I leaned forward, dropping my voice to a whisper. “Can you feel the magic?” I asked him. “The lingering spells?”
He frowned. “From the restoration?”
“No, the at—”
“Here you are,” Anrika announced, reappearing with a floating bag beside her and two plastic cups. She tried to smile, but it turned into more of a grimace. Her disappointment was palpable.
“Thank you, Anrika,” Zeph murmured, holding out a card. “Aflora has been craving food from home, so I’m wondering if there’s a way to start ordering a few meals a week. I’ll talk to Kolstov to see if Sir Kristoff is open to picking it up for us.”
“You don’t need to do that, Zephyrus.”
“Oh, but I do,” he replied, grinning. “Aflora needs the sustenance and hates the Academy food.”
Well, he wasn’t wrong about that. But I also knew he was doing this to be supportive, and seeing that side of him warmed my heart.
He stood and kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks again,” he said to her before waving his hand over the bags. “I’ll be in touch soon.”
Anrika nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. I stood to follow him, but she stepped into my path, her hands finding my shoulders. “Be careful,” she said in a voice so soft I could barely hear her. “If they find out what you are, they’ll come for you, too.”
I froze as she disappeared.
Zeph turned with an arched eyebrow, having missed her words.
I opened my mouth to tell him, when a strange energy caressed my skin, causing all the hairs along my arms to stand—just like it did that day at the Academy. Right before the attack. “We need to run,” I told him urgently, my eyes rounding.
Chills skated up and down my body, that familiar magic kissing my senses.
Zeph grabbed my hand and yanked me forward, the food and drinks forgotten as he pulled me outside and into the empty street.
Not a soul in sight.
Similar to what I’d seen in the vision after the mysterious male had woven spells to vacate the building.
Zeph didn’t seem to notice, his focus on getting me to the portal, but the cobblestones began to shake beneath a wave of harsh power.
I jolted to a stop, my essence reacting to the incoming attack. No!
Electricity hummed over my being, crafting an enchanted net of cerulean blue. I didn’t allow myself a moment to consider the repercussions, my instincts roaring to life and forcing me to wrap the buzzing cloak around myself and Zeph to block the incoming meddlesome energy.
Wind soared around us, the familiar caw of alarms and stone shifting to fight.
I caught the glimpse of white, there and gone in a flash, a warm chuckle brushing my ear. I whirled around, searching for the culprit, only to find air.
Zeph was speaking, his tone insistent, but I couldn’t stop hunting for the source of power.
Who are you? I demanded, the words in my mind rather than out loud.
Your destiny, a deep, sensual voice replied. My darling Aflora, you truly have grown into a beautiful woman. Just like your mother.
Another kiss of power touched my heart, working its way through my blood, heating all my frozen limbs beneath a ripple of authority and awareness. I tried to track him, but he lingered in the shadows, his presence there and gone in the breeze.
We’ll play again soon, he promised darkly. Retribution will be ours.
He started to hum the song my mother taught me as a child, the haunting melody weaving an enchantment through my spirit and drawing out the memory of my past.
Only it was no longer my mother singing to me, but another—a male without a face, his voice hypnotic and empowering. I closed my eyes, lost to the sound, to the moment in my history that seemed forever changed.
I began to sing with him.