Clever guy.
We silently walk through the moonlit forest and to the clearing where we always meet for training, seeing that everyone except Catherine and Finn are already here. Poppy and Sebastian are stood near each other, and I move away from them, Ryker following to my side.
“Do you think there will be a new test soon?” Ryker ponders as we wait in the clearing for Finn with the other seven students. One of whom I’m not talking to but can feel her eyes watching my back. Finn...I’m not sure how I’m even going to look at him today, but staying in my room, pretending to be ill for the last day, hasn’t made anything better.
“Hopefully. This group is still too big,” I say, seeing Catherine walking next to Finn through the forest, looking up at him all lovey-dovey. “Like her. She can go first.”
“I’m not against you on that idea,” Ryker replies as I finally meet Finn’s gaze. His eyes cut into mine, and I instantly notice he hasn’t been sleeping, as he looks as tired as I feel. He stops, never taking his eyes from me.
“Pair up for training. Miss Heartlocke, you’re with me. Poppy Riverlite, you are needed back in your apartment immediately,” he instructs us. I glance at Poppy to find her shocked gaze turning to me. She mouths that she will be okay before walking off, and I close my eyes for a second. Ryker steps in front of me. “Careful, friend. Just be fucking careful.”
“I fucked up, and I won’t again,” Finn replies, looking over Ryker’s shoulder right at me. “Give me a chance. We need to talk.”
“As long as it involves training with daggers, then sure.” I sarcastically smile, pulling out two of my daggers.
“We can play however you like,” Finn responds as Ryker steps away. Finn places his hand on my shoulder, and we both disappear in gold smoke, reappearing in another part of the forest where we are alone and there isn’t a sound around us. Finn makes two gold daggers appear in his hands as I try to take him by surprise, lashing out with my arm. He blocks my hit, our daggers clashing, and pushes me back a few steps. We start to circle each other.
“I should have told you, and we could have handled it together,” he starts to say. Filled with anger, I run at him, and he grabs me, rolling me onto my back and holding me down. I struggle, knowing my eyes are filled with tears, and I’m not fighting as I usually would do.
This damn demi-god makes me weak.
And I hate it as much as I love it.
“I’m in love with you,” Finn whispers. I freeze under his grip, releasing my grip on the daggers in my hands. “And gods be damned, I will only choose you. I will give up everything and risk everything to be with you. You’re fearless, beautiful, kind and good. I was a goner the second we met.”
I lean up and kiss him, pouring my own feelings into every single movement of our lips. He groans and pushes his body against mine, rubbing a large bulge against my thigh that I want to explore.
“Usually I wouldn’t interrupt such an interesting show, and in the future, this could be fun to replay, but I need Syn.”
Finn growls against my lips, but he stops and kneels up, letting me go. He helps me climb to my feet with him to see Seth leaning against a tree, his eyes burning with red fire. He holds his hand out, revealing a pendant necklace with a glowing red crystal in the middle with a rune drawn in silver on the case. “It took Azi and I some time, but we found the forsaken rune, and it is yours. Take it and absorb the power.”
“What does it do?” I ask, walking over. Seth slides the pendant into my hands, and before he can answer, it glows brightly and the runes on my body suddenly appear. The purple light from my runes seems to battle against the red glow of the pendant, and then it cracks.
The pendant cracks in two places before a rush of deep red sparkling energy bursts in the air in front of me. Everything freezes for a second, making it impossible to see anything but red and purple light, right before the red magic slams into me in a wave, attacking my body. A boom fills my ears, and I fall backward, crashing onto my back on the ground. The lights instantly dim, and I lift my hand, seeing the purple rune is now half red.
Burnt leaves fall onto my face as I sit up, seeing Finn on his back, blood pouring from his cheek, and Seth is nearby, passed out as well. I rush to them both, checking to see they are both alive from the rise and fall of their chests. As I step towards Finn, a gold portal appears under my feet, and I scream as I fall right into it.
Chapter 20
I slam hard onto a cold floor, smacking my mouth against the tiles and immediately tasting blood on my tongue as I groan in pain. What the effing hell just happened? I lift my head, coming face to face with a man who is clearly dead. Almost letting out a scream, I stumble away from the body and bump into something else. I turn slowly, dreading what I’m about to see, and find an angel’s white wing spread out on the floor. I follow the wing to see an angel who helped me, who was friends with Queen Evie, who I never knew the name of. Her neck has been slit, her blood pours around her, mixing in with the blood of the several other angels nearby.
I glance up as I hear a noise to see double doors swing open, the sound of creaking wood filling the silence.
Taking a deep breath, I know exactly where I am even if I haven’t been in this room before. I’m in the Otherworld, a day before my birthday, and I can feel the familiar energy buzzing around me, welcoming me home even as pure dread fills my stomach. I have to get back to Earth. How the hell did someone make a portal between worlds? No one has that power anymore. I can’t smell anything but blood as I crawl to my shaky feet and count the dead angels in the room.
There are twenty-four of the angels, all of them killed in the same way, their throats slit, and it doesn’t even look like they put up much of a fight. They were taken by surprise, likely pulled through a portal just like I was, but they were killed outright.
The only motive I can think of for why Einar would kill the angels is one simple reason.
The divine rune.
God knows what it even does, but I know he will do anything for the runes, even kill for them, and this is just more proof.
I look back at the doors and slide my hands to the daggers at my hips, finding they are gone. Dammit, I dropped them with Finn.
I’m weaponless.
Time for plan two then. I close my eyes and call for the shadow magic I know so well, only to find nothing happens. I call for my fae magic, and the same thing happens. Nothing. I hold my hands out, pulling on the magic with all my might, but not even a sliver of it actually comes out.
Fuck.
It must be the forsaken rune. What the hell has it done to my powers?
“Don’t keep me waiting.”
Remembering who I am, who my mother and father were, I focus on being brave as I lift my head and meet Einar’s gaze. He is dressed up, that much is clear, in a detailed blue blazer with gold embellishments and a white shirt underneath. His crown glitters under the lights above us, and he looks regal.
If not cold.
“What have you done?”
He smiles a cold and calculating smile that makes me wonder how my mother was ever even friends with him. “I did nothing but watch. Now come.”
Knowing I’m powerless and weaponless, I figure running is my only shot out of here, and I figure I’m not getting far by doing that right now. If I go with him, I might find a way to grab a weapon and fight my way out of here.