Page 46 of When Storms Ruin

I wrapped myself in the sweater hanging from the armoire and slipped my feet into my cozy slippers. Nik rubbed the sleep from his eyes, letting out a groan.

“Good morning to you too, Tess. Always good to see you.” He leveled her with a deadpan stare.

She truly did have incredible timing, another few minutes, and I would have already been downstairs drinking my coffee.

The awkwardness of the situation was not lost on me, but the memories of last night came flooding back, reminding me I needed to tell Tess and the rest of the council what I saw in my dream.

“We need to talk,” I told Tess.

She hadn’t left, simply crossed her arms over her chest and stared Nik down with a cold glare.

“I was coming in here to talk to you. I think we need a girls' day in town. Shopping and all that. You down?” she asked, turning towards me as her expression softened.

“I had another dream,” I explained, pushing the curls back from my face. “I have to talk to the council.”

“Can’t that wait?” Tess whined impatiently. “We haven’t had time to ourselves in ages, and I, for one, need a break from all this gloom and doom.”

I started to shake my head, but Nik spoke from his place in the bed. “I think that’s a great idea, actually. If Zion is on his way, it will be easier to loop everyone in together. You need a break, Diana.”

Tess shot him a glare that said he shouldn’t be telling me what I do or don’t need, before turning back towards me. “See? Even he agrees.”

“I don’t know…” I started.

I wasn’t sure I was up for anything as lighthearted as shopping when the knowledge of Donika creating a black magic army complete with disfigured monsters was looming over me.

“You have to wear a glamour. I have some in my room.” Nik slid out of the bed, stretching his arms over his head.

I averted my gaze, cursing myself at how easily both my thoughts and my eyes traveled to the tanned toned strip of bare skin revealed above his pants.

“I don’t need you to agree. I am kidnapping you either way,” Tess told me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

“A glamour?” I asked, skeptical.

Nik nodded, joining us by the door. “And Kenna and Saanvi as bodyguards. At a safe distance…of course. Girls’ day and all that.” Nik winked, turning to pad down the hallway to his room, presumably to grab the glamours.

Back to his old self, I see.

“We need to debrief, especially seeing as I just caught you in bed with loverboy,” Tess whispered, looping her arm through mine.

“It’s not what you think.” I sighed, running a hand through my mess of curls.

“That’s the point. I don’t know what’s going on with you. All of your spare time is taken up by Isaac or Warrick. What about Tess time?” She gave me her best fake pout.

I shook my head, laughing softly. “Fine, but only for today. Tomorrow, it's back to magic training. And we need to dig into the Kotova grimoire.”

“Agreed.” Tess flashed me a toothy smile as Nik appeared outside the door to his room down the hall.

“Catch,” he called, tossing two glass vials one after the other. Surprising myself, I caught them both.

“You’re lucky I’ve been training, or these absolutely would have been wasted all over the floor,” I told him.

“I have every confidence in your training, firecracker. Have fun today. We can talk to the council later tonight.”

I nodded. I did need a day to unwind, even if I felt like I needed to train harder—now more than ever. I needed to wield stronger spells with my storm magic, and I needed to find a spell in the Kotova grimoire that could save us all.

I couldn’t help but think of the vision the grimoire had sent me, and how the spell with the key had been missing when I had gone searching for it. Could that spell be exactly what we needed to defeat Donika? Is that why the grimoire had sent me that particular vision?

I dressed quickly, Tess waiting impatiently on the edge of my bed. We found Saanvi and Kenna waiting downstairs for us, having already been called over to the townhouse by Nik. They agreed to follow us at a safe distance, in case anything should happen.

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