November Reign (Northarbor Coven #3)

9. Wayward Students

Wayward Students

Oak

The words Zinna had uttered to me in that last phone call ran circles in my head even as I was denied the perfect opportunity to finally tell Thyme the truth about me. I was going to unload all my secrets and hope for the best up until Barr appeared and ruined our peaceful movie night.

What better time would I have had to tell him everything? No one else was in the house. Thyme actually wanted to spend time with me. It was ideal.

Of course, Damon had to ruin it. If something was going to happen, it was going to be Damon’s fault. It was like he had a special radar for quiet moments and just had to get attention somehow. Since it was a less than savory personality trait, he must have gotten it from Basil, who took after their father more than Thyme did.

“I’ll get my laptop and meet you in the kitchen,” I said before leaving the room. I needed a moment to breathe without someone watching me. For one second I’d been so close to blurting it all out.

My room was exactly as I left it. I almost hoped for Hela to be there to greet me with her adorable chirrups and purrs. The comfort she gave me would have been welcome at that moment.

When I returned to the kitchen, Barr was handing some fresh smelling rosemary over to Thyme, who was finishing cleaning up after himself and storing the popcorn away.

“Maybe we’ll find them quickly and have time for that movie later,” Thyme said with a sigh. Clearly, he’d been looking forward to a quiet night as much as I had.

“I’m sorry for spoiling your night!” Barr twisted his fingers, his tail hanging mournfully.

“Hey, this isn’t your fault.” I wrapped an arm around him, feeling bad this was all landing on his shoulders. They really hadn’t thought about the Hellhound at all, which I didn’t get since Damon was so friendly with Barr.

“Why didn’t they take you?” The question just slipped out.

Barr flinched. “They, uh…”

“They asked you already, didn’t they? You said no.” Thyme gave Barr a sympathetic smile.

“Yes. I knew Mori would be upset and…”

“He employs you. Damon would have forgotten that. At the end of the day, he’s Mori’s chosen mate. He gets to do things someone in your position can’t.” Thyme winced. “Mori would have been furious with you if you went along with it.”

Thyme glanced at me, his meaning unclear. He raised his brows in Barr’s direction. So something to do with Barr then. What was he wanting me to do?

Eventually, he sighed and pulled Barr into a hug. “We’ll make sure they know you did what was best.”

The demons would absolutely take it out on poor Barr if we didn’t speak up for him. They were irrational when it came to their mates.

“Of course. You did the best thing coming to us first. The demons would have made a mess, drawing more attention to Damon, Cody and Parker. We can just narrow the area down with a spell, then do some digging. With any luck, they’ll be back in the demon realm and with their mates in an hour.”

“Do you really think so?”

I crossed my fingers. “Yeah.”

Damon had learned some tricks. He’d masked most of his magic, making it difficult to get a read on which part of Northarbor they were in .

I wasn’t having much luck with social media. Thanks to it being Halloween, most people were dressed in elaborate costumes.

“Do you remember what they were dressing as?” I asked Barr, who was watching us work nervously.

Each minute that ticked by appeared to strike him like a fist. I hated that he was put in this position and felt so guilty over Damon’s actions. Damon was going to pay for this.

“No. In my realm, they don’t wear costumes. It’s a human holiday.”

“Did they mention costumes in front of you at all?”

“Uh, no. Once they knew I thought it was a bad idea, they didn’t involve me at all. I thought they’d given the idea up. That I’d gotten through to them.”

My guess was Damon had paid someone to meet him with costumes. He had a fancy tailor, he could afford to get things made for them. I bet he had a room in a hotel, too. We didn’t have the time to wait and track that down instead. If the wrong person recognized any of them, they were screwed.

“This isn’t working!” Thyme pushed the spell away in frustration. “Do you mind if I use a blood spell?”

Not all witches agreed with the use of blood magic. It was usually reserved for the darker workings. Here, it would be useful since Damon could never mask his true nature. He was always tied to Thyme. Also Basil .

“Sure. Let’s just hope Basil doesn’t figure out they’re wandering around. He could find Damon as easily as you.”

“Right?” Thyme pricked his pinky finger and squeezed. A bead of blood landed in the silver dish. He added herbs and began to chant.

The familiar feeling of magic, the static electricity feeling inside me, welled up and surrounded me.

“Gotcha, you little shit,” Thyme said darkly. “He’s in this area. Do you have anything that can narrow it down?”

I checked the map and grinned. “Yeah, there are only a couple of high end clubs in this part of town. I doubt Damon is slumming it.”

Damon was a bit of a snob, considering where he came from. Hell, he’d earned it, so I couldn’t judge him for it.

After a bit of searching online, I narrowed it down to two clubs. They were practically across the street from each other.

“Can you glamor Barr?” I asked Thyme as I rushed to Damon’s room for something for us to wear. He’d been preparing for this for a while, so I guessed he had costume ideas in his room. He was always getting Barr to collect things .

The room Damon shared with Mori was immaculate. Their closet held so many sharply tailored suits it was practically a department store.

Sure enough, tucked up in the back were some costumes. Mori’s human form had a similar build to mine, so I grabbed the cop outfit and hoped they’d never used it. There was a hat, perfect for hiding my hair, some dark glasses, and handcuffs. I shuddered. “Please don’t let them have opened this.”

Still in the packaging was an angel costume, which Thyme would look super cute in. Damon had a selection of wigs and makeup, so I grabbed a blond one to hide Thyme’s distinctive red hair.

For Barr, I found a brown wig, a gladiator costume, and sandals. Once glamored, he’d look, hopefully, like a normal human. He’d just have to hope none of the clubs had anti-magic defenses.

Taking my bounty back to the kitchen, I found a sweet looking dark-haired man standing next to Thyme.

“Your glamor skills are amazing! If I didn’t know that was Barr…”

“Right? Are these costumes? Why?”

“If we go as we are, we’ll stand out among the humans, giving Damon time to spot us and get away.”

Thyme smiled. “Never thought of that. Great idea.” His face reddened when he caught sight of the costume. “Uh, okay. Thanks.” He left the room to change.

“Do you need help, Barr?”

He picked at the costume. “There’s not a lot to it.”

I laughed. “Sorry, no, but I don’t think I can be a gladiator.”

His dark eyes roved over me. “I think you could.” When it registered what he said, he blushed and stammered out an apology before fleeing.

It took us longer than I would have liked to dress, put on the wigs properly, and in Thyme’s case, cake him in makeup. Our skills were nothing like Damon’s, but with some online tutorials, we made a decent job of it.

Thyme looked hot in his costume. I hated that the makeup hid his freckles though. It was the perfect disguise.

Before we got Barr to make a portal, we checked the spell again. They were in the same place as before.

“That one,” I said, pointing to a picture of the outside as a reference for Barr. “My gut says they’re in there.”

“Okay. ”

The portal opened quickly. Barr waited until we went through before joining us and closing it. We came out a little down the street from where I wanted to check first so we wouldn’t be spotted.

I paid the cover for the club and tried to ignore the way the security eyed Thyme like they were dogs and he was a piece of meat. Barr must have been on the same page, because we both moved closer to Thyme, hemming him in between us. He gave us grateful squeezes to our arms.

Quickly, I found our targets. I leaned down to tell Thyme.

“There!”

Thyme nodded in return. “Let’s get a drink and see if we can get closer without them noticing us.”

Signaling my agreement, I made my way to the bar and ordered a round of shots and bottles of beer. Once served, we downed our shots and sipped our drinks while trying to come up with a plan.

“Oak!” Thyme’s voice was urgent.

“What?” It was hard to hear him over the noise of the music. The steady thump thump made it so overwhelming to be in the place. I didn’t know how Barr was able to stand it.

“One of Basil’s friends is over there. He’s looking at Damon. ”

“Shit!” While Damon didn’t exactly look like himself, he pretty much threw down the gauntlet with his outfit. I believe he’d gone for a sexy witch. He was wearing leather pants with a fishnet long-sleeved shirt, the holes in it hiding nothing about his toned body. He was wearing a fucking red wig! Styled exactly to look like Basil’s hair. An old-fashioned conical hat perched merrily on top of his head. His make up was goth style, bringing out the blue of his eyes.

Basically, he looked like a younger, prettier, goth Basil.

We were so fucked.

“Go!” I yelled, aiming towards our friends. The lackey had a phone held up, taking a video or maybe on a call showing proof. Whatever it was, we didn’t have long before others joined us.

“Oh, fuck!” Parker, dressed as Horus, said as he caught sight of us.

Cody paled under his makeup. He was in a demon costume. Honestly, he had the better deal of it. Red leather pants, a matching vest and one of those pitchforks made up his outfit. The horns, ears and tail were all his. His wings, thankfully, were tucked away. Someone had painted his demon appendages to match the red of his clothes. They’d made his hair a bright red to top it all off.

Toth was going to be so pissed.

“You’ve been found!” I shouted as I caught Cody’s arm as he tried to rise.

“Yeah, yeah, you found us,” Damon drawled, swirling his drink in the glass. He looked bored.

“No, dumbass,” I directed his attention to the lackey, still on his phone. “Basil’s people. This place is about to descend into chaos unless we leave now.”

“Fuck!” Damon muttered.

“Portal?” Thyme suggested.

I turned to look at Barr with an apologetic look. “Take us to Mori.”

The Hellhound paled, but opened the portal to Mori’s office.

“What? Damon?” Mori stood as I shoved the errant witches and shifter through the portal.

“These are your problem. Barr needs a raise and help. We’re going home,” I said to Mori.

“I thought—“

At Thyme’s signal, Barr cut off the portal to the demon realm, leaving us alone in the club, half the people watching us.

“Fight or flee?” I asked Thyme.

“Up to Barr.” He asked him, “do you have enough to portal us home?”

“Yeah. ”

He didn’t wait to ask, just drew the portal, clasped our outstretched hands and dragged us through. Once home, he made an excuse and went to his room.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Thyme asked. He worried at his lip.

“I’m sure he knows they had to be told.”

We waited in the kitchen for a few minutes until we heard the sound of Barr returning. He had some of his stuff with him.

“I need to go home and recharge. I’ve got my phone.”

“Are you okay?” Thyme stepped closer to Barr, taking his hands. “I’m sorry we had to tell Mori.”

“No, it’s okay. Just… Thank you for not going to get their mates first. For helping me get them back safe.”

“Barr, you know you’re not going to get into trouble over this. They did this to you. It wasn’t like you let them vanish. They abused your trust.” I hated the wounded puppy thing he had going on. Damon had a lot to answer for.

“Thank you. I just need a couple of days until Mori is less angry.”

“We’ll fix this, I promise.” Thyme hugged Barr before letting go. “Recharge and come back as soon as you are ready, okay? You have a home in the coven.”

He didn’t say anything else. Just drew a portal and left .

I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent a text to the group chat.

Oak

If anyone blames Barr for tonight’s shit show, they answer to me. Damon, Cody, and Parker left him in the demon realm to go drinking in Northarbor. Where they were seen by Basil’s people. Deal with your mates and keep them out of Northarbor for a few days. They need another babysitter if they are pulling these childish pranks.

Replies pinged in pretty quickly.

Damon

Hey!

Cody

I’m sorry!

Parker

WTF??

“Are we being too harsh?” Thyme got a couple of glasses out of the cabinet and poured a generous amount of bourbon.

“I’d have done more if we weren’t being watched in the club. They know there’s division in the coven now. Our leader was out without protection. It looks bad all around.”

“Yeah. ”

My phone kept buzzing. I glanced at the screen to see Toth’s message.

Toth

Angry emoji. Devil emoji

“It’s fine. They have to deal with Toth and we’ve bought ourselves a couple of days off.”

“I’ll drink to that.”