33. Chapter 33
Sienna walked back into the office with John on her heels. His confidence in her abilities meant more than he could ever know. She scooped up her phone from the desk, opened the chat group, typed quickly, and then set the phone down.
“What are you up to, Si?” Ryan sat back in his chair. “You have your throat-punch face back in play.”
She glanced at John before answering Ryan. “I sent Mia another message. Hopefully it will get her attention.”
“What did you send?” John asked.
“Two words: it worked.”
“What do you want her to think worked?” Ryan stood.
“Anything she wants. Maybe it’ll put a fire under her to reach out again.”
“Her imagination is greater than anything we could tell her,” John said.
“Exactly.” Her phone dinged. “And there we go. Mia wants to meet again.” She waited for the details. “Today at one. Same room as before at Vanderbilt.”
Ryan headed toward the door. “I’m going to get Marcus. That doesn’t give us much time to get everything ready. At least we’re familiar with the location.”
The door shut and Sienna turned to John, who crossed his arms and seemed ready for battle.
“What’s with the crabby look and crossed arms? You’re not going to try and talk me out of meeting with Mia, are you?”
“No. I’m coming with you.”
Sienna’s alarm bells jangled. “You said that before. Do you think it’s a good idea?”
“I think that I need to be with you now that we’re close to breaking the curse.
As you already pointed out a while ago, Mia has to have figured out by now that I’m here.
If Templars attacked my cabin, they saw you drive up and shot at both of us.
They have to know your clan is hiding me or knows where I am.
Hell, that’s probably why they sent the damn drone. ”
She wasn’t going to argue with him, especially when the door opened and Ryan, Marcus, and her brothers came into the room and started talking through the security plan.
A few short hours later Ryan held open the door and Sienna entered the classroom with a sense of déjà vu.
Except this time John was beside her. Even though this was serious business, she couldn’t help but smile at the way John was dressed.
Tessa had taken it upon herself to make him look professor chic.
She had raided Adam’s and Eric’s closets.
John was dressed in nice jeans with an oxford shirt and a jacket.
Knowing Tessa, if she would have had enough time, she would have sewn patches on the elbows and forced him to carry a pipe.
They’d compromised with a pair of glasses.
Add all that with his scruff and it was a heady combo.
Tessa had declared he’d have co-eds lining up to take his classes regardless of the subject.
They walked farther into the classroom and stopped midway down when the door at the front of the classroom opened and Mia entered. She gave John a once-over before turning to Sienna.
“Let’s not waste time. You said it worked. What worked? How to stop the curse?”
“Not yet. Megan said you’re brilliant, so listen close. Are you ready?”
Mia’s eyes widened. “Yes.”
Sienna recited the curse.
“And?” Mia pushed.
She told Mia the second paragraph.
Mia frowned. “I see what you mean by that not really providing you with anything concrete to bring magic back. We know that the oracles are back and obviously the Templars are in this up to their necks, but the rest is vague. And it doesn’t reference the dragon sentries at all.”
“Your research on the sentries was very helpful,” Sienna added.
Mia’s eyes tightened. “Is that what you meant by ‘it worked’? You figured out how to bring back the sentries?”
Was she going all in? “Yes.”
Mia stiffened. “Then we’re definitely out of time, especially with John here in our midst.” She turned to him. “I know you, John Baker—Harper, Collins, Jones, Hopkins, Cunningham. Should I continue?”
John shook his head.
“Not sure if you were going for a Clark Kent moment with the glasses, but it didn’t work. The Templars will be really eager to find us, especially with you bringing the witch-dragon here. They were royally pissed they weren’t able to get to you before the cabin blew up. Nice touch, by the way.”
“If the Templars know that John can’t die, then why try and attack him to begin with?” Sienna asked, locking her knees so that she didn’t rush down and shake Mia.
Mia gave her a long look. “To incapacitate him.”
“Why? So that they can try to figure out a way to kill him?”
“No. The opposite. They want to lock him away so that the curse can’t be broken. But now that we have dragon sentries again, we can stop it all.”
“How?” John asked.
An alarm sounded, making them all flinch. “What is that?” Ryan yelled.
“Fire alarm. Don’t believe in coincidence. They’re trying to flush you back outside. Come on. We need to go,” Mia said as she walked to the door at the front of the classroom.
Ryan came to one side of Sienna and John the other.
Mia turned back and shook her head when they weren’t behind her. “Follow me and I’ll explain when we’re safe. You don’t want to face off with the Templars’ hired guns around a bunch of students, do you?”
Sienna looked to Ryan and John, who both nodded.
They jogged down to the front of the room, Ryan taking the lead before heading through the door behind Mia.
They walked into a smaller room. Mia shut the door and jammed a chair under the doorknob.
She headed out a side door and down an empty corridor, the alarm still ringing.
She came to a door and opened it. A metal gate blocked stairs that led downward.
“Where are we going?” Sienna demanded as Marcus barked the same question in her ear.
“There are underground tunnels through the campus that house utilities. I can get you out of the building over to the south.” She pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked the gate as a gate alarm went off, and she shut it down quickly.
“Come on. Your earpieces aren’t going to work down there.”
“We’re heading to the next building to meet you,” Marcus said over the coms.
They hurried down the stairs and turned into a long tunnel with various pipes running along the walls. Mia pulled out a flashlight, and they set a quick pace through the tunnel. The fire alarm from above was thankfully muffled.
“Is this how you move around the campus?” John asked.
“Yes. We have a stop to make first before you head out.”
They jogged for a bit before Mia stopped in front of a door. She pulled it open, and they entered a storage room.
“Can you watch for anyone coming this way?” she asked Ryan.
He nodded and stood in the door while Mia walked farther into the storage area and Sienna and John followed her.
Mia strode over to the corner of the room and pushed aside a bunch of tools in order to pull out a flat metal box.
“What is that?” Sienna asked as she held her breath.
Instead of answering, Mia opened the box, and John staggered back a step. Inside was a metal dagger with a dragon sentry symbol engraved on the handle.
The box started to shake in her hands. Mia’s eyes widened. “I think it recognizes John. I guess that validates my theory.”
Sienna looked at John’s pale face and her heart sped up. “What theory?”
“That it’s the dagger my grandmother used to start the curse,” John answered, his voice like gravel.
Mia nodded. “And as far as we know, no one has held it since John’s grandmother cast the spell.”
“What are you talking about?” Sienna asked. “You’re holding it now.”
“I’m holding the box. If I try to touch the dagger, depending on its mood, it will either block with a force field, shoot across the room, or if it’s feeling especially nasty, it will let you almost touch it before shocking the crap out of you.”
Sienna shook her head. “You talk about it like it’s alive.”
“To a certain extent it is. And it’s the only thing that will bring the curse to its knees.”
“And now you’re acting like the curse is a living, breathing thing as well.”
Mia looked at John. “It is.”
The words hit Sienna’s chest like a blow to her solar plexus. She tried to gulp air as she also turned to John and looked into his pale blue eyes. Eyes that held no shock at Mia’s announcement.
“It only makes sense that I need to die in order to break the curse,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
It only makes sense? Seriously? Her head jerked from side to side. “But you can’t die.”
“Up to this point there hasn’t been anything that could kill him,” Mia said. “But I believe that this dagger can. And now that we have the dragon sentries once again, if anyone can wield this dagger, it’s them.”
The sentries that she had brought to life. “You want my brothers to kill John?”
Mia’s eyes flashed sadness for a brief moment before she schooled her expression. “I think that is the only way to end this, yes.”
Sienna backed away from her. “No.”
John rested his hands on her arms and turned her to face him. “Sienna, the Templars can’t get me. If they do, everything will be lost. They will hide me away, and we’ll never stop this. All dragons will cease to be.”
Sienna’s heart thumped so loud she felt it in her ears. “We don’t even know if they’ll be able to touch the dagger.”
Mia closed the box. “You need to take it with you and have them try. We’ve already been down here too long.” She held it out, and Sienna felt her stomach threatening to rebel.
“Why should I believe you? Maybe killing John will keep the curse alive forever.”
Mia shook her head. “It won’t. I can’t let them win.”
“Why!” Sienna yelled.
“Because they killed my husband! The electrocution wasn’t an accident.
Lily drew a picture of my husband lying on the ground with a man standing over him with a Templar cross on his chest. When I refused to quit my job and change my life for them, they got rid of him and destroyed my life. Now you need to go.”
Sienna’s brain was on overload, and it was hard to grasp what she was saying. “Wait. Where are you going?”