Cori, Anya and Lark arrived just as Kendall was leaving. They were all smiles and questioning glances.
Well, Anya and Lark were all smiles and questioning glances.
Cori had frozen in place and was staring at Reed, as if she were transfixed.
Reed stood as still as she did, his eyes smoldering as he observed my sweet friend.
“Girls, go back with the others,” Headmistress Hart called out.
They scattered, though Anya had to half-drag Cori away.
“Lord Protector,” Headmistress Hart said as she approached. “You are refusing the bond with my student?”
“Quite the opposite,” Luke said sternly.
“I don’t understand,” the headmistress said, looking back and forth between us. “Why are you returning her?”
“I have claimed her,” Luke said, causing the blood to rush to my cheeks. “The bond is sealed. But the terms of our agreement have been modified.”
“I have not agreed to modify any terms,” Hart said.
“You’ll agree to this one,” Luke told her plainly. “Bella is to continue her studies. She is to have her freedom.”
Hart’s eyes went wide, and she glanced over at me.
I smiled and nodded once, to show her I was happy with this arrangement, and that it wasn’t a trick.
“I believe I do like that modification, Lord Protector,” she said with a wry smile.
“She is still my mate,” he cautioned her. “She will return to me each evening.”
“Agreed,” Headmistress Hart said.
She lifted her palm as if to give him a high five. He lifted his and they pressed their hands together.
I felt a shiver of magic shimmer in the air and then it was gone.
“It is done,” Luke told me, his eyes so bright and pleased that I could barely restrain myself from kissing him.
There would be plenty of time for that later. Right now, I had so much to catch up on at school.
“See you tonight?” I asked.
“See you tonight,” he said with a smile, leaning down to kiss the top of my head.
He turned and his brothers turned with him. A moment later, they had all disappeared back into the labyrinth.
“Alright then, Bella,” the headmistress said fondly. “I don’t know what you did, but I’m glad to have you back. You need work, but I’ll make a witch of you yet.”
35
Bella
Following our afternoon class, Anya, Cori and I went to see Nina, who had spent the day in her dorm room.
We knocked on the door and Lark opened it.
“Hey guys,” she said.
I nodded to her and jogged over to Nina’s bed. She was curled up with a book, which should not have surprised me.
“You’re okay?” I asked her, relief washing over me as I sat on the edge of her quilt.
“I’ve got a pretty nasty bump on my head, and I had a headache all morning,” she said with a wry smile. “So I didn’t go to class, just in case. But I’m totally fine now.”
“Thank God,” I said, meaning it.
“Was that guy really a warlock from the Order of the Broken Blade?” Cori asked. “I thought all that stuff was history.”
“That’s what Luke says,” I told her. “The guardians aren’t happy about them being out in the open again. He thinks they’re planning something.”
And the information Luke and I had just discovered made it pretty clear what that something was.
“I’m just glad we have the book back,” Nina said. “It was totally worth it.”
“I’m so grateful to you guys for that,” I said, knowing that I had to tell them the bad news. “I’m grateful for everything. But there’s a problem.”
“What’s wrong?” Anya asked.
“The man who was trying to take the book managed to rip a page out,” I told them. “Luke and I looked at it today and we realized which page it was.”
They all leaned in.
I hated to tell them, hated to leave them with this threat when they had saved my life and saved the rest of the book. But they deserved the truth.
“It was the page claiming to be a spell to wake the Raven King,” I said softly. “And we can’t even try to predict what they’ll try to do next because the page is gone. I’ll never know what it said.”
“Actually,” Nina said thoughtfully. “Someone grab my notebook?”
Cori scrambled for the notebook on Nina’s desk and handed it over.
“I saw that page for a second right before he hit me,” Nina said. “I’m not sure, but I think… maybe…”
We all watched as she closed her eyes and began murmuring a spell under her breath.
Words faded into existence on the paper in front of her. By the time she opened her eyes again, the entire page was filled with arcane scrawlings.
“Oh, wow, Nina,” I said.
Most of the writing was in a language I didn’t understand, but it looked like instructions for a spell, including a circular diagram and a list of components that would be necessary to cast it.
“What are you guys up to?” Kendall’s voice cut the air as she stepped into the room.
“Hey,” I said, rising immediately. “Thank you so much, for helping me with the book this afternoon.”
“Don’t mention it,” she said. “I got it back to the library, but I might have, uh, shelved it in the wrong spot.”
“What do you mean?” Nina asked, sounding upset at the idea of a book being misfiled.
“I figured if you stole it, you must need it for something important,” Kendall said, shrugging. “I thought it would be good if it was easier for you to get to it next time. I can show you later.”
“Thanks,” I told her again.
“So what are you all up to?” Kendall asked. “I want in.”
“It’s nothing, really,” Lark said quickly, pushing her purple glasses up her nose.
“Look, I helped you guys out,” Kendall said. “Whatever is going on, it seems like you could use another friend.”
Everyone looked at me. I guessed they were right to, this was my mess to untangle.
I locked eyes with Cori, who was normally the victim of Kendall’s aggressions. This was going to be her decision.
She nodded.
“Okay, Kendall,” I said. “Come on in.”
She
