What I would give to be able to curse him again.
As if reading my thoughts, Dane pushes Declan in front of him, and I roll my eyes. “That wouldn’t stop me from cursing you. Not by a long shot.”
I hop from the stool and skirt around the group to place my cup in the dishwasher, Dane continuing to use Declan as a human shield. I call to the curse itching on my fingertips, project an image of what I want, and allow for it to float down to lie dormant in the ground.
“Why aren’t you coming to today’s training session?” Declan asks.
I look away from his prying gaze. “I need to head to the library this morning with Lore and Keaira to do some research.” I hate lying to them, but it’s for their own good this time. I need to do this.
Three sets of eyes narrow on me, and from the hard set of their jaws, I know they heard the lie in my words. But Declan nods first. “Okay. But be back this afternoon by… one? We need to discuss a few things and work on training together as a team.”
“Will do,” I reply and carefully release the breath I’d been holding. Picking up my backpack from where I’d dropped it after yesterday’s studying session, I head toward the front door, pausing only to watch Keaira slope down the stairs toward me.
God she’s getting big. Gone was the small kitten that could sit and curl up on my shoulder, in her place, a small panther. I wonder how much more she’s going to grow. It’s not like we have the room for a lion.
“So, what happened between you and Serena last night?” Declan asks, and I pause as I wait to hear Dane’s reply.
“Serena is an odd woman,” he says softly, and I frown as I struggle to listen in. “She didn’t know we aren’t entirely monogamous or that we aren’t hung up on gender. She fears the forest at night. And she doesn’t think she deserves to be happy because of all the bad things she’s had to do to survive.”
The kitchen grows quiet, but the pounding of the blood rushing through my ears is deafening. Why would he tell them that?
“And Paxton? Put a shirt on around my girl. I’m the only one she should be looking at,” he jokes, and the others laugh.
His girl? I’m no one’s. Not yet, anyway. I call to the curse beneath the ground and will for it to enter Dane, which it does happily.
A smirk pulls at my lips as I softly open the door and shut it behind me. “Serves him right,” I mutter as I loop my thumbs through the shoulder straps of my bag and head up the path toward the academy.
“Serena!” Dane yells from the house, and I hurry far away from the house with Keaira hot on my heels. The heat in my cheeks begins to die as the cool morning air swirls around me.
“Mistress,” Lore sighs. “Did you really have to do that?”
The image I’d used to create my curse pops into my mind, and my laughter helps to ease the burden I carry on my soul. “What’s funnier than Dane with no dick? Dane with boobs.”
She sighs and mutters, “You’re such a child.” But I can hear the amusement in her words as we run up the stairs of the school and down the hall toward the library.
“I’m not a toy that can be claimed… And besides,” I grin as I picture Dane with his new assets. “He’s his own woman now.”
Lore and Keaira laugh as I open the library door, and a sense of dread fills me when I’m reminded of our true purpose.
I sit in the library, watching Lore as she pours over book after book, until I’m sure the boys are well in the midst of training. Then I pick up my bag, untouched since I entered, and quietly slip out of the academy and back home.
I slow to a creep as I make it to our street and watch the house carefully, making sure no heads pop up over the garden wall to see me, or peer out of the curtains to watch me approach the porch. I can hear commotion coming from our backyard; shouts and the clang of metal on metal and metal on wood.
When I reach the front door, I place both hands on it as I twist the handle slowly and open it. Keaira shoots inside first, and I follow her, timing my close of the door with the clash of swords, then head up the stairs, once again avoiding all of the creaking floorboards, until I’m at my room. I slip inside and lock the door.
I swallow around the lump in my throat and the racing in my ears as I take out my phone and dial the one number that I hate the most.
“Ah, Serena, how goes my little spy?” he greets.
“I wanted to let you know that I’ve found out how to sign up for the Trials, and the prize will be the Trident of Truth.”
“Good, good…” Rostova murmurs. I can hear a pen scratching in the background and imagine him going off to research the relic as soon as this call is over. “And who will be joining you?” he asks.
I grimace. “I’m still working on that.”
“Oh? And what of your... teammates?” he says the word mockingly. “They seem competent enough to carry you through.”
I meet Lore’s eyes and she lets out a low, warning hoot. “What?”
“I said they seem competent,” he says.
“No, yes, I heard that part.” I swallow, my mouth suddenly bone dry. “Have you…
