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

  “I know a good pho place,” he mumbled, once they were back in the tunnel that led upside.

  Lilith was practically skipping, humming as she walked beside him. He couldn’t make out what the tune was and he was too shy to ask. He walked hunched over with his hands in his pockets and felt Lilith’s eyes on him as they made their way back out to the park and into the sun that was just starting to sink down to the horizon.

  “So you’re a wolf shifter,” Lilith said.

  Jordan narrowed his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who said slightly stupid things to new people. The corner of his mouth turned up. “Yeah, you noticed.”

  “I’m a demon,” Lilith said lightly.

  “Well, you’re part demon,” he said. “No human demons are fully demon-”

  “Oh my god, you’re really pedantic,” Lilith said, but she laughed. “Yes, thanks for wolf-splaining. I’m aware of all that.”

  “Sorry,” he said. His cheeks turned pink.

  “No, it’s okay,” she said quickly. “I was just saying, you know… So you’ve known demons before, I guess?”

  “Any kind of magic folk that commonly exists also exists in the Underground,” Jordan said. He walked a little straighter, lifting his head. He had always been a bit of a snob about living in the Underground, the same way New Yorkers often were about living in New York. There were magic enclaves and areas where populations of half-assimilated magic folk lived. But nothing, to his mind, compared to the Underground. It was the biggest and most diverse and most cosmopolitan population of magic folk anywhere except for (maybe) The Paris Catacombs which was similar and not actually catacombs despite the name.

  “Wow.” Lilith nodded and seemed to absorb that as Jordan quickened his pace through the park. It was cooler out and there was a breeze in the air, mercifully. He hated it when the summer got so hot, especially with the humidity. Wolves never liked humidity. “Griffin shifters?”

  Jordan only snorted at that. “Of course.”

  “Well, they’re not very common,” Lilith argued.

  “We have people who are also uncommon,” he said with a shrug.

  “My friend’s mate is a griffin shifter,” Lilith said, smiling up at him. “She met him on her mission.”

  “Ah.”

  “Actually, all the other girls who’ve already collected the totems… You know about the totems, right?”

  “Yes.” There were low-hanging branches up ahead blocking Lilith’s way and he reached out over her head to push them aside. She gave him that cute smile again as he did so and he flushed.

  “Right, well each of my friends found their mate when they captured their respective elemental totem.” She had a way of bouncing on her toes as she walked, which seemed like a very un-demon way to walk. But it gave her the air of being part little girl, excited and cheerful with just an edge of sarcasm about her. He swallowed and turned his head, pained by her presence.

  It didn’t help that she was talking about her other friends finding mates. He hated talking about that stuff. He would never have a mate and he would be cursed with always wanting one. It would have been easy if he wanted to be alone but…

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Jordan said stiffly.

  Lilith stopped short on the path and squinted up at him, as if determined to figure him out. He didn’t like the thought of that at all. “You’re very broody, aren’t you?”

  It was a long walk to the pho place but it was worth it in Jordan’s opinion. There was no place better and if this was Lilith’s first time trying pho, he wanted it to be good. By the time they’d left the park, clouds had gathered and it started drizzling. Lilith squeezed his arm and walked at a trot that really didn’t do any good but he found it amusing to watch her wrinkle her nose and scrunch up her shoulders while he walked hunched over, resigned to the rain.

  It occurred to him that it might have been a romantic moment, if he was allowed to have romance.

  Oh well.

  By the time they reached the pho place Midtown, they were damp but not drenched and Lilith punched his shoulder as if they were old friends when he opened the door for her. “We should’ve taken a taxi or something.”

  “You’re very high maintenance,” he declared.

  “I am not.”

  She sounded so indignant about it, as if it were a grave offense. That made him smile too and he tried not to think about how new people never made him smile, especially cute girls.

  The pho place was a hole in the wall but it was clean if small, with just a couple orange booths by the window. Lilith sat down and he noticed she was shivering. There was no line at the counter and he ordered her a tea and brought it over with some sugar packets and lemon, leaving it on the table.

  “Oh.” She blinked at the tea and immediately stirred the sugar in. “Thanks. Listen, I don’t know what I’m ordering anyway so why don’t you order for me?”

  He opened his mouth, about to ask her if she had any preference for meat or fish but thought that might lead to further complications. He just nodded and spun around again. He ordered her rare steak pho and seafood for himself and then sat down across from her, sipping a Diet Coke. The rain had dampened him too and he rubbed his arms and pushed his hair back. The two of them kept casting furtive glances at each other and it made him nervous.

  He couldn’t think of a single thing to say and anyway, he was much too distracted by the way Lilith’s careful red-flecked eyes observed everything around her so studiously, like the rain that was making this random street in the middle of Manhattan look poetic as a guy in a trench coat skipped through a puddle, holding a briefcase over his head.

  She was interesting to look at and watch and she didn’t seem to mind his eyes on her even if he wished he could stop himself looking and ignore her. But that was impossible.

  They had only just met and he already knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was going to break his heart.

  5

  Lilith

  Lilith loved the pho. She hadn’t known what to expect, but the tangy and satisfying mix of broth, noodle, meat and cilantro was like a soup party in her mouth (she made sure to tell Jordan exactly that) and even better were all kinds of oils and spices and sauces you could add to make it even better and she felt like she was mixing a potion as she added them one by one, tasting the difference each time. Jordan seemed vaguely horrified at the sheer amount of stuff she added to the soup but he at least seemed happy that she liked it. It made her want to try the food down in the Underground and she felt a little ashamed of herself for not eating there first. But at least she had now discovered the joy of pho.

  “Do you know how you’re going to do this?” Jordan asked later, after they were finished eating. “Find this totem I mean. What element is it?”

  “Metal.” Lilith took her bowl with its last vestiges of soup and drink from the rim. It was probably uncouth, but she didn’t much care. “And no. I have no idea. I’m more of a seat-of-my-pants kind of girl. And no, that’s not how they teach you to be at Brunswick.”

  “It’s pretty exclusive, isn’t it?” Jordan said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yeah.” Lilith put down her now empty soup bowl and licked her lips. “Right now it’s even more exclusive because the magics are all out of whack. Because of the elements. So…”

  “Hmm.”

  “Where’d you go to school?” Lilith asked, nodding at him.

  “I didn’t go to an academy.” Jordan crossed his arms and sat back in his seat. His mouth was a straight line. She had a feeling he expected her to judge him for not having gone to some fancy magic academy but she knew that much of the population of the Underground had never gone through formal schooling. They were all a bunch of misfits really.

  “Human schools?” Lilith asked.

  “No. Self-educated.”

  Lilith blinked at him and did the math of what he wasn’t saying. He hadn’t been home-schooled by his shifter parents (which was cer
tainly not uncommon). He described himself as self-educated. He’d had a hard life, she decided. That much was obvious. She wouldn’t ask about it now. Not when she’d only just met him.

  Jordan, Lilith decided, was sensitive. He also wanted to pretend he wasn’t. She could work with that. She had a soft spot for sensitive people.

  “You must be really good at picking things up,” Lilith said thoughtfully. She was on her second cup of tea and sipped it, watching his expression soften when he realized she wasn’t going to judge him. “What do they call that? Auto-didact?”

  “Yeah,” he said slowly. “Well. I guess I had to be.”

  “It’s a good trait to have.” She smiled and Jordan’s shoulders dropped from their usual hunched-up position.

  Yeah, she could definitely work with this.

  Conversation with Jordan got a little easier after they’d eaten and it was actually a little fun to run all the way back to the park in the pouring rain and the dark. Lilith had no idea why they didn’t catch a taxi instead. It was almost like Jordan was daring her, seeing just how “high maintenance” she could be. She wasn’t, she thought again resolutely as they headed back down the tunnel from the Ramble Cave yet again. She wasn’t anything close to high maintenance, Jordan was just ridiculous. She was determined to prove that at some point.

  She also had an endless list of questions to ask him or anyone else who might know concerning The Underground and whether they had seen anything suspicious that might mean somebody had the totem. She supposed if there was anything obvious to know, he would have mentioned it. But it would be better to sit down and talk.

  She had spied a can of actual coffee in her kitchenette and she was gearing up to ask Jordan if he would stick around at her place to talk about the totem, but he got away from her before she could try.

  “Alright, well, goodnight.” He spoke in a fast jumble and was out the door almost before she realized he was already going as she went to the bathroom to grab a towel and dry off. When she came out, toweling off her horribly untamed hair, he was gone.

  “Jordan!” Lilith rolled her eyes. “I need to get him a leash. Clearly.”

  Still, it was nearly ten already and she was tired from the long day of travel and settling in. She would talk to him tomorrow, she supposed. So she brushed her teeth and settled into the surprisingly cozy bed and read for a while before dropping off to sleep with a smile on her face as she thought about Jordan the Cute Brooder.

  The next morning, Lilith woke bright and early and was immediately put out to discover that although she had coffee, she had nothing to make it with. That made her quite grumpy but she rallied and showered and dressed in slightly warmer clothes than she had the day before in case it rained again.

  Her first task was to find Jordan and her second was to find some coffee. Jordan had told her that he lived “just a few doors down” which had been clever in that it seemed helpful but was truly unhelpful as he had not specified what a “few” meant and in which direction. He’d failed to give her a door number.

  Lilith finally ventured out to look for him. It was already busy in the Underground. She could not figure out where everyone was going but they all seemed to be going there quickly as they shoved past her. Some were selling things out of wheelbarrows and there were goblins jumping from lamppost to lamppost and skittering along the railings. Lilith knew about goblins (demons were distantly related to them) but she still wasn’t used to seeing them out and about. It was hard not to stare and pretend she wasn’t startled.

  “Excuse me?” Lilith smiled in what she hoped was a friendly manner at a witch selling herbs out of a wheelbarrow near a staircase that led from the residential block on the landing down into town.

  “Yes, dear?” The witch had looked very old from far away but up close she didn’t look very much older than Ms. Friar. She had a soft face and deep wrinkles and wore a scarf wrapped around her silvery hair. “Can I help you? Bloodroot’s on special today-”

  “Oh no, sorry.” Lilith cleared her throat. “I’m looking for Jordan? He’s a wolf? I know he lives nearby, I’m just not sure exactly where-”

  “Oh! Joey.” She chuckled and waved a hand. “Sure, dear. He’s a sweet boy. Little mopey but who isn’t? So handsome too, isn’t he?”

  “Oh, yeah, I guess.” Lilith blushed and pursed her lips. He really is.

  The witch directed her where to go after introducing herself. Her name was Nana and she insisted on giving Lilith some free bloodroot after Lilith told her she was from Brunswick. She shoved the bag of herbs in her pocket, having no idea what she’d do with it but she appreciated the friendliness all the same, and a minute later she was pounding on Joey’s door.

  Joey, she thought, smiling to herself. She liked that.

  Jordan answered the door and Lilith beamed at him. “Hello there, Joey.”

  “Hey, only Nana is allowed to call me that,” Jordan said, sneering. “Do you even know Nana? You can’t know Nana. You just got here.”

  Lilith pushed past him and felt his eyes on her even as he loomed over her. “Of course I know Nana. She gave me bloodroot. Me and Nana go way back. Do you have coffee?”

  “Ugh. No. I was gonna go to Starbucks-”

  “Great!” Lilith said. “I’ll go with you. We need to talk.”

  “Oh, fantastic.”

  It was barely sprinkling outside but Lilith was still glad she’d worn her leather moto jacket and twisted her out-of-control hair up into a loose bun, little frizzy curls falling around her eyes. She kept seeing Jordan look at them. She wondered if she looked messy but she refused to smooth her hair back. She liked the way it looked.

  She waited until they had settled at a table with their coffees before she started firing questions at Jordan. He couldn’t think of anything very suspicious that might point toward somebody using an incredibly powerful magic artifact to do harm in the Underground. He said things had been relatively quiet lately but mentioned a few dark wizards that the guardians like him always kept an eye on and Lilith made him promise to make a list for her.

  “Aren’t you worried?” Jordan asked. They’d reached his place and she followed him inside.

  Lilith had not had a chance to look around last time and she took it all in now. The place felt pretty stuffy and she put that down to the lack of ventilation. But there was a coziness to it and it smelled like a woodsy type of incense. There were colorful throw blankets and even a couple stuffed animals on the couch which she found endearing.

  She had a second giant latte with her from Starbucks and she made herself comfy on the couch as Jordan puttered around, putting books and clutter back in its place as he spoke to her.

  “Worried about what?” She craned her neck to look at him behind the couch.

  “Worried that you won’t find the totem.” His arms were full of jackets and sweaters and he disappeared into his bedroom before reappearing, using his forearm to move a thicket of hair which was falling into his eyes. His hair looked so soft. She wondered what it would feel like between her fingers. “I mean you’re the last one, right? It’s like all the pressure is on your shoulders now. What if you screw up? What if they get all four totems except for the fifth one and all the magic forces and shit are still off-balance?”

  “You’re a real ray of sunshine. You know that, Joey?” Lilith cracked. There was a little ottoman shaped like an elephant and Lilith propped her sneakered feet on it, crossing her ankles.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I’d be worried. But I guess I worry too much to begin with.”

  Lilith sipped her coffee and regarded Jordan as his gaze flitted about the room as if he couldn’t bear to look at her. She wondered if this was his way of opening up just a little and she stifled her smile, biting her coffee cup lid.

  “I mean, I worry too,” she said softly. “Sometimes. But I try to go with the flow. I have a good sense of things. I call that demon’s sense. But maybe I don’t get very anxious because I think I’ve had it pretty easy, to
be honest. Other than people sometimes judging me because I’m a demon-”

  “Why would people judge you about that?” Jordan asked. He frowned, practically sneering. “That’s antiquated! It’s...ignorant! Brainless!”

  She giggled and nodded her head. “Yes, well, I agree with you. Not everyone is so open-minded. There were a few older girls at school when I started out, used to corner me in the bathroom and say horrible things. It was...before I really made friends with the girls in my class. Felt lonely for a while.”

  “Hmm. Yeah. Sucks to feel that way.”

  He finally sat down next to her and she stared down at his hands. He had the longest fingers… They seemed almost elegant. She fell into a daze staring at his hands when he said, “You probably have a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend? Somebody. I assume.”

  “No.” The tips of Lilith’s ears felt hot and she had a fiery hot feeling in her belly that she always got from someone she was attracted to. She looked down at her own hands, realizing for the first time how small they seemed. They would disappear into Jordan’s...if they ever held hands. “No, I mean there was never time for it anyway. With studying and training and everything…”

  “Hmm.

  “I bet you date a lot!”

  “No, I don’t date.” He spoke flatly and crossed his arms. Lilith squinted at him. There was a story there and she was about to attempt to prod it out of him, but before she could he said, “The truth is, I’m cursed. A witch cursed me when I was born. I will always want someone, a mate for myself. But I’ll never have one. No one can ever fall in love with me. I’m pretty much doomed to be miserably lonely forever.”

  “You’re joking,” Lilith said. The thought of what he said being real made her feel vaguely sick. Sure, it was something a lot of people felt much of the time but an actual curse that made you feel so unloved and alone… Jordan only shook his head. “But why? Why were you cursed? If it was when you were born, you couldn’t have done anything.”