House of Mages and Raven (Shades of Ruin and Magic #4)

Chapter 20

20

Barbie

I yawned in irritation as I surged through Sy to take over. I hadn’t wanted to come back to face the shit so soon while musing on a new plan.

I’d had a thrill ride with the chaos heir, and then I’d plunged to the bottom of the roller coaster, but I wouldn’t remain at the bottom. I wasn’t a chick who would stay down, no matter who wounded me. I’d always get up swinging, and they wouldn’t even see me coming when I slugged their fucking faces. But before I’d come up with a plan, a bunch of supernaturals were already looking for me. A nice girl like me didn’t seem to get a break.

Sy pricked up her ears to listen to her lover’s argument outside the dark forest, hanging on his every word. She was a goner, falling hard for the fae prince. For her sake, I hoped that he didn’t turn out to be Killian 2.0, and then she’d fall on her big, fat butt.

Well, don’t say that I didn’t tell you so!

Sy growled at me, as if I were a negative fiend she needed to constantly fend off.

I listened with Sy, my heart fluttering in my aching chest, holding a slim hope that Killian was among those who were looking for me, hoping that he still cared, but my stupid hope died like a leaf falling from a dried-out tree in the winter frost.

I sank into the icy lake, wild magic twirling around me, rainbow lights rising from the bottom of the water that contained potent magic, tiny winged fairies dashing between pink trees around the lake. Yet nothing could improve my sullen mood.

I rose from the water after I’d washed off the fae prince’s scent. They’d fucked like wild animals. I banished the images of their marathon fucking, shrugged on my school uniform with the sigil of the House of Mages on my chest, and strolled toward the entrance of the dark forest. Inhaling the thick magical air in Underhill, I stepped into the middle of the men’s squabbles, my hands in my wrinkled pockets.

Everyone snapped their heads to me, their argument forgotten. They hadn’t tried to force their way into Underhill as they’d learned.

“Well, well, look who has finally showed up,” said Silas. Then he toned down his signature condescending tone as he remembered that he was supposed to get on my good side if he still wanted to court me. “You had me worried, Barbie.”

“Why are you coming for me with torches and pitchforks like I’m a criminal?” I asked, my brow knitting in irritation. “I haven’t even done anything yet.”

“There’re not torches and pitchforks, Barbie.” Louis smiled at me, spreading his arms to show me that he carried no weapons. But his fangs were weapons, and I still remembered how they once sank deep into my veins. “We’re concerned citizens. I want to make sure you don’t get kidnapped again. As soon as I found out you weren’t spending the night in any of the houses, I organized a search party, and all the other heirs followed me.”

Silas sneered. “Follow you?”

I did a quick scan. Though the chaos prince was absent, Rock was here with a team. They were merged into the shadows, but I could make them out just fine. My gaze turned back to the heirs, especially Prince Cade as he stepped forward. He was my new boss now, so I jogged toward him with less attitude.

“I was just taking a nap in the forest, and I lost track of time,” I told him.

“Why did you nap in a dangerous forest? Didn’t you hear the beasts howling?” Cade frowned at me. “And you do have a house, don’t you, Barbie?”

“Yes, high sir.” I snapped to attention and saluted to show respect, so the mage prince would get me off the hook. He rolled his eyes. “But I didn’t remember which room was mine, and I didn’t want to inconvenience any mage.”

“Barbie is good at coming up with all sorts of excuses.” Louis laughed. “Don’t ever change, Barbie.”

I glared at him. “I won’t!”

He laughed some more.

“You’ll sleep in your own bed in my house every night from now on,” Cade ordered me with an exasperated sigh. “You’re like a steaming hot potato falling into the wrong hands.”

I blinked at him. What did he mean by that? But I was smart enough not to ask.

“Did Sy tell you that everyone was looking for you?” Rowan asked.

I shrugged a shoulder. “Kind of.”

“Where is she?” the fae prince added. “Why didn’t she come out with you?”

“Who is Sy?” Silas demanded. The shifter prince never liked to be left out.

Only a few supernaturals had seen her face, including Killian and his inner circle. It might be time for more people to see her here and there. No one would see us together. I just hoped none of them had strong power of observation like the fae prince. Sy and I needed to tread even more carefully.

“My girlfriend,” Rowan said.

Sy preened and thrust her chest out, beaming.

“You have a fucking girlfriend?” Silas blurted out.

Rowan growled. “Pay some fucking respect, asshole. It’s my woman you’re talking about.”

“When did it fucking happen?” Louis demanded.

Cade also eyed the fae heir with suspicion.

“Tell them, Barbie.” Rowan waved a hand at me. “And you got my diamond, didn’t you? Where is Sy?”

“She left.” I yawned, but covered my mouth to show the heirs the respect they deserved. “After she rudely woke me up.”

Sy protested, and I had to shove her down in case my eyes betrayed her golden glow.

“Underhill receives another?” Silas asked. “Is Underhill open for tourists now?”

A series of threatening snarls from the shadow beasts at the entry answered that stupid, entitled question.

“You’ve found me.” I nodded, wondering how to ditch all of them. “Now I need to pee and then go to class. I don’t want to be a delinquent, not even for your sirs’ sake. Ciao.”

I zoomed toward an opening with quick feet, leaving protests and demands and even amused, dark laughter behind me.

I zipped past the building of the House of Shifters. The vast fountains surrounding it indicated the shifters’ affinity with water. A team of patrolling shifters, some in their humanoid form and some in their animal forms, snapped their alarming attention in my direction, but I zoomed past them like the wind between maple trees, shot in a blur toward Clockwork, then left the black dome of classrooms behind. I slowed down crossing Trailblaze courtyard.

I wasn’t going to class yet, since I had a mission. I had to check out the Veil before the heirs’ minions tracked me down. I set out toward it with a nagging feeling that the Shriekers would be coming if they weren’t here already.

Usually, Pucker monitored the Veil for me, but he couldn’t be there twenty-four seven. He refused to follow my strong suggestion to take up residence in the grasslands by the Veil, claiming indignantly that he was still a respected guardian and not a rogue ghost.

Now I was worried that he might’ve neglected his duty while I’d been hidden within Sy. Somehow, he’d gotten himself addicted to smoking weed whenever he was in solid form. I had to terminate his source, as I didn’t want a junkie in my employ, but I needed to find his supplier first. I rubbed my temples in annoyance while running. These days, if you wanted a job done properly, you had to do it yourself. No one was reliable anymore. My thoughts drifted to the chaos prince, and a bitter taste coated my tongue. Lovers were worse.

I dashed into the woods where the vampire prince had caught me on my first day here, only because I’d bumped into Killian’s hard chest. He’d purred, “There you are,” as if he’d been waiting for me and known who I was.

Suddenly, a tingling sensation buzzed between my shoulder blades, then a voice from the depths of the woods invaded my head. Magic fades. Mist reveals, and Ruin comes. The cursed and the blessed are One. The darkest flame has emerged. Fuse it with light, or its power will devour the worlds and all whom you love. The Wheels of the Fates have turned. New threats have been woven. There shall be two Brides.

Fuck off! I shoved the telepathic voice out of my head.

“Show yourself, or I’ll make you!” I shouted, and I felt a presence before Sy barked, Behind you!

I wheeled one hundred and eighty degrees, reaching out and summoning the evil blade—I’d somehow figured out how to forge a bond between Deathsong and me, and now I could summon and dismiss it at will and save myself the burden of carrying it everywhere and hearing its gleeful whispers of bloodlust. The dagger fell into my palm, and I curled my fingers around its jeweled hilt, my knuckles white. I wouldn’t hesitate to kill.

And then I was facing a veiled woman in a white robe, her black hair pinned on top of her head. I could see the magical light in her glassy eyes even though she wore a veil. My skin tingled as divine magic rolled off her. If I reached out, I could take it for my own, but I reined in my primal urge, especially when I recognized who stood right in front of me.

My father had tried to hunt her—Moirai, the Maiden of the Wicca oracles. I wondered if the other two—the Mother and the Crone—were around as well. They hadn’t shown themselves to the world for over a millennium, hiding from Ruin for longer than I had.

“Hello, hello,” I purred, going on the offensive. “Look who’s here.”

The blind Maiden had made me to flee the House of Chaos when she teamed up with Queen Lilith to out me. I recalled what Cami had told Killian while he and I were entangled in the sheets. “Queen Lilith brought the oracle, who has been searching for the lost princess, daughter of the God of Ruin.”

Yet Moirai had made herself absent in the court of Kingdom of Chaos and saved my skin.

She knew exactly what I was. There was no point beating around the bush. While Ruin had me and his agents hunting for her, I’d tried my best not to tap into her hidden haunts, but now she’d come to me.

“Your father is coming.” Her black lips moved, getting to the point right away. “I’ve warned Hades’ heir. I need to warn you as well before I depart. I can’t let Ruin find me and my coven. You’re the darkness who carries the darkest flame, yet you’re the last kernel of hope we have. If you don’t rise, he’ll consume all of us. You’re the enemy, the eater of the world, yet you’re also the protector of the last drop of the oldest magic.”

I didn’t need an oracle to remind me of my father’s coming. He’d been hunting me, and he’d never give up the hunt. But I wasn’t comfortable discussing Ruin in the open, let alone hearing a stranger, oracle or not, calling him my father. Right now, I sensed that it was only her and me in the woods, but the princes’ minions would track me down soon, even if the heirs got on with their own business. Plus, I would not discredit the possibility of Ruin’s spies lurking somewhere.

I shifted my weight from foot to foot to dispel my nervous energy.

“Is this going to be a long preach?” I asked. “I gotta go.”

“You don’t need to go to the Veil at the moment,” she said. “The enemies will be coming in a few days while you’re locked in a cell.”

Alarm shot through me.

“What cell?” I demanded. “Is the druid coming after me again? He’ll never give up, will he? Will you scry for me and tell me where he is holed up so I can lead a strike team to dig him out before he tries his monkey business again?”

I didn’t have a team, but I could always persuade the mage prince to go along with my plan, and Sy could get Rowan to bring his fae warriors to join us. I was confident that I could reach out to the shifter prince and vamp prince as well to form a temporary coalition.

“You’re terrified of being taken,” the Maiden said. “But one day soon, you’ll be willing to sacrifice yourself for those whom you love.” She lashed out and grabbed my hand before I could shake her free. “Barbie, you must venture into the Underworld, walk through the inferno, and obtain Heaven’s Arrow before you allow yourself to be taken. The fate of the world is in your hands.”

Chills sank into my bone marrow as I felt the power of her words.

“What Heaven’s Arrow?” I demanded. “Can you be any vaguer? All you bring is bad news. No wonder no one likes oracles. The world hasn’t missed you since you lot went into hiding. Are you the one who spread the rumor that’s disguised as a prophecy about the One who’ll bring the old magic back and thus kicked off the farce of the Brides Selection? You stirred the shit pie, lady.”

“You’ve been carrying the last drop of the oldest magic with you since you were in the womb, goddess, but you aren’t the old magic,” she said, her unseeing eyes trying to pierce my soul. “It has manifested, become flesh, and matured. She’s been protecting you while you’ve been shielding her without knowing what she actually is. It’s time that she learns about her own truth.”

I stared at Moirai, my heart ramming into my ribcage. Was she talking about Sy? But Sy was…

Sy tilted her head, her heartbeat picking up as well, though not in sync with mine.

“What are you saying?” I whispered. “Talk plainly. Riddles do no one good.”

“A separation is coming.” The oracle ignored my question and kept going down her own track. “It will bring you the greatest pain, worse than the worst labor pain…”

I shuddered, and Sy shuddered as well.

“Stop! Just stop already,” I said. “If you truly want to be helpful, you can tell me about my doppelg?nger. That chick bothers me.”

Sy nodded in sympathy. That chick stole your man.

The Maiden waved a hand indifferently. “A pawn is not important. However, you must know this—when you’re in the pit of the darkest place where all lights go out and you think no one will ever come for you, and when you walk through the valley of death, utterly alone, and evil touches you…”

“Fuck it,” I said, really having had enough.

“I now see,” she sighed, weird magic ablaze in her eyes.

Fuck!

I tossed a wave of dark wind at her and broke into a run, fleeing from the oracle. Before I zoomed out of the woods, I glanced over my shoulder. Where the seer had been, a pillar of mist rose into the sky, then her black veil fell into the blades of grass.

What did the Maiden mean by the oldest magic has become flesh? Sy asked.

“Don’t trust her. It’s always the blind leading the blind. That’s what it is,” I huffed, yet deep in my bones, the oracle’s every word haunted me.

We aren’t blind, Sy said. And we can never be led. But what the oracle said about the old magic becoming flesh is kind of deep. Don’t you think?