled the area and The Fallen charged forward, but it was too late. She was gone, leaving me there to live or die with the curse of love . . .
CHAPTER TWO
ZINNIA
“Ijust don’t understand what the hell is going on.” The school was eerily still this early in the morning. Most of the students went home for holiday break while the skeleton crew remained. Even most of the teachers were gone. Yet here I was standing in our meeting room in the basement of the school, wondering what the hell was wrong.
For some reason it felt colder, damper, and desolate now. The silence in the halls sat heavy in the air. Normally, I would’ve been sleeping and enjoying the comfort of my soulmate. Yet I couldn’t sleep. There was something in the air that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge. Magic was my existence, and I loved every bit of it, but why did it feel as though the balance was off in the world? It was as though darkness lingered around every corner. I shivered and ran my hands up and down my arms.
“Hey, couldn’t sleep again?” Tucker, my soulmate, walked into the room holding a mug in each of his hands.
I couldn’t help but give him a smile every time I saw him. If ever there was anyone on my side and by my side, he was it. He was perfection in every way, with his bed-tossed auburn hair and molten honey eyes. Though it was winter, he still wore a thin hoodie, T-shirt, and jeans. I took the cup and sipped at its contents. “Oh, it’s cold.”
“That’s what I get for walking across the courtyard in the middle of winter.” He reached out and placed his hand on the side of my cup. Warm light shined in his palms and warmth spread through the contents of my mug. Steam rose from the top and drifted up toward my face.
I sucked in a deep breath and sighed. “Thanks, babe.”
He winked. “So, what are we doing?”
I groaned and slid onto one of the stools next to the table. “Something is wrong.”
“Something?” His brow furrowed in confusion. “Care to be more specific?”
“I know it sounds crazy, but I feel it in the air. Magic is off.” I rested my elbows on the table and gave a little huff.The world had a certain push and pull, a certain feel to it on any given day. But the last few days there was a build that I could not explain. It kept me up at night and made me feel restless during the day, like walking into a room and forgetting why you went in there in the first place. Everything was just . . . off.
“Like all magic, period?” He raised his eyebrows at me while sipping at his own drink.
“Yes . . . all of it. I can’t explain it. I just feel it all around me. It’s kind of like when you’re alone in a huge dark house and you feel like something, or someone is watching you . . . like the creeps all over your skin.” I sighed. “I’m not explaining this right.”
“No, I understand you. We just have to figure out what it is.”
“Makes my skin crawl.” A shiver went down my spine. “It’s icky.”
“Icky?”
“Dark.” I met his eye. “It’s very dark.”
A bright blue, swirling portal opened in the middle of the room, and I sat up straighter. Tucker turned toward the blue light and sipped at his drink. “This should be interesting.”
“I’m hoping they found something to explain all this.” I motioned to the map spread across the table. Every mark was a place where I thought I felt a magical flare-up, yet every time we checked it out, there was no sign of anything at all. “Otherwise, they’re going to think I’m starting to go crazy.”
Tuck shook his head. “No one thinks that.”
No one would be able to open a portal right into this room unless they were one of our crew. Evermore Academy was protected by The Fallen and many layers of magic. If someone was coming in, they were granted permission, not just using their magic to infiltrate the school whenever they felt like it. Our enemies were many, so our protections had to be tight. Beckett sauntered out of the portal with Astrid at his side. He shook his blond hair out and sand fell to the floor around them. It sounded like grains of sugar hitting the floor. Astrid brushed her hands down her shirt and stomped her feet, sending even more sand to the floor.
Their magic filled the space, and I felt it run over my skin. I could tap into either of them and take whatever power they had to offer, but I wouldn’t unless it was freely offered. Taking magic that wasn’t my own was a slippery slope. As the Siphon Queen, it was my responsibility to keep the balance within myself and around the world. No one felt power the way I did, and I would be damned if I let it consume me the way it did my father.
Astrid could manifest anything her heart desired, which made her a hugely powerful ally. She was all fiery looks and attitude with her dark-red hair and bright emerald eyes. Beckett was powerful in his own right as one of the warlock heirs and a guardian of the Witch Queens. He could move anything with his magic. Yet he had a calm about him that made his magic feel like a cool balm against hot skin. It was almost icy like his ocean-blue eyes.
He ran his hand through his blond hair and strands of it fell back into his face. “What’s up?”
“Did you guys find anything?” I wanted them to find something, but I also did not. If they found something dark, that would mean my suspicions were correct and something was very wrong. But when they found nothing, it just meant I was going to drive myself crazy looking for whatever I felt was wrong. It was a damned if they did and damned if they didn’t situation for me.
Astrid shook her head. “Nothing. It’s like whatever was there is gone now.”
“I don’t get it.” I looked at the map spread out before me. I ran my hand over the points I’d marked. “I know they’re there.”
Astrid dropped down into a chair across from me and looked down at the points. “It was weird.”
