The Wolf's Curse (Brunswick Academy for Gifted Girls Book 5) Read online

  “Yes,” Ms. Friar said. “I do think you’re right.”

  17

  Lilith

  Lilith got off the phone with Ms. Friar who agreed to call the other girls and get back to her with any news. But when Lilith hung up, she didn’t feel any better. She busied herself, puttering around her tiny little quarters with the weird fuzzy wallpaper and the refrigerator that hummed.

  She wondered, if she managed to actually pull off defeating the Kamthis and finding the totem and got her happily ever after with Jordan...what would it look like? The thought made her smile. Graduates from Brunswick could typically do...whatever they wanted in the magical world. But many were sought after for missions just like this one. They could be called in by councils and elders from anywhere or just average people who had stumbled onto something wrong in the magical world that needed fixing. She imagined herself like that; traveling the world hunting down trouble or being hired as a sort of supernatural assassin.

  She thought Jordan would be an excellent partner for that sort of thing. He was smart, especially considering he was entirely self-taught and he was capable and a good fighter. She could picture them, side by side, adventuring around the world. But she could also picture them always eventually coming back here to New York. New York felt like home in a strange way even though she’d never lived there. She wouldn’t mind finding a slightly bigger place in Underground that they could make all cozy and keep for themselves whenever they need to come back home for a while.

  She found herself doing the dishes and smiling like a dope by the time Jordan returned.

  “Ooh, food!” She clapped her hands when he walked in, but she made sure to kiss him before she grabbed the bag of Chinese take-out boxes. “It smells good!”

  They ate while watching comedy videos that Jordan kept picking out, half-eating and half-looking things up on YouTube. She had to keep biting back a smile. It was nice to see this cheerful Jordan back again.

  It didn’t mean things would only ever be perfect. He still had his anxiety and insecurities and she did too. But they also had each other. They just had to remind themselves of it when things got rough.

  “Do you know what you want to do...with your life?” Lilith asked.

  They had finished eating. He had ordered too much, but they hadn’t bothered to put the boxes away yet and everything was spread out on the coffee table and beginning to congeal as Lilith cozied up to her wolf, burying her nose in his neck, enjoying his scent and his soft black hair.

  “That’s a big question,” Jordan said, chuckling. His laugh reverberated through his whole body and Lilith liked the way it felt when he held her. “Um… I guess I haven’t thought about it a whole lot. Maybe because my childhood was so chaotic. I got used to just living day by day. But if I had a choice…” He bit his lip and looked in her eyes. “Well, I want to be with you. Wherever you go, I go. That’s how I’d want it to be. Me and my demon mate, you know?”

  Lilith’s heart leapt in her chest and she leaned in and kissed him, long and deep. She could hear the growl in his throat and soon enough she was straddling his lap, smirking and feeling a sense of triumph as she felt his cock grow beneath her. She had done that to him and she liked knowing it.

  They weren’t tired anymore. Lilith wanted her mate and she wanted him right now.

  Their breath mingled and she wrapped her arms around his neck and rocked back and forth on top of him, her entrance only separated from his swelling length by a couple layers of thin fabric. She could feel him hard and thick and she bent to kiss and bite his neck, lazily enjoying the friction and the electric sensations it sent through her.

  Jordan stripped off his shirt and Lilith pressed her little hands to his muscles, raking her fingers through his chest hair and taking the dominating kiss he pressed to her lips, his tongue plundering her mouth. She whimpered her ascent and Jordan took her shirt off to lick and suck at her breasts.

  Any sense of exhaustion was forgotten as they tangled together and the world around Lilith became a dizzying haze. All she knew was Jordan’s hands all over her, hot and searching. She knew his tongue in her mouth and then she knew his cock, springing out of his pants as she helped him shove them down. He was rock hard and leaking and when she started to move, he gripped her hips and picked her up and set her down while guiding himself inside her. She was impaled by him and she cried out, throwing her head back as tears of both pleasure and a satisfying kind of ache filled her eyes.

  If Jordan was anything, he was gentle. And his gentility was only ever enhanced by his strength. But sometimes she forgot just how strong he was and she gasped, unable to so much as breathe as she ducked her head and clutched his broad shoulders, feeling his every muscle quiver beneath her as he held her hips and bounced her up and down on top of him. She felt him rolling through her and she knew he felt the same with her. They were one person, merged now; mates.

  Lilith hardly noticed where Jordan’s hand was traveling but as he started to massage her clit, she cried out and buried her nose in his hair, clutching him tight as he rubbed furious circles and brought her to a place where she trembled, unable to handle any more sensation.

  “Jordan,” Lilith whispered. “Jordan, I love you.” She spoke tearfully in his ear and he growled, holding her, and spilling inside her as he came.

  That night Jordan spooned up behind her as had become his habit and Lilith smiled to herself.

  She woke up before dawn, feeling restless. It had nothing to do with Jordan who was sleeping peacefully beside her. She’d dreamed fitfully of the goblins and the undead and whatever horrors Kamthis might have waiting for them.

  She worried about her friends who might or might not be on their way to help her.

  What if they get hurt? She knew she’d never forgive herself.

  Jordan stirred and murmured, “You’re worried.” He kissed her shoulder.

  Lilith rolled over to face him. “You’re supposed to be asleep.”

  “What are you worried about?”

  “Everything,” she admitted.

  He pressed the little wrinkle between her brows. “You get a little wrinkle right here between your eyes when you worry.”

  “I’m gonna go for a walk in the park,” Lilith said. There was no chance she was going to get back to sleep anyhow.

  “You sure? You want me to come with you?”

  “No, I just need to take a walk.” She kissed him softly. “You sleep.”

  “Be careful,” Jordan said.

  “I always am.”

  She left him to sleep and rolled out of bed, shivering in the slight chill of the little room as she headed off to the bathroom.

  Lilith cleaned up and dressed for the day and since summer was already starting to turn into fall, she put on a long-sleeved t-shirt and her leather moto jacket with a scarf and boots. She took her dagger and the sword Laya’s squad of guardians had lent her just in case.

  The park was empty. There weren’t even joggers out yet. She had to think Laya had sent out the Underground’s witches to cast the spells of forgetting. But even given that, she wouldn’t have been surprised if humans were avoiding the park, feeling a strange sense of some great danger coming.

  The sun was just rising and Lilith shoved her hands in her pockets and walked in no particular direction, just wanting to get some blood flowing and hopefully clear her head.

  She was impatient to know if the other girls were going to come and also worried for it.

  Eventually Lilith ended up over by the zoo, though it was not open yet. But the old brick buildings covered with vines and the chill morning air and the sounds of traffic from the street comforted her as she walked along and found the carousel, strangely still, its horses frozen on their golden poles.

  Lilith felt something in the air before she saw the thing that made her blood turn cold. She wasn’t sure if it was the way her breath steamed and seemed to form a smoke ring which did not seem natural at all or the way the clouds gathered so quic
kly over her head; dark and foreboding. She felt as if the earth was moving beneath her and the tips of her fingers stung suddenly as if she were touching something that shocked her. She clenched her fists.

  “They’ll all be killed.” The whisper came from nowhere and everywhere all at once.

  The voice sounded like snakes slithering in the grass. She had a sensation of cold, slimy hands wrapping around her throat and she jerked, spinning around and drawing her sword.

  “Who’s there!” Her eyes were wide with fear. Not that fear had ever stopped her before.

  If Kamthis was here, Kamthis was going to get it even if she had to go down fighting him. That was what it meant to be brave. She’d learned that much at Brunswick. It was being afraid and doing the thing you were afraid of anyway.

  “Who’s there!” She screamed again.

  The air surged and quivered around her and she heard a grunt from the direction of the carousel. Lilith spun around again and saw Cara lying around on the ground in front of her. Her glossy red hair was splayed around her and her pointed fae ears quivered, her pale face even more pale as she stared at Lilith and did not move.

  “Cara!” Lilith said. It didn’t make any sense that Cara had just appeared out of nowhere. And worse, what had happened to her? Lilith ran to her side. Cara’s shaking hands clutched a bloody stomach wound.

  “Lilith...why…” Cara opened and closed her mouth and rasped something else that Lilith couldn’t understand and then the light went out of her eyes all at once.

  “Cara!” Lilith cried. Some part of her wanted to say that all of this was wrong. It couldn’t be possible. But Cara was dead right in front of her.

  Lilith heard the soft plaintive roar of a plaintive dragon nearby and turned her head and there was Addy, the dragon shifter. She was in her dragon form, curled up on the ground. She seemed too small somehow but that was because she was so hunched, her tail wrapped around her and covering her big, fluttering eyes. Her color was all wrong. Addy had shimmering bright red scales and now they were practically gray. She was sick, Lilith thought.

  Addy’s dragon wheezed and trembled and Lilith ran to her next as tears seeped from her eyes. She wiped her nose. It was unusually cold out suddenly and felt more like winter than the end of summer and the air stung.

  “Addy,” Lilith whispered. “Addy, no…”

  Addy took a long slow breath and lay her head on her front claws, abruptly going completely still. Her chest stopped rising and falling and her scales went white.

  “No!” Lilith screamed and hugged her scaly head that already felt too still with death.

  “Lilith...Lilith…” Isla and Freya spoke in concert. It almost sounded like a harmony of dread as Lilith turned again and saw her mermaid friend and the most talented young witch in the world on the ground, clutching the cobblestones and wheezing with shallow breaths. “Lilith...why did you...make us come…”

  Lilith was sobbing by now as she scrambled over to her last remaining friends and fell to her knees, her sword dropping with a shattering clang as it hit the stone. Isla lay on her side, her mermaid’s tail half-decayed, her pinkish skin now green with sickness as she fought for breath.

  “Isla!” Lilith cried. “Freya, I didn’t… I didn’t mean to, I thought…”

  “We thought...you loved us,” Freya murmured. She was wearing one of her cute sweaters with a duck on it, her glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. But she looked too thin and her veins stuck out of her skin as if the blood was trying to escape her body.

  When they died, Lilith knelt on the ground and threw back her head and screamed into the storm clouds just as it began to rain.

  Behind her, the carousel suddenly lit up and began to spin, its horribly cheerful tinny music blaring from the speakers as the horses moved up and down on their poles.

  “Why,” Lilith said. She clasped her hands to her face and bawled, feeling an agony she’d never known before consume her. “Why did I ...why…”

  “Lilith!” Jordan shouted behind her.

  Lilith’s stomach lurched and a bolt of fear traveled through her. He’ll die next! He’ll blame me for all of it! He’ll-

  The carousel stopped spinning and went quiet. Lilith staggered to her feet and realized the bodies of all her friends had all disappeared.

  Hallucination, Lilith thought.

  Kamthis was messing with her. He was playing games, she realized as Jordan came running up and she collapsed into his arms, letting him wrap her in his warmth and strength.

  It wasn’t real. None of it had been real.

  But that didn’t make her feel better at all.

  18

  Lilith

  It took Jordan a long time to calm Lilith down. She supposed it was all the fear and worry built up over the course of the mission finally getting to her. She cried and cried into his shoulder and he murmured comforting words and held her, seeming content to take as long as she needed to come around. She was mortified by the entire thing but she couldn’t deny that she was grateful to have Jordan to comfort her.

  “They’ll come,” she said brokenly, wiping her nose on her sleeve. She’d finally cried herself out and Jordan had his arm around her, the two of them taking their time to walk out of the park and go find some much-needed coffee. “I know they’ll come just because I’m asking them to. But if something happens to them I....”

  “If something happens to any of them,” Jordan said slowly, “you’ll also know that it wouldn’t have stopped them for a second. You’re not schoolgirls anymore, Lilith. You know that as well as I do. You’re Brunswick women. You’re fighters. You’re the best the magical world has to offer. The best any world has to offer. They’ll come because it’s all down to this and this is their mission now as much as it is yours.”

  “I was just…” She took a deep breath and sniffed, inhaling Jordan’s comforting scent. “It was so real.”

  Jordan must have been a saint, by Lilith’s measure. She had said “it was so real” approximately fifty times in the course of ten minutes but he just kept nodding and saying it must have been so scary and he didn’t blame her at all for being so upset.

  On the sidewalk, he stopped and hugged her for a long time, long enough that Lilith was about ready to fall asleep in his warm arms.

  Finally, he leaned back and looked her up and down. He tenderly pushed her hair off her face and kissed her forehead. “Listen, I freaked out and broke up with you over a bad dream but what you saw was so much worse. I get it. But you don’t have to carry this alone. That’s why I’m here. That’s why your friends are coming to help you. It’s going to be scary and we might even lose but you’re not alone.”

  Oddly, that was actually comforting.

  Her eyes ached from crying and she knew her face must be red and swollen but the way Jordan looked at her with a soft, sweet smile on his face, she felt wanted and loved. He kissed her deeply and took her hand. She nodded and they made their way to the coffee place together.

  “Lilith.” Jordan’s voice was suddenly flat and low, as if he couldn’t quite get his words out. In front of the Starbucks, he stopped cold and slowly raised his hand, pointing up into the stormy clouds above them.

  “What…” Lilith raised her head and followed the line of his arm to the arc of his finger pointing up at the sky.

  There was a laughing face in the clouds. It was the face of a pure demon and Lilith sucked in a breath. It was definitely Kamthis’s face. She had seen it drawn in the Underground’s library books. He had three curved horns on his head and fangs that hung down to his jaw and he had tentacles around his ears that slithered around his neck like pet snakes. It was Kamthis, alright. And he was laughing at them.

  Just as quickly, the face disappeared. Except this time, Lilith felt a surge of white-hot anger instead of fear. Kamthis was messing with them. It was like some psych-ops job. To him this was all a game. The loss of human life meant nothing, not when he was planning to take over the world and make it his
own personal playground for him and his netherworld friends anyway.

  Lilith sneered and on impulse, she flipped middle-fingers up at the sky. Behind her, Jordan snorted a laugh.

  “I really hate this guy,” Lilith said darkly. She shook her head and shoved open the door to the Starbucks, fuming.

  They stood in line and Lilith clenched and unclenched her fists. Anger, at least, made her feel stronger than fear. It was hot and she could hold onto it and feel the fire of her demon burning within her. She almost missed her turn to order until Jordan nudged her and then she cleared her throat and nodded at the barista.

  “I’d like a…”

  But she stopped talking when the barista’s face went suddenly white and his mouth dropped open.

  The voice that came out of him sounded like the stuff of nightmares, as if hell itself could speak.

  “Kamthis is coming.”

  Lilith only felt angrier. Given the laughing face, this almost seemed like a tease. “Let him come!” she blurted out.

  She huffed and under her breath she cast the spell of revealing, though it seemed like Kamthis was speaking through the man somehow. She spread her hands and muttered the spell and a little light flashed but it clearly wasn’t the pure demon.

  The barista opened his mouth unnaturally wide and said, “You’ll be sorry you said that.”

  He grinned, his white eyes gleaming, and then all at once he was normal again and seemingly had no idea what had just happened. “What can I get for you?” he said.

  “Latte,” Lilith said through gritted teeth. “Grande.”

  Jordan and Lilith were sitting at their usual table by the window, on edge and feeling like they were waiting for the world to start ending, when Lilith heard a familiar voice behind her.

  “Thought I’d find you here,” Isla said, cheerful and carefree as Lilith jerked in surprise and nearly knocked over her chair getting to her feet. “Lilith is a total nightmare without coffee, in my opinion.”