27. The Stag and the Wolf
The Stag and the Wolf
Rumor Malefic
“His wife ?” I screeched with a hoarse throat. “Like a soulmate? To Riot? That can’t be.”
Star Anise crawled to the side of the table. “Forgive me, I really shouldn’t be speaking to you without prior approval. Please, don’t tell my dad, okay?”
With that, she spun down the leg of the table and hopped away, down the long aisles of books.
She was a younger risible, surely she was misinformed.
Why would Riot give me something so meaningful?
All he did was tease me. Both in an infuriating way and a sexual way.
He wasn’t serious—if the dagger was some sort of key to his wretched heart, then he was using the gesture to try to manipulate me.
I would not let a stupid Blackthorne boy manipulate me.
Although… if the dagger really opened doors and provided me a margin of his magic… that was even more useful to me than the library. Riot had really given me a great bounty, hadn’t he? Had he realized what he’d done? Or had he hoped I’d remain ignorant to the enormity of his gesture?
Regardless, I’d use it to my advantage. Strapping the dagger to my thigh, I ripped out the drawing from the book and folded the page, tucking it into my bra.
Luckily, there wasn’t a risible around to yell at me for that move, but I didn’t want to risk grabbing the wrong flower.
Memoir had once misidentified Orchid Berry and harvested Snap Dragon Root instead for a drought spell.
It rained slugs for a week.
That was most unpleasant—but Empath used it as a teaching moment on the importance of triple checking your herbs for accuracy.
Weaving my way through the library, I exited through the main doors.
The face in the wood soundly asleep behind me, I turned the corner down the hall and heard muffled male voices.
Pausing my trek, I pressed my back against a wall.
The voices were a few yards away. Peeking around the side of a statue, a door sat ajar as the two men engaged in a heated discussion.
“She could mean something,” Riot said. “If not to you, then perhaps for me.”
Spade sneered. “Not everything is about you, Riot. Regardless, we don’t have Twenty. Midnight on the clock every goddamn night and we are running out of time before there’s no coming back from it.”
“Are we to help? Seek out the withers for breaking the treaty?” Riot asked, his voice low with some emotion I couldn’t place.
The floor creaked, as if Spade were pacing back and forth. “No, we cannot leave. Not unless…”
The room went silent, the only sound filling my mind was the pulsing in my ears.
A door slammed, and someone stomped out.
I startled, pressing my back to the wall, praying to every goddess I knew that someone didn’t angrily stomp past me and discover my hiding spot.
When all seemed quiet, I tiptoed around the corner, and my heart dropped to my feet.
Spade Blackthorne stood, arms crossed, all in black, staring me down. “Eavesdropping, I see.”
My cheeks flushed red with heat and embarrassment. “It’s not eavesdropping if you’re arguing so loudly everyone can hear you.”
Spade let out a breath and ran his hand through his dark hair. “No, I suppose not. I was coming to find you anyway.”
“Me? Why?”
“I thought I’d take you to meet Wander. Let him sniff you out so he allows you to roam the grounds without chasing or frightening you.” Spade assessed me, his expression softening. “Does that sound nice?”
Something fluttered in my chest. “Yes, thank you.” I boldly took his muscular arm, and to my surprise, he didn’t pull away. My next surprise was how I leaned into him, his warmth, the rough pull of his dark magic like a magnet of attraction.
Did Spade feel it, too?
Did Riot?
Did Twenty?
Somehow, I found myself drawn to all three brothers, each very different men, and each deadly and off limits in their own right.
If they all happened to be equally drawn to me…
could I resist my own impulses enough to use their attraction toward me in my favor?
My goal was finding my sister and keeping her safe.
The enticing lull of their magical allure wouldn’t sway me off course… would it?
No .
Spade offered me his hand to help me down the steep steps into the side grounds of the property.
Wind tousled his raven hair as he stared at me with the intensity of a summer storm.
His power and mysterious, stoic nature begged me to seek out the feeling of his skin against mine…
Would our magics dance? Would he make me more powerful?
Surely, the affections and protection of any one of them would benefit me greatly…
These were thoughts I shouldn’t be having.
Or should I? Fuck the rules, I wanted my sister and…
maybe I wanted a couple of other things as well.
What was the harm in exploring whatever these boys wanted to offer?
Mother always said that you win more flies with honey.
A gray witch operated on a different set of moral guidelines than witches in the light…
though, when I’d whispered something true to the library door, it didn’t budge at my title.
If I weren’t a gray witch—what the hell was I?
“The moss is slippery,” Spade advised, helping me down the broken stone steps and onto the hallowed earth.
My gaze floated over the hundreds of tombstones surrounding us.
“So many graves… all to keep us lowly Willowspire folk out.” It was a half thought, said without malice but with a gentle and horrid surety.
“I grew up looking up at this castle, its graves, and waking up in its dirt. All the while you were here with magical libraries and lycanthropes.”
“What do you mean, ‘ waking up in its dirt’ ?”
“Nothing.” He didn’t need to hear of my affliction.
If a rapture came—I was buried six feet under in a shallow grave on their property.
If my spider didn’t drag me there first .
No doubt the horrid occurrence was a product of his very own magic, known to him or not, I wasn’t about to let him gloat over my continued torment.
His response to my spider was enough pain to last me a lifetime.
I wasn’t eager to feel the dark side of his magic again.
Changing the subject, I asked, “Where is Wander?”
Spade regarded me for a moment, as if deciding if he were going to let the subject go or not. Finally, he made up his mind. “His den is over this hill, on the outskirts of the forest.”
“Will he eat me?”
“Probably not.”
“ Probably ?” I screeched.
Spade chuckled. “With the amount of meat from the kitchen you consume every day, I’m suspicious you might me a lycanthrope yourself.”
I snorted before cupping my hands around my mouth and twirling. “Ahhh-wooooo!”
The corner of Spade’s lips quirked as he fought to hide a smile. There was something almost boyish and rugged about him outside in the waning autumn light of a drizzly afternoon. In the castle he was dark, stern, and reserved… outdoors, he was someone else entirely.
“Do you not get tired of being here?” I asked, climbing the grassy hill. “The castle, Willowspire, all of it?”
“More than you could imagine,” he answered lowly.
His frankness staggered my step, and before I could register the movement, his hand was on my elbow, steadying me. “Does Asunder require you to stay here?” I dared to ask.
“It’s more complicated than that, but, in a sense, yes.” Spade pointed. “Wander’s den.”
The small grassy den appeared, surrounded by tall coned purple flowers.
“Wolfsbane,” I whispered to myself. The ingredient I needed for my next hex. Well, one of the ingredients.
Spade nodded. “That’s right. Wolfsbane is potent, deadly, and beautiful. Like you.”
My heart pounded in my chest, warming my lower belly.
Spade thought I was beautiful? Concealing my flush, I knelt by the purple blooms. Pulling at the stems, I found them tough and hardy.
My grip instinctively went to my hip and unsheathed my dagger, cutting the wolfsbane into a small bouquet.
When I glanced up, Spade was staring at me with an unreadable expression.
“I thought a bouquet would look nice by my bed.” I lied.
With a flash of darkness, he grabbed my wrist. My flowers fell to the ground, and I gasped at his strength as he pulled me close. “Where did you get this dagger?”
Trying to pull my wrist away, it didn’t budge. Spade’s piercing gaze and dark magic rendered me frozen and panting as his power scraped down my shoulder blades. “Riot gave it to me,” I choked out.
Spade pried the white hilt from my enclosed fingers. “This wasn’t his to give—especially not to you . So, I’ll take it back, little thief.”
He released me and I didn’t hesitate to shove his chest with all my might. “We’re back to that? Let me remind you that you’re keeping me here while you refuse to do your duty and help me save my sister or do jack shit for Willowspire. Keep your stupid knife.”
Spade let out an exasperated and angry huff, flexing his hands like he wanted to hit something. Instead, he ran them through his hair before pointing behind him at the castle grounds. “You’re a walking corpse, Rumor Malefic. You see nothing.”
“What?”
“These graves aren’t to keep you out,” he said lowly, with measured control. Something ancient stirred behind his tone. “They’re to keep us in .”
The hairs on my arms rose as if winter’s chill had rolled past at his words.
Terror dried my reply in my throat—just as a low grumble sounded behind me. Turning, I met two glowing amber eyes as they stalked from the darkness of the den. Taking a timid step back, I expected to bump into Spade, but only empty space greeted me.
The lycanthrope’s maw broke from the shadows, revealing his enormous face and chest as he prowled forward. “Spade?” I called on a dry whisper. “What do I do?”