Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
It’s well past first light when Cassian raps at the door to my nest with a single knuckle, two cups of coffee in his hands.
The aroma greets me, nearly as welcome as his sunshiny sea-air scent.
I beckon for him, and he sets the mugs down and crawls toward me, pressing me down into my nest as he comes over me to brush a kiss over my lips.
“Good morning,” he murmurs against my jaw, making my toes curl beneath my blankets. “You have an expedition to prepare for, love.”
He’s beautiful in the midmorning light filtering into my nest. The sunlight catches in his dark, smoky eyes, bringing out the golden shades of whiskey.
If not for the very expedition he mentioned, I’d while away the rest of the morning with him in my nest, exchanging sweet words and sweeter touches.
“Is that coffee?” Ian asks from beside me, his voice heavy with sleep.
Cassian laughs and rolls off of me. “A white mocha for each of you, yes.”
I sit up just enough to tug Cassian back in for another kiss and feel his elation through our bond. He takes such joy in taking care of me, in taking care of our pack, and it only makes me love my first mate even more than I ever thought possible. “Thank you, Cass.”
“What do you think you’re going to find? Luca told me you’re headed up to Marmora Castle today.” Cass leans over to grab me my coffee, and I take a grateful sip when he hands it to me.
“I don’t know, but I’ve learned to listen to my affinity. I couldn’t ignore this if I tried. The dream felt so real, like I was actually there. There is something hidden on that cliff.” But what it is, I truly have no idea.
Luca pops his head into my nest, a roguish grin on his face. “Are we going exploring or aren’t we, sleepyheads?”
Ian mutters under his breath, but I kiss him until his frown disappears and he’s fully awake. Amid more coffee-flavored kisses, we dress and meet Luca downstairs a few minutes later, where Marcus is already waiting for us, keys in hand.
He glances between me and Ian, and I wonder what he sees when he looks at us, if that fleeting darkening of his eyes is longing or jealousy.
I reach out with my affinity, but he stonewalls me as he always does.
I get nothing from him. No insight into the way his brow quirks into a tense vee for a split second, no answers to the questions on my lips.
Ian grabs a notebook, then helps me into my yellow woolen pea coat.
Even in early April, a bitter chill sweeps across Deer Island on brisk, biting winds.
We pile into the SUV, with Luca in front to guide Marcus to the old castle.
Ian pulls me across the back seat and into his arms, and I cherish his warmth, knowing it’ll be even colder up on the cliffs.
We pull off a dirt road at the base of a sloping hill leading up to a cliff along the bay.
Waves crash, the surf churning at the base of the cliff.
We exit the SUV and stretch our legs while we take in the overgrown trail leading up the hill.
Stone cobbles line the path, mud and sprigs of winter-yellowed grass filling in the gaps between the stones.
Luca takes my hand and draws me forward. Ian’s admonishment to be careful is lost on the wind as the itch to explore overtakes me, and I begin the long scramble up the grassy hill. This is where Luca and I shine, uncovering the secrets and beauty of this wild island we call home.
The castle finally comes into view when we reach the hill’s summit, and it steals my breath.
My dream did nothing to capture the menacing storm clouds winding around its spires, the way lightning seems to be captured between clouds like it’s frozen in time.
The dark clouds are heavy with rain, and errant rays of sunlight catch in the thick mist, throwing prismatic rainbows around the castle’s tall towers.
The castle itself is resplendent, seemingly untouched by the passage of the centuries since its construction.
Not a stone is out of place or worn by wind and sea spray.
Edging closer, I can feel the magic surrounding the castle; the air is heavy with it, and it raises the fine hairs at the nape of my neck.
I shiver as I approach the edge of the magic.
It shimmers slightly, like wards, but there’s a chaos to it I’ve only felt in one other place before: the conservatory at Rose Manor where my magic exploded out of me when my father came to take me away, to lock my magic.
It was the magic of trauma, and I wonder if the magic surrounding the castle is the same.
I reach out and skim my hand over the wall of magic, sharp sparks stinging my palm.
I draw my hand away with a hiss of pain, chagrined when Luca pulls me back from the tempestuous magic.
“Careful, princess. I don’t like this at all.”
“Nor I,” Ian agrees, joining us at the top of the hill.
I stand my ground, staring down my mates and Marcus. “I saw the castle in my dreams for a reason. I’m sure of it.”
Pain rips through my skull an instant later, forcing me to my knees. The dewy grass soaks into the denim of my jeans, and I shiver. A vision whips through me, dragging me under like the tumultuous sea surging below us.
“Juniper!” Ian shouts, rushing to me and kneeling at my side, all but holding me up as my vision threatens to overtake me. “Resist the vision, my darling. You’re still weak from last night.”
But it’s already far too late.
A sigil slams into my mind, making me wince. It’s a third-order inverse sigil, one I recognize from Ian’s thorough tutelage. I grab my scribe from the pocket of my coat and etch it into the dirt, knowing, somehow, that there will be more sigils to follow.
They strike me like brands, searing into my mind. I scratch the following seven sigils into the dirt as fast as my fingers will allow.
Storm clouds clash overhead, thunder rolling over the castle courtyard as lightning sizzles across the sky, hot and electric.
My head throbs, and I have to squint my eyes shut against the bright flashes of lightning.
I sag when the vision releases me, collapsing into Ian’s waiting arms. He pulls me close, and his cedar-and-bergamot scent guides me back to the present, out of the foggy haze of the vision.
I smile up at him, just the smallest quirk of my lips, before I swoon.
“We have to get her to Mai,” Ian barks, effortlessly standing with me tucked in his arms. His heart beats out a frantic rhythm beneath my ear as I float at the edge of consciousness.
He tightens his arms around me, and I let myself drift away, catching only the smallest snatches of conversation.
My mates’ worry. Marcus’ rumbled question.
I come to in the SUV, tucked into Luca’s arms as Ian and Marcus fret over me. I blink up into Marcus’ green-gray river-rock eyes. They’re narrow with tense worry, and my first thought as I wake from my swoon is that, in some way, Marcus Haley loves me.
If only he hadn’t lied to me.
“We’re taking you back to campus,” Ian tells me, no room for argument in his tone. “I want Mai to look at you.”
I frown up at him, ready to argue. “I’ll be fine with some rest. You know that.
We have to figure out what the spell means, Ian.
” If it even is a spell. It isn’t simple or straightforward; it’s composed of complex sigils, some of which I haven’t learned in classes or in my extracurricular studies with Ian yet. “Please tell me someone got a picture.”
Ian digs out his phone and his notebook, passing me each, grumbling about stubborn omegas.
I trace my fingertips over the sigils in his notebook with a frown. “I don’t recognize half of these.”
“I suspect they’re very, very old.” Ian points to a few of the sigils swimming before my eyes.
Saints, maybe I should see Mai. I shake my head to clear it. “We need to investigate. I need to go back up to the castle.”
“Out of the question,” Luca growls from behind me, his wine-and-cherries scent spiking. “You’re as weak as a kitten right now.”
I groan, turning into his leather coat and breathing him in. “But I need to figure it out. My vision led me here for a reason.”
I hear rather than see Ian’s huff of hesitation. “You could stay here with Luca while Marcus and I investigate.” The worried I guess goes unspoken.
Luca combs his fingers through my loose blond hair, soothing me. “I don’t like it.”
In truth, I don’t either. It was my vision that led us to the castle in the first place.
But if this is the only way I can get answers…
I cuddle down against my bad boy alpha and look up into his sea-green eyes.
“Please, Luca? You can call for them if anything happens to me. Or take me to Mai yourself. I swear I’m going to be all right. ”
“I can’t deny you anything,” Luca mutters. “Fine. We’ll stay here while you two go and figure out why Juniper had her dream and the vision up by the castle.”
Marcus rifles through a bag in the front seat and passes me a granola bar and a bottle of water, no doubt courtesy of Cassian. “Get your strength back.”
Ian quickly texts me a picture of the sigils, and I lean up out of Luca’s arms just enough to kiss him. “Thank you, Ian. Marcus.”
Ian shuts the back door of the SUV to keep out the cold, then heads back up the hill with Marcus while I’m left to wonder what I’ve seen—and why.
With my vision still swimming in my head and Luca gently stroking my hair, it isn’t long before I fall into a light doze, the sigils bright in my mind, just like they were in my vision.
I don’t know how long I doze, but I wake to Ian opening the back door of the SUV.
Marcus leans on him heavily, almost as if he’s been hexed, but Ian doesn’t seem to notice as a flush of boyish excitement lights his face.
“We’ve figured it out. Can you make it back up the hill? You need to see this. You both do.”
I launch myself out of the SUV despite Luca’s weak protest. He knows there’s no stopping me, and I imagine he’s just as curious as I am. My alpha can never turn down a new adventure.
“Haley, you should stay here,” Ian says quietly as Marcus leans against the side of the SUV. “You’ve been through enough.”
I study Marcus for a moment and notice a faint grimace on his face, something only I know him well enough to see. My bodyguard is in pain, loath as he is to admit it. “What happened up there?”
“A few mishaps,” Ian admits. “The magic is chaotic. It reacted much the way you said Cora’s did when someone touches her.”
“Sent me to my damn knees,” Marcus mutters. “More than once.”
I take Marcus’ hand and squeeze it, just for a single beat of my heart. “Stay here? Rest while Ian shows me what you’ve discovered.” I already know he won’t. Whether he loves me or not, Marcus will do anything to protect me.
He waves me off, just as I expected he would, and I can’t help but notice his wince as we start up the hill.
Ian talks the whole way up the hill, and I love him for it. He can’t help but teach and explain, research and pick apart magical problems.
“We thought the spell functioned as a sort of key, but when Haley performed it, the storm’s magic threw him back. Whatever the magic once was, it now acts as the most powerful shield I’ve ever seen. Certainly beyond what I can cast.”
Which is saying something. Ian is one of the strongest warders in the world, both for building and for dismantling. I get the impression that there’ll be no dismantling the chaotic snarl of magic that surrounds Marmora Castle.
“Marcus was the one to suggest I cast the spell on him, though I had my reservations. Without knowing the meaning of some of the sigils, it could have been dangerous.”
I shoot my once honor guard a dark look. Of course he volunteered to be Ian’s test subject. “But it wasn’t?”
Ian shakes his head, the movement and spring wind ruffling his dark hair.
“When I cast the spell on Marcus, it allowed him to penetrate the magic. When he cast it on me, it granted me the same ability. We made it to the castle walls before turning back. This is your discovery, my darling. You should be the first to set foot in Marmora Castle after all these years.”
“I’m all for exploring a castle on a cliff surrounded by magic that can probably kill us,” Luca says, “but we’re not going to find bodies in the castle, are we?”
“I very much doubt it,” Ian replies. “According to Sienna, Pack Marmora fled to the more defensible Saint Aldric’s Hall when the castle was under attack by Mage King George’s forces.
There’s a reason the hall was built like a fortress; it’s served as one more than once.
As they fled, Marmora—or more likely his mate, Guinnette—must have created the magical storm.
So, I don’t suspect we’ll find any dead bodies.
Judging by the exterior of the castle, everything seems remarkably well preserved, but we won’t know until we enter. ”
We reach the barrier of the storm, and I hold my breath as Ian casts the eight sigils on me and then Luca.
I ghost my hand over the magic, feeling the warm buzz against the palm of my hand.
I look back at Ian, who gives me a nod, then skim the tips of my fingers along the magical barrier.
It parts for me with no resistance, just the same buzz around my skin as I step beyond the tumultuous magic toward the towering castle.
Luca follows, a look of pure wonder on his face.
I hang back long enough to take his hand and draw him forward.
I want my adventurous alpha to see the castle for himself just as soon as I do.
We step through the gate in the outer wall that Ian and Marcus had already opened into a grassy courtyard.
The castle looms ahead of us at the end of a long yard lit by dappled sunshine cut through with storm clouds and lightning.
A stone path leads toward the castle, flanked on either side by beautiful gardens, full of blue and purple lupines, only it’s much too early in the season for flowers like these.
I look back at Ian, and he smiles. “As I said, remarkably well preserved. Practically untouched by time.”
I don’t fully fathom what that means until I set my hand on the immense wooden door to the castle, finding it oddly warm, as if the summer sun had been shining upon it before the storm swept through.
Luca and I tug the sun-warmed iron ring and, with a great creak, the door to Marmora Castle opens in front of us.