Chapter 12
The small library is just as I remembered it.
The same old lady sits behind the half-moon-shaped desk, judging me as I walk in.
The rows of black bookcases feel like home as they stretch out behind the desk, and this time, I don’t ask her permission.
With Maz at my side, she stares at the both of us, huffing but not stopping me as I walk past her through the shelves of the library.
Last year, I never explored much further in, but in year two, I did.
I weave through the rows until I find a small alcove.
A single tall black-framed window casts light over the table, and I glance out over the forest and the stormy sea as rain batters against the glass.
The table has several plush chairs and two candle lanterns in the middle that make it feel warm.
“This is cozy. Are you trying to seduce me, Juni?” Maz brushes past me, his arm touching mine for a heartbeat, and I feel his touch everywhere. “You only have to look at me and I’m already yearning so badly for you that I’m lost.”
I shake my head. “In year two, we used to spend time here. It’s actually where you kissed me first. You seduced me here.”
“Tell me more…” His eyes drift over me.
I’m glad that I managed to weave a potion into some foundation this morning, and I slathered it on my face to hide the whopper of a bruise Lock gave me.
I put lipstick on to hide the redness of my lip and chose a pretty dress.
It falls just past my thighs, and it’s slightly tight around me but not uncomfortable.
It’s pretty and cute. I’m hoping that Maz just thought that I wanted to dress up for him and that’s why I’m wearing makeup.
He doesn’t dig too much into it. We did say it was a date, so I’m glad I’m looking nice.
Plus, I know Maz would lose it, and then he’d tell the others and they would join him in killing Lock and ruin every bit of our plans.
That’s why I haven’t told them. Lock’s death would be something we can’t hide, and I don’t want to spend another year under the magic of the tarot cards. I am not forgetting them ever again.
“When are you going to tell me about this one?” Maz points at my wrist.
I warmly look down at Minnie and then lift my arm onto a bookshelf.
She scurries off, hiding among the books, with only her glowing eyes to show us she is still close by.
“I don’t know why she is so attached to me.
She just appeared and seems to be staying around.
I call her Minnie because she kind of looks like a mouse, and she reminds me of some old human stuff that I read about.
I like her. She’s cute and unusual. I feel less alone in Lock’s room when she is with me. ”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a small creature like her.
When I was a kid, I used to go out into the forest and try to talk with all the small creatures and make friends with them.
However, I always thought I was a bit weird, and I used to get into many fights because of them.
” He leans on the bookcase. “Shifters don’t harm small creatures, and we can smell magic on them. I believe they are sacred.”
“I used to go into the forest and see them too. Help them. I was always called weird because witches don’t like small creatures.” I shrug. “I always loved them more than any witch in my town.”
His eyes soften. “It’s because you’re not just a witch, are you, my mate?” He pulls out a chair for me. “Let’s get to work, because calling you my mate is making me want to do other things in this library.”
We take turns going back to the desk and asking for particular books on the history of Bloodstone Academy and the magic that created it.
Maz focuses on a pile of Latin books that have more to do with some of my spells, some of the Latin translations I’m missing.
I need the translations perfect in Latin, and I can’t pronounce a single bit wrong.
The book I’m studying—The Very Making of Bloodstone Academy—is over a thousand pages, and I spend hours combing through the pages before I find anything.
“Finally!” Maz looks up at me as I read the passage out.
“The heart of Bloodstone Academy is at the bottom of it, in the Blood Rock, where the sacrifices were made. It is locked and vaulted, and only witch bloodlines can access the magic of the academy.” Excitement buzzes through my chest, and I blurt out my plan.
“I need to map out the academy, check all the lower floors, and make sure that it is there. I’m worried, though.
What if it is, and it’s too much? What if my spell doesn’t work?
I’ve done everything to make sure it’s perfect, and once we’ve got these last words translated, then it’ll be the only spell I could invent for this. I’m still a student; what if I—”
Maz grabs my hand. “It will work because you made it. The enchantress was known for being able to make new spells, and she made so many for our races.”
“Crazy dangerous spells. Spells that changed this entire world. Spells that massacred people, Maz. If she is a monster, what does that make me?” I whisper.
Maz pulls my hand to his mouth and kisses it softly.
“Until we know the truth, fuck everything we have been told or taught. I know you, Juniper, and you are no monster. You are brave, powerful and so fucking beautiful that you hurt my eyes. All I can see is you, remember? Fuck what we have been told about her. Ignore the bad, and we’ll focus on the good, which is that she can make new spells, and there’s every chance that you are even more powerful than her.
I believe in you, Juni. I have no fear whatsoever that you won’t be able to make this spell and control Bloodstone Academy.
Make sure it listens to you and not those fuckers. ”
He believes in me. I’m not sure anyone has said that to me before.
I suck in a deep breath and smile. “Last night I finished the other spell to call the enchantress to me. It’s a rather simple spell, calling blood to blood.
It’s easy in that sense. I only had to alter a spell that was already made and put in an old spell book to find family.
It will essentially lure her to me through time and space.
I hope I’ve got it right.” He raises an eyebrow, and I correct what I said.
“I’m sure I’ve got it right. I can do this. ”
“That’s good, Juni.” He kisses my hand again. “She won’t have the rest of her army here, and you’ll be able to talk to her without feeling that you’re threatened.”
“I want you, all four of you, to see the spells just in case something happens to me,” I admit. “You can do them too. Together.”
“Don’t you dare say anything’s going to happen to you! It won’t,” Maz growls, lowering my hand. “There is no ending to all of this where you are not alive and mine.”
“Please, Maz. I want you to see the spells, know them by heart. It’ll make me feel better,” I plead with him.
What we are doing is very dangerous, and after what Lock said, I think I’m on my last straw with the Umbral Authority.
They are going to get bored with repeating these years, and they won’t trust the tarot cards when they know I remember.
“All right, but we don’t have half the magic that you do, and it won’t work,” he reminds me. “We are more brute strength and fire…and pretty faces.”
A low laugh escapes me.
“Have you decided who is going to go with you to make the spell? I assumed just one because the rest of us are going to need to be in the castle to make a major distraction.”
I nod, squeezing his warm hand. “I think I’m going to take Kane. He’s the most levelheaded out of all of you.”
“Hey, I’m completely levelheaded,” Maz protests.
“Really?” I laugh.
“Okay, perhaps not. Especially not when it comes to you.” He climbs out of his seat and turns my chair around to face him. “Hey, stand up for me.”
“All right.” I slide off my seat and stand in front of him.
He surprises me by kneeling down on one knee.
I nearly gasp as he picks up my foot in my flat shoes and pops it on top of his bent knee.
I see only a sparkle of gold before I feel the weight of an anklet around my ankle.
He runs his finger over it, and I shiver everywhere.
“I know you’re not aware of many of the shifter mating customs, so I’m going to explain it to you in the same way they tell us when we’re children. Please don’t be offended by that.” He flashes me a charming smile.
“I’m not.” I chuckle.
“Mates, particularly dragons or wolves, tend to give their suspected mate a gift. Ours are always gold.” He taps the anklet.
“Oh.” That’s sweet.
“It’s a sign of mating and devotion, being owned by what is most precious to us, which for me is you,” he admits softly.
A small gold M hangs from the anklet. It really is beautiful, and I like it far more than the ring on my finger, because he knows me.
Maz knows that I wouldn’t like something big and over the top like that. He knows I much prefer this.
“I love the anklet, especially with your initial on it, but why did you choose this gift?”
He looks up from where he was clipping it on my ankle, his hand splayed across my calf. His smirk is all sin. “I’m not good at romantic words, and I’m not going to lie to you. I want to see it bouncing over my shoulder when I fuck you.”
My cheeks brighten. The mouth on him. “You’re…insufferable.”
“And you are delicious when you blush.” He rises to his feet, his hand slowly sliding up to my knee before letting go.
I instantly miss his touch. The way he looks at me, I know I don’t need him touching me to know he is mine.
I don’t know who moves first, but the next thing I know, we’re kissing.
He picks me up, pushing me against the bookcase, knocking books all over the floor around us.
My hands are sinking into his hair, his glasses pushing against my nose.
He pulls them off, dropping them down to the side.
“I don’t need them to see you. I see only you, mate,” he softly reminds me, and my heart beats faster for him.
“Oh,” I whisper as his kisses go down my cheek, my jaw, to my neck. I arch into them as he moans, pushing himself into me. “Mazikeen.”
His groan is pure pleasure as he cups my breasts over the dress. “I love when you say my name. I particularly love when you smell like this, when you want me.”
“Can I do something for you? I’ve never done it before, but…” I mumble nervously.
“I’m going to love anything you do with me. I’m going to say yes to anything with you. Just as long as you’re with me.” His answer is swift.
I break away from the kiss and fall down to my knees in front of him. He leans back against the bookcase with wide eyes. “You don’t—”
“I want to.” I look up at him from under my eyelashes. “Let me.”
“Fuck. You’re going to be the death of me.
” I undo his pants and push them down, letting out his cock, which is far bigger than I expected it to be.
It stands proud, pointing upwards, and I run my hand up it, over the swollen tip and back down.
He slams his head back, smacking against the bookcase, and more books fall.
I smile to myself before I replace my hand with my tongue, running it up the soft, velvety length of him.
He whimpers, and it’s so sexy. Fire sparks out of his hands, and he swears, sucking in a breath.
I use his distraction to put the tip of his cock in my mouth, stretching my lips around his thick length.
“Juniper!” he moans as I sink my mouth down and down his cock. I barely get halfway because it’s so big, and I have to use my hand to stroke the bottom of him as I bob my head up and down. “Hollow your cheeks. Good girl, good mate. Goddess…” He moans. “Suck harder. Yes, like that. Fuckkkk.”
I enjoy every second, even as tears pour down from my eyes and I feel like choking from how deep I have to take him.
I reach out between us and cup his balls, and that’s all it takes.
His hand sinks into my hair, and he begins to fuck my mouth, completely losing control.
Gibberish is coming out of his mouth—my name, various words about wet and tight—and I focus on seeing him lose complete control.
“I’m going to come, Juni,” he warns, trying to pull out, but I suck him harder, not letting him.
“Mine!” he roars, shaking the bookcases as he spurts, hot and wet, down the back of my throat, tasting like fire and salt.
He is shaking, groaning my name loud enough to let the whole library know what we are doing.
I slowly run my tongue around him, making him shiver before I pull back, looking up at him, swallowing every bit that he gave me.
I didn’t think I’d ever enjoy that. I’ve never wanted to do it to anyone, but Maz, I definitely wanted to do that to Maz.
He yanks me to my feet and kisses me hard, a growl echoing in his chest, and his eyes are glowing. “We should definitely come to the library more. Take your clothes off, Juni.”
“We really need to get on with research, Maz. I don’t think our first time, which this would definitely lead to, should be in the library.” I gently turn him down and slide out of his arms.
“Why not?” He follows me as if I’m prey.
“Maz,” I warn with a playful smile. I hear books being jostled nearby, and we both turn towards the noise. That’s why. He groans, running his hand through his hair before tucking himself back in and doing up his pants. He is still so hard…even after that. I shiver and clench my thighs together.
“I’m going to get us some food while I calm down a little. Have I told you I love you yet? I think I probably should, considering you’ve just blown my world, and I’ve felt it for a long time.” His eyes soften.
“Maz, I love you too,” I whisper.
He grins, a beautiful smile, before walking off. All I can think about is the anklet on my foot, and his promise, and how I have my family now.