Chapter Twenty-Seven - Teagan #2
“Enough,” Vidar orders. “I’ve spoken with Grey and Astra. They’re close to finding Summer, but something has happened to get Grey personally involved.”
“What?” Sen asks.
“She killed one of his wolves.”
Sen’s hold tightens the second my heart stops beating.
“Drained of blood?” Sen asks.
“Shadow magic,” Vidar replies.
Summer used to be the tattoo studio’s handywoman. She’s funny and sharp, but always kind. Whenever I visited Kai, she’d offer me a cup of tea, and we’d tease my brother for all his wanky art references.
I’ve seen her with blood on her hands—my blood. But she didn’t want it there, no matter what anyone says; Summer didn’t want to hurt me.
And now…
“Summer killed someone?” I whisper.
Kai is coming towards me before I stop speaking and grabs my hands. “You’re safe, I promise.”
I nod, but behind Kai I see Golden’s eyes flash with something like sympathy, and I wonder if he’s thinking the same thing I am but can’t voice.
Summer nearly got Kai killed, nearly killed me, and has now taken a life. She needs to be punished. But I don’t want to be one of the reasons her life is taken.
If only I could flip how I feel about her like I would a coin.
“That shit isn’t your fault,” Elio snaps, bringing me back into the large kitchen with its low lights and soft colours. Elio shifts, his jaw clenched tight like he meant to stay silent, but now has everyone’s attention. “Summer’s consequences are her own. You’re just…unlucky.”
We stare at each other, and after a beat I nod, my heart slowly coming back to life.
“Exactly,” Ramy says, and Golden drops his knitting needles to clatter on the ground. “Summer needs to pay for what she’s done.”
“Why don’t we send all the old fucks away?” Apollo asks, tossing his apple core at Lucero, who watches it bounce off his chest with no reply but a bland expression. “No old hearts, no problem, right?”
Bran chuckles darkly, but says nothing as he pulls out one of the milk bottles. The blood inside sloshes, causing my stomach to turn.
“Apollo has a point,” Ramy says.
“Try and send me away, little brother,” Sen says to Ramy unkindly. “See what happens.”
Ramy brushes off Sen’s tone with a sigh and a flick of his long, silky hair. “Stubborn, the lot of you. Apollo, have you had much luck with…”
For all of Apollo’s bravado, his shoulders slump.
Whatever my expression is, Apollo must see the confusion because he says, “I can see into the future, but not that well.”
“Er… Is that a vampire thing?” I ask.
He scratches the back of his head, face twisted. Then shrugs. “I dunno. Maybe?”
“You can’t blame yourself, Apollo,” Luc explains while picking up Golden’s needles and tucking them in his back pocket. “Before Summer was a blood mage, she was a highly skilled shadow mage, she has the power to hide from foresight.”
Vidar scoffs, disgusted. “Coward is what Summer is. If she wants a fight, she should stop hiding and face me.”
“We need to make a plan,” I burst out, and only now realise my nails are digging into Sen’s forearm. I slowly retract, but Sen puts his palm over mine, stroking my knuckles.
“It’s okay,” he assures me.
I shake my head. “Sen is…he’s important!”
“We know, Teagan,” Vidar says in that way of his where I have no other choice but to believe him.
“Sen isn’t going anywhere,” Kai adds.
“We haven’t been sitting around doing nothing,” Golden assures me, curls bouncing as he nods. “We’ve got a plan.”
“And it will work.” Bran peels off the lid from the milk bottle and brings it to his lips.
A shiver runs down my spine. Sen holds me tighter, and Kai moves fully in front of me.
“You will live, Sen. If for no other reason than because I will claim my soulmate, and I will destroy anyone who gets in my way.” He takes a large gulp of blood, his throat working as he swallows.
If Sen turns me into a vampire, I’d need to drink blood. I’m glad I decided to wait before I’m turned; I don’t even like black pudding.
“Pragmatic,” Sen replies sharply.
“Aren’t I always?” Bran answers with a bloody smile.
“Enough dick measuring,” Vidar orders. “We’re going to lure Summer out and subdue her. Then we can get Elio to look through the blood mage tome.”
“Only the owner can touch the spellbook,” Elio interrupts. “And last time I checked, you aren’t fucking Summer. So even if someone here could touch it, I refuse to cast a spell from the tome.” Elio whips around to look at me, his eyes staying strong but gentle. “Teagan, I’m sorry but—”
“I understand,” I tell him. “Don’t we know another blood mage? Astra, right?”
Sen tenses. “I don’t trust her.”
“We can’t force Elio to do something he doesn’t want to,” I tell Sen. “So, we have to.”
Sen grumbles, but doesn’t disagree.
“I’ll contact her,” Vidar replies, though he also doesn’t seem happy about it.
“Okay, so how do we plan to get Summer here?” I ask.
“As Apollo said,” Lucero chimes in, “she needs an old fuck heart. She’ll have no choice but to come to us.”
“So you subdue Summer,” I say slowly, “get Astra to cast the spell. Then what…?”
“Then I fucking rip her head off,” Sen says into my ear, sending a shiver down my spine.